Pig down
 

Went out last night hoping to see the big guy. I had a close call with a rattle snake I didn't see him but when I did he just turned and went the other way. Shortly after that piglets hit the corn and then a good sized one came out. I asked my buddy if he liked that one and he did. I picked out the another one we counted to 3 and both shot. It sounded like one shot 2 pigs down. We cleaned last night and smoked them today. It was delicious that's for sure. The big ones maybe fun to shot but these taste so good

I'd rather look at you right side up! Good job and those are perfect eating size!

Topgun,
Thanks for fixing the pic. I'll eating pork for a few days

Yeah, great eaters! Good job guys!

Congrats.Do wild hogs ever have a lot of ticks and parasites and I hear they really stink?

Nice piggies! Always fun to double up.
-Jake

Been my experience they have fewer ticks than Deer. Probably because they take mud baths, Ticks need to breath.

I wash mine down with an old steam Jenny I have, then I refrigerate them shortly after shooting them. Most of the external parasites abandon ship when the host is dead and cold, if you don't have access to boiling water.

Internal parasites are always a concern, avoid gut shooting them. Field dress them as cleanly as possible. I don't eat any red (under cooked) meat from Wild Hogs, I make sure they have been cooked well.

Old Boars stink (I believe it is a hormone thing), under two year old Sows usually don't. Especially if they have been eating well. I harvest my freezer meat in the fall when the Farmers are harvesting their grain. Most of those wild pigs have been eating better than I do. They can get a gamy taste when they are eating winter forage, I can taste the Acorns. I always supposed it was the Tannin in the nuts.

I prefer Wild Hog meat over Deer meat generally. Most of the Deer I've eaten have been Mule Deer out of the South West, they eat a lot of Sage and can get a strong taste. The Roe deer they have here generally eat really well (like the Wild Boar) and IMO are better than Beef.

In other words a lot depends on what the Hogs have been eating.

I have gotten a couple of hogs with a HEAVY tick load and one that was loaded with fleas. However, as noted above, most of the hogs I shoot are pretty clean. Some have just few or no immediately visible ticks.

Really stink? That varies widely. Some have a very strong smell. If not too bloody, I like to rub my hunting coveralls on a smelly hog for cover scent. The smelly hogs are USUALLY boars. Some hogs don't have much smell at all. I have shot some little boars that smelled horrible and a couple really big ones that didn't smell much worse than an outdoor dog, but often as MudderChuck noted, the big ones are pretty horrible.

Congratulations on the hog!

Keep knocking 'em down!