My first hog (GA)

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pck823

New member
After a weekend of trapsing around in a state Wildlife Management Area and bumping 200 other hunters, I decided to go on a paid hunt on a preserve in Middle GA this past weekend to get my first hog.

We estimated her at 150# (scale was broken). I was shooting a borrowed Bushmaster XMOD with a Comp M2 red dot, .223 with 60gr Nosler partitions from 20yds. 1 shot double-lunged, second shot broke its back, last shot in the brain. The first two were while she was on the run.

I think I'll be doing this again, but need my own fun stick. Thinking about a Bushmaster ACR. Enjoy the pics!

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Good killin'. Any time one of those vermin goes down, its one less breeding more of the things. Unless you're a giant, thats a 120lb max though. Good luck on killing more. I'm done until deer season comes back in, unless its trapping and capping.
 
Another point to the humans.

I like to see how all the pigs have different appearances....they don't look much like Wilbur in the wild.
 
You could tell me this hog weighs 250 and I'd believe you! Just going by what the other fellas were guesstimating! Regardless, I had big fun and will be doing this again.

On a similar note, I quail hunt down in Sylvester GA every year and last season was being told of all of the hogs they were having to kill three seasons ago - as many as 60 a week. When we went down there about 6 weeks ago my hunting buddy and I asked about the possibility of doing some hog hunting if we came a day early. They said they hadn't seen ANY hogs since then. What gives? I thought this area of the state was supposed to be hog central?
 
Rickyrick.........Yes......Wild hogs have many different looks........In my county alone I see hogs that are mostly Russian blood...and those that show traits of all the different domestic breeds..........

Pck823........Most folks....way overguess the weight of a pig.......
 
Hello pck823, your first hog is like free crack the street dealer gives you. Once they have you hooked, you are an addict.

Good luck with your addiction! :D

In the future, you can use "heart girth" to get a very reasonable weight estimate to +/- 10 lbs. It is really the torso circumfernce at the heart, but is called heart girth. All you need is a measuring tape. It is something you can do quick and easy in the field and measuring tapes are usually more compact and easier to use than scales, but not quite as accurate, but probably good enough for most folks. It beats the heck out of guestimation and SWAGing.

http://www.thepigsite.com/articles/1106/use-heart-girth-to-estimate-the-weight-of-finishing-pigs
 
Double Naught........thats for domestic finishing pigs.........hahaaa.........
Put a domestic..fed out pig next to his..........They are like 2 different species.........
 
pck, 2/22/11

Last pig I got a couple of weeks ago was close enough to the truck that I could take it home and weigh, measure and clean it at the house. I have read about the chest measurement as the basis for a weight estimate so I did the measuring. Chest circumference of 38 inches, snout to rump measurement of 50 inches, and actual weight on my 500 pound scale of 120 pounds. If you use the chest measurement chart for the weight estimate then my pig should have weighed 181 pounds instead of the actual weight of 120 pounds. As the weight estimation chart says it was based on domestic pigs there may not be a correlation to wild pigs. I need to get some more pigs close by so I can take them home instead of field dressing them.

Actually I kind of like the chest circumference data- I can say the pig was 61 pounds heavier than it really was.

best wishes- oldandslow
 
Double Naught........thats for domestic finishing pigs.........hahaaa.........
Put a domestic..fed out pig next to his..........They are like 2 different species.........
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It is a better estimate than guessing. However, you are welcome to compile the data necessary for getting together a good feral hog table to use. The method is used for a variety of animals and has been for quite some time.

The heart girth table has been used by several folks on various hog huntng forums with good results when the measurements have been checked against a scale. You don't take the girth measurement for a hanging hog

And no, they are not like two different species. They are specifically the exact same species.
 
Double Naught.......Look at Pck823's pig......Show me a domestic that looks like that........????? Also read Old and slows post........real good........
You may could use this method if...the pigs had not been feral too long..and if they were in farmland eating real good...........
We have mostly Russian strain and they are humpin up to make it in the riverbottoms.........;)
 
Double Naught.......Look at Pck823's pig......Show me a domestic that looks like that........????? Also read Old and slows post........real good........
You may could use this method if...the pigs had not been feral too long.
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Sorry if I missed it. Could you explain to me again what the better method of estimation that you use is. Have you tested the heart girth method yourself and found it to be in error?

We have mostly Russian strain and they are humpin up to make it in the riverbottoms.........
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Yeah, everyone has "Russian" strain hogs where they are. It just sounds cool. They base the strain identification on characteristics typical of feral hogs in general at best and on folklore at worst. It always sounds better to say you killed one of them. Hogs show a tremendous plasticity in their phenotypical traits and those traits claimed to be "Russian" are made based on traits that actually are not specific to the "Russian" strain.

The problem is that many hunters learn about Russian boar traits from folks who don't know what traits are actually uniquely "Russian" or not and most of what folks claim to be indicative of being "Russian" isn't or hasn't been shown to be diagnostic. Bubba may have hunted hogs all of his life and know their behavior like the back of his hand, but that doesn't mean that Bubba actually has any experience with true "Russian" hogs or that he knows what is or isn't actually "Russian" based on his experience. Short of DNA analysis which hasn't been covered sufficiently yet, the characters claimed just aren't reliable for separating feral hogs from "Russian" from hybrids, etc.

Here is a nice paper that addresses the issue succinctly.
http://agrilife.org/texnatwildlife/feral-hogs/distinguishing-feral-hogs-from-introduced-wild-boar/
 
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I wish we had Pigs up here in Idaho, just for the huntin...
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Trust me, you don't want pigs even for just hunting. Those things breed faster than rabbits. Every sow we've killed this year above 60-70lbs has been trailing piglets. You trap a sow, you'll have bunches of piglets in with her. Those things will destroy habitat, eat up the food supply of real game species and aren't picky about what they do.

They get smart real quick too and go nocturnal as soon as you pick a couple off. Once they get above 150, maybe 200 they're rank, especially the boars. One boar I killed this past year was 400-450lbs and took 4 grown men to pull out to hook up to the 4 wheeler, broke the rope 3X and was so tough that after a 1.5 mile drag down a gravel road, some of the hair was worn off his hide. Dang thing took a 165grn BT bullet to the boiler room from 70yds going about 2850fps, no exit and it still kicked off 40 yds into the woods in its death throws.
 
Trust me, you don't want pig for just hunting.
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He is so right about that.
While hunting them is great fun, it doesn't replace the six or seven round bales they can rip open in one night.

But hey, if you gotta kill them might as well have fun with it, I say.
 
This one weighed 187 lbs. The hanging one that is...I weigh 190 and I'm 6'3 inches, if that helps with perspective.

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Double naught......I thought I told you to read Old and slows post.......
Actually..I use years of experience and the fact that I have killed hundreds of hogs in the river bottoms.......(we have scales)........

That article came from our own A&M university.......My daughter graduates in May.........

I base Russian strain or type on their appearance....My grandfather and great grandfather let domestic hogs run in this county...They would cut the ears and gather them back up on horses and with dogs....Not all were gathered back up..Russian or European strain have been introduced in this area thru the years......They have bred with the feral population.......as the article said........

Although none of these animals has been documented as having been used to start a wild population, given the interest in pure wild boar as big game and the history of such stocking efforts in this country, the potential for such an occurrence is almost certain. Therefore, it currently is possible to encounter wild populations that might vary from pure feral hog to pure Eurasian wild boar in composition.

This..../\ /\ /\

There are also differences in the teeth.........

I know some..as U call Bubba's..that can guess a hogs weight extremely close(they trap and sell them by weight).......They hunt and trap them all the time....Fact is..there are some Bubbas that know all about pigs.....I take more stock there than a city fella who runs to only the net everytime he wants an answer.....Oh the net has good info and bad.....Pigman the Series??? Ever watched it???? From Groesbeck..just down the road......He says there are more wild hogs in this area than probably anywhere else.........


The Ranch I hunt on had 483 killed or trapped last year.........
 
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I base Russian strain or type on their appearance....
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Right, and this isn't a valid method.

There are also differences in the teeth.........
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Really? You mean the fabled Euro-tooth?

I know some..as U call Bubba's..that can guess a hogs weight extremely close(they trap and sell them by weight).......
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In other words, you have no basis for stating that the hearth girth method won't work.
 
Your hilarious........Examples of domestic pigs.........Be sure and look first one in face..........:D
 
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Example of pig with Eurasian(Russian influence)......U don't see a difference???
Also...the tooth that shows it is a hybrid........
Hog school is over..........hahaaaaa
 
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