Hey, I am going hog hunting soon in Tennesee in a preserve type of deal. I have been in central WV in free roaming "russian" boars. Some pages say the boars in WV are not pure russian black strain and only in TX and California. Can someone explain the different strains in the US? Where to hunt them? I mean in Florda are those European boars or ferrell? What kinds are those in WV?

With the exception of some enclosed (game fenced) shooting preserves, virtually all free ranging hogs will be decended primarily from feral domestic stock. In various locations, there are some European wild boar bloodlines present in free-ranging populations to a greater or lesser extent. There is very little European ("Russian") ancestry in most Texas hogs.

There is the peccary [javelina] of the SW which is related to the modern pig thousands of years ago.Some of the Florida pigs have genes of the original pigs brought by the spanish 500 years ago [they do not have cloven hoofs] There are the 'russian' boars introduced in various places. Then there are the many feral pigs and feral/ russian mixes. Hard to tell without genetic study.

Ok, so the flordia pigs are the european strain we hear about? Are these all the pigs in the states?

So where can you go besides WV where I hunted them, for freeranging hunts? Are they difficult? Usally successful?

I don't know, I am having a hard time with this preserve thing. I am just going cause my brother wants to go.

There are many preserves in TN. some are actually really large and nice places, but choose carefully there are also some scumbags. As far as the wild hunts go it is mostly private property ,but some WMAs in GA offer public hunts. I have used dog handlers in several spots along rivers ,this can be a fun hunt , however very expensive. best of luck Rug(Ben)

The closest I've seen to a Russian black boar that I've seen killed in Texas in the last few years have been down on the middle and lower coastal areas. The best one was killed on an island at the mouth of the Guadalupe River in SanAntonioBay. It was around 300#, had some serious cutters, the very coarse black hair, &the heavy shield around the neck and over the shoulders. The guy shot it between the eye &the ear- brain shot with a 25/06 from about 250yds. dropped like a stone..

I have killed hundreds of hogs in texas! nearly all have been of domestic stock! there is an extra tooth in the ones carrying european blood !the extra tooth is between the tusk and the molars! My wife killed one a week ago that had this tooth and I have found 2 dead that had it all in the same area along the trinity river!

The best way to tell if there is any "Russian" blood mixed in your feral (domestic reverted to "wild") pigs is if the young exhibit horizontal "watermelon" stripes (they fade away with age like the spots on a fawn).

In California it's most common to find pigs with a mixure of adult domestic coloration with piglets having the watermelon stripes... which means they're genetically all mixed up. The adult pelage (hair) doesn't continue to demonstrate Russian character.

Pure Russian boar should have an "agouti" coloration which gives them a salt-and-pepper appearance. It results from light and dark bands on each individual hair.

In the absence of very well maintained game fences AND extreme culling it would be a miracle to find a pure Russian boar. In fact hybridization happens so fast I'd have a hard time believing one was pure unless I unpacked the crate from Europe myself .

Your hunting dog is about as closely related to javelina as the feral pigs. They evolved half a world apart, tens of thousands of years ago.

Always remember advice off the internet is often worth exactly what you pay for it.

Kyler

I've hunted pure "European" hogs in Missouri at the Cedar Ridge Farm. They truck them in monthly from Canada where they are live caught and released in MO. They look markedly different then the ferals that I have hunted in Florida. Heavier in the shoulder and more "wooly". With ferals there is much more variety for lack of a better term, with regards to their coloration.

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I've hunted pure "European" hogs in Missouri at the Cedar Ridge Farm. They truck them in monthly from Canada where they are live caught and released in MO. They look markedly different then the ferals that I have hunted in Florida. Heavier in the shoulder and more "wooly". With ferals there is much more variety for lack of a better term, with regards to their coloration.

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I have been to a Canadian Boar farm, Peter Kalden's place, and seen 100's of wild boar being raised for the US market. The going rate is something around $1.25-$1.50 per pound.

These animals have to pass through US customs, which is now demanding vet info about each boar.

Boar is a business in Canada. There are many farms located in Manitoba. Many of them buy their stock from some farms in Sakastawon.


There are provincial associations dedicated to Boar farms.

There are areas of Manitoba where there are free roaming boar. They are considered a nuisance and you are encouraged to shoot them. But no one is running around the bush rounding them up.

For a bit more check out:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/ee.bzikot/boar.htm

It is difficult for me to describe, but if you have seen pure Russian Boar, then you can not mistake a feral for it. The Russian Boar is simply built differently.

The California pig thing began back when the first Spanish explorers arrived in driving herds of swine with them as food supplies. Some escaped and went feral. Later, American settlers from the East Coast did basically the same thing, with the same results. Thus our "wild" pig population for a couple of hundred years consisted of multi-color specimens of archiac breeds of domestic hog. Then, in the early twentieth century, a set of . . . well, deranged . . . sporting types living around Monterrey sent back to the Carolinas for some pure-bred European Wild Boar and released them on private land to interbreed with the local feral pig and eventually turn them into Euro-piggies. It worked, only too well. Today, we have no natural enemies for these four legged locusts except ourselves, so the season is open year round and the bag limit is however many you can fit in the back of your truck. I started hunting rabbits, graduated to quail and then went on to pigs. I've been shooting and eating them ever since and I don't care where they come from. Euro-pigs, Afri-pigs, Asiatic pigs, red-blooded gen-u-wine all-American pigs are all o.k. with me. And those giant forest hogs? Well, that's sort of the Ultimo-pig. I'll never be able to afford it, but I want one!

Bigcountry...

Most of the preserves import their hogs from Canada, and these do have Russian genes in them, although they are not pure-bred.

Hunting the preserves can be a bit challenging if dogs aren't used. Depends on which one you hunt and what agreement as to style of hunt you work out. Which place are you going to?

This is directly from the Manitoba Agg website:
"The wild boar is one of nine species belonging to the pig family. It is the ancestor of the domestic pig. Although the wild boar is native to Europe, Asia and North Africa, it has been in North America since the early 1800s. The terms "full bloods" and "standards" are used to describe the purity of the wild boar. Full bloods are considered to be pure wild boar with no domestic pig in their background. Standards meet the physical requirements of wild boar but may have some domestic pig in their genetic make up. There has been a great deal of inter-breeding between wild boar and the domestic pig over the past 150 years. The North American standard wild boar is estimated to be 60-70% wild boar and 30-40% domestic pig.

The major characteristics of the wild boar is the tendency of the females and their young to form matriarchal groups known as "sounders" or "drifts." In the wild, the male lives alone except for the short breeding season. In domestic herds, boars run with the sows at all times.

Breeding generally takes place during the late fall and early spring. Wild boars develop to a sexual maturity between 15 and 24 months of age. Gilts can be bred as early as six months of age, but usually are bred at about one year of age.

The gestation period is approximately 110 to 115 days, with weaning occurring around 90 to 120 days of age. Gilts average three to four piglets for their first litter with later litters usually numbering five piglets. Sows can be expected to farrow twice per year. Females may not come into heat during the higher temperatures of July to October. The maximum sow to boar ratio should be 15:1, some producers prefer a 10:1 ratio. The aim in the initial breeding program is to use full blood wild boars as sires with standard sows as mothers. Selected cross-bred gilts from these matings are used as replacements for the sow herd which will increase the percentage of full blood wild boar in the population. These gilts are then bred to full blood boars. There is a strong correlation between nose length and meat quality. Current full blood lines include 3 identifiable genetic backgrounds:

Kalden (a Swedish import originating in Poland)
Old San Diego ZOO (originally from Europe)
New San Diego ZOO (also from another European region)"

So to answer the original question. It is highly unlikely that any free ranch animal will be 100% genetically Russian Boar. However, some of the hunting preserves do offer them. And as some one else said, this can be a very good hunt.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter, the bloodlines, as they are just good eating and a lot of fun to hunt.

A true european boar and a feral hog have a different cromosome count, as do domestic swine. There are 37 38 or 39 depending upon the genetic makeup.

It always makes me laugh that the term "russian" boar is used to some how denote the mother of all wild swine. Did you know that by the records of big game throughout the entire world that the Russian boars are not even in the top 150 of the biggest boars? There are dozens from Texas and California higher ranking then even a single one from Russia. The top 40-50 are all from Turkey, india, Iran, Pakistan, sweden

Russia is not even a realistic player in the big boars of the world. This constant phrase of "Russian boar" is a joke to be honest. The Canadian farms are not raising boars from Russia but rather from Poland Germany and Sweden.

As far as anyone killing a Russian boar in the USA, Maybe on a tightly controlled fenced game farm but not a free roaming hog. The percentage of Russian blood in wild boars was studied in Texas and the reports are public info on the net. The result was that none captured or checked could be proven to have any european blood line relationship. They said if there was a European blood line that it was so thin and bred out that it would be impossible to verify with the limits of DNA checking today.

I think the majority of hog hunters would do a great justice to the wild hogs of America if we were proud of what lives here and called them "Wild Boar" or even Razorbacks. But to constantly praise the "Russian" boar as some exceptional trophy is only degrading what we have here. The top Russian boar of all time is not even in the top 150 recorded!

We are going to Tennessee. Either Caryon or Tn Extreme. They got a hunt called the knife hunt I was interested in. They use pit bulls to hold em while you go in and do your business with a big ole knife. Sounds pretty intereesting. Anybody ever done it?

Do a search for UltraMag. She does it all the time out in Hawaii, and somehow I've got to figure out how to book a hunt with her. Us MILPERS gotta stick together.

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We are going to Tennessee. Either Caryon or Tn Extreme. They got a hunt called the knife hunt I was interested in. They use pit bulls to hold em while you go in and do your business with a big ole knife. Sounds pretty intereesting. Anybody ever done it?

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Well this has been discussed here many times. There is a partial thread from the old board about it with some pictures at: https://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=518103&f=1621043&m=228101411&r=980107321#980107321

This is a common method in Argentina where they use dogos. Peter Capstick included a chapter about such a hunt in one of his books.

Pete

Another give away is that true 'wild' boar are higher at the shoulders than at the haunches with a pronounced slope. It is much like the difference between african elephants and asian elephants.

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A nd those giant forest hogs? Well, that's sort of the Ultimo-pig. I'll never be able to afford it, but I want one!

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Old sarge what is this forest hog you mention?

Charles -- where in the hell can one find giant forrest hogs???? Damn! They seem to be sporting lots of tusk. What do they weigh on average as adults? Are they agressive?

Central African Republic, Camaroon, Congo, etc. Basically they share the same habitat as the bongo and due to the extreme remoteness of the hunting areas the safaris are very expensive!

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What do they weigh on average as adults? Are they agressive?

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I only know what I read. From UltimateUngulate.Com:

Weight: 100-275 kg / 220-605 lb.

Males are responsible for the defense of the group, and will attack objects which threaten the safety. Extremely fierce when excited, giant forest hogs have been seen driving solitary spotted hyenas off of buffalo kills, and will attack humans if they are shot at.