Feral Hogs as Food

[Cypress]

WOW!!! You can really get an idea about who here has ever owned property or hunted hogs. I happen to live on a fairly large(for the area) ranch/farm and have plenty of hogs doing plenty of damage each year. I'll take the hogs over a bunch of moron hunters shooting cows, dropping trash, and thinking they can bring their buddies any time they d@mn well please!!! IMHO the only way to get ahead of the hog population now is for the government(s) to offer a bounty. Its a trade off for me. A lot of time is spent repairing damage pastures but I have something to hunt whenever I want. I shoot them often but pass up on nursing sows as I don't believe anything should have to starve to death. We process every hog we kill. Its way more than we can eat so a lot gets given away. As far where to shoot them goes, I will always opt for the center of the shoulder. This usually drops them even if you don't clip the spine. Don't try it with your tacticool .223 though. I feel that they do compete fairly heavily with deer for food and probably come across the occasional fawn. They make a lot of tracks in a days time and they will eat just about anything. As far as the comments about the rich farmers getting what they get. Well, some guys are just making ends meet and if they can make a little money off the hogs I'm all for it. Charging a very low fee only ensures that you would get the worst of the worst and its hard to discriminate without repercussions.

 

[littlecleo]

I shot 3 of these in the head, 12 ga, 7/8 oz slugs. They drop in their tracks with a good head shot, using slugs, or an appropriate caliber. I use the smoker quite a bit for hams, and ribs, but I also grind the neck, shoulders, flank, scrap meat, and use it just like ground beef. Wild hog, processed & aged correctly, is excellent!

 

[alsaqr]

I hunt hogs 12 months of the year. They are very plentiful in parts of southwestern OK. In some areas they have greatly impacted the deer population, eating up scarce acorns and pecans. Deer and elk do not like to drink from a pond that is frequented by large numbers of hogs.

Am lucky enough to have permission to hunt several pieces of private property in this area. I also often hunt a large piece of government property that is around 14,000 acres. One of our own places is often visited by a large sounder of hogs.

Every hog I kill goes to feed someone: Sometimes pay for the processing myself. Have often passed up on shots at sows with small pigs and large boars. Did kill a sow with pigs this spring when she made the second swipe at me. The next week I was in that area and her parti colored pigs were with another sow.

Not too long ago was buying some ice to cool a big sow that I had killed. A couple of teenage boys told their mom that there was a pig in my truck. The lady said that she wished that she could get a pig. Told her that she had a pig and the ice to go with it. Her sons put hog and ice in their pickup and they left for the butcher.

 

[W.E.G.]

Not too long ago was buying some ice to cool a big sow that I had killed. A couple of teenage boys told their mom that there was a pig in my truck. The lady said that she wished that she could get a pig. Told her that she had a pig and the ice to go with it. Her sons put hog and ice in their pickup and they left for the butcher.

Outstanding!

I aint seen no hogs in Virginia yet.

I might have to come out to OK and check out that action.

 

[Floppy_D]

Been to back bay?

 

[XDKingslayer]

Nope. I don't eat dirt pig.

 

[nathan]

If they look healthy , you got a good chance they are okey to eat. Always check the liver and other internal signs of disease. Always pick the fat pig.

 

[coop4u2c]

the bigger they are the more sausage you make! yum-yum

 

[CommyHunter]

Feral Pigs in Southern Utah

I've heard lots of credible sources tell me that they are living in abundance down in Mesquite, NV along the riverbanks of the Virgin River. I'll take one if I ever see one.

 

[barnetmill]

It is interesting that pigs seem to be spreading about the country. They have probably been loose in NWFL for hundreds of years. First spanish tried to settle this area in 1659. They probably do damage some farms and lawns. But one does not hear too much about it. I live next to a wooded creek bottom that drains to Escambia Bay and River that does have pigs. They do not seem to over running the place. Once people know that there are pigs they start hunting them. I have never seen one on my place, although I do know that years ago one was sighted nearby. If they show up I will set out some corn with a light and my shotgun. Will have to use small buckshot and hope for a headshot due nearby neighbors.

I did go hunting with a fellow a month ago for hogs north of Crestview, FL, but due to high water we called off the hunt. Swinming flooded creeks at night is not fun. It was at night with a cur dog to trail and a bull dog to catch and no guns. The hogs were to be killed by sticking with a pocket knife or be trussed up and taken back to be fed and killed after a week or so.

 

[gimlet1/21]

We used to break in our new "butter bar" lieutenants, on the Big Island of Hawaii, by taking the fresh fruit from our hot dinners and taking a bite of it then roll it into his hooch. Watching with the NVG's(night vision goggles), we'd place bets on whose guard duty would the pigs rut him out of bed. ( usually screaming like a little girl) Sorry LT if your on THR.

Hawaii is over run with wild pigs. Its very unusual to have to sit in the dark with a rifle loaded with blanks and watch the pigs circle you all night.

Here in South Carolina they hunt them with pitbulls and handcuffs to take them alive, and sell for bar-b-ques. The dogs will run em into exhaustion, and pull their heads down by their ears, then somebody has to jump on it and handcuff it above the knee. they `knife the large ones for sausage, and the smallish ones go live to the party.

 

[MCgunner]

Best way I've found to take 'em is a trap. The trap does the hunting, 24/7. I just go check it. I don't set it this time of year because I can only check it 2 times a week and they'll die in the trap from the heat in summer.

From what I understand, 6.5 x 55 sweede is the smallest round really to go hunting with them, me, I am thinking that hunting them with a mosin would be a cheap way to hunt them.

Bunk. I've shot 'em with .357 magnum. .243 is a good round. Anything I'd use for deer will work. I'd stay away from .22 centerfires, but 6mm and up and a good enough bullet. The really BIG 350+ ones I don't want anyway. Best eating is under 200 lbs and it don't take a big caliber gun to kill 'em. I'll use my bow on 'em if I get a chance.

Big thing about hogs, and what makes it hard for the bow hunter, is that all their vitals are under the shoulder. With a bow, best to wait until you have 'em quartered away and set it just behind the shoulder. Tough to make a shot with a bow on a hog.

 

[svtruth]

Are there any

in Vermont?

 

[longdayjake]

Oh theres plenty in utah. Pine Valley Mountain and the West Mountains are full of them. No hunting season though that I know of. Utah is dumb that way.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

In part of Texas, Feral Hogs have already replaced Whitetail Deer as the primary species.

I know you don't mean as autotrophs, but "primary species" of what? Do you mean game species? Large mammal species? Most non-human mammalian biomass?

Farmers and ranchers hate the beasties, yet charge hunters to hunt them. Fair-enough, as long as prices are not ridiculous. $150 to shoot a hog is a stiff price for something they'd like to get rid of at any price or cost.

If they can get it, why should they charge less?

Feral Hogs are different than deer, in that one never should shoot a Hog behind the front leg. A Pig is all stomach just behind the shoulder. The pig vitals reside forward of the front leg by a smidge.

I don't know how you can get the vitals forward of the front leg by a smidge. They occupy an volume much larger than a smidge. It isn't that they are forward of the front leg, but somewhat directly behind it from the shooter when the pig is standing broadside to the shooter, some both fore and aft of the leg from the shooter's perspective.

It isn't that shooting behind the shoulder is bad, so long as the shot is very close to the shoulder.

 

[MCgunner]

Yeah, people gripe about the costs of hog hunting, but look at what they're getting for exotics or big deer. Hey, hogs are a bargain. And, despite Obama's best efforts, at least in Texas, capitalism still rules and private property rights are still held sacred.

 

[LeonCarr]

The slogan for Blue Bell Ice Cream is, "We eat all we can and sell the rest".

The slogan for Feral Hog Control should be, "We eat all we can and shoot the rest" .

Hogs are very good to eat, especially if dressed and put on ice as soon as possible after being shot. Preparation is the key.

Kill them all. For folks in states that don't have wild hogs, buy a lottery ticket because ya'll are very lucky.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

 

[GodGuns&Guitars]

Hogs as opposed to dogs. Just wanted to make sure I had this right. SW Arkansas has lots of wild hogs and are on the timber company's number one worst enemy list. Shoot on site. They will destroy wildlife habitat for more popular game animals. I've shot quite a few of them in my day some pretty large but on the average around 200lbs or less. Like the ones around 60 to 70 the best but who cares. We use to hunt an old farmers land and he seemed to know what he talked about. After shooting one, field dress it, then if you had a ways to go to get it out, stuff it with pine straw to draw the wild taste out. I have no real idea that this worked but we'd give him the hog, pine straw and all, and in a few days he would bring us sausage, chops and roasts from the hog. Some of the finest eating there ever was. We dressed a few out on our own to, and they will dull a knife in a hurry. The meat we got from the farmer I favored over venison when he did it. The largest we ever took on our hunting lease weighed 454lbs. Had probably six inch tusks. The guy that shot him said it looked like a buffalo coming through the woods when he first saw him.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Yeah, people gripe about the costs of hog hunting, but look at what they're getting for exotics or big deer. Hey, hogs are a bargain. And, despite Obama's best efforts, at least in Texas, capitalism still rules and private property rights are still held sacred.

Right. I have never understood the attitude as in the OP that just because I don't like something, that it therefore has no value and I should allow others free access to it. Obviously, hunting wild hogs has value to hunters and hence have a value to a land owner even if the owner doesn't like them.

Furthermore, many folks don't like the idea of people "hunting" on their land, especially strangers. I know I don't want to give free passes to strangers to crisscross my land and shooting at things. There is some real liability risk that comes into play. With that in mind, there are a couple of outfits in north Texas where I have land that will come in and trap hogs on your property and will make arrangements with you about when they do their work such that you know when they are coming and going. Many folks are happy to let these trappers do their thing because they are still get the hogs but are 1) not shooting, 2) work on a schedule, and 3) only go to specified locations.

 

[Flash!]

the last two hogs I shot got it right behind the shoulder...... that 7mm rem mag dropped them both within a few feet of where they were standing.....I got some great smoked hams, pork chops, and sausage......

 

[qajaq59]

I shoot them and I eat them. They're a pig whether they are in a pen or the woods. The only difference seems to be that no one is filling them up with chemicals in the woods.
Just my 2 c.

 

[Art Eatman]

DNS, for all that I agree that the landowner should get paid all the traffic will bear, it doesn't deal with the problem: The Texas population of a destructive pest is expanding much faster than present hunting methods are dealing with. What is needed is more hunters and more killing--and trapping. The only way a free market can deal with that is to reduce the cost.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Well Art, I never argued that it dealt with the problem. By comparison, eradication of hogs does not deal with the problem of liability and damages either.

I got the impression from cliffy, as with from several other posts in the past on THR, that folks are put out by the fact that they would have to pay for the privilege of doing the landowner the favor of getting rid of his/her unwanted pests. cliffy and many others don't understand that hogs have not become enough of a problem yet for many landowners to allow hunters to hunting willy nilly on their properties. In other words, the damage caused by the hogs is still less than the risk posed by hunters, or that is what is perceived.

It only takes a few prize cattle being shot by "mistake" or hunter shooting another before the liability issue becomes huge.

As a landowner in Texas, I have had the benefit of seeing what so-called good hunters can do to a property. Some are 100% good stewards of the land and when they leave, all that is left behind are some entrails for the buzzards and tracks. I have seen where others trash properties, loot historic and prehistoric sites, and are generally as parasitic to the property as are the hogs.

So landowners need a vetting and references system in place to keep from getting screwed by free-lance pig eradication hunters who are so willing to do the landowner the favor of killing off hogs.

The free market may deal with the problem when the destruction caused by hogs costs the landowner more in money than the landowner perceives or knows to be the cost risk in liability of allowing hunters to hunt on his land in order to get rid of the problem.

In all honesty, trapping seems like the way to go. Much less risk to the landowner. Fewer trappers need be present on the property to yield the same result. Traps work 24/7 (hunters don't, as noted above). However, you don't hear many folks complaining on a gun board that people in Texas won't let them come down and trap hogs for free. They complain that we won't let them come hunt hogs for free.
make money for the landowner.

I don't see hunters in other parts of the country where there is a lot more public land actually going out and doing their part to eradicate hogs. It isn't just a problem with private lands and hunters not willing to pay to hunt private lands.

 

[hotlead]

I like some good Yellow Fin.......

 

[Girodin]

Oh theres plenty in utah. Pine Valley Mountain and the West Mountains are full of them.

I am not saying it is untrue but this is the first claim I have ever heard that there are wild hogs in Utah.