So who has true trophy hogs that can reliably be hunted during daylight?

I was out at the Page unit last week on the trinity river NWR and I saw 1 true trophy boar run in front of me and I couldnt get the shot off in time. This pig was like a horse. I also saw a sounder of hogs that probably averaged over 200 pounds a piece. Some big fat sows for sure. All sighted during daylight hours. That place has some very big and undisturbed pigs.

I’d love to see one

Your question is no different than if you were asking about Whitetail. What do you consider trophy size? Unless you're going to hunt a high fence, it's still called "hunting" so it's not reliable and you should hope for a trophy size and be happy with any pork you put on the ground. Expectation of daylight shooting is also tough.

Good luck!

Charlie

Even hunting on a high-fenced ranch isn't going to be that easy for hogs, especially if they're pressured.

I don't normally see hogs out in daylight in either one of those properties I hunt (Junction, TX & Round Mountain, TX) except maybe right at last light or early in the AM on a very cold morning. In either one of those properties, I would call a 200+ lb. boar with visible cutters a "trophy hog", we don't normally see hogs much bigger than that in those areas, although there's probably monsters out there....

250 lbs and over is often what folks consider to be a 'trophy' boar. Out in the wild, you won't find them any place reliably and certainly not during the day. In a given area with hunting, the largest hogs tend to be the ones targeted the most. If if an area is being hunted on a frequent regular basis, the hogs will tend to be smaller. Your only chance is on a stocked high fence hunting preserve and even then it would need to be one of the small enclosure "hunts" where basically the animal is put into an oversized pen of an acre or two and then you just walk around until you find it.

As others have said big boar are very tough to hunt. In the 15 years we’ve been on the ranch, we have only shot 5 boar over 200lbs and probably have only seen twice that on camera that we never caught up to. Of those 5, the two biggest (~280lbs, 305lbs) had never been seen on camera and were both shot bedded down in the middle of the day in the spring, while we were looking for sheds. Most of our trophy boar are shot when they are 100lbs.

I think the easiest way to shoot pigs in the daylight is to hunt there bedding areas. Where we are, that means walking down each finger valley that leads into the main bottom on our place. If lucky, you can bust up a lot of hogs, if really lucky, one might be big

Want a trophy boar, hunt with a Airgun.I killed a 200 pounder with a .257 Airforce Condor at 128 yards. That’s a trophy.

Public land can actually be a good option in the 'off-seasons' (late spring/summer). You'd probably have to use a shotgun or a bow, depending on where you're at though. But hey, it's free and it's actually hunting!

We hunted youth weekend in OK

I have a lot of pigs but we saw one monster sow 3 different times

She’s a loner but will go north of 300 I’ll guarantee

Hoping she stays around for the pig contest in Feb so she was off limits

I’ll put her at 325 ish easy, to me anything over 300 is a trophy pig

We try to kill em all before they get to "trophy" size.

Exactly.

Besides, anybody can shoot a great big giant trophy hog. They require the least shooting skill. They are so big, they are that much easier to hit. The real skill comes in shooting the piglets and small shoats at the same sort of distance.

The big ones are pretty smart

Lol

Get ‘em liquored up and they’re putty in your hands… both hands.

Charlie

That is exactly how I feel about it. Plus, with shoats & piglets I've hunted a few groups like coveys of quail. After shooting the milk sow they don't venture too far and a lot of the times will circle back. I feel better about removing them before they have a chance to breed.

Agree with Sauerkraut, beats the heck outa small enclosure hunts...

Only i prefured the late winter hunts, Jan-end March like the OSBWMA has & several others...
Would hunt for bedding areas, from sun up ta sun down.. Taking notes of findings..
Warmer the temps, faster ya need get meat on ice...
Old school hunting...

Hunting - has become a Richmans sport...

They don't get big running around in the daytime. The smart ones learn to go nocturnal at an early age. Just my opinion and I've killed a few hogs.

I wish more people would go hunt them on public. I swear I run into them every time I go turkey hunting. Gets the blood pumping.

Day time, tis warmer weather... Jogs dont have sweat glans...
Reason they roll in the mud, keeps em cool, & the tics, fleas, chiggers & such off...
Temps cool down as sun goes down, tis tjinken reason mostly run @ night...
With all the high-tech, thermals NV, i used cellular lights @ feeders deer foodplots.
with a green lazer under barrel & mil dot scope over... worked great...
Just gotta keep after em...
& seen plenty 200+ lb hogs on WMA's

And you take them along with the turkeys?

I get the bigger the better in the trophy hunting, hang the head on the wall crowd, but in my years of trapping, the big 250+ boars are some of the most docile beast we've caught, though not all of them. You want a real challenge, corner about a 130-160 pound boar and try to take him with a pistol. That size is so full of piss and vinegar, and trying to prove how big and bad they are, that they put up a hell of a fight trying to get out of a trap. The big 250+ ones? Easy money.

The time of year and temperature regulate the browsing times for big hogs in NTX. Sows with large sounders seem to feed earlier in the day in both the fall and the spring up near the Red River.!
Large boars seem to like the early morning or evening feeding and are normally not in sounders.
Almost all of my hog shots are daytime hunts. Cellular game cameras signal their activity when I am on my property...I walk and stalk all of my kills.


Both the above were shot using a Weatherby 12GA semiauto...shooting 3" 00 buckshot...with a 1" extender IM choke...I can get kills at up to 60 yards with this setup. I just love the follow up shot capacity of a shotgun!!
Now I am not sure what qualifies as a trophy hog...but if size matters ...I have taken several each year at 250-300 pounds...?
The boar was over 300lbs. Note he is laying a 6 foot JD bucket...is this a Trophy??