Going wild for hogs: As the wild boar population increases, hunting for them is gaining in popularity

Landon Wood, a firefighter from Sulphur, killed a 558-pound wild boar last month while hunting at the Pennington Creek Hunting Club, an 8,500 acre ranch near Mill Creek in Johnston County.

A .308 rifle cartridge fired from 80 yards away only penetrated the pig about halfway. The wild hog measured almost 17 inches from shoulder to shoulder and had 2 1/2 inch cutters.

The pig measured 6 feet, 3 inches from the tip of his nose to the top of his foot.

Wood has submitted the hog for a listing on Weiser, Weight and Tusk — the equivalent of Boone & Crockett for trophy wild boars.

Weiser, Weight and Tusk has been keeping records on trophy hogs since 2005.

Wood’s swine would be the largest free-ranging pig ever killed in Oklahoma and the 15{+t}{+h} heaviest in the country, according to the Weiser, Weight and Tusk record book.

Although I’m sure other hog hunters in Oklahoma would dispute that claim.

Two years ago, I wrote a column ago about a feral hog that was killed by a hunter near Durant that reportedly weighed more than 600 pounds. That porker, however, was not weighed on scales like Wood’s pig.

Such giant hogs are "pretty rare, but we’ve seen exceptionally large hogs,” said Jack Carson, spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Food, Forestry and Agriculture, the agency mandated to deal with feral hogs in the state.

"In fact, I saw some while turkey hunting on the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant, that from my experience with seeing hogs, that looked every bit of 500 to 600 pounds,” Carson said.

Wild hogs in Oklahoma average about 300 pounds. State agriculture officials have received reports about feral hogs from all 77 counties in the state, Carson said.

Classified as a non-game animal, feral hogs can be hunted year-round in Oklahoma. The population is growing and the damage they cause continues to rise, Carson said.

"Some sportsmen enjoy hunting them and that’s their value,” Carson said. "But for agriculture and landowners, they are a terrible nuisance.

"They are a huge economic problem due to the crops they destroy, along with fences and corrals. They cause a lot of soil erosion the way the root around and tear up the soil. They are a disease threat.”

A state law was passed this year allows commercial deer hunting ranches to hire sharpshooters to shoot feral hogs from helicopters.

Carson said the wildlife services division for the state agriculture department also has shot pigs from the sky to reduce the feral hog population in southern Oklahoma.

But they have used aerial gunning primarily to control coyote populations in western Oklahoma, he said.