Are wild hogs good eating?
 

I know that is a dumb question, but I know nothing about hog hunting, so I'll start with that. I will say that I'm an experienced and successful DIY elk, deer, and pronghorn hunter. I'm not a trophy hunter -- I like the experience of a good hunt and the excellent meat.

I'm interested in finding out about hog hunting. For me, the motivation would be to obtain high quality pork meat to eat . . . in addition to the rewards of the hunting experience.

Is wild hog meat essentially the same as commercial pork meat? Better? Does it have ample fat -- as do commercial hogs -- so the meat isn't too dry? Do you cook it like regular pork? Are some sizes of hogs good to eat (maybe small hogs) wihle other sizes of hogs are undesirable eating (maybe large, older boar hogs)?

I live near Dallas, and from what I hear there are lots of wild hogs in Texas and they cause a lot of property damage. Under these circumstances, it ought to be easy and not too expensive, I would think, to hunt hogs.

Is there a season for hog hunting or can it be done all year long in Texas? In deer and elk hunting, the most productive hunting times are early morning first light hunting and later afternoon last light hunting. When and how do you hunt hogs? Any particular time of day?

Personally I don’t eat the big boars; normally I take off the back strap and give it to the Mexicans that work for my son (they love it) to me big boars have a rank smell and taste, understand they haven’t been castrated like domestic pigs. With hogs, I've found it is best to gut it as soon as it hits the ground and take it back to camp and quarter it and put in my big ice chest and keep it there for a week changing the water and the ice until the water is clear; then I process it. Now with a smaller pig 100 pounds or less I don’t quarter up I cook them whole, and they are delicious, sometimes we cook them up at camp in a pit.
Wild hogs are like any other hog; they will eat anything that doesn’t eat them first. I’ve killed large boars and left them on the ground and the next day the only thing left the skull and some of the bones and lots of pig tracks. They eat acorns and will root for vegetation.
Feral hogs actually have less cholesterol than the chicken you buy in the grocery store. Several years ago I went on a diet consisting only of wild game and when I traveled (which at time I do spend a lot of time away from home) I would eat only grilled fish; I got down to 175 pounds, now that I have gotten away from that I’m up to 250. I will get back on this diet by the end of hunting season this year.
I actually can’t tell a lot of difference between domestic pork and wild pork other than the cuts, since I process my own, I don’t make pork chops, most of it I grind up and mix with venison and make sausage. I will take most of the butts and hams and cook them in a smoker or a crock pot.

You will not be disappointed with feral hog meat; as long as you care for it properly after the harvest.
If you look hard enough you can find hog hunts not far from you that are priced right; go on Craigslist, I've found some good deals there.

usually i can get the back strap and tender loins to taste like "store bought" pork...but usually every other part doesnt look, smell or taste like store pork. wild hog is moving all day in search of food, while yer store bought pork sits in its own feces all of its life.

Bottom line, yes.

then eats it!:)

i've had wild pig and it was pretty good smoked. i guess it depends how you cook it. and like posted above, i have always heard that pretty much any pig over 100 pounds isn't worth it.

Visited family this weekend and my uncle is throwing bags of pork at me to take home. Two weeks ago he shot an 800 lbs boar, so needless to say he has a plenty of meat to go around. Some of the best damn meat Ive ever had. The sausage is especially good.


Im going with them next year so hopefully Ill have my own pig to bring home. :)

not true, people who pay per pound want em over 175lbs...i dont eat em over that so it works out good.

Boar hunting is generally the practice of hunting wild boars, but can also extend to feral pigs and peccaries. A full sized boar is a large strong animal armed with sharp tusks which defends itself strongly. Boar hunting has often been a test of bravery. I like it.

Sandwich Platters

i trap and shoot a large number of wild hogs. Killed a few boars that approached 400 pounds. All the "strong tasting" hog meat i've ever seen was rotten or tainted hog meat. Yep, the meat from a big boar hog can be tough.

You should see how some guys care for a hog after it is killed. They get dirt and hair on the meat, burst the bladder and get urine all over the inside, they get semen on the meat, etc. If the hog is really dirty i take it by the carwash before field dressing.

When the temperature is 80 degrees one has about four hours to get a hog carcass cooled before is starts to spoil. There is a butcher in OK who has a reputation for allowing hog carcasses to spoil in his cooler. Gave a friend a big well cared for sow, he took it to that butcher who let it hang in his cooler for over two weeks before butchering. The meat was spoiled.

Wild hog tastes HORRIBLE!
Don't eat it!
Shoot as many hogs as you can, give 'em to me and I'll get rid of the meat.

all i can say is wow...as far as letting it hang, when the rigor goes away, that's the time to cut it up. as far as a car wash goes, alot of those recycle water. usually only the spot free rinse is fresh water, that's why it comes out so slow. i didnt know that fer years. wait til ya get home to skin em if ya aint got a cooler big enough, that way the meat dont get dirty.

dont be throwing that farm raised pig in there actin like its wild lol...never seen a hog that size with that much fat gathered in one area lol :busted:

The car wash i use to wash hogs is 100 percent fresh water. i'm friends with the guy who owns it.

The hog's diet has a huge effect on the flavor of meat. If you can get hogs that have fed mostly in peanut, sweet potato fields, or fruit / nut orchards ...prepare for some broke da mouth good eating.

Also, bad recipes and poor cooking have ruined a lot of game meat.

Good meat + bad cook(ing) = bad meal

I grilled some wild boar pork chops today....damn dat sum b*tch was good; that and the roasted potatoes made me a happy person. The boar was taken this past June on a hunt. It weighed around 170 lbs.

With pigs, smaller and younger is better.

The bigger and older it is, the worse the musky odor and taste.

sounds the buzzer...not true...a 200lb'er is just as good as a 50 lb'er

How much diff does wild boar taste from store bought big? I mean if I shot a boar(say a 100 pounder) and had pork chops and bacon made out of it from my local butcher would I be able to tell a big difference between that and my local store bought pork chop and bacon?

Wild hog, IMO, tastes like a mixture of pork and beef. The meat RED. Store bought is pale pink.

As others have said, so long as it wasn't a big boar hog and you took care not to spill bladder, it will be alright.

The best preparation for hog is smoked. Apple wood is excellent. Hickory is OK too if you do them with a rub.

I shot a big'un 28 years ago (325 lbs), cleaned it immediately and well and had it on ice within 4 hrs. I sent it frozen to the butcher who made ,among other things, bone-in pork roasts that my wife cooked like a beef roast, with cream of mushroom and dry onion soup mix. Tenderest and best tasting meat we've ever had. Gonna retire in 2 years and spend lots of time hunting hogs.

I skin, gut and quarter my hogs and soak it in a mixture of ice, water and vinegar for three to four day. I drain and replace ice, wate and vinegar every 24 hours. For the first two or three days there will be a lot of blood in the mixture but by third or fourth day it will just be lightly pink in color. This process removed a lot of blood and the "gamey" smell and taste and makes the meat tasty.

When a trapped hog is killed i hang it head down and cut its throat to drain the blood. When hunting my dragging line is thrown over a limb and the hog hoisted up as far as possible before cutting its throat.

I'm no expert, but I shoot and eat maybe a half-dozen hogs a year. The largest I've shot was about 220 Lbs and while it tasted okay, it was tough. However, I cooked some of the meat in a pressure cooker and then it fell apart. The rest I ground up and made into burgers, spaghetti sauce, lasagna, meat loaf, sausage etc. and enjoyed every bit. At some point (IMHO > 150Lbs) they can get too tough are better ground up.
Hog meat should be cleaned and put on ice quickly. It should not be 'hung' like beef or venison, the fat in hogs starts going rancid pretty fast. Some folks deliberately keep them on ice for a few days, being careful to drain the water and replenish the ice frequently. I don't do that as a standard practice, although I have kept a few on ice for as long as two days before cutting them up and packing them into the freezer.
I have not yet had one that needed to be discarded. I've eaten every one I've shot. Like I said the largest was around 220Lbs, the next largest was ~175Lbs. The average weight probably runs ~100Lbs. As for taste, the meat is not as white as commercial pork, it looks more like beef. To me it tastes a lot like beef also. If you cook it and season it with salt and pepper (and whatever else you like) I'd compare it in taste to a chuck roast or a round steak. It's not sirloin, but it's pretty good.
On the other hand, slice the backstrap into medallions, wrap a piece of bacon around them and throw them on the grill . . . and you've got something really tasty!

the seaon for the hunting of it is not fixed you can hunt them in whatever season you like them most.

Wild hog is better than anything bought in the store..
no growth hormone shots...no steroids ....

I like wild hog much more than domestic. Don't get me wrong, we raise pigs and get some of the best pork available. I still prefer wild.

wild hogs don't taste a lot like farm raised pork they kind of got a taste of their own. we kill a few every month during deer season but in mississippi you can hunt them anytime and we do, when hunting in the warm and hot months you got to get them cool fast. you got to have a want to attitude to clean and butcher wild hogs because they are crawling in lice and ticks,like some others said get them to a car wash and clean the crap out of them quick. wild hogs don't have hardly any fat at all. i keep mine on ice for a few days keeping the water drained before eating. if you see a sow and boar are chasing her don't shoot her leave her alone and shoot the boars. sows in heat have a strong taste that will make your eyes water if you try cooking them in the house. big hogs are tougher to eat as with any game but piglets are the hardest to skin sort of like trying to skin a football. wild hogs come out in the daytime but most are night feeders. they are some of the hardest critters to kill, bullet placement is key, either a heart lung,spine or behind the ear head shot is needed. shoot them to far back and you will have a hard time finding them if you ever do. the biggest one i have killed was a 300#boar it had loins big as my leg and was the best eating hog ever. but nothing beats piglets in the crock-pot.

Since the original post was in dallas. I've hunted feral hogs in the middle of the metroplex on core land. You might have to do some digging, but there's lots of spots within 2 hours drive every direction. Call a farmer and you might get to help him protect his crops. Last I heard was that there were over a million hogs in Texas.

I just eat them smoked or in a crock pot. I also soak mine to get the blood out. The taste you get will really involve your preparation and cooking skills. I've never even tried one that was over 100lbs. I always heard they weren't good. Maybe I'll give it another go.

I really doubt you'll find anything like bacon at the store on a wild hog. It's not a "natural" thing to find even though it tastes like heaven.

The smaller the hog the better they taste. Why? because they are more tender. As for rules, they are open season 24/7/365 in Texas, just need a hunting license.

Javelina!
 

2 Years ago we managed to get a Javelina in northern Arizona .
We didn't know what to do with it so we bought this Spice mix from Spice N Slice. ( www.spicenslice.com ) they had a spice mix called javelin helpr . a mix designed to camouflage the gamey flavors . we ground the whole pig adding 5% pork fat and mixed it up with these spices .. which changed the whole thing to be actually great . this pig didn't last us much time after flavoring . the pig before that .. was just to gamey and it went bad over time . .

First of all...the only dumb qusetion is the one that is not asked!
A real treat

I have been hunting hogs in Florida for over 1/2 a century. I have learned a great deal of respect for this brute with huge teeth, an unbelievable nose, and an attitude...all bad.
I have been chased by them and had the living daylights knocked out of me by them. About fifteen years ago I decided enough was enough. I switched to a 45/70; they chase me no more.
Properly prepared the wild hog, even big boars, can be very tasty.
Tricks of the trade:
Particularly if it weather is warm, say anywhere approaching 70, it's of paramount importance to dress and ice down the hog ASAP. I then like to soak the meat for 3-4 days in a mixture of ice water, plenty of ice, salt, and apple cider vinegar. If bloody, change the water several times. De-boned our trophy is ready for the vacuum sealer. Nothing but quality:


NEXT UP: On larger hogs, 100 + pounds, 8-10 hours in a slow cooker works wonders.

In a stew with onions, potatoes, carrots, etc. our big boy provides a meal fit for a king.
Home made country pork sausage. Unbelievable!

My all time favorite: Young porkers 60-75 pounds on the grill. Fantastic!



The wild hog, male or female, can be very tasty. I would suggest being extremely skeptical of one that has been allowed to get too hot, or has been run by dogs. Other than that, the hog hunter is in for a real treat.
Bob Harbison Florida Outdoor Writers Association

Great info guys. Thanks!