I like roughing it a little, so the idea of camping out and walking hogs up appeals to me. That doesn't mean I won't shoot them from a stand/feeder, or the window sill of a truck. (An early memory was of my dad shooting prairie dogs with a ,22 rifle from a sitting position on my bed. He was shooting out the bedroom window in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Gato gave me the chance to see if I could put two in the cooler on his place last weekend.

I rolled in about mid-afternoon and we started by cruising the ranch to talk about the prospects, discuss strategy, and see what we could see. We saw nothing but a lone coyote that didn't seem to view us as a threat, as he stood and stared at about twenty feet from the truck.

We decided the best hog plan was to try a reliable stand for the evening hunt.

The feeder (at 120 yards) went off at around 5:30pm and it wasn't long before hogs showed-up to try the buffet. Being impatient, rather than wait until a nice sized hog stepped out of the melee, I tried to follow what appeared to be a bigger hog. About the time he/she came clear, a meandering hog would block the shot. I finally thought I had the shot I wanted and tried to put a shot to the hogs neck. Between deciding to pull the trigger and actually pulling the trigger the picture changed; faster than I could pick it up. When the 300WSM barked, pigs flew everywhere except for a half grown one with a broken spine, and a willingness to drag itself somewhere. Another 150gr bullet ended that dream. Nothing left to do then but wait for Gato and hope that bullet hole would miraculously move from the hogs butt, to the other end.

We didn't have our ace skinner (Randy) so Gato and I made the best of a bad situation. Nothing like working on a butt-shot hog in the headlights of a vehicle.

I was feeling pretty low, and smelled pretty bad too, but Gato and his wife raised my spirits with a shrimp and wine dinner.

Camping out in the mosquito capitol of North Texas was a little bit challenging. The sleeping bag was the one I used north of the Arctic Circle on a sheep hunt. I found I could sleep under it, just not in it without having a heat stroke. That made avoiding the mosquitoes a little more difficult so I slept fully clothed, plus gloves, and a netted hat I wore in Alaska to avoid mosquitoes and black flies on a moose hunt.

Daylight couldn't come quick enough for me. My cot and sleeping pad made it work.

I rolled out and got my boots on just in time to see a hog streak past the front of the hay barn in the dark. Not light enough to shoot. Just barely light enough to know it was a hog.

I waited another twenty minutes then started the walk I always take. Down the road, as far as I can until water stops me or I reach the northwest corner stand/feeder. (This year I brought a pair of Muck boots just in case I had to wade a foot of water. Last trip I lost my big toenails to a combination of wrong boots and deep water.) I moved past the fallen barn, dropped off the hill towards the corrals, and saw nothing but a lone doe a long ways off.

I was ready for a long walk when I noticed movement about three hundred yards up to the left. A small pig moved between two stands of trees, followed by a larger hog. I dropped into a dry creek bed to move quickly to cut the distance, only to find out the top 2" was dry. The next 18" were the consistency of fresh pig shit. I drug myself out of that little ravine and moved on towards where I had seen the pigs. Never saw them again. The rest of the walk to the northwest corner yielded nothing.

My routine is to turn around and walk back the same way. Pigs move and I usually catch them going one way or the other.

This time it was "the other". I had gotten almost back to the corrals when I saw a line of black hogs; maybe 15+ moving left to right in a thin treeline. I hustled about thirty yards to a small tree I could use as a rest and began scoping the hogs as they slowly moved and fed through the trees. I spotted a large one in mid-pack and started following him in the scope. I judged the shot about 175 yards; which would be no hold-over. Shortly he stopped and turned facing me. I went for the between-the-eyes shot and he dropped. Pigs scattered every which way and nothing was left standing or moving. I tried to find the hog in the scope, but had to lower the rifle to see the bigger picture. About then my hog stood up and started trotting down the treeline to the right, cleared the trees and then slow-trotted dead away from me. I waited for a broadside opportunity that didn't come, but then the hog did a 180 and began slow-trotting right towards me. I just let him come. It was as if he had decided it was time to get it over with. I could see his snout covered in blood and bleeding freely through my scope, and he just kept coming. If he deviated, I planned to take the shot, but he just kept coming. Finally, inside of fifty yards, he angled off to my left and I dropped him.

Left him there and moved on towards camp. Met Gato and Randy a little ways down the road and they went to take care of some business and drag the hog to the skinning pole. While Randy was skinning him he saw where my initial shot had hit him in the nose, destroyed the roof of his mouth, but failed to hit anything that would kill him instantly. I believe they estimated he weighed around 280+. His hams are on the smoker as I type this and it's taking a hell of a long time to get him up to temp. Biggest hams I've ever smoked.

Great hunt

But why camp - just stay with Gato

Mike

Nicely done. Next time, take your camera!

quote:

Originally posted by Beretta682E:
Great hunt

But why camp - just stay with Gato

Mike

Remember "da plane, da plane", substitute smell.

We tried to tell him that his location was a poor choice, and there was much better, but I think he had some kind of rat affair going on and refused to listen to us, after all, we only live here, what do we know?

The dead pig is getting bigger by the moment. Pretty quick he'll rival a bulldozer.

Great report, Congratulations.

Seriously, Ken hunts hard and deserves what he gets, including THE RAT.

This particular hunt, I really didn't hold out much hope. It has been extremely dry, one very short shower in about 7 weeks, and, coupled with the heat, I had not been seeing many hogs. But, we put our deer feeders to working the weekend before, and the hogs got in line for the corn. Ken made the best of a bad situation. Good for him and THE RAT.

Sounds like you earned em'.

Lotsa folks don't realize that it's easy to miss on a hog a ways out, as they generally are always moving. From the time your brain sez "squeeze" and the bullet impacts hopefully where your point of aim was, Mr. Hoglet has moved 6" to a foot or more.

Mighty fine!


GWB

Over a plate of fiddlers & wine, and in an awards ceremony fit for Hollywood, I was awarded by Gato the prestigious and much coveted Ceramic Pig Award for Misplaced Shots & Exaggerated Size.

That guy thinks he's a comedian when in point of fact he's a Knife Whisperer. I had been sharpening my knives for months, only to see them dull out in about three minutes on the first hog. Gato takes them and whispers to them for about five minutes, and they are so damn sharp I'm afraid to get near them. I was watching his work though and I picked up a few tips I think.

Ignorance is fixable, stupid is forever and, when it comes to sharpening knives, Kensco was damn sure ignorant and probably still is. Hanging hogs will tell.

quote:

Lotsa folks don't realize that it's easy to miss on a hog a ways out, as they generally are always moving. From the time your brain sez "squeeze" and the bullet impacts hopefully where your point of aim was, Mr. Hoglet has moved 6" to a foot or more.

Javelina act the same way. When I am guiding someone for hogs, I tell them to keep the crosshairs on the animal they are after and if it stops, shoot right then because it won't stay stopped.

I got a good report back from a friend that received a ham I smoked for her from that big boar. She said the taste was awesome, and tender as could be. I was afraid that dude might be a little rank. She hasn't cooked that piece of backstrap I gave her yet.

I was thinking about the glands Randy cut off the hind legs and the boars neck. I guess there was no affect on the meat.

A lot of talk on the Internet says castrate a boar or the meat will stink, or just throw boar meat away. None of that makes sense to me.

Keep the oysters too. (balls, for you city dudes) One of the best parts
most folks throw away.

In Fla I asked for the one's off my two pigs. They didn't have a clue what I was talking about.
Three days later when we picked up the meat he'd saved a cooler full of 'em for me from others kills.
Had to go buy another cooler! Tickled me pink to get 'em.

George

quote:

A lot of talk on the Internet says castrate a boar or the meat will stink,

From my experience, I have only ran across two boars that fit that category. The first one, which happened to be the first feral hog I ever killed, stunk bad enough I could smell him from 20 feet away. He field dressed at 325 pounds. I had him processed, but the ground meat smelled so bad when we tried cooking it we couldn't eat it.

The other one was a boar a friend shot several years later on a place here in Young county and the ground meat from it smelled exactly the same as the one I had killed.

I tell folks that hunt with me that unless they are just interested in a pig to have mounted or a big set of tusks to either let it walk or turn it into coyote bait, the latter being preferable.

I got this small boar a couple of weeks ago. 50 lbs. Great eating!

quote:

Originally posted by Crazyhorseconsulting:

quote:

A lot of talk on the Internet says castrate a boar or the meat will stink,

From my experience, I have only ran across two boars that fit that category. The first one, which happened to be the first feral hog I ever killed, stunk bad enough I could smell him from 20 feet away. He field dressed at 325 pounds. I had him processed, but the ground meat smelled so bad when we tried cooking it we couldn't eat it.

The other one was a boar a friend shot several years later on a place here in Young county and the ground meat from it smelled exactly the same as the one I had killed.

I tell folks that hunt with me that unless they are just interested in a pig to have mounted or a big set of tusks to either let it walk or turn it into coyote bait, the latter being preferable.

The hogs in Fl (boars with any size to them) generally smell pretty bad and taste worse. TX must be different. I have been surprised to see what the people will eat in TX. They must be different for some reasons.

Years ago, I took a big slab of ribs off a boar to GA . We grilled them. Eating a truck tire would have been better. That is one I will never forget.

These days, we head shoot small hogs (50 pounds or less) and cook the whole hog.

We also catch young boars and castrate them. These are called bar hogs. They grow quite large. These are generally very good to eat.

It may possibly be a difference in their dietary intake here in Texas.

The hogs up here in this area have access to a lot of corn that is intended to go to whitetails.

There may also a difference in the amount and types of green vegetation they have access to.

Has to be.

quote:

Years ago, I took a big slab of ribs off a boar to GA . We grilled them. Eating a truck tire would have been better. That is one I will never forget.

The word "grilled" caught my eye. I have a friend who grilled wild hog time after time with me telling him not to grill it. To me unless wild hog is smoked for hours at around 225 to 250 I'm not interested in it.

Finally when I offered a ham to him this time, he told me "the taste of wild hog isn't to my liking". I asked his son about it. HE told me the grilled hog was always tough and not very tasty. I chalk it up to a bad cook with a hard head.

Ok, I used to raise hogs when I was a kid. I guarantee you that if you do not castrate a hog, then it will taste like road kill cooked over burning road kill. If you think that meat is good then you have no sense of smell. (Unless it is very young). Or a female, which are good, so just saying you cooked and ate a wild hog means nothing unless you know if it was a boar or a sow.
Been there, done that, no T shirt.
And what they eat has a impact on the taste but it can't overcome hormones. All our deer here eat nothing but corn and soybeans and they taste milder than any other place, but an old buck is still gamey. A young buck or a doe is quite mild in flavor. Wild pigs are illegal in this state and there are none. The hunt/game farm pigs in this state are all farm raised cross breeds and castrated.
There is a reason they do not sell boar meat in Piggly Wiggly.
Yes they eat it in Europe, but they seem to like the wild taste.
Now, some people and cultures have inured themselves to the wild/gamey taste of pigs, goats, and sheep. If so, fine, but most of us, don't like it. The reason is hormones and they come from the pig having nuts.
So if I get a female, I keep it, if not, I give it away. Guys with no taste will take them.

Hey, at least your 'sharing' your kills, right?

Nothing wrong with that.

George

Let me make another comment. The ranchers around here put our raw molasses in bath tubs for cattle at certain times of the year. The hogs flocks to these tubs. If one shoots a hog that has been on the molasses for a while, it definitely changes the flavor of the meat.

Great information here and I am just taking it all in. Love these threads, and hope to whack a smallish sow or two for the table one of these days myself. I have been told they are making their way into New Mexico with "shoot on sight" the word.

quote:

So if I get a female, I keep it, if not, I give it away. Guys with no taste will take them.

As someone who has killed and eaten at least parts of hundreds of wild hogs, I could not disagree more. True, some boars smell terrible and should be discarded, most taste just like any other wild hog when cooked right. Don't tell me I've got no taste, why I put up with Kensco and that shows how much taste, if any, I have.

If one doesn't like "game" flavored meat, why bother to process it?

I suppose you hate wild duck taste too. That's about as "gamey" as meat comes. Yummmy.

I have eaten wild boars I shot from both Florida and Texas. I have not noticed any different taste between the boars and sows at all. The biggest boar was 200 pounds, so that may count for why there is no different taste. Never eaten a Bar Hog.

I think it has a lot to do with how well you take care of them once they hit the ground, but that is true of any wild game.

quote:

As someone who has killed and eaten at least parts of hundreds of wild hogs, I could not disagree more. True, some boars smell terrible and should be discarded, most taste just like any other wild hog when cooked right.

If you can smell the carcass at 10 feet or more, let it lay.

From my experience, there won't be a problem with the majority of hogs, but if you are approaching a dead pig from down wind and you start smelling an extremely powerful odor when 10 feet or more away from the carcass, walk away.

There are too many other hogs out there. JMO.

An interesting development came up last Friday. Kuby's Wild Game Processing in Dallas called saying my hog sausage order was ready. Three shoulders, one ham, and some back meat went into making about 45lbs of chorizo, salami, breakfast sausage and Chipotle / Monterey Jack sausage; $207 worth. When I get it home and start sorting it for friends, I notice the packaging on the salami and chorizo says "venison". That's never a good sign.

I call Kuby's back the next day and they say they'll investigate. Today I called them back and they say, "Oooops!". They switched the tags on Order #2012, my order; with #2013, not my order. To resolve the problem they've agreed that:

1. We keep the incorrect venison sausage order.
2. They will duplicate the wild hog sausage order that we placed and deliver it to my house.
3. They will refund the difference between what I paid for the wrong order and what I should have paid for my original order.

I guess I'm good with that. First time I've had a Kuby's order screw-up.

Ken, glad you got it sorted. I think a lot of "stuff" goes on with a lot of game processors. Good that you have one that stands by their products.

The real question is; Where is Kuby's going to "find" the wild hog to make your missing sausage? Hmmmmmm.

quote:

Originally posted by Gatogordo:
The real question is; Where is Kuby's going to "find" the wild hog to make your missing sausage? Hmmmmmm.

On the side of the road.

George

Man you guys are harsh! I feel like I'm getting food poisoning symptoms, and I haven't even eaten any of the meat yet.

Hey, there's nothing wrong with roadkill IF it's
Fresh!

George

quote:

The real question is; Where is Kuby's going to "find" the wild hog to make your missing sausage? Hmmmmmm.

Animals other people had processed and then did not come back and pick up the meat.

Several years back, TP&W put an end to it, processors would at the end of deer season sell any game they had processed but the hunters hadn't or wouldn't pick up to the Public.

Game Warden's knew it was taking place but turned a blind eye to the activity.

Then sometime in the early/mid 2000's, some person got all bent out of shape with a processor in central Texas I believe and raised a lot of hell and TP&W had to step in and put an end to it.

quote:

Originally posted by larrys:

I think it has a lot to do with how well you take care of them once they hit the ground, but that is true of any wild game.

The above opinion applies to all meat baring animal!

If one were to shoot range fed beef and load it up in the back of a pickup and haul it around for the rest of the day after gutting it before skinning it out, and when he does skin the animal and use the same knife or with out cleaning the knife used to cut into the meat That meat will taste no better than a deer or wild hog treated the same way.

My father claimed he did not like deer meat! When I was growing up, I would see him cut the musk glans out with his knife, and then proceed to gut and quarter the deer with that same knife, then complain that the meat tasted very wild. I would say that meat tasted terrible, not wild.

Many years later I shot a very large Mule deer in New Mexico gutted on the spot without ever touching the musk glans removing them with the hide. With a clean knife I quartered the deer, placed it in fly proof bags an hung it in the shade in our high mountain camp for about
four days while the other two friends hunted their deer. Then haul it 200 miles home wrapped in a tarp with blue ice packs.
When I got home I trimmed and discarded all the fat, and boned and cut the meat up for wrapping and freezing. My mother said that meat looks really good, and said we should cook some. My mother dipped the meat in milk and flower and smother-fried it in a cast iron fry pan.
My dad came home from work for lunch and sat down to the table and began to eat like he was starving. He said that was some fine steak! My mother asked him what the meat was, and his reply was Beef steak. MY mother and I burst into uncontrollable laughter! Then my mother said I thought you didn't like deer meat!

I shoot lots of wild hogs here in the hill country of Texas and the meat is no different than the pork I buy in the butcher shop, simply it is cared for properly when shot.
Last year I shot a boar that weighed a little over 300 lbs and the meat was delicious rolled in Shake-and-bake and oven cooked. He was not castrated, and had a set of nuts the size of a brahma bull. He was a pure wild hog with narrow hind quarters, and large shoulders, and long wiry hair and 2 1/2 inch tusks out of the gum.

If he was mixed with domestic swine it certainly did not show.
........................................................................ Hunt and eat, two best things to enjoy!

quote:

Many years later I shot a very large Mule deer in New Mexico gutted on the spot without ever touching the musk glans removing them with the hide.

And that is the main component of the whole situation that too many folks do not understand. Do not mess with the musk glands, leave them alone.

Got the call today. Kuby's will be here with the hog sausage in the morning. We'll see how it goes.

Kuby's brought the wild hog sausage to my house at about 10:00am this morning. They also refunded my $20 sausage processing charge. The order was for Chipotle / Monterey Jack Smoked Sausage Links, Smoked Breakfast Links, Smoked Summer Sausage, and Chorizo. I can't complain about the way they handled their problem. We basically got two orders of meat for the price of one, plus an extra $20.

Sounds like they are willing to work with their customers.