Shooting the first feral hog that steps clear from a group or “sounder” and offers a good shot would be fine for a hunter interested mostly in the meat, but for a hunter looking for a trophy boar and a full head mount or skull mount, it requires steady nerves to find the one with the longest tusks.
A dozen or so hogs milling around a feeder or bait pile makes it difficult to keep track of individual animals. A good set of binoculars can be an asset for judging the length of the tusks, since hogs remain at a food source for a considerable length of time.
For a hunter who judges his hogs by size, it is a different matter. A black pig, even a piglet, moving alone through the landscape can appear much larger than it really is, especially at night. A hunter who wants to harvest a heavy boar should look at photographs and videos or seek the advice of a veteran hog hunter. A puffy head with a fat forehead bump in front of the ears, a snout that appears relatively short compared to the head, a fat neck and a potbelly are indications that a hog is a heavy trophy.
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