All pork (even from Kroger) should be completely cooked to kill trichinosis.

Don

BR

I raise some pigs and after the boars reach sexual maturity or about 140 lbs ,their hormones kick in and screw up the meat. This phenomenon is called "Boar Taint" and Sauenjager is correct. The meat will have a strong odor and flavor. May I suggest using this animal for sausage. The spices and flavorings added to it will hide the " boar taint" is is quite good. Chill the meat until it is 40 degrees F throughout before grinding and it will be easier. If it is a lean hog, which wild ones usually are, you will need to add 20% fat to your sausage mix. If the hog has an off odor to it buy the fat from a local cutter of grocery store and do not use the boar fat. You should be able to buy casings from a local butcher or even a grocery store (I buy mine from Publix Supermarkets) for $10/lb. Soak the casings in h2o overnight. Start off with 1.5 lbs of casing. A little goes a long way. Spicy Italian with fennel seeds is my personal favorite. Any questions just ask. If you can post a pic of it I would like to see it. I'll try to tell you what kind it is.

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"A school of Tuna led by a Shark can beat a school of Sharks led by a Tuna"

[This message has been edited by ssleefl (edited 09-19-2001).]

Most of the pork diseases such as tricinosis are from slopping the pigs and does not occur in truly wild populations.

With pigs, it doesn't really matter what the temperature is, you have to gut him and get him open where he will cool off quickly or the meat will ruin rapidly. It was about 95 degrees when I shot that one and we gutten him immediately and had to drag him about 300 yards before we could get a truck in there. The drag almost did both of us in. As I said, in spite of the ambient temperature the meat was great. Absolutely the best chops I have ever had.

[This message has been edited by Gatogordo (edited 09-20-2001).]

Gato, I would like to see a "fat" wild boar. It must live behind the day old bread store or smoke a lot of dope and drink a lot of beer. 260 lbs is bucher/market weight. I'm not saying it's not true, I'm just wondering how wild it really was. How did you know how old it was. I keep asking mine and they never tell me. In jest of course.

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"A school of Tuna led by a Shark can beat a school of Sharks led by a Tuna"

He was coal black and definitely a wild hog. Trust me, there aren't any pig farms in W Texas that I know of, and certainly none in this area. As a matter of fact, they catch them in that area and send them back E to the put and take hunting preserves for all you Eastern sports to shoot and to New York and Europe for Texas Wild Hog afficionados.

Finally, he had at least an inch and a half of fat all around him and thicker on the shoulders, now I don't know what you call fat, but the guy with me pronounced him one of the fatest he had ever seen, so argue with him if you want to. I'll send you his email address since you seem to be our resident pig expert.

My ranch has a good many of them on it, but they are almost 100% nocturnal. They feed all summer in my neighbors 1000 acres of corn or so, and you can bet your butt that they are fat and wild too.

I guess it will be awile before they come back again.

The property owner has a large number of water holes on his property. Mark Twain National Forest is on three sides of his farm. I guess the pigs hang out in the woods during the day when it is warm and then come out to drink and feed at night when it is cool. There are also a few fruit trees around 100 yards behind his house. I have seen a lot of their tracks around those trees.

From my experience a really heavy odour of the boar can�t be hide with any herbs. Good for dogs no more.
For the others:
Smoking the meat is very good and all other kind of methods to prepare them. It is not easy to find better meat.

But here we have to check all for trichinosis and every year two or three (out of thousands) of them were always found with this disease. If you cook it then there is no problem.

Maize is their most famous food. If you have any Maize-fields around, then you know where they are. Here in our place normally they stay in the maize-fields during the day because this is the most quiet place and nobody bothers them. During the night, they visit the meadows digging for mice and worms or taking fruits.

If you have some tar from the beeches (I do not know the english word for) and paint with this the bottom of a living fir tree near a water hole, you will have the best place to lure them.

BR

Throw that fat away and buy some farm-raised fat for sausage. Did the meat have the strong boar smell?

Sauenjager,

Welcome to the site.

Is that "boarhunter" in English? It sure sounds like you know your business. The word you wanted was sap (if thin) or resin (if thick and sticky like tar).

Your English is a lot better than my German.

Don

This was my introduction to hunting at night and I need some equipment since I won't always have a telephone pole mounted floodlight nearby. I like using a scope. I need a laser sight and/or a powerful light that is portable and I can turn on without taking my hands off of the rifle, once I am aimed in on a target.

Any of you experienced night hunters have any good suggestions

Your translation of the name is correct.

@Robert

Over here the hunting at night is allowed, but without artificial light. So we always have to wait for the moon. This explains also the reason for the big scopes from the European manufacturers some with the lighted dot in the cross of the hair.
Use a red light. Pigs are not able to see the red light. So you can light them and they won�t escape. That�s an experience from a lot of hunters here. (smiling on) But you know it is not allowed to use artificial light here. (smiling off) Some do not know the law it seems.
During moon no light is necessary. If they are engaged to dig out some mice or roots you can walk to them to a distance of 40 of 50 yards without problems. Only conditions are the wind and you should not carrying any noise making things (jingling ammunition f. e.)

BR

[This message has been edited by Sauenj�ger (edited 09-21-2001).]

The best lighting equipment is a partner.

Have him stand at least 3' to one side of you with the light just ahead of the scope so it doesn't blind you.

I used to use a Q-Beam and a sealed 12V battery. The old batteries out the safety lights in commercial buildings are perfect for the job and usually easily available --and free.

Don

None of my business, but I would carefully read the Mo hunting regulations. In many places it is illegal to use a spotlight and a centerfire. I don't know about Missouri, but I would be sure before I proceeded.

Hog hunting is the most popular of all hunting here in Australia.

Now spotlihting is quite legal here so we all have some experience.
If it is legal look at a Lighforce Blitz 170 spotlight with a sealed battery pack, with a mate holding it is ideal, although the experience here is that as soon as the hog gets light on him he'll run like blazes. The way you;re doing it at present is not a bad method, use an 8x56 scope to really gather the light and you're laughing...our German friend is right on the money, low light scopes are very popular here as well.

Have fun, they're great sport, fast action under a light and always hard to hit when they're running.

Also 300pounds is a big pig, but 250# in grain crop areas isn't that uncommon here, they really blow out fast on crops or in the sugar crop areas, although tusk sizes are small.

Good hunting

Ozhunter

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com

Chuss!

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Good huntin', shootin', and spear chuckin',
RAB

With the red light, that's what I told above.

@Jeff

I am between Stuttgart and Munich. So we have no deer. Only a lot of wild pig and roe deer (apart of foxes, bagders..). In comparison to your country a poor place for hunting I believe.
But I am in the same situation like you. The forest guys are engaged with the wood. But I am not in a government area, I hunt in a private area. The earl is only shooting the trophies. I am not interested about the bones so it is a quiet nice place for me.
I think you know the German kind of hunting system and you can assume, that we are behind the wild pig as hard as possible that we have not to pay too much to the farmers.

BR

quote:

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Originally posted by Jeff S:

I lived in a kleine dorf...Marktsteft am Main. I speak Deutsch well enough but because I lived in Frankonia my German is Frankische Bauer Dialekt! (German Hillbilly)
Three things I miss about Germany are die Jagd, richtige Schwarzbrot, und die freundliche Leute.

Chuss!

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Ah Goddela!

Aner onderer ous Fronken. Ich wor ouch do in den ochtziger Johren on der Universid�d Pomperch - Germanistik.

(Oh G... Someone else from Frankonia. I was there too in the middle of the eighties, at the University og Bamberg, Germanistics)

It�s a nice place, but I didn�t hunt there. As you I miss the black rye bread, the people - and the smoked beer, das Rauchbier.

Fritz K.

All my hogs have been around 300 lbs and none of their meat stunk or tasted gamey. I think a lot of the problems with wild game flavor comes from improper handling (not gutted and cooled promptly) or else males in the rut.

They say a dog will not eat a caribou in the rut in Alaska. Non-rut caribou bulls are good eating.

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Good huntin', shootin', and spear chuckin',
RAB