Hogs in our area

[Cajun]

I thought I would show y’all what a lot of the hogs in our area look like with hair on them. Lol. La. Had a importation of Russian hogs in the 70’s and we have kind of protected them. They are not pure but some of them I would say are close to 75%. The first two pics are the same hog with him being shedded out. He was caught as a pig and I raised him. The next pic is a 175# boar we had just caught and put him in a pen. He was pissed  next is a pic. Of sows we caught young and raised them. A couple of different boars I had mounted. .   


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[HIGHWATER KENNELS]

Mr Mike.    Do u find that the Russians bay quicker than blooded hogs down there.  For some reason I find the blooded hogs up here by me in the north part of the state have been getting worse and worse about running.  I hunted Jan and feb in Russian country by the Mississippi River and the Russians would get bayed quick.   Now territory is more open down there then the cut overs but even in open country up here they don’t bay quick     I sure miss the rallying days but it seems far and few between now.   Even loose dogs can’t even get em to stand without running the wind out of em. 


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[Cajun]

  I really think it depends on how hard they are hunted. I think there are several variables involved.  35 years or so ago, I could count on one hand the number of hoghunters in two states by me. La. and Ms.  We had open woods and the hogs(mostly feral) bayed up pretty quick. When the russians were brought in, they seemed to run a lot more. In the last 20 years or so, hoghunters have exploded. Hogs both feral and Russians get a lot more pressure put on them. Add cutovers to the mix and they are a lot harder to run down. Pigs learn early about running and if they are not caught when young, they continue to run. I also think it is about the dogs. Some dogs put to much pressure at a bay and the hogs break and run. Two schools of thought here, you have to be tough enough to catch and hold him or just back up and bay. If I was serious about catching hogs I would only put one dog out and send two bulldogs. jmo  Since I am not that serious about it we will usually put a few dogs out at a time. That usually leads to a broken bay and a race. None of this is written in stone and every place is different. Then you just have some dogs that have the touch. These kind of dogs just seem to get bayed no matter what.
  I will say that hogs in the marsh are the easiest hogs we have. They tend to bay pretty quick. If you get one that wants to run aways it will almost always be a good boar.

[HIGHWATER KENNELS]

Makes perfect sense to me.  That’s what I see about the whole deal also.  Like u said. Every variable changes things though. 


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[Reuben]

  I really think it depends on how hard they are hunted. I think there are several variables involved.  35 years or so ago, I could count on one hand the number of hoghunters in two states by me. La. and Ms.  We had open woods and the hogs(mostly feral) bayed up pretty quick. When the russians were brought in, they seemed to run a lot more. In the last 20 years or so, hoghunters have exploded. Hogs both feral and Russians get a lot more pressure put on them. Add cutovers to the mix and they are a lot harder to run down. Pigs learn early about running and if they are not caught when young, they continue to run. I also think it is about the dogs. Some dogs put to much pressure at a bay and the hogs break and run. Two schools of thought here, you have to be tough enough to catch and hold him or just back up and bay. If I was serious about catching hogs I would only put one dog out and send two bulldogs. jmo  Since I am not that serious about it we will usually put a few dogs out at a time. That usually leads to a broken bay and a race. None of this is written in stone and every place is different. Then you just have some dogs that have the touch. These kind of dogs just seem to get bayed no matter what.
  I will say that hogs in the marsh are the easiest hogs we have. They tend to bay pretty quick. If you get one that wants to run aways it will almost always be a good boar.

I agree with all you said...the only thing I will add is the evolution aspect of hog dogging...the hogs that wanted to stop and fight got caught and this eliminated them from breeding...survival of the fittest...as the dogs got better the fittest hogs survive to breed another day...it doesn’t take many generations for the cream to rise to the top...

[make-em-squeel]

those russians are cool looking, we catch one every once in a while around celina and in terrell tx. there back legs / hams are smaller with that big razor and different shaped ears and head carriage

[The Old Man]

Seems to me that the more pure they are the shorter their head, ears, coupling, longer straighter their tail is and higher they are in front than back, compared to a typical feral or rooter hog. I like the Russian blood but don't find any that look to be as high percentage as some of those pictured. 

[Cajun]

What makes their nose look shorter is the heavy scruff of hair they have under their jaw.  When they shed out, I promise you, they look like a anteater. I see a lot of russian colored hogs. But the main characteristics are the heavy wool coat underneath the long hair. It actually looks like sheep wool. Then the straight tail that goes upward when alarmed and also stripped pigs altho that is the easist trait to get. You can breed any domesticated hog to a mixed russian and get stripped pigs. When you get all three, you are getting close. Mikel Tham from Sweden said he could not tell any main differences between their hogs and ours. Not ll of our areas are like that but we still have a couple of pockets that have pretty good blood. A pure Russian has 36 chromozomes, a hybrid has 37 and a domesticated hog has 38. I might have that backwards but you know what I am talking about. Cant believe you never grabbed a hand full of sawgrass. It will slice and dice you.

[The Old Man]

Normally hybrids with uneven numbers of chromosomes are infertile, but seemingly not so in hogs.

[Mike]

Cajun... do you think these two have more of the Russian influence in them? Long snout, large humpback front ends, small ears and small hind ends. These both were caught in the heat of summer, so their hair was thinned out... they just looked and were built different than most of the hogs I catch in that area.

[Cajun]

Mike, It is so hard to tell by pics. He does have the humpback but one give away that he is mostly feral is he has a dished snout. Most pure russians and hybrids have a straight flat skull. I am not a expert by any means. One thing of note, our russian hogs came from Tx. off the Powderhorn Ranch.

[Mike]

Yeah, I can see the difference in the skull shapes on yours. That one in the bottom pic ran us over 10 miles that morning... just about ran himself to death in that heat.

[Cajun]

Mike, did you get a weight on those hogs? Look pretty big.

[Mike]

I think the bottom one was 307 gutted... Kai got it mounted.

The one on top was a bigger hog, didn’t get a weight on him.

[Shotgun66]

We have a population of what I think are Russian hybrids in a particular area that I hunt. They all look almost identical in color and build. I assume due to inbreeding. They don’t seem to get very big. Probably due to limited food sources I assume. There is not a lot of crop land close to these hogs. I call them woods hogs.  I have seen a few hogs that look very similar to the short, cat backed, hairy sow with a straight tail in Cajun’s third pic from the top.



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[Cajun]

  Shotgun, If you have many in that area that look like the hog you have in the picture I would say they have a fair amount of russian in them. Our hogs in the marsh do not get as big as the ones on higher ground and I am sure it is the food supply. They dont have much of a mast crop out there and no access to agriculture.  A really big boar out in the marsh would be about 250 or so where on higher ground can reach 300 or bigger.  One thing I have kind of been amazed at is the amount of deer and hogs in the marsh which tells me they do not have to have a mast crop to survive. Plenty of coyotes out there too.