Hey guys, I have heard that spring is best time to hunt if you care about the quality of the meat, flavor wise. is that true? how is the hunting this time of year central coastish? still too dry?

anybody ever had chorizo made out of their pig? local butcher doesn't make chorizo but the local carneceria that I go to does and although they can't process game animals they said that if I told them how much meat I had they would make the spices and I could have the other butcher grind it together for me. hmmm........

the one I had butchered before was shot in June, I got hams, chops, sausage out of it (apparently has to be a real big pig for bacon) and the sausage was pretty good but the rest I could have done without.

I'd also be up for doing a big deep pit or over the fire type thing if anybody knows the right way to do that to get it flavorful and cooked right. the one time I went to a deep pit it was white trash style and not only did it stink it wasn't cooked through, I left and went for tepanyaki. oh, and they carved it with a Rambo part III knife, I s*%t you not!

Red

I've hunted hogs year round and haven't noticed any difference in meat quality personally. Out east, they don't even know what chorizo is (I'm a south-westerner by birth, so I know! ), so it's not an option with the game butchers that I use. If your local carneceria will provide the spices, I would go for it. I mainly make sausage out of pig meat nowadays save for maybe the backstraps that I will leave alone.

Ditto on the year around hunting. In Hawaii, the prefered method of wild pig preparation is making it into sausage or cutting the pork into strips, marinading, then smoking it.

Chorizo sounds like a great way to go, no matter when you hunt. Might even try that with my antelope this year.

Matt

I have killed wild pigs in every month of the year, when it was over 100 degrees and below freezing when there is snow on the ground.

I have not been able to tell any difference in the meat.

I do all my own butchering.
I do take some deer meat to be made into link sausage, but all the pig goes to my house.

If it is hot, I gut, skin and get the meat on ice very quickly.

If it is below 40 degrees it is OK to let it hang [gutted of course], for a day or two.

Try NEVER to have to skin a frozen deer or pig.

Wild pig is my favorite, I like it even better than deer and elk.

I have killed several boars 250 to 285 lbs and 2 over 300 lbs [weighed on a scale not estimated] and they are just as good as smaller pigs.

In fact my favorite size is 225 to 285 lbs.

I put the butchered meat on ice, double bagged in plastic bags so the ice melt cannot get on the meat.

If the meat is warm when I put it in the cooler I leave the plastic bags opened until the meat cools.

I have kept the meat in a cooler, on ice, for as long as 5 days many times with out any problems.

I drain the mest water and add more ice as necessary.

I have shot boars that smelled so bad you could hardly gut and skin them. The meat was great.

A little bit of differing opinion here. Most people would agree that flesh is better from younger, fatter, less stressed animals. Late winter to early spring is the time that many animals are most stressed and have (usually)lost much of their fat reserves. I have shot some hogs during these times that were not edible.