Seems to me, over the past 5 years or so, the BIG for big pigs, weighed on scales, has gone up...

You see quite a few more 300+ bruisers these days, but 5 years ago, 250 was huge....

My personal perception is that once a hog makes about 200-250 pounds, his only natural enemies have guns or tires.

your thoughts? are they getting bigger?

Jeffe,

My dad bought 160 acres off Hwy.105, near Security in Montgomery county, Texas in 1961. It was located inside a 4500 acre holding next to state/national forest. Peach creek formed our eastern border. Plenty of food and room for hogs to grow. Shot my first hog there shortly after he bought the place.

I've been going out to the Texas hill country monthly to check my feeders/leases on a monthly basis since june of '99. Had the opportunity to observe/shoot hogs just about every time I've been there. For the last three years have kept three game cameras set up on feeders. Sometimes get as many as 2000 pics a month.

Based on that experience I will answer your question this way. This is only my opinion, not empirical data or evidence. I think that it is more a factor of location, hunting pressure and the amount and quality of food rather than an evolutionary thing.

I would believe that hogs in forested areas with plenty of water would tend to be heavier.
Animals in more arid areas such as the Texas hill country probably would not be able to carry the weight.

When I was a boy, we would kill big hogs down by the creek. Whether they were 300 pounds plus I do not know. They sure looked big to me but we didn't have a scale. In my game camps, I now have scales for weighing. In the last fifteen years or so, I've both arrowed and shot hogs that are in the 250 to 300 lb. range in Montgomery County. There is plenty of food on the creek bottoms and no hunting pressure.

The Vanderpool lease is 3000 low fenced acres surrounded by other low fenced ranches. The first year I was there I probably shot 15 to 20 big hogs. The next year I did not shoot as many big ones. For the last two years they have been decent sized. This year the big ones are back. This last weekend we took four hogs that were 250 lbs or better and one over 300. Maybe its crazy to say, but it seems that I killed off most of the big boars, because for a two year period I saw very few big hogs. I think its taken three years for them to get old enough to get to the 250 to 300 lb. class. Basically the same scenario at my Concan lease.

As to food, last year was a banner year for acorns. This year has been exceptionally wet and the food supply is great. I think that the amount of groceries has a significant effect on their weight. If we go through a couple of really dry years I think that will limit their weight.

I totally agree with you on enemies. The big boars are stout and their hides are like armour, with at least an inch of fat underneath.

GWB

GW---- I agree with you on nutrition. We shot three boars during the drought who had big frames but were very thin and had no fat. It did make their tusks look big as the jowls shrank.
Five years ago we had a lot of hogs in the hill country. Hunting pressure has reduced the population to very few & made the remaining animals more nocturnal the before.
I am sure the rains this year will help bring back the population. It has been so wet that access to far pastures has been diminished. There will be plenty for them to eat Lee

Lee,
typically in the past I have had the same problem with hogs going nocturnal if you shoot at them often. Here is how I have dealt with this and it has worked for me.

I set up spin cast feeders and have put varmint guards around the spinner plate and feeder mechanism so coons can't spin corn out all night. If you don't, the coons will continuously grab corn off the spinner plates all night long and the hogs will feed until daylight then dissapear till after dark the next night. I have set the feeders to go off at 8 am and 6 pm. That way if the hogs come out before daybreak they have to wait and if they don't come to the feeders before dark, the deer eat all the feed.
Its a little more expensive, but I start with a combination of deer pellets, roasted soybeans and corn. The roasted soybeans smell like peanut butter and the protien also has a scent. I usually feed twice a day for at least two months before I shoot off a feeder. It seems that the hogs get it in their piggy little brains that this is where to go for breakfast and supper. We have enough different groups of hogs that I/we can shoot hogs at the same stand three or four hunts in a row. Makes for good hunts for guys who don't get to hunt all the time. Last month we set up a couple extra feeders for a total of ten stands. My partner and I took a group of our buds and their sons and brothers to the lease last weekend, We shot 16 hogs, recovered 13 over a three day period as they just kept coming to the feeders. One boy made his first bow kill@16yrs, one boy made his first rifle kill @12yrs. Proud dads and excited boys. One of the guys got 3 hogs the first hunt and another good hog on his final hunt. This method seems to work for me.
GWB
PS. Remember- pigs get fat, but hogs get slaughtered

You may be correct in your assumption, but I think it has much to do with the population explosion of hogs in Texas. I have never witnessed anything like it...

I also suspect its like all wildlife in the area, it has a lot to do with the local gene pool and the range conditions. The next couple of years should be awesome, witht he rain you have had..particularly the year after next.

Here in Argentina coastal hogs are really huge they eat fish ,the feral hogs here are really big some of 350 kilos they lived most of them in swamps areas.Juan