Anyone Else Watch the Show About MONSTER HOGS??

[Nala]

Hey all,

There is a show on the History Channel every Wednesday night at 9PM called Monster Hunters.  They usually talk about and show images of Bigfoot, Loch Ness, etc...  Tonights show was different.  It was about the possibility of MONSTER HOGS.

They showed several pictures of hogs that had been shot by hunters that were in the neighborhood of 1,000 pounds and probably close to 10 feet long.  They were HUGE!!  They talked to the hunters to get their stories about the hogs too.  Then they brought in a scientist that studies hogs and asked him about these GIANT hogs and he said that every one of the really BIG hogs has been a pen raised hog that has been let go and turned feral or has escaped.  He said all of the hogs shown were pen raised.

Then they went to a guy from Texas who had pictures of a GIANT hog he killed.  It CLEARLY looked different than the other hogs that were shown.  He said it weighed about 700 pounds and was shot somewhere east of Dallas.  I can't remember the name of the place he said the hog came from.  It was an impressive animal.  They brought the hog scientist in and he confirmed it was a WILD HOG.

The great thing about this show aside from seeing pictures of these enormous hogs was learning that Texas is the CAPITAL of HOG HUNTING in the US.  They estimate a population of over 2 million that is growing every year.  They had a couple of hunting guides on the show that talked about having 400 hogs under their belts per year for the last 3 or 4 years.  All of them said that they have no doubt that there are more hogs like that 700 pounder out there in the underbrush and swamplands of Texas.  One guy even speculates on the possibility of there being BIGGER hogs that the one he shot that will never be seen by human eyes.

I almost forgot, the scientist said that a domestic pig will turn feral quicker than any other animal they have studied.

It is an interesting show about Hogs that you might want to tune in and watch.  The History channel repeats the show all the time this week so you'll be able to see it if you missed tonight.

Now I am changing my thoughts of pig hunting in Florida to pig hunting in TEXAS!!  How about you all?

Nala

[James Wrenn]

Well those big ones would not taste as good if you could even eat them.They are tough to deal with unless you have access with a tractor or lift after you kill one.My buddies and I have an understanding when hog hunting.If we are to remain freinds they don't shoot anything they can't drag themselves.  

[Ray Hammond]

I've seen a 550 lb'er taken on the SC side of the Savannah River..and remember a father son team who hunted along the Georgia side of the Savannah River between Hwy 301 and Savannah, and they would annually take hogs in the 500-600+ range, that were true wild piney woods rooter hogs.

All these wild hogs in the east have 'some' tame hog blood in them, because there are too many farmers with hogs...and hogs do get loose. By and large, though, our hogs have been here since the Spaniards first dropped them off around 1500 on the barrier islands off the coast of SC GA and FL, to reproduce and create a ready source of fresh protein for sailors going up and down the coast.

[TNstickn]

I caught the last 8 or 10 mins. I hope it comes on again. We have some really nice hogs in west TN. Gun hunters slaughter them like pigs (pun intended). Its not very easy gaining access, its that what you know, who you know thang. North mississippi is full of hogs as well.(375.00 out of state tag is just to much$$$$$$$$$$$$$$).Love the history channel. Byron ferguson is going to be on extreme marksman june 2nd.

[JAG]

Alabam has some good 'uns too!  Biggest one in my record was killed on the Tombigbee River.  Field dress, with its head still on the ground (we couldn't get it any higher) weighed 257#.  Not bad, considering I had passed on much bigger hog a couple years before.  Killed this one on the ground at about 7 - 10 steps.  Him or me as the old saying goes!
Would rather kill and eat one @ 50 - 100#
That old big boar was rank, my dogs didn't even want the meat.  Gave it to the zoo.

[Greg Clark]

I found the part about how to tell the difference between a pen raised hog and a truly wild hog interesting. (tooth gap and concavity of head).

[Lytic]

I watched it for a bit. After the bit of strapping a big camera on a wild pig to tape some monster hog I lost interest and changed the channel. I don't doubt there are big hogs out there, that just seemed like a pretty lame way to go about finding em. I can never understand why all these research teams looking for bigfoot or big hogs never use thermal vision. Maybe it's cost prohibited to most but it seems like it would take a lot of guess work out of things.

[pobs]

Originally posted by Lytic:
I can never understand why all these research teams looking for bigfoot or big hogs never use thermal vision. Maybe it's cost prohibited to most but it seems like it would take a lot of guess work out of things.

lol, they wouldn't be able to fill an hour long documentary.

[Lytic]

lol, good point. I really like it when they try to leave a cliffhanger before going to commercial like after the break they will be back with video, photos, a corpse or interview with bigfoot, or whatever monster they're tracking. As if we wouldn't have seen it plastered all over the news as soon as it happened if it was anything substantial.

[Dave2old]

Nala, a very good review of an interesting-sounding show, thank you. If I had a TV, I'd watch it. For the first time in my life I'm interested in hog hunting, though the nearest possibility is a long ways from CO. But I don't hunt anything I can't eat so would/will focus on wee little piglets (only feral piggies, no European boars, which I've tried to eat but couldn't even get close to when frozen). Ah, but imagine how much deer and other wildlife food and habitat a 700-pound hog eats and destroys! Even though I'm not interested myself, I urge you guys who are willing to eat such Monsters to wipe 'em out!

[Igon51]

They fill the hour by running for about 10 minutes before a commercial break. After the break they take 5 minutes to recap the first segment, give you another 2 minutes and then break for more commercials, and so on... All told, you get about 15 minutes of information in a one hour show.

[Rick McGowan]

All in all the show wasn't much, but the scientist was interesting. If you listened carefully when he measured the skull from the "700#" hog in TX, he said he didn't believe that it weighed 700#'s, but they edited it out if he said how much he thought it weighed. It was interesting to hear about "Big Bill" the 2551# hog. I know a rancher that had a 500# boar in a pen and thats as big as it would get, until he castrated it and turned it loose in the woods behind his house, when they rounded it up and shipped it off to slaughter it weighed 1100#'s. I suspect that is a similar route to many of the monster hogs.

[highpoint forge]

Texas really has some huge hogs, that's true. My last trip out to Shackleford county I counted two big groups and then one single one that was bigger than a freakin' calf. I wanted to chase it but he had a really good head start. Maybe next time. Had I a rifle, we'd have pictures......but that's not much fun on an archery forum, and I can hunt there whenever......

[JD1983]

Originally posted by Lytic:
I watched it for a bit. After the bit of strapping a big camera on a wild pig to tape some monster hog I lost interest and changed the channel. I don't doubt there are big hogs out there, that just seemed like a pretty lame way to go about finding em. I can never understand why all these research teams looking for bigfoot or big hogs never use thermal vision. Maybe it's cost prohibited to most but it seems like it would take a lot of guess work out of things.

My guess is that the research team wasn't just interested in finding a big hog and, really, thermal imaging isn't all that great anyway.  Bigfoot research teams generally wouldn't be considered actual researchers anyhow.  I have seen some of the work that the leader of that research team has done with deer (the guy from U. of Missouri) and the stuff you can capture on those cameras is simply amazing.  You learn a whole lot about animal interaction that you would never see otherwise.

[Aeronut]

As for using thermal imaging, there was a show series a year or two ago (can't remember the name) that used thermal cameras and even mounted them on helium filled balloons for aerial viewing.

Dennis

[Holepuncher]

I killed a 400+ lb boar several years ago. I took him to the Taxidermist and got a shoulder mount done. from the front of shoulder to the end of his snout is at least 30". He's in my garage my wife won't let me put it in the house.LOL. I found pictures but they are very poor quality. It was before the days of digital.

[straitera]

Just about anywhere you go here in Texas you'll hear stories about the really big hogs over 500#. A son of a Houston archery shop owner shot the largest I know of on a game ranch which weighed right at 1000#. Our hog population is definitely large and growing as are enough Hogzillas to whet your imagination. I prefer free range DIY. Come on down.