Monday was a great night to be out with both very good weather and thermal conditions. The only problem was that there were so few animals out and about on the properties I hunt. The first boar was a simple straight stalk and shoot. The second hog was a long, blind stalk where I had to cross a valley to get to where I could shoot the boar and lost sight of him for the majority of the stalk and it was gone by the time I got to where I should have been able to see and shoot it. When I turned around to scan my way back, I saw a hog back close to where I had started, up on the side of a hill...so back the other way I went. I was about 3/4 of the way back when I lost sight of this hog due to high grasses and he appeared only about 30 yards out, crossing in front of me. I think he knew I was there and didn't know what I was. It was dark and the very light wind was in my favor, but it was difficult to be real quiet in the crunchy grass and calm conditions. He seemed to circle around me and stop to assess what I was and I popped him...

Great night
That second one was perfect shot
Not easy to get to but great video in the end

Whacked ‘em both, nicely done

Good work; good video; interesting narrative to accompany the show! As usual, well done all around. Do you weigh each of your recovered hogs or do you estimate their weight based on their girth?

I use heart girth. It is plenty accurate given all the times I have checked it and while not perfect, for purposes of providing a reasonable assessment of weight, it works much better than eyeball estimation and lifting estimation. "How much did it weigh?" is one of the most frequently asked questions I get along with shot distance, caliber, and ammo. So I try to always have a tape with me. I generally round off to the nearest 5 lb increment, up or down. Hoisting a hog up somewhere and using an actual scale just takes way too much time for the information provided which is nothing more than a footnote to the hunt. Now, if I ever start getting paid by the pound for hunting hogs, you can bet I will be hoisting every one of them, LOL.

Similarly, I use GPS for distance estimation. I usually round to the nearest 5 yard increment as well.

There are two heart girth methods being used and they give significantly different results.

Thanks; you always include a weight with the videos of your hunts, and I was curious about how you weighed/estimated them.

Tell us more, tell us more!

Well, there is one method that uses heart girth and some basic math to get the weight.
There is a 2nd method that uses heart girth and a length measurement from the ears to the base of the tail and combines some basic math to both measurements to get the weight. When I have used this method, it produced a significantly different weight estimate than what the scale said. I have tried it twice.


They do provide different results. I use the former. I have checked my results against scales more than 3 dozen times and it falls within the predicted range quite nicely. Others, such as Texas Lawman have checked it out even more thoroughly and found it to be valid.

Here is a link to the first method...
http://www.thepigsite.com/articles/1106/use-heart-girth-to-estimate-the-weight-of-finishing-pigs/

We use a slight shortcut that results in whole numbers and less math and puts the estimate usually within 1-2 pounds of the longer method used above. We calculate heart girth * 10 - 200 = Weight in pounds versus theirs of hearth girth * 10.1709 - 205.7492 = weight in pounds.

Here is the link to the 2nd method...
http://www.thepigsite.com/articles/541/weighing-a-pig-without-a-scale/

Yes, very well explained DNS. My results have been the same, but I see the other method being used all the time. It's hard to get folks to change once they have something in their head.

Yeah, that would be me. I hate change as much as anybody.

Actually, I use the method DNS described. Even if it's not perfect, it's fairly consistent. If I'm talking to my buddies, who use the same method, we're all speaking the same language even if mine's bigger …