Good Or Bad meat?
 

I was talking to a guy at work the other day but the convo was interupted so i didn't get a chance to get a answer about this. He used to hunt, or at least he claims anyway, but he said if a hog doesn't go down right away or it squeals when getting hit with a bullet, then the meat is probably bad. Can anyone verify this?

RE: Good Or Bad meat?
 

sounds like he is pulliing the wool over your eyes. i hunt them w/ bow and they squealed when i stuck them, i've also tracked for 3 hours or more and they still tasted good to me.

RE: Good Or Bad meat?
 

Well, in that case just about any hog you get with dogs would be bad. I think this guy didn't know what he was talking about, or maybe he just didn't have time to finish whatever point he was making.

RE: Good Or Bad meat?
 

Sounds like baloney to me!Only thing I've heard about the meat is tips for caring for it,hogs are walking dumpsters so getting them bled and cooled is best.Kill them,bleed them and get the hide of soon as possible and should help...hang them by the hind quarters so fluids drain away from the mass of meat.

RE: Good Or Bad meat?
 

he has never been hog hunting or never killed one. we hunt with dogs and i have not had a bad one yet

RE: Good Or Bad meat?
 

My experience in general with any kind of meat, the less stress the animal was in when it died, the better it tastes. Not sure why, though. Maybe because when the animal gets excited, the blood rushes to the muscles to deliver oxygen?

RE: Good Or Bad meat?
 

I've heard this many times, but I haven't found one yet and we ran dogs for over 45yrs!:)

RE: Good Or Bad meat?
 

The main thing is how the meat was handled. We always ice ours down for about 5 days and drain away the blood.

RE: Good Or Bad meat?
 

I was talking to the guy again yesterday and now he said he hasn't hunt before so I'm trying to avoid him...wierdo [&:]

RE: Good Or Bad meat?
 

the adrenaline running through a wounded animal will increase its toughness of meat. that is why you try to bring it down with one fast killing shot.

RE: Good Or Bad meat?
 

i've killed hogs with dogs and guns, even my bow.never had one taste rank..well the first one but thats becuase i kept the fat on the meat when i cooked it, OMG it was like sticking your head in a boar hogs butt, lol......it's all in the way you prepare the meat.

RE: Good Or Bad meat?
 

Yea, its true. Ive also got some ocean front property I hunt in Arizona.:D:D

Meat is relative to what the animal has been eating and the condition of the animal. As already mentioned, clean fat and simue before cooking to keep the meat from tasteing gamey. I like to age my meat in a cooler with ice. That way it helps bleed the meat out better.

RE: Good Or Bad meat?
 

I still have yet to take my 1st wild hog, but I did spend a few years in the meat business selling pork. (And I also stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night...).

The hog buyers at our company looked for barrows & gilts (neutered males & sexually immature females) from 230 lbs. to 260 lbs. Beyond that weight range, the animals picked up far more fat than meat. Note that these hogs have been genetically refined for meat production over many generations, so wild hogs arelikely tobe at theirpeak for consumption at a lower weight.

At the plants, the animals wereled into progressively smaller pens until they were in a chute that was being lightly showered with water. All efforts were made to avoid using slapsticks or electronic prods to move the animals along. The hogswere thenstunned with 750V to the base of the head & laid on their sides, where both jugulars were opened with a double-edged knife to begin bleeding them out.

From here, the hogs werehung by one hind foot to facilitate bleed-out, & taken by conveyor to a long trough of boiling water where they were dunked for about 60 seconds to loosen the hair. The hair wasscraped, & the carcasses were taken to the "cut floor", where they were split with hydraulically run circular saws along the brisket bone, and all the entrails were removed by workers with knives. The carcasses were then electronically measured for fat:bone:lean ratios, & sent to the coolers for 24 hours before being broken down further. From stunning to the coolertook under 30 minutes.

Some lessons to be learned from the meat industry:
1) Don't eat anything that still has its nuts, or has given birth. Webutcher steers & barrows, notbulls & boars. Ifyou want to eat a wild boar, go for a younger one. Go ahead & shoot the bigger ones, but don't expect the best meat quality.
2) Try to keep the animals calm before you process them. Even butchers in the grocery store can see the result of poor treatment prior to butchering at the plants, because there will be "spotting" in the meat from broken blood vessels. (This can also come from overzealous stunning). So chasing a bighorn sheep over 3 mountains before you shoot him isn't doing any favors for the meat quality.
3) Get them bled out & cooled ASAP. This has more to do with the bacteria count than anything else. The meat companies get extra shelf life from this practice, but it also translates into better flavor.

I bid you good eating!

FC

RE: Good Or Bad meat?
 

Thanks F.C.
Thats some good info.;)