Advice in General...

I'm going to be in south TX for the first week of July. I know, I know, your thinking it is the worst time of year. But, aside from my travel expenses it is free to hunt.

I'll be taking a 7x64 mauser, a .257R mauser (if I get it done) and either my AR in 5.56 or an AK in 5.45.

I know the 7x64 is over powered, but I do not have too many options at the moment. Range will be 100yds to 200 yds. With one location being possibly less than 100.

Any suggestions? General information? My guide is a VERY experienced hunter and hunts hogs regularly... just looking for any info I can get. I have never shot a wild hog, so am totally new to the concept.

thanks

Where at in South Texas?

Sounds like a fun hunt! I do prefer larger (7x64) for pigs since you don't know if it is going to be a 10 pound pig that comes walking by or a 400 pounder.

If you are hunting for the experience and do not plan on keeping the meat, I would definately go for shooting through the front two shoulders. That will anchor the pig where it was standing and you can focus on taking another one in the group down, and not have to worry about chasing it into the brush. Otherwise behind the shoulder works.


Is the hunt going to be conducted during the day or the night? You are definately going to have a blast!

First week of July is going to be a hot one, lots of flies and mosquitoes. If there are water tanks on the property I would try there, but I am sure your guide will get you on the pigs.



Notice how the heart is very low in the chest cavity.

Is this a free range pig hunt? How good a shot are you and how many pigs do you (or the landowner) want you to kill? If free range and if you're good, shoot the AR with Nosler Partitions or Barnes' and kill a bunch. If not, use one of the first two. The Ak would be my last choice. Head shot the first one and go for any shot on the rest. Remember to lead at least a snout length in front of running pig.

All that said, it's going to be tough to see a hog in daylight this time of year, we're already well into the 100s and getting warmer. Most places are extremely dry. If night hunting, I'd use a bigger round (think bigger scope reticles and objectives) and be sure to kill the first one.

The hunt is completely for fun and to exterminate some pests. We do plan on BBQ'ing and I hope to bring some meat home (though it is a LONG drive).

Hunt will be most likely at dusk, though the one location may have spot lights set up. Appreciate the diagram!

Free range on a few local properties. To be brutally honest, I am a horrible shot! The land owners could care less how many we kill.

The only reason I proposed the AK over the AR is the AR is an A2 and I am much faster at placing shots with the AK. That and ammo is about 1/3 the price! I did load some .223 with some 55gr Amax's. Had I more time I would have loaded something better.

Thanks for your help, both of you!

Excellent! Keep us posted, Nathaniel!

If you're a better shot with the AK, by all means use it, with some soft points, but given your skill level, I'd go for an AIMED first shot with a scope on one of your two other guns, which I would guess are bolt actions.

Bringing hog meat home is no big deal if you keep it well iced. Just let water drain every now and then and add more ice. Critical factor is getting them gutted and on ice as soon as possible after kill. Don't let them lay around in the sun and 100 degree heat while you BS and have a beer first if you want to eat them. Winter time you can take more time, summer you need to work pretty quickly on getting them opened, gutted, and quartered.

Different people do it different ways, I skin my hogs hanging by neck and I split the hide more or less down center of back as my second cut after "ringing" the neck right behind head. For me, it makes skinning much easier and takes very little extra time. Once gutted and skinned (and due to the way I do it) and since I don't have to remove anus or split pelvis, I usually take shoulders off, then back strap, then tenderloins, then hind quarters. Then ribs, then neck. Rest is for buzzards. I've done hogs and deer this way so long that I'm kind of lost if someone hangs them by the hind legs which is more common. Only time I hang a deer by hind legs is if I'm caping a trophy for mounting so the hide will hang down out of my way, not covering it up which happens if deer is hung by neck.

Personally, if the hog is gut shot, I don't keep anything that has come in contact with intestinal fluids even if you have a water hose available to clean it off.

BTW hogs, especially if they've been in mud or rolling in dirt, which is most of the time, are brutal on knives. I usually use a pocket knife or "second" knife to make splits and start hide work and then use another for gutting and quartering. It's not that one knife can't do it, but I'm a knife nut and I like working with sharp blades.

I'll 2nd. what Gato said about not keeping meat that had contacted body fluids, including urine. It's very easy to cut the bladder as it lays just under the hide.

As far a calibers are concerned I wouldn't consider the 7x64 too big at all. I hear about people shooting 300 pound hogs with .223's, but they don't talk about the ones that ran off. Standard statement is "Oh, I must have missed him." They don't realize that a .223 almost never leaves a blood trail on a hog or deer.

I'm sure I opened a can of worms.

Hogs are considered vermin here. If it was not offensive to your senses, and in consideration of the heat, you could always just take the backstraps/loin and the hindquarters and not even completely skin him or open him up.

GWB

the way the little 5.45x39 does with the available milsurp ammunition is deadly on piggies... its been giving penetation about 2" before it starts tumbling, then it tears everything in its path.... ive got 1 in the smith m15...

my 7x64 is a hog slayer...

i very seldom open the gutsack, if i can help it... hanging up or down... doesn't matter.. i ring the feet and X cut the hide, usually on the ground, then hang em up...

i don't do the ribs.. too much trouble 99% of the time.. i might reach in to get the tenders out, but that's just for breakfast

skin em, back straps, shoulders, pull out the tenders, then disect the hams ..

Pulled pork,

Yum Yum.

Bone out that hind quarter, season to taste put in a crockpot. Cook to perfection, add some cole slaw and a bun. Then a couple Negra Modelos.
Yeah buddy. Good enough to make you want to slap yo' daddy down.

GWB

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
my 7x64 is a hog slayer...

i very seldom open the gutsack, if i can help it... hanging up or down... doesn't matter.. i ring the feet and X cut the hide, usually on the ground, then hang em up...

i don't do the ribs.. too much trouble 99% of the time.. i might reach in to get the tenders out, but that's just for breakfast

skin em, back straps, shoulders, pull out the tenders, then disect the hams ..

I'm with you on that. I rarely crack the chest. The ribs are so lean that they are hardly worth it IMO. Shoulders, hams, and backstraps.......

Well, of course, to each his own and I'll be the first to say that I have taken just the backstraps or left the whole hog at times but personally I think the ribs are one of the best parts of the hog.

Put a good rub on them, wrap in heavy duty alum. foil, barbeque for about 7 hours (highly variable time depending on heat) or so on med heat, open the top of foil for last hour or two to get the smoke and it's some mighty fine eating with its own handle.

quote:

Originally posted by Whitworth:

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
my 7x64 is a hog slayer...

i very seldom open the gutsack, if i can help it... hanging up or down... doesn't matter.. i ring the feet and X cut the hide, usually on the ground, then hang em up...

i don't do the ribs.. too much trouble 99% of the time.. i might reach in to get the tenders out, but that's just for breakfast

skin em, back straps, shoulders, pull out the tenders, then disect the hams ..

I'm with you on that. I rarely crack the chest. The ribs are so lean that they are hardly worth it IMO. Shoulders, hams, and backstraps.......

Great tip!

jeffe just doesn't remember (or won't admit it) that he liked the ribs I cooked when he and Mike hunted with me--

Thank you to everyone for the advise!

This last week I threw together a .257 Roberts with what I had available at the shop. Nothing fancy, infact, until it comes back from the stock makers I am embarresed to post pictures!

I settled on my 7x64 (mauser), the .257 Roberts I put together (mauser) and the 5.45 (ak-74). There will be a few places we will be hunting, so I will get the chance to use all of them.

Thank you again for all of your help everyone. I will be sure to post a follow up!

You guys have just got to take a crack at making your own bacon.
These wild hogs are nice and lean and make great bacon.

I suffer from Ethnic Guilt (native american) so I cant leave much behind.

Cheers, John

Shoot 30 or 40 a year, snare or trap a couple dozen more. Then skin, many at times when the temps are 90 degrees F and humidity is over 80%, you may also get to the point that every morsel is not the focus of your actions.

Best

GWB

I made the misstake of killing 11 in one day.
Between the freezers and the smoke house I could handle maybe 4.
We had one hell of a cook out. We must have fed half of Nixon Texas. Real "old school" pit cooking is just killer.
It was great fun. Go on safari in your flip-flops, Kill a mob, feed the village.
Oh, all the hogs were in the Inlaws back yard tearing up the garden.
Brother in law got into a giant mob last year and went through two 20 round mags in his M1-A with out taking a step. I have no idea how many he got though.
You get into a good size mob and it can get crazy pretty fast.
And thats a good thing

Cheers, John

I can remember going out a while back to do some varmint calling. At 6:30 that evening (August) it was 106 degrees F in the shade. Gets dead dark around 9PM. Nothing like killing a hog at 9 PM, get him loaded, back to camp, string him up with fleas and ticks deciding they like you more than him,(don't know if it's the smell or the temp), have a couple beers and start skinning about 10 pm. I'd much rather drink beer or have a "misty" than skin that time of eve, most any day. Now try doing that three more times. The later it gets and the more beer you drink, skinning gets less important.



GWB

GW, if you are going to kill them in the summertime and clean them, take some wasp and hornet spray with you. Hose the belly and underside of the body with it. Those hog fleas are done in seconds, and since the hog is dead, there is no way the chemical gets inside the skin.

Cleaning them does turn into work... years back I was "hunting" ferals on a WMA here in TX, and a guy killed six the first evening. The shooting is always fun, right? Well, he cleaned hogs until 2 am the next morning and left one boar of about 160# to waste. Got his butt chewed right proper for it the next evening by the TPWD employee running the "hunt".

And I don't know what is wrong with the hogs you guys are shooting... every pig I have ever shot had ribs worth taking home. Some of the larger ones had 4" of meat at the top, where they joined the front shoulder. No way I leave that in the bushes!

Doubless,

do that, including using a bernzomatic torch and scorching.

As stated before, sometime I'm more interested in socializing than skinning.

However if one particular sister-in-law knows I'm going to the lease and I don't bring back ribs. I catch hell.

GWB

Your Sister in Law sounds like my Wife.

Also known as:
SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED
I wish I had known that before I married her.

Cheers, John

its hot... hit em in the head, gut em.. its over.

Worst drought in Texas since the late 1800's. Hunt over a water trough at dusk and be patient. Too hot to sit outside in the day time. They will be close to water!
Shoot them with whatever you like to shoot (22LR-+50 cal). Fun to stick them as well but they practically always roll over on your $12 shaft. No pig is worth $12.00!

EZ

quote:

Originally posted by eezridr:
No pig is worth $12.00!

EZ

It sure is when it's sittin on my grill!

quote:

Originally posted by dustoffer:
jeffe just doesn't remember (or won't admit it) that he liked the ribs I cooked when he and Mike hunted with me--

i remember,, and lvoed em ... just too much trouble for me on meat hogs..

man, that was a great time... other than the sand fleas from hell