Feral Hogs as Food

[telomerase]

What about brucellosis? Is it reliably destroyed by cooking?

 

[Crunker1337]

So headshot or low neck shot to break the spine is the way to go huh...
Since you used a Stag 15, LSU Fan, I'm gonna assume that .223 is enough to put 'em down... good.

 

[Nathanael_Greene]

...one never should shoot a Hog behind the front leg.

Most of the hogs I've shot have been right behind the shoulder, and they've died PDQ.

A head shot is preferable, but hogs tend to sweep their heads around a lot while looking for food, so a broadside shot is more common, at least based on my experience.

Question: Planning on hunting hogs if I get a chance later this weekend on a spot of land that I know they frequent. Ive never done this except when hunting deer. Will a 12 gauge witha slug work and how does one go about cleaning them? Similar to a deer?

Yes, the first feral hog I ever saw killed was done in with a slug. And yes, they clean pretty much like deer. Just be warned--they smell pretty bad on the inside and they can be covered with ticks. I've seen one cleaned without gutting it by slicing the hide along the spine and peeling it back, then removing the quarters & backstraps. If you want to reach up inside and retrieve the tenderloins, go right ahead.

If you give free hunts, some people take it to mean anyone and everyone can hunt.

That would be my concern if I were a landowner. THR had a long discussion on this topic about a year ago; reading it may save us all some time and repetition: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=307619

 

[caseypj]

I've seen them a few times in Florida, many of the orange groves have problems with hogs.

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

Well, on the nuisance aspects of this species:

"They've overrun....Oklahoma" - no not really, they're not yet spread to where I hunt most often (and which is ideal habitat for them), much to my chagrin. I'm anxiously waiting for them to spread there, since they're within 20 miles and supposed to spread rapidly....been waiting 4 years - hope it ain't much longer. If they ain't there by 2010, I'm releasing some. J/K guys; that is not legal.

"They tear up crops, destroy everything, invasive blah vermin blah blah" - This is pretty simple: If I was a farmer, I'd care; I'm not a farmer, so I don't care. Lessee, right now only large game to hunt is deer with a shortish season and very short gun season....if the hogs would just get there (dangit), I could hunt large game 365 days a year instead of just a couple/few months....where's the downside to that?! It's all in your perspective.

Oh, they taste darn good to me. I think it's pretty obvious that they are NOT vermin. "Vermin", by definition, offer no redeeming value. Piggies are yummy tasty backstraps and hams; hence not "vermin".

 

[Art Eatman]

PremiumSauces, if you eat food, you oughta be concerned about a farmer's productivity. And, from at least a smidgen of giving a hoot about "one's fellow man", his profitability.

 

[cliffy]

I give a hoot

Feral Hogs become a plague wherever they establish regarding Farmers and Ranchers and Deer Hunters and Native Wildlife. Eating fawns as they fall from their mother's wombs, is a vicious, predatory event that Feral Hogs thrive upon, in addition to eating almost anything a deer would eat. Rooting up to two feet deep in Farmers' fields removes a great deal of farming profits. Wallowing fouls the waters of streams and creeks, yet this a favored hobby of Hogs. That Wild Pigs supplant Whitetails is a recognized fact, especially in Texas where Hogs (Pigs) dominate vast areas. Various Hogs interbreed readily with Domestic escapees. The pure Russian Variety brought to this continent for exclusive Hunting Ranches have long gone Feral due to interbreeding with domestics. A purebred swine is nearly non-existent in the wild. Nearly four million wild swine in Texas alone, shows that pigs are capable of survival and massive reproduction. Feral Hogs have proven they cannot be wiped-out once established. Cliffy

 

[azhunter122]

I wish we had some in my area, but that's fine I'd rather have deer. We have Javelina here but they are nasty!

 

[skinewmexico]

I can't believe someone would want hogs to move into their area. I guess when your deer and quail go to crap, it will be different.

 

[Art Eatman]

Pork is cooked to "well done" to ensure against trychinosis, not brucellosis.

Shame feral hogs don't eat "far aints". (A little suthern tawk, thair.)

 

[Marlin 45 carbine]

I shot a dry sow that weighed 180 field dressed with a ROA BP revolver, missed a little too far back to get the heart/lung junction but drilled through both lungs. that dern thing ran over 1/4 mile away. there was light snow laying so tracking wasn't too bad. it was still blowing blood when I found it piled up in thicket and gave it a slug in base of skull to finish it.
plenty tasty though and worth the effort. there was a cabbage and pumpkin field and apple orchard nearby it had been feeding from. several other fellers got a hog there too. the farmer let me hunt first I did repair work on his equipment.

 

[achildofthesky]

dakotasin has a great point. People/farmers whine about an invasive and destructive species yet don't want FREE help eradicating the problem. I feel for them, but just a little. Kinda like having a broke down in a car and having someone kindly offer to fix it free and the owner sez you need to pay me for the privilege of fixing my problem. OOp's there goes my sympathy for the landowners....

Be safe

Patty

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

dakotasin has a great point. People/farmers whine about an invasive and destructive species yet don't want FREE help eradicating the problem. I feel for them, but just a little. Kinda like having a broke down in a car and having someone kindly offer to fix it free and the owner sez you need to pay me for the privilege of fixing my problem. OOp's there goes my sympathy for the landowners....

Exactly, +1. Obviously, it ain't *that* big of a problem for farmers & other landowners, and costing them too terribly much, or hunting them would be cheap. As it stands now, it costs an arm and a leg. I can understand charging a *small* fee to weed out the riff-raff and cover your very slight liability exposure, but hogs is big business, so if these "poor ol farmers" don't like having their fields dug two feet deep, then they'd let in more hunters for free or cheap (for hogs only, anyway). I have NO sympathy for them. As for caring about food production, bah, Thomas Malthus was pretty sure doomsday was coming, too. Food prices won't change due to hogs. Just make rich landowners a little less rich. Reminds me of the South Park episode when the boys were chastised for downloading free music on the internet, by showing them that Britney Spears had to downgrade from a Learjet 4 to a Learjet 3 with no remote control for the surround sound, due to the money she lost from people downloading her music on the internet - this was supposed to guilt them into stop downloading.

Feral Hogs become a plague wherever they establish regarding Farmers and Ranchers

Plague regarding farmers and ranchers? See above - boo hoo.

and Deer Hunters and Native Wildlife.

Well, I not so sure that it's a plague to deer and other native wildlife. If they are, then that's a very valid concern I'd be interested in learning more about. Are there any scientific studies that prove that any species (deer or otherwise) are adversely impacted in a material way by hogs? I'd like to see it. Seems to me, anecdotally, that in the hog areas around here, deer thrive just as well as in the non-hog areas.

Eating fawns as they fall from their mother's wombs, is a vicious, predatory event that Feral Hogs thrive upon,

Well, maybe this is something - I'd like to know how common this is - seems like the deer could run in 30 seconds way farther than the slower hogs could catch up and find her when she is about to give birth - any scientific studies or proof that show that this happens and how often in reality?

in addition to eating almost anything a deer would eat.

Where I hunt, that is in NO WAY a problem. Every year, there are literally tons and tons of uneaten acorn mast left on the forest floor to rot, for starters. Plenty of food for all.

Rooting up to two feet deep in Farmers' fields removes a great deal of farming profits.

Well, that's why they get subsidies from Washington. See above / boo hoo. Maybe they should sell some of that land to others who want to move to the sticks, so they'd be mere millionaires instead of multi-millionaires, from all they land they inherited. Maybe some of them might even have to (gasp!) change careers like so many others among us do, which is a natural part of the free-market economy (career changes). And I'm all broke up about Archer Daniels Midland's profits, as far as the big corporate farmers are concerned.

Wallowing fouls the waters of streams and creeks, yet this a favored hobby of Hogs.

That'd be a problem, but I'd like to see scientific studies that show that the waters would then adversely affect other species. Sounds to me like it's only a problem when you let your number run away and don't control them. Sounds to me that because they don't let enough hunters on their land, because they're so greedy, they charge too high of a price to get enough numbers of hunters to effectively control their numbers. I can't imagine a properly-controlled number of hogs materially affecting the water supply, but I'm open to proof to the contrary.

That Wild Pigs supplant Whitetails is a recognized fact,

I'd like to see that "fact" recognized by a scientific study. Maybe they do, so I'd appreciate any links to impartial data showing that.

Nomex ON - Go!

Patty, we have GOT to try to help you figure out where you live. For starters, lets look on your mailbox - tell me, is there a zip code listed?

 

[achildofthesky]

I'm with you premium sauces (interesting handle BTW). As for my loc. I seem to be lost in the fog on such a fine day sometimes (jessie collin young?) but for the present am spending more time in AArghkansas... Looking at a slab of dirt, forest and rocks for a retreat in the coming days and IF that pans out and there were any hogs on the land I will go on a pogrom against them and WELCOME responsible friends to do the same. Hell, if they shoot '06, 44 mag or 45-70 they can shoot from my boxes (crates?) of ammo for free and feel free to kill every damn pig they see on my (if it becomes my) property.

I can understand a small "offset" price someone else may receive for improvements in habitat, food plots, blinds/stands and the like for deer and such. But we are talking about dang wild pigs, nothing more than a somewhat costly vermin, albeit on a more grand scale. Also underthis heading could be grouped coyotes, crows, 'chucks and such. Different critters similar time or $$ sucking result.

If I had a problem that people volunteered to help with gratis, I would cheerfully welcome such help and likely reciprocate in kind for the help, not friggin charge for receiving the help in the first place.

I originally started in the shooting sports & hunting at 12 back in NW PA and during the summer months honed our shooting skills by shooting woodchucks, generally with out high power rifles. As soon as I could drive I was scouting for likely fields and would simply ask if the farmer or land owner would like to lessen the population of chucks for free. Universally they said yes. I was NEVER turned down to shoot them usually just with a caution to not shoot their stock and such. On numerous occasions they bought ammo, components (I reloaded from 12 for my '06 and 16 for my 338WM) soda, invites for dinner or to hunt deer on their property and the like. I guess what I am getting at comes back to a basic appreciation for help rendered and often reciprocity (though never EXPECTED) for the help.

Stepping off my soapbox and as you said "flame on"...

Be safe all

Patty

 

[MCgunner]

I love to smoke a hog ham. They're great for grilling even though they're a might less fatty than a barnyard animal. Much better than venison. I trap 'em. They get shot in the head with whatever my carry gun is that day, usually. LOL. So far, it's been .38 special 158 grain +P JHP, .357 magnum 140 grain JHP (pretty awesome exit wound), and 115 grain 9mm +P JHP. Dead right there. I aint' opening the trap until they're down, LOL.

It's the other white meat....

 

[DRYHUMOR]

Oh yeah,

They eat good, being lean, you lose a bit of weight in the cooking.

Head shots and neck shots work best. I do remember about 20 years ago I shot one with a quartering shot into the front shoulder with a 7mm Remmag. Blew a chunk of bone out, had blood trail. Lost the trail with the light. Took up the search the next day, and ran out of blood with no hog.

That hog was pushing 200lbs, thats what moved me to neck and head shots. Tough somebits.

 

[MCgunner]

Shoulder, not behind it.

 

[DRYHUMOR]

Shoulder, front part.

 

[Art Eatman]

Premium Sauces, I don't think you quite understand farm subsidies. I don't want to get into a long dissertation, but essentially they maintain enough farm profitability that farmers keep on farming and we don't run into food shortages and high consumer prices.

Aside from feral hogs tearing up crops, they wreak havoc on sheep/goat fences in ranch country. They'll root under and make big holes, to get from one area to another. Goats spend their lives looking for a way to be elsewhere. Since a Spanish cabrito-goat is approximately a $50 bill with legs, ranchers definitely don't like having to run all over the county trying to catch the (bleep) things.

They will eat the eggs of ground-nesting birds, which includes quail. There is *some* predation during lambing or kid time in sheep/goat country, although it's not all that much of a problem. Still, money lost is money lost--and there ain't no subsidies in the goat business.

They will turn an easily-mown hayfield into a seriously bumpy mess. They can quickly turn an area into looking like a drunk with a backhoe went to playing.

As far as habitat goes, they're now in the Davis Mountains of west Texas, with its 16" average annual rainfall and few streams of more than post-rainfall trickle. They've been seen south of Marathon in serious desert country (6" average annual rainfall) and there is a fear of them getting into the Chisos Mountains, the showpiece of Big Bend National Park.

 

[3pairs12]

If you know the right people ie farmers and they have a hog problem most would gladly let you hunt them. A sow can have 20+ piglets a year so for those of you wishing you had them in your area think again. Laast year the feral hog caused 52million dollars in damage to ag just in Texas alone. There population (according to some websites) is 6million and expecting that number to double by 2012. They are fun to shoot and 250lbs and smaller a quite tastey but there a lot of farmers out here who really don't care too much about that.

 

[mike724]

Sure Kill

When I brought this to the check station and others crowded around, I heard someone say,"Now THAT'S how you kill a d**n hog!"

 

[Floppy_D]

Awesome shot, mike724. That IS how you kill a d*** hog.

I'm signed up for our local refuge lottery, hopefully I'm as lucky as some of you folks have been. (And by golly, I'll eat every one).

 

[mbt2001]

What about brucellosis? Is it reliably destroyed by cooking?

Yes... http://books.google.com/books?id=ys...&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result

 

[Marlin 45 carbine]

yep, you gave credence to the phrase 'stick one in his ear'! #46.

 

[achildofthesky]

Mike:

Nice shootin', I'd have to agree THAT is a great way to put an oinker down! Way to go.

Be safe

Patty