Monster Hogs: Photos of Texas-sized porkers and their giant tusks

The brush popped as the sound of footprints sounded in the forest.

As I flipped on my Generation 3 night vision goggles, a low grunt sounded from the direction of the footprints. Just down the narrow fire lane was a large black hog headed my way. As it got closer, it was obvious the blog was a hog and it was not just any hog. It was a genuine monster. A month earlier while driving by a high line right of way ½ mile away I saw a bunch of small hogs at a feeder. I stopped and pulled out my binoculars to get a better look.

A half dozen or so 50-60 pound hogs began running in circles and then fled the scene.Out of the brush came what looked like a Buick. A wide, tall and long, black, furry Buick.

It was the biggest hog I had ever seen.

Years earlier my father and I saw a giant spotted hog crossing a dry creek bed in Burnet County. This one was bigger. Now what I was pretty sure was the same hog was walking my direction. I was positioned 40 feet up a tree in a climbing treestand so I was not too worried about getting busted but the hog knew something was up. It came to the bait pile below for a few seconds and then turned before presenting an opportunity.

How big was this hog?

Without exaggeration it was in the 500 pound class. And I do not take that estimation lightly. Frequently people post hog photos on social media claiming their kills were 400-500 pounds when in reality those are usually 250-350 pounds.

And those are nothing to sneeze at.

The biggest hog I have ever killed was 325 pounds and was taken 13 years ago near Mason. A 300 pound hog is a huge animal.

In fact, the average adult black bear in the United States is around 300 pounds. For comparison the average grizzly which we think of as hulking monsters is in the 600-pound class. The hog I was looking at was 200 pounds larger than an average black bear and 100 pounds or less smaller than a typical grizzly.

In all of the talk about hogs, this is something that never gets addressed. In Texas and everywhere else feral hogs roam there are individuals that are larger than bears roaming the woods. Feral hogs have become synonymous with destruction of habitat and their burgeoning numbers. Some however have a burgeoning size issue.

Here are some photos sent in by readers of genuine giant hogs. Do you have any big hog photos you would like to share? If so email them to cmoore@fishgame.com. We will run the best of these in a future post.