Shot an interesting pig today

D

dwwhite

New member
I was out cleaning up stands and feeders this afternoon, as well as doing a little scouting along the creek bed for any signs of water, when I flushed a feral sow, or she flushed me, I'm not sure which.

She was moving pretty fast (I thought) and I got off a snap shot that rolled her. She was dead before she hit the ground. I was congratulating myself on such great shooting until I paced off the distance at about 10 yards. A slingshot would have been sufficient at that range.:D

Of course, I had to artfully pose a picture or two. Luckily, she hit the ground in a sunny spot, great for photos.

attachment.php


Then I rolled her over to see the exit wound.

attachment.php


The right foreleg was missing, all the way up to the shoulder. I was surprised to say the least. In the heat of the moment, I never noticed that I was shooting at a three legged pig. My wife, the Veterinarian, was plenty impressed, said that it looked as good or better than many amputations that they do at the clinic. There was some scarring, so I know it wasn't a birth defect, but an old wound of some sort.

On a side note, it turns out that our pigs here in Texas aren't the armor plated killing machines you may have been led to believe. This one might have gone 80# on the hoof, and a .223 64 grain Power Point made a clean pass through and dropped it in its tracks. Judging from her looks and her teeth, she was an mature older pig, though I'm no expert.

Just thought you guys would get a kick out of something unusual.
 

Attachments

  • resized pig left side.jpg
    resized pig left side.jpg
    125.3 KB · Views: 482
  • resized pig right side.jpg
    resized pig right side.jpg
    134.3 KB · Views: 469
i was pretty sure by the title you were referring to my wife.. however, i find your story much more interesting.

how fast would you say she was running on that little hobnob?
 
Hard to say just how fast she was going, probably not as fast as it seemed, but it didn't seem to slow her down any.

I guess the telling thing is that I didn't notice till it was all over. I think I would have caught on if it caused a very odd gait.
 
no wonder

No wonder you hit that pig on the run.........it only had 3 legs. Man, killin' handicapped hogs, you should be ashamed!!!!

NIce shot, ........nice looking rifle too!
 
The armored killing machines are usually bigger than a large choate, LOL.

Okay, yeah, the reputation has been blown way out of proportion.

The thing about losing the front leg isn't so much running as it is cornering, at least with tripod dogs I have seen. That is great that you didn't even notice until after shooting. Your hog had adapted well.

As for the healed amputation, we tend to think that wounded animals won't survive and a lot do not. However, many still do quite well. A few miles south of me, a guy has 3 or more years of pics of a 3 legged doe with fawns each spring. Then again, a buddy of mine shot a pig with a broken humerus that never healed. The exterior had healed, but when I skeletonized the carcass, there was all sorts of reactive bone around the remaining humerus above the break. The boar, a little over 3 and 240 lbs had lived at least several weeks. Maybe months since the injury and was otherwise quite healthy.
 
Last edited:
I was told that the wild pigs around here are descended from Russian Boar that were imported by hunting clubs in the 1920s and escaped domestic pigs. From what I've seen, they are somewhat more Russian Boar than you might expect from the old and non-renewed gene pool. But I figure that those genes are probably better adapted to living and reproducing in the wild and get passed on disproportionally.

But I agree with the OP that they aren't exactly huge armor plated killing machines. I've seen males that were probably 300 pounds or more and had some extra cartilage protection up front along with tusks. And I've seen some that acted pretty aggressive. But generally, they scatter and run.

I've only been "charged" by one, and I think he or she (it was getting dark) was in the group when it got spooked, didn't pick up why and ran in the direction it so happened to be facing. Which was at me. I jumped behind a tree. It dodged the tree. And we both went on our merry ways.

My main problem is that they tear the ground up. And with this soil it doesn't take much to start a significant erosion problem.
 
I was told that the wild pigs around here are descended from Russian Boar that were imported by hunting clubs in the 1920s and escaped domestic pigs. From what I've seen, they are somewhat more Russian Boar than you might expect from the old and non-renewed gene pool. But I figure that those genes are probably better adapted to living and reproducing in the wild and get passed on disproportionally.
Click to expand...

You know, my father grew up in East Texas free ranging pigs. In fact, pigs have been free ranged since the French came through and were being free ranged in great quantities during Texas' colonial days. See post 28 here...
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=634562&page=2&highlight=free+range+hog

Also note that domestic pigs and Russian boars are the same species. Where do you think domestic pigs came from? You aren't likely to be able to identify anything "Russian" without genetic testing or exacting craniometrics. Strangely enough, the longer pigs have been feral (generations), the more "Russian" they look.

People want to claim things light leg length, tail curl, "Euro tooth", hair type, musculature, etc. as diagnostic traits of being Russian, but they aren't. Pigs are an extremely plastic species and many of the phenotypic traits we think make a hog "Russian" are simply traits found in various domestic breeds.
 
One of my fellow employees here is an enthusiastic hunter. He's also an artist and graduated university with a fine arts degree. We actually employ artists here, though he's not one of them. However, he has some samples of his artwork on his wall, mostly deer. One day I happened to notice that one of the deer was only three-legged. So apparently that happens now and then, though I'm sure it's extremely rare. Of course, there are no natural predators around here that hunt them, at least not out of season. But it is a curious thing how such a thing might happen.

In the county where I lived in West Virginia (Wyoming County), I believe that wild pigs are stocked, or used to be, and it was the only county where that was done, as far as I know. I have no idea how it's done or where they came from, only I doubt they came from Russia.

Poland, maybe.
 
Also note that domestic pigs and Russian boars are the same species.
Click to expand...

That's correct. If they weren't, they couldn't interbreed.

Where do you think domestic pigs came from?
Click to expand...

It probably depends on the breed of domestic pig and how far back you want to ask about. But the pigs my kids raised sure didn't have tusks or frontal armor for dueling over the ladies.

You aren't likely to be able to identify anything "Russian" without genetic testing or exacting craniometrics.
Click to expand...

I imagine you are right. That's why I based my statement on anecdotal evidence from people who were kids around here during the late 1920s and 1930s. They remember (or say they remember) what happened.

Strangely enough, the longer pigs have been feral (generations), the more "Russian" they look.
Click to expand...

Which is actually the point I was trying to make. Take the tusks and armor. If both Ivan and Porky want a piece of Lulabelle and fight, who's going to win? Ivan of course. Who's better suited to an unsupervised "root hog or die" life outdoors? Ivan. That's why even if the gene pool is constantly refreshed by Porky's friends, Ivan will have a disproportionate impact on the outcome.

Nonetheless, I am not calling the feral hogs around here Russian Boar. They aren't the hard charging, aggressive things you read about people hunting with spears in medieval Europe or earlier.

On the other hand, you don't want to get run over by one either.
 
Reminds me of a buck when I was a teenager. The group I was with were dog hunting and jumped a deer. When he was killed he was missing a left front leg from just above the knee, only had one antler, and half a tail. Ran like nothing was wrong with him and they were all healed over. Also we treed alot of coons that had 3 feet but thats from when steel traps were legal.
 
Hogs in Texas are descended from many sources. Hunting Clubs used to turn European/Russian hogs loose for hunting, for 100 years farmers free ranged pigs especially in East Texas, lots of domestic hogs including some really big ones have been turned out to increase the size of feral hogs and often pigs just escaped from farms. Some are smaller, some are bigger. Some are tougher, some aren't. I used to know a ranch down near Cotulla where they had turned out some big hogs and it wasn't uncommon to see 350+ pound hogs taken in deer season.
On Timberland in East Texas some companies trap hogs year round. They geld the boars then turn'm back out for the lease hunters.
Last night my Son and I had a pig run in front of my truck, likely weighted 100 lbs it was real lean looking.
 
We just returned from a hunt in Missouri, at a game ranch, earlier this week. I'll do my own thread on the adventure in a day or two, but i wanted to share a couple of photos of our two Hogs. Wife and I each got one. They were in a large group/herd... some were long-nosed razorback looking, while others were more like domestic hogs...but all had pretty much the same movement. They moved quickly thru the semi-open area, but several stopped to munch some bait corn as we approached from a couple hundred yards away. The larger hogs seemed less skitish than the smaller ones, in the 90 degree sunlight. They moved, but not in a panic-run as the little ones did.

First- Here is Janet shooting her hog, at about 50 yards, using my cane as a shooting stick. She has a Ruger 44 mag carbine with 240 gr sjsp rounds. One shot in the ear of the standing Hog did it in. That's our guide coaching her shot. BTW She is wearing her "Easter Bunny Cammo " outfit. It seemed to confuse the hogs enough for them to stop to see what the hell she is!!!

12226.jpg



Here is her hog. Looks like a first generation feral pig to me. It was a neutered male, so the 'escaped domestic pig label seems correct.

12228.jpg

Here are our two when they brought them in to the skinning/butchering shop in the ranch. Hanging weight was over 300 lbs each...with her brown/white one topping 325 lbs. Some great Pork in the freezer now.
12227.jpg
 
Last edited:
Mayor Al - nice hogs. Since you were from "out of town," I suppose there was no choice but to have them butchered and sent back home. For you and the general readers here, do many folks cook a whole pig in the ground anymore? Never had such good meat in my life - we used to pay a cook with good skills to bury that sucker and provided him with six-packs of Bud throughout the day. Mmmm. If I were on the Green Mile, I'd ask for some pit-roasted pig. My cardiologist might disapprove, but already I have outlived some cardiologists around here.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top