This weekend I went out looking to shoot a small 50-60 lb. hog. I wanted one small enough to fit whole in my grill. Yesterday morning I didn't see any hog and yesterday evening I saw two but both looked to be too large. This morning I see a sounder of 8 hogs and two looked to be the size I was looking for. After couple minutes I get a shot at one so I take it. When I get down and retrive it I see that it's only about 25 lb.
In past I've shot a hog thinking it was about 125 lb. and it turned out to be 195 lb. My first hogs was estimated to be about 120 lb. and it turned out to be 165 lb. Another was 90 lb when I thought it was going to be about 140 lb. I never seem to be able to guage the size from distance.
Hogs are hard to guess weight, and most people usually over estimate the weight by a lot (I used to do it badly). I didn't really learn how to do it till I started weighing just about every hog. Now I see hog pics on FB and various sites that they claim are 350 or whatever,,,and I guarantee you they wouldn't break 200#
And also a game cam makes them look a lot bigger. I had a herd back in summer and had a sow picked out. When they came in at daylight, I realized looking at my hog in person it wasn't more than 40#. I thought it was around 100 or so based on the pictures
Well, I continue to suck at guess their weight.
Last weekend I want to get one of about 100 lb. On Sunday morning I shoot one that I estimated to be about 110 lb. Back at the camp it went 66 lb. on the scale. This weekend I went to get one of any size as I need the meat. On Saturday morning I see a sounder of about 7 hogs so I pick one that looks to be about 125 lb. Back at the camp it went 171 lb. on the scale.
It's not like they were so far away when I shot them because I usually shoot them from about 100 yards. I usually track them through my binocular for a while until I can determine they will enter my shooting range and then I track them with the scope until I get a shot. Sometimes I track them for several minutes before picking one out.
