Second weekend in June found me in central Missouri at the High Adventure Ranch chasing hogs, one of my most favorite things to do, can't get enough of it.

20 minutes into the hunt I saw the biggest hog ever while hunting, no way I was going to pass on it, after a quick stalk, one shot, and it was down for the count.....



I used a Ruger No1 in 405 Winchester pushing a Original Barnes 400 gr SP. The bullet entered behind the right shoulder, thru the heart and out the left shoulder. It was a big piggie, figured it weighs close to 500 pounds, maybe a little more.



Thats my 6 1/2" Blackhawk sitting on his neck for a size comparision.

Here is a link to a video of the hog being taken....

http://gunner.sixshootercommunity.org/Huntpics/Gunnerhog.wmv

41Gunner

Nice Hog !! and nice shot
Congratulations

Weidmannsheil! Nifty hog!
- mike

Congrats....

That's ONE BIG HOG....

He's not the best looking fellow in the woods, but he's DAMN BIG!!

wow nice pig!!!!!!
and good vid too thanks for posting
greg

41 I must first apologize to you because I mean nothing against you with this post. Maybe the place has changed since I was there.

I am sorry to have to admit that I have been to the High Adventure Ranch and shot a pig there. It was a trip looked forward to with great anticipation. My brother had given me the trip and accompanied me and also shot a hog. It was very nice to be able to spend some time just my bro and me......but.....

First the good things. You can't beat the food they served there and the people were very friendly. The acomadations were in beautiful, rustic log cabins and very nice.

The "hunt" was not a hunt at all. It was a pig shoot. In retrospect, fair chase was never mentioned in the literature or the pre "hunt" briefing. We were taken inside a gate and walked about 150 yards. In that time we had seen about 50-75 hogs. Disappointed, we picked out a hog each and shot it. If I had it to do over I wouldn't have. My brother shot his hog over another we thought was dead. As we walked up to the kill, the "dead" hog roused from his sound sleep and slowly wandered off. It was a totally canned operation complete with feeders, back scratchers, high fences and it appeared to us that the remnants of the butchering operation were fed back to the hogs in the enclosure.

I'm sorry I did it and I won't ever make the same mistake again. I think my brother feels the same. I donated the meat to a homeless shelter for stew.

Sorry for the rant.

Congrats on the huge porker! I have a question, though, and I mean no offense, but that hog looks like a domestic pig gone feral. Are the other hogs on the property similar? It doesn't take very long for a domestic pig to go wild in fact it starts to change physically very quickly. Again, not trying to take anything away from your hunt as you did real well (nice shooting, by the way)! Just wondering?

I would love to take one down that size, Congrats!

Nice hog I hope to have the opportunity to take one some day.

That's very interesting how far the tusks miss the whetters. I've never seen that before.

Kyler

quote:

Originally posted by Redleg6:
41 I must first apologize to you because I mean nothing against you with this post. Maybe the place has changed since I was there.

I am sorry to have to admit that I have been to the High Adventure Ranch and shot a pig there. It was a trip looked forward to with great anticipation. My brother had given me the trip and accompanied me and also shot a hog. It was very nice to be able to spend some time just my bro and me......but.....

First the good things. You can't beat the food they served there and the people were very friendly. The acomadations were in beautiful, rustic log cabins and very nice.

The "hunt" was not a hunt at all. It was a pig shoot. In retrospect, fair chase was never mentioned in the literature or the pre "hunt" briefing. We were taken inside a gate and walked about 150 yards. In that time we had seen about 50-75 hogs. Disappointed, we picked out a hog each and shot it. If I had it to do over I wouldn't have. My brother shot his hog over another we thought was dead. As we walked up to the kill, the "dead" hog roused from his sound sleep and slowly wandered off. It was a totally canned operation complete with feeders, back scratchers, high fences and it appeared to us that the remnants of the butchering operation were fed back to the hogs in the enclosure.

I'm sorry I did it and I won't ever make the same mistake again. I think my brother feels the same. I donated the meat to a homeless shelter for stew.

Sorry for the rant.

Redleg6,

I agree with you that your experience on HAR was not exactly a hunt, but I do have one question for you. What is wrong with them feeding the remnants of the butchering operation to the pigs? That has absolutely nothing to do with them being tame, unless they're feeding them from the truck (or by hand which is HIGHLY unlikely) Just about anybody who has deer hunted in areas with hogs should know that the best place to hunt hogs is over the gutpile after some fresh inards have been dumped. I guess I just don't understand what your point is. Can you elaborate? Thanks.

Now THAT is a big hog. Well done!

quote:

Originally posted by Eland Slayer:

quote:

Originally posted by Redleg6:
41 I must first apologize to you because I mean nothing against you with this post. Maybe the place has changed since I was there.

I am sorry to have to admit that I have been to the High Adventure Ranch and shot a pig there. It was a trip looked forward to with great anticipation. My brother had given me the trip and accompanied me and also shot a hog. It was very nice to be able to spend some time just my bro and me......but.....

First the good things. You can't beat the food they served there and the people were very friendly. The acomadations were in beautiful, rustic log cabins and very nice.

The "hunt" was not a hunt at all. It was a pig shoot. In retrospect, fair chase was never mentioned in the literature or the pre "hunt" briefing. We were taken inside a gate and walked about 150 yards. In that time we had seen about 50-75 hogs. Disappointed, we picked out a hog each and shot it. If I had it to do over I wouldn't have. My brother shot his hog over another we thought was dead. As we walked up to the kill, the "dead" hog roused from his sound sleep and slowly wandered off. It was a totally canned operation complete with feeders, back scratchers, high fences and it appeared to us that the remnants of the butchering operation were fed back to the hogs in the enclosure.

I'm sorry I did it and I won't ever make the same mistake again. I think my brother feels the same. I donated the meat to a homeless shelter for stew.

Sorry for the rant.

Redleg6,

I agree with you that your experience on HAR was not exactly a hunt, but I do have one question for you. What is wrong with them feeding the remnants of the butchering operation to the pigs? That has absolutely nothing to do with them being tame, unless they're feeding them from the truck (or by hand which is HIGHLY unlikely) Just about anybody who has deer hunted in areas with hogs should know that the best place to hunt hogs is over the gutpile after some fresh inards have been dumped. I guess I just don't understand what your point is. Can you elaborate? Thanks.

Maybe I'm just being over cricical here because of the disappointment. They scooped the stuff up in a front loader and took it to the fence and dumped it over......the pigs came running. Just didn't fit with my whole concept of a hog hunt. I'm a fair chase kind of guy. I would have been much happier with a real hunt and coming home skunked. My fault....didn't do the research on the place. Hope that clears it up a little.

Whitworth...
feral hogs are domestic hogs that went/are wild, also known as razorbacks. The ranch has pure breed russians as well.

Redleg6......
I say "to each his own", some people don't like ranch style hunting and thats fine, I love it. Personally I think sitting in a deer stand and waiting on a deer to walk down a well traveled game trail isn't hunting. Now wandering around in the wildress looking for wild game is hunting. Was it a pig shoot, yep it was, it was what I paid for, to shoot a pig! I have been to the ranch four times now, twice hog hunting. Each hog can and will act differently and the weather will effect their behavoir as well. I have seen them run off after seeing a hunter from 100 yards away and I have seen hogs stand their ground until the hunter gets within feet of it. One reason I like hog hunting is you never know how the hog will react....will it run off, stand its ground, charge you, hump a just shot hog while its dying, hide behind a tree watching you stalk another hog.

AS too feeding the scraps back to the hogs....they are mother natures garbage disposal, they will eat anything. Better than putting the guts etc in the land fill.

Can hunt??? In a way, fenced? Yes, around 300 acres, mainly to keep the destructive sobs away from everything else on the ranch. Feeders? Yes, can't let the hogs go hungry and start feeding on each other, which they do some already of that. Did you notice that there isn't any living plant life on the ground? The hogs destroy everything, it's just dust.

Would I go back, you bet, already planning on it.

41Gunner

41Gunner, I know what a feral hog is, but the ones I have hunted don't have the physical characteristics of a domestic pig -- that was my point. Most wild hogs in the states are feral, except where they are keeping pure European strains separate. I've attached two photos as examples -- the first, the typical feral hog, second, a pure European boar. My comment was not meant to offend.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Whitworth:
41Gunner, I know what a feral hog is, but the ones I have hunted don't have the physical characteristics of a domestic pig -- that was point. Most wild hogs in the states are feral, except where they are keeping pure European strains separate. I've attached two photos as examples -- the first, the typical feral hog, second, a pure European boar. My comment was not meant to offend.

None taken......miss understanding on my part. I thought you were asking what a feral was. I have seen you are saying. I guess it comes down to genes etc.

Your first photo looks like a mixed breed, part feral part russian. Typically a feral has a short round nose/face and the russians have a long narrow face/head. But the buggers will hump anything so cross breeding happens a lot so you get mixed type hogs.

41Gunner

I am in the wild boar business in more ways than one. I regularly talk to hunting operations around the country. Many of the ranches...especially the ones in the north part of the country are unable to get feral hogs anymore and have also lost their buying contacts from Canada to get European hogs....Their only option has been to buy retired domestic brood boars and turn them loose....Most of these boars have been raised by people and handled all their life....They are being marketed as "wild boars" because they have some tusk showing....What people don't understand is that all boars grow tusks, but most domestic breeders keep them cut back to avoid injury to other hogs....My wife worked at a Vet a few years back and a guy pulled in with a trailer load of 11 boars he bought at an auction....They averaged 650 lbs and were all retired from a small hog farm....They all had around 3-4" of tusk outside the gum line. He had their tusks cut and had them castrated....A brand new vet was on-duty and the owner was out on a farm call....He tried to cut them all in 100 degree weather and lost all but 3....He didn't work there long!!!

This mis-information about the differences between a wild boar and a domestic hog have caused some false beliefs...especially in the North where there aren't many feral hogs like there are here in the South. Things like "Hogzilla" (a big domestic hog that was drug through the mud to make it look brown) have added to the confusion.

No disrespect on your hog....but it is a domestic breed of pig....

That was my point, Cody.