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!

Congrats on the double smak'em!!!! I took the wife back to Tx some years back, crystal city area, and we hunted hogs on a buddys place. We went to a box blind he had between 2 ponds. He dropped us off about a 1/4mi short of the blind and we walked in. We get there and I set my pack off and pull out my 45 and put in a mag of birdshot loads. She looks at me silly and I turn on my headlamp and start lookn the edge of the wooden box blind over. I start to open the door as she starts to go in and I told her to wait. About that time we hear 1 inside. I creep the door open and he is in the corner right where she would have had to step to allow me in to sit in the chairs.
After the noise and dust settles, and he is outside the box, she didn't seem to want to hunt anymore!!!!!

That's crazy but good thing you looked first; I'm wearing snake boots regardless of the heat from now on

With having grown up in Texas most my life, I have learned to look where I cant see before I commit to it. Plus he told me that he hadn't hunted that blind for some time as that's why we were going there. It was so hot already that we already had on shorts and t-shirts at 0500 just because of the heat.

I know what you mean. The smaller ones (~85 Lbs) seem the best, in that they're big enough to be worth the trouble but young enough to be pretty tender. Still, when I'm out I tend to go crazy, and I almost always shoot the biggest one I can. I figure if the meat's too tough it can always go through the grinder.

I generally put the leg quarters on my electric smoker for about six hours, and they come out tender enough for me.

Keep after 'em !!
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