A North Carolina hunter killed a 500-pound wild boar last month, a gigantic beast that had eluded hunters for years.
Jett Webb, a 34-year-old hunter from Coetoe, was hunting at the White Oak Ranch Hunting Club in Bertie County in late February when the 500-pound wild pig came into sight. Though Webb had been hunting his entire life, and even bagged other giant wild boars, he said this one didn’t even seem real.
“It was very surreal,” Webb told WNCT-TV. “It was a shock. It was very humbling to say the least, when you walk up on a beast that big and you say, ‘Oh my gosh. I had no idea that there could be something that big running around the woods of Eastern North Carolina.’ ”
Hunters in the area were familiar with the boar. It had been spotted on a camera set up on a trail years before, leading to a growing legend about the wild boar.
Webb said he was able to take it down with a single shot from his.308-caliber AR-15 rifle. He once shot another giant wild boar, one that is now mounted on the wall of the hunting club, but he said this one is destined for his family’s dinner table.
“We’re not going to waste anything,” Webb said. “That pig will provide food for me and my family for a good year.”
The wild boar is native to Europe and parts of Asia, and is considered an invasive species in the United States. Often despised by farmers, the population of 4 million feral pigs caused an estimated $800 million of property damage in the United States each year.
While the 500-pound wild boar killed in North Carolina may be gigantic, it’s not the largest one ever bagged by a hunter. In 2005, a Georgia hunter killed an 800-pound wild boar known as “Hogzilla.” The animal measured close to 8 feet long.
