Two questions on hogs
 

1. Can anyone give advice on how to bait them? I have a fair quantity of freezer-burnt deer meat, can I use this? Is there anything I should do to it, or just heap it in a pile?


2. Do you eat wild hogs? I've heard that even domestic hogs are one of the more dangerous animals to eat, you have to really be thorough in making sure the meat COOKS all the way through and at high temperature.

I can not comment on baiting hogs much other then I know some guys that really like to use corn with a couple packets of strawberry jello mixed into it.

The "dangerous pork" you hear about is pork that has trichinosis.
It can be killed by either keeping the meat frozen at 5 degrees for approx 30 days or you can cook it to an internal temp of 165.

I am going on my first hog hunt here in april I have done tons of research and I plan on eating my hog if I am lucky enough to kill one. I hope this helps some I included a good link on trichinosis.

http://www.askthemeatman.com/pork_Trichinosis.htm

Try taking feed corn, adding a bit of yeast and old milk. Put it in the sun for a couple of weeks (down wind from anyone you like). When you can't take the smell any longer, put some of it around and see where they hit it, .... then put out some more etc. Wild pork is outstanding. It's quality decreases with age and size (they become "sausage hogs"). 150-200lb sow is as good as it gets (well maybe a 30lb piglett is better). Enjoy.

Yes, hogs will eat hogs! in fact hogs will eat just about anything, but you'll probably round up some yotes with raw meat.

I'm sure a hog would eat deer meat if it was hungry enough but I wouldn't use that as bait. Nothing beats good ol corn for baiting hogs. And yes, they're fine to eat. Handle their meat just like you would store bought pork.

Dealing with Trichinosis
 

You do want to be careful when cooking wild hog meat. Always assume that it has trichinosis, and cook it accordingly. Cooking to 137°F will kill trichinosis, so 140° is usually considered the absolute minimum internal temperature. However, because you may not be measuring the coolest spot, or your thermometer might have a slight error, 150° is really the true minimum. If you're a bit paranoid, which I am, :eek: cook it to no less than 160°F in the center just to be certain. I use a digital quick-reading thermometer, which cost maybe $10-15 at my local grocery store.
http://www.health.state.ny.us/diseas...fact_sheet.htm

Wild hog meat is some of the best meat you can get. As far as baiting plain old corn works great. Even though the hogs will eat meat you will attract more buzzards, coyotes, and other varmints than you will hogs.