From the www.huntingreport.com

Boar Hunting Using A Knife
Jun 12, 2009

Brendon Matthews of Matthews Trophy Hunting is noticing an increase in interest in clients wishing to chase the pig dogs and stick their first boar. This hunting method is the main way local pig hunters harvest their pigs, using long knives designed for the purpose. Rather than be passive spectators many clients are now putting their hand in the air and saying "give me a go". Not just one, but at least six so far this season.
Matthews has access to several top pig hunting locations, and owns a skilled pack of pig dogs. The hunting method involves following the dogs until they find, and chase a pig. When barking is heard the pig has bailed, (stand and fight back) and the hunters must get there quickly to save the dogs from injury. The pig, hopefully a boar is tipped over and a hunter sticks the pig in the jugular to kill it. If it is too big to tip it may be stuck behind the shoulder. The pig is then gutted and the whole carcass including head carried out on the back. A 30/30 is sometimes carried as backup. A big, gutted boar may weigh over 200lbs, and have tusks that jut 4 inches out from the jaw. Often the pig is later singed to remove bristles.
Such hunts are fast, furious, and exciting with a whiff of danger in the air, as boars can and do turn on their tormenters. I will be describing this hunting option in more detail in a forthcoming article.

Seloushunter

May have to give it a try.

I think, just maybe, that Texas and some other Southern hunters might be a bit ahead of the curve on this one........

Know a few guys around here that will only hunt with dogs, period. Up until a few years ago they would take hog home alive and put in a pen, feed corn 3-4 weeks, then kill and eat. Now it is highly illegal to transport live wild hogs in Alabama - stiff fine. These days they catch and release for the most part; kill one with knife now and then. Fact is, what 'floats their boat' is hearing and seeing their dogs work. Different strokes. What they enjoy seems like more work than pleasure to me. Of course if we were all the same, it would be one boring world. Guess I just like shooting guns.

Gatogordo is right on the money. This has been going on for quite a while here in Texas.

And Larry Matherne has posted some nice photos and reports of just such activity acrosss the Sabine in Louisiana.

An older gent now living in Victoria, TX once related to me how his cousins used to take their dogs and go "pig sticking" along the Brazos river way back when. He tried it once and decided that was enough.

Me, I go at them with a knife -- after I've introduced them to one of my handloads, that is.

Bobby--lets you and I leave the knife work to the young 'uns and those of us who have learned better can use our rifles! My arthritic knee wouldn't let me even throw a leg over a hog, much less avoid one that was headed my direction.

Gato and Bobby +1. My personal Pig Sticker is a Soligen bayonette for an M-16.

Been going on around here for a while now.

Dustoffer-

That sounds like a good deal to me! Heck, some days I can hardly walk. That's why I prefer picking them off from a distance. Plus, it makes for good practice and allows me to test quite a few bullets.

Back in my days of better health, I did catch a couple young piglets by running them down (and hoping momma pig didn't come for me ). But I learned my lesson with a larger shoat and never tried that stunt again.

I had stalked to with 30 or so yards of a nice hog and placed a 320 grain bullet from my Ruger .44 Magnum through the shoulders, putting it down on the spot. But as the sound began to reverberate off the creek banks, hogs scattered in every direction. A couple young ones, perhaps confused as to where the shot came from, began running up a steep trail towards the top of the creek bank, a path that would put them within spitting distance of me.

I don't know what possessed me, but I dropped the .44, zoned in on the 2nd piggie and dived at him as he crested the bank.

I had him by the back legs and hindquarters, but I guess I didn't anticipate the fight a 60-70 pound piggie had in him. He made a prompt about-face, and we rolled down the bank, plunging through some painful thorns and sharp rocks on the way to the sandy bottom.

It was at that moment we decided to part ways. It was at that very same moment I decided I had enough of piggie rodeos.

Heck, I shouldn't even call it a rodeo because there was one participant -- the hog -- and one beat up, bloodied and battered clown...

I still don't know what possessed me to try that. I was a half-mile from the house with no rope or anything else to secure the piggie should my feeble attempt had actually been succesful. And I doubt he'd have willingly walked alongside me back to the house...

Hey that's a funny story Bobby, you had me laughing so hard I thought I was going to roll out the chair. I know all about the gettin old stuff too. I sometimes hurt in places I didn't even know I had. Definitely a young man's sport, I'm the only gray beard amoung the youngins I hunt with.

Actually though I do most of my pig stickin in SW Arkansas where I have a second home. I'm in La. right now doing some redfish fishing. Pigs have invaded the marsh here though in some parts and the guys chase them with airboats and catch dogs, don't need no bay dogs.

Watching the LSU vs Texas ball game, looks like we pissed you guys off last night. Hope we can regroup for the third game.