I’ve seen some enormous feral hogs over the years, but a boar recently taken in Southeast Texas is on another level.
Hunter Ken Swenson killed a massive black-and-white boar that tipped the scales at 725.8 pounds.
And this isn’t an estimated weight.
There’s a photo of the hog on the scale showing the 725.8-pound reading, and I was able to see the documentation firsthand. Swenson also provided video and information about this remarkable animal.
The boar had recently appeared on game camera but wasn’t an animal Swenson had been seeing around the area for years. Then suddenly, there it was—an absolutely gigantic free-ranging hog.
Feral hogs can reach impressive sizes, although an animal exceeding 700 pounds is far outside what most hunters will ever encounter.
The coloration is interesting as well. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension notes that feral hog coloration is highly variable. They can be black, brown, red, white, spotted or belted, with some displaying a white band across the shoulders and forelimbs.
I’ve taken a couple of feral hogs over the years with a similar black-and-white pattern, but they were nowhere remotely close to the size of Swenson’s boar.
Color alone also doesn’t tell us the ancestry of an individual hog. Texas A&M AgriLife has cautioned against trying to identify whether a hog is descended from a particular domestic breed, Eurasian wild boar or hybrids simply from its coloration and markings.
Whatever genetic combination produced this animal, it produced a giant.
There have been plenty of enormous feral hog claims circulating on the Internet over the years. Some involved estimated weights, questionable measurements or animals without much documentation.
That’s what makes this one stand out to me.
725.8 pounds was on the scale.
I’ve covered feral hogs for many years and have seen plenty of big ones, but this is the largest free-ranging feral hog I have personally seen documented on a scale.
And it came from right here in Texas.
Chester Moore