Spotting him crossing a road is a lot easier than getting him. 500 pounds is just a guess, obviously. This guy said he thought he was a bear when he first ambled out of the woods. Held his hands up about 3 1/2 feet saying that was his shoulder ht. Like I said, this guy knows hogs and he said it was by far the biggest hog he had ever seen that wasn't being fattened in a pen.



It seems likely that Hogzilla is holding up in what I call my North Thicket, about 300 acres of bodark river bottom type woods, if so, then I could get him with dogs, but I don't dog hunt, so he is likely to keep munching my neighbors crops unless he makes a mistake. I lost a medium sized hog, guessing 150, I shot yesterday. I'm swearing off of neck shots. Hopefully he died later. We're being overrun. I hate to shoot 'em and leave 'em, but its nearly to that point. We don't want barbecued pig every weekend.

Well he can be over 200lbs. since they never get over 200 lbs. Maybe these guys scales stop at 200, that is what I am guessing. That is a great Hog, I guess 315.

Just got a report in from a reliable local (who has killed dozens of wild hogs) that he saw a HUGE HOG moving from one part of my ranch to another on a creek. The hunt is on. No real guess of wt, but based on his description, I'd say at least the (to me) mythical 500 pounder. I killed a 275 on Fri morning, he was barbecue by Sat night. Excellent.

Probably a hog farm escapee.

An average Aussie piglet. Shot this hog last year with a 30/30 Marlin lever action.



Gary.

Any wild boar over 275 pounds in Florida is extremely uncommon. I've talked to check station personnel that have manned check stations for over 20 years that have never seen a wild hog over 300lbs.

It's extremely rare for one to even top 200 pounds.

If you pen one up and feed it then all bet's are off though.

The biggest I've ever seen was 250lbs and everyone in attendance at the check station guessed it at over 400 pounds with some insisting that it would go over 500 before we hung it.

I grew up on a farm and we had hogs plus I've been in on the killing of hundreds of them so I was pretty sure it was under 300 but kept my mouth shut. The check station guy guessed it at 260 and we were all amazed at how close he was.

$bob$

HERE SOMETIMES WAS KILLED HOHS OF THIS SIZE MOSTLY ARE ESCAPEES FROM FARMS OR FEW OLD HOGS IN UNPOPULATED AREAS LIKE MOUNTAINS AND DENSE COVER BUT ALL ARE OF DOMESTIC ORIGIN.JUAN

LDHunter, we've had quite a few go over 300 lbs on my friend's lease in the Okeechobee area. Not saying that it is all that common, but they do crop up fairly regularly. There are a lot in the 200 lb range -- this is fairly common. I'm heading out there next weekend and will keep you posted.

You can bet that these hogs are eating corn at feeders to get that large.

I'd love to be able to afford to hunt those big corn fed hogs on a lease but everytime I've priced the hunts I end up tucking my tail and heading back to the wildlife management areas...

Too bad though... I bet they taste better and aren't so darned tough to chew...

$bob$

LDHunter -- if the lease didn't belong to a friend, I wouldn't be hunting them either -- at least not on a regular basis! I hear what you are saying. Yes, there are feeders on the property in some areas. Still, the meat can be tough, though.......

Most of the "taste" attributed to wild hog is due to the handling after the kill and the cooking. Much more so than deer, where is is a necessity, it is very important to field dress and skin the hog as soon as possible. IMO, an hour is pushing it for field dressing, unless it is quite cool.



As far as tender goes, long slow heat while preventing drying out (wrapped in foil or in some type of liquid cooking medium) will tenderize almost anything. Since "rare" (my favorite way to eat most meats, except chicken and pork) is not a consideration when cooking a pig having a really tough piece of wild hog is mostly due to the cook. Of course, I'm sure there are the exceptions that are just tough period, but I've never had one. We eat quite a bit of hog and find it to be at least as good as most "store bought" pork IF properly prepared.

Gatogordo, I had some hog meat from a 50 pounder I shot last year that was just tough -- at least the chops were tough. The meat was so lean that even the sausage was a bit on the dry side. Flavorwise, I found it better than any store bought pork I've had. But, this perhaps is the exception and not the rule as I have had plenty that was perfect!

Do those Aussie scales stop at 200lbs., or whatever the kilo conversions is? Florida hogs must be small. Hogs in OK and TX can get pretty big, stopping at 200 on the scale of course.

Salixco -- the whole world is in on the "Hog Weight Conspiracy" -- of course in the rest of the world the scales stop at the 90 kilo mark.....

Actually, a few outlaws here in Florida have underground scales that will actually go a lot higher than 200 pounds -- but you've got to keep that to yourself. You didn't here it from me.

in july ronl member of this forum killed 2 giant hogs in arentina he posted the photos do you remember he killed them wih my dogos and knife.juan ill like to hunt with my dogos in australia and in africa the bushpig and the warthog.juan

These are the pictures that Juan are refering to:





Juan and his Dogos



Cheers,

Andr�