Wild hog ID - telling male from female?

Surprisingly, I have found very little information on this question. Can you guys give some dependable pointers on how to quickly tell a sow from a boar? I’m new to the game, and aside from the t*ts and the n*ts (which aren’t always visible), they all look a very similar sort of ugly to me.

Shoot first. Ask questions later.

Watch the German hunting videos. On a number of the driven hunts, there's a penalty for shooting sows, so they make a greater effort to identify boars.

nuts

They are all the same in the Eyes of the bullet. Shoot all and throw the smelly ones away.

You obviously didn't have drivers ed and sex ed in the same car in high school!!

Well, generally, at least around my place, the big boars are usually alone, whereas the sows, kids, and such are in groups. And when I find them in groups, I just shoot a middle sized one for food. The gender doesn’t matter too much.

I’ve told this before, but a while back when the starving college kid grandson came to hunt, I put him where I knew pigs would show up. He said he wanted a medium sized sow. He came back from the blind with a smile and said he got a fat female. I congratulated him and we took the Kubota to collect the pig. When we got there I took a look and congratulated him on killing a female pig with some monstrous testicles. It tasted fine though. Hard to tell the sex at 135 yards in dim light.

Mother Nature keeps the male/female ratio as 105 males born for each 100 females. So, shoot into the sounder and if you kill one there’s about a 50/50 chance it’ll be a male.

Good advice

Sometimes you just can’t tell. You just can’t.

I try to shoot the medium size ones. used to shoot the biggest, but it was usually a boar.

Last time I hunted I killed 6 sows and 2 boars.

Heading out next week and hoping to kill a few - I do like this retirement gig!!

JR

IF mature and alone....chances are it's a Boar.

With respect to identifying by physical features....this can be tricky depending upon distance, lighting and angle of the animal observed.

But generally speaking, look first for the presence of testicles (large even on juveniles) and along the belly line for a 'penile sheath'.

If neither of these areas are visible you can sometimes make out the 'lip curl' (upper) on boars which if mature....will have more distinct Cutters and Whetters.

On hogs not yet mature some (or none) of the above might prove any help. And even on mature animals....physical size and shape isn't always a good indicator.

I have killed Sows approaching 300 lbs in weight (weighed on a scale) that had a build not much different than boars.

IF time and circumstance permit....use a good set of binoculars to get a good look at the animal if the sex of it is important to you. Personally, I kill them all....as many as possible, as often as possible. They are a scourge.

Sow lacking male 'parts':


Look for lip curl:


Sometimes cutters and whetters of boar are obvious:


Don't let body size or shape fool you, this is a big sow:

Sometimes on the boars there is a hump of hair on top of the hindquarters.

Steve from GA didn't say what he was hunting hogs with in terms of optics. The traits discussed so far are spot on, but certainly not readily apparent all the time on thermal, depending on image resolution and distance to the target. At 75-200 yards, things like whetters and cutters may not be visible on thermal.

I like to look for teats vs. penis (lump) under the hog. I like to look for a large, rounded belly that would indicate a pregnant sow. Only occasionally do I notice testicles. All of these are not always readily apparent on thermal at distance.

Teats tend to show up best when on a well nursed sow (versus a virgin female where they are not distended). Infected teats are often quite large and can show up well. Penises may or may not show up depending on the weather or with younger males. Of course, high grass will hide everything on the bottom side of the hog.

As for pregnancy and the large, rounded belly, that works a lot of the time, but I have confused a couple of beer bellied boars for sows.

I have tried to look for musculature on big boars and that shows up well enough. The problem comes in when you get boars that don't have the massive shoulders and some of those can still be well over 200 lbs and not be hugely distinct in thermal profile from a sow.

Somebody once told me that the angles and shape of the rump can be used to distinguish boars from sows. It may work sometimes, but I tend to not get that right about half the time (which leads me to think it isn't a diagnostic trait, or I just don't understand).

Steve from GA, I'm curious to know why you are asking. Creekrunner has the best solution. Trust me, you're not gonna run out of pigs.

Mature boars tend to be solitary in the hill country where I hunt, but you WILL see them come into a feeder that has a sounder feeding, and if there are sows in heat in a sounder all bets are off and mature boars may be with them. If you have time to observe them you'll see boars be dominant and aggressive towards everything else (including ungulates that may be at the same feeders or in the same vicinity).

To be honest, if you're thinking of taking a quick look and making a decision before you shoot, unless the sow has visible teats hanging down or a swarm of shoats around her, sometimes it's hard to tell. In that case, just shoot the big one! Feral hogs in TX vary significantly from region to region, in some areas you can see the strong genetic influence from Euroasian boar strains and in others, they look almost like domestic hogs. Sometimes boars are super evident (tall sloping foreheads, visible cutters, crests of stiff hairs running down the back a.k.a. "razorbacks"), other times it's tough to tell the difference.

I just pick the big fat ones and "choot'em"!

I shot a 'sow' leading 8 piglets around. The 'sow' turned out to be an immature boar. I don't know why the piglets were following it around an not the actual mother (who must have been one of the other hogs in the group), but I did the quick assessment (piglets = Sow) and shot it and did not get the sow I wanted, LOL. Most of the time the trait works fine, but this one time, they fooled me with it.

I've seen mature, large sows meandering in a pasture alone. I've seen (small) groups of younger boars hanging around together.
The guidelines mentioned in the above posts are merely guidelines, which will sometimes fail.
Still, if the goal is to shoot more sows (and I think that's a worthy goal) then "You pays your money and you takes your chances". Most of the time you'll be right.

Keep After 'Em!

the first paragraph is spot on, a boar in the sounder will be noticeable, don't mean to hy jack your thread

Ostensibly, these are pregnant sows that will separate from the sounder just prior to farrowing, build a nest, farrow, and a few days later, rejoin the sounder.



Bachelor sounder, likely siblings recently booted from their mother's sounder because they got to be too large.

Exactly right on both accounts.

My daughter's first hog was a lone sow, which statistically would be very unlikely to happen, LOL. The sow had shown up the previous night on game camera, alone. At the time of her death, she was with milk. Because we did not recover her until the next day, we did not necropsy her, but either she was pregnant (she looked pregnant) or had recently farrowed.

Daughter's video...

https://youtu.be/bmO-lGNYhn8

I try to shoot the biggest sow. That way the coyotes have a better shot at the small ones. I don't eat them.

Well lets see now...........

Sow with Hemorrhoids?

1st. ta your daughter...
2nd while don't watch all your video's ya don't just talk about it (chooten hogs) proof tis in D pudding...
Ya got some cool video's.... the necropsy, don't impress me, just my ...

On me WMA hog hunts... have come across lots of sow's by them selves... Their pregnant or just farrowed....
surprized the 👮‍♂️ police grammar didnt catch that, they gots me sounded like them nows...

Majority of the hogs i've taken were sows... boars tend ta run in batchelor groups like buck's, & some by themselves...
Sow's mostly run in sounders...

As majority say on here, chootem....

For those who wanna help with the hog problem, Public Hunting, WMA's can be some of the Best Hot Spots...
Tis Not an executive hunt...

Best wish's...

Who cares just gut shoot them.

Shooting any is better than shooting none, no doubt, but shooting females takes out the baby factories.

Rule #1 in differentiating between boars and sows.

Shoot all of them and then pick out a sow.

The best ^ ^ ^ ^ all around answer.
There's not a feral hog up and walking
that doesn't need a bullet.

Shoot all the ones you see.
If there's not any laying that
you can use, shoot some more

Hemorrhoids would be a little higher.

Hernia?

Yep, boars are solitary plus they have equipment that sows don't. If a sows comes in with piglets shoot the sows first.

I shot a sow a few weeks ago with my bow. I thought it was a boar because it was alone, and had hair standing big chest like a young boar. Well it was a sow.
So from my self learned hunting lesson, sows can run alone. When bow hunting and time is short, some times the only thing you can do is the wiener test by examining the mid belly area after you shoot it

and kudos to colt.45 for some great advice above ......... For those who wanna help with the hog problem, Public Hunting, WMA's can be some of the Best Hot Spots...
Tis Not an executive hunt...