Where are the BIGGEST PIGS that we can Hunt Located??

[Nala]

Hey all,

I know there are LOTS of states that have huge wild hog populations and no doubt within those populations there are BIG hogs that can be taken.  I would like to know where you would go if you were wanting to have the best chance to take a real MONSTER HOG.

Another question is what draw weight would be suggested for hogs like what I am talking about?

Thanks for your time.

Nala

[b.glass]

I've seen pictures of some pretty big hogs in Kentucky. I think where ever there are feral pigs they CAN get pretty big.

[Benny Nganabbarru]

Check-out the specimens that Kingwouldbe knocks over in California. There's a thread or two in the Dangerous Game forum. They're monsters.

[tradtusker]

or check out Ben's homeland Australia they'v got big howgs out there and lots of em.

[beaver#1]

everything is bigger in texas is what they say.

[allanburden]

Gawgia.

[Biggie Hoffman]

They're ALL feral pigs here in the states. Some have more russian bloodlines, you can see it in their faces and shoulders.
If you're talking about wild pigs, California does seem to have some larger offerings but beware some of the photos you see where guys are sitting 15' behind the dead animal and remember too that half of us can't judge weight on hogs for ****.
There are some pics in GON this month of 1100 lber and an 800 and something but these are escapees from farm lots even though thery are "shot" by "Hunters"
Truly big (300#+) wild hogs are hard to find. They are basically noctournal and stay in the heaviest brush you can imagine PLUS, they're smart!
You can get some big ones with dogs but then, you gotta give the credit to the dogs for hunting and can only be happy with the shooting part.

[trashwood]

Wingnut, Mike form Dryad bows killed a 300+ hog about a mile from the house.  I have been watching is Mamma for the last couple of yrs.  she don't have a lot of russina in her genes if is a black and white volklswagen though.  If she has a litter she is very aggesive.

I think Wngnut has got a pick of his Rojo Grande somewhere.

rusty

[wingnut]

Here's one I could find quick:

 

Mike

[Biggie Hoffman]

Just a simple question, don't get excited.
Are you saying that is a 300# hog?

[Cory Mattson]

Like Biggie I was thinking California - pictures from there show hogs big and fat. Long time ago when we were all in the Paradise in GA only one out of One Hundred Killed was over 200#. In SC we take one 200# for about every 25 hogs taken and One 300# for every 100 hogs taken - so you need to hunt and work hard in the southeast. Also I think the more russian blood the more likely they will not get very large - this seems more likely in the Feral bloolines - exceptions sure - but most of the time anyway.
<>< <---------------<<<<<<<

[wingnut]

Biggie,

We did not have a scale but had a couple of guys that have done a lot of pig hunting help me with it.  Both said it was about 300#.  Mind you that you and I are close to the same size.  I'm 6'4" and over 300 in this pic.

I'm along side and not behind the hog too.

Mike

[Apex Predator]

I've seen them on the hoof that will go 300+ in Ga.  Very rare to see one that big in the wild down here.  The largest I've taken was 200+ and was about the size of the one posted above.  Average adult boars will go around 175-185# I would say.  CA is probably the best bet unless you want a game farm animal.  They can go 500+#.

[hunt it]

Romania has some pure russian strain hogs that top the scale at 700# of pure wild hog. My dad killed on there about 15yrs back that was weighed at 520 live weight.

The giant forest hog of North/Central Africa has been known to top 600# as well.

In the USA, I would not make any hunt plans based on finding a monster. You might die of old age first, you'd have alot of fun trying. I would base my plans on quantity. Where there is alot of hogs the will be big ones. The California situation is as I see it: A hunt where you can spot and stalk in ideal terrain. The fact that you can do this allows for one to be selective and harvest good big mature hogs. The terrain and one's hunting skills make this possible. Over the rest of the US the ability to spot at long distances in required/desired terrain is minimal so hogs are taken as is and when is. I don't believe that the hogs in California are any bigger. I just believe we have some good guys that have the terrain and the skills and the ability to whack good big hogs.

[Nala]

Thanks everyone for the info..  I have checked out the thread in the Dangerous Game section and those California hogs are indeed HUGE.  I think it would be something just to SEE a hog that big roaming the wild.

Besides the fact that I wouldn't know how to even go about finding a place in California I doubt seriously I would ever get the chance to go there.  That pretty much confines me to the eastern US and MAYBE Texas.  One day I am going to do it though.

Nala

[trashwood]

Biggie, what do you think the live weight would have been?  I don't know but I can tell Wingnt worked my but off getting it in the truck        and even then it was a real good thing Mike was real strong      

Of course 'em boys could have been funning us about what they thought the weight was.  That reminds me of a story.....had a fellow coming down from New York that was really a non-hunter and wanted to kill a turkey.  before he got here we went out a bought a emu.  pinned it up it up near his bind.  when he got to the stand with my buddy as a guide.  we turned the emu out.  becasue of cross fence there was no where for the emu to go but in front of his blind.  he nailed the emu (they were giving them away at the time if you would just come get thme.  they were not paying for their feed).  He gave us call on the radio and we came a running.  Holy Cow now that is a "moy grande trukey" and a nice one too.  we took his picture with the bird.  Took him and the pic to woody's bar and grill.  he showd the picture around and the whole dang bar went a long with it.  they said man that is a dandy and a real trophy.

we tried to eat the dang thing....no breast meat and the legs were tuff as railroad spikes.  so he takes his moy grande turkey pic back to New York and still showing it till this day.....and to my knowledge no one has told him      

rusty -that pig werent' no runt        - Craine

[blueline]

Mike I got one that went 250 on the scale. Yours looks a little bigger so I dont think 300 is a stretch. When I got mine I was so focused on the hog (third one that walked out) after I shot ther were 30 hogs headed back to the thicket and one looked like it would go 600+. I know there out there...

Biggie do them hogs oink with a accent????

Blueline

[beachbowhunter]

This one was 225 lbs live weight on the button.  

Nala, Kingwouldbe is getting a hog hunt together here in California at the end of January at Tejon ranch. 300lb hogs are not uncommon up there and the price is affordable. Personally, I want to keep 'em under 200 lbs!

Norb

[Rick McGowan]

I end up with nasty pm's after everyone of these threads I post on. NOBODY get excited, I'm not referring to any of the photos on this thread(yet), but on past threads people proudly posing with their 300# pigs that are obviously no where near that and I am always suspicious when someone tells me an animal weighs EXACTLY 300#'s or any of the other even 100# increments. I have only seen two wild hogs that I would guarantee were over 300#'s and both of those were in Australia, the one boar I saw several times and he had tusks like a warthog, the closest I ever got to him was several hundred yards. Another time I had a rifle hunter shoot a big boar right at dark and then another pig I guarantee was twice as big, stood up and took off, I asked the hunter why he shot a small one until we walked over and saw the dead one was at LEAST 200#'s and I guarantee the one that got away was at least twice that big. I just remembered another one that was in the 300# range that we walked up on in Australia where it was feeding on a dead buffalo, we didn't have a hunter at the time and this boar had NO fear of us, we stopped at about six FEET when he wouldn't budge and Andrew said "shoot em", I said no, I would prefer to leave him for a paying hunter, which is at least partially true, but that was a BIG boar with no fear of us and I knew there was no way that I could drop him in six feet regardless of how good a shot it was and we didn't even have a rifle with us.
There are lots of places to go and shoot a big pig, if you don't care whether it is wild or pen raised, really truely monster WILD hogs are very rare. The other thing is that big WILD boars are one of the smartest and wariest animals in the woods, so often the only thing you see from them is the tracks. I just remembered one more I saw in Australia and it was definately over 300# and could have been over 400#, but it was getting fairly dark, I staked out a dead cow that had big pig tracks around it and right at dark this huge hog showed up, it was the only one I ever saw in that area and it grabbed a mouthful of that cow and DRAGGED it around in circles, but I never got a shot at that one!

[Ray Hammond]

We have taken two really large pigs on our place. One was 467 live weight, a sow believe it or not, weighed on cotton scales, and a 322 lb sow also weighed on cotton scales.

Most of our boars are lucky to be 250...big in the front, with lots of head and little behinds. The sows are shaped like barrels and if they are dry, they can be heavy.

If you want a big shoulder mount with nice tushes, go to Australia or California. Iran has the largest pigs with the biggest tushes I have ever seen, but right now you'd have some difficulty going there to hunt as you can imagine.

   

If you want to have fun, kill bunches, and eat nice, our Georgia and SC pigs are great for that as long as they don't live in salt marshes.

Pics of a couple large pigs we have killed-

   

this pic has been photoshopped by me, to remove a stick holding up the hog's head, and I did a crappy job of it, but the body and head have in no way been changed or resized...
   

This last one is a GA hog, and has already been dressed out.