Muzzleloading Hog Heaven

[arcticap]

Here's an exciting, well written article from Blackpowder Hunting, Fall, 2005
(Thanks to Grouse45).
Some guys have all the fun!

Could our beloved moderator 4v50 Gary please try to arrange such a great hog hunting outing for us too?

 

[frosty]

Gonna build a 78 caliber boar gun!

 

[arcticap]

It will take a lot more than a twig to deflect that 10 gauge ball!
I may have said twig, but I really meant pig!

 

[messerist]

OK, this is sorta off topic but has anyone eaten the wild pigs that are infesting parts of the country? I had wild boar when I was stationed overseas and it was excellent. Is the meat different from domestic pork? I've read that the feral pigs are escapees. Sorry for the digression. I wanna see your boar rifle when its finished Frosty!

 

[sundance44s]

Feral hog meat is a little tough for me ....I make jerky and grind it up for sauage and it`s eatable .....sliced real thin and fried in butter is good also .

 

[bigbadgun]

We get Feral hog here in South Florida all the time. The hams and legs and ribs are fantastic slow bbq'ed with some friends and a keg of beer.

 

[mykeal]

Ok, let's see if I got this right...

The hams and legs and ribs are fantastic slow bbq'ed with some friends and a keg of beer.

Now, I understand the beer, kinda. I stew bratwurst in beer quite regularly, although I usually don't use an entire keg. But, just how do you get your friends on the barbeque? Do you have to knock them out and tie them up first? After they've been through this once do they ever come back???

 

[MCgunner]

Young boars under 200 lbs and sows are good. Old boars get kinda rank. I trap 'em, eat a lot of 'em. I've shot a few in the field not in the trap, but not yet with a BP, .308 does a good job. Don't take a cannon, 50 cal is plenty, anything you'd shoot a deer with. Those really big, rank boars get quite a gristle shield/armor plate on 'em, but I shoot the smaller "meat hogs", myself. I don't think of 'em as trophy animals, never was a trophy hunter anyway. I have passed on big boars before. My trap is small enough I'm not sure a really big 300+ lber could get in it. 200 lbers can, I know this.

Pork is pork. If you trap a hog and feed it out on corn to fatten it up, not any different to eat than domestic pork. Kills in the wild are very lean by comparison to farm pork, but have more fat than deer and do well with smokers. Even the ribs are good off the smoker.

 

[bigbadgun]

Now, I understand the beer, kinda. I stew bratwurst in beer quite regularly, although I usually don't use an entire keg. But, just how do you get your friends on the barbeque? Do you have to knock them out and tie them up first? After they've been through this once do they ever come back???

Nope and never got a complaint either. LOL Usually when we get back we just have a big old fashion bbq and get a keg and just party up for a day or so. No harm in a bbq like that is there?

 

[alsaqr]

What MCgunner said.

I hunt free ranging wild hogs 12 months of the year in OK and northern TX. Have killed 31 of them so far this year. Most of my hogs were killed with .50 muzzleloaders until this year. My muzzleloader hog load is the 240 grain .430 XTP in the short black sabot and 110 grains of 3F Goex Pinnacle: They usually bang flop when hit right.

Hogs are all over the place in this area and we need to kill a lot of them. So I am now hunting them with centerfire guns, especially my AR 15.

Pork chops and ribs from a wild hog that is a little fat is as good as it gets.