The Hunting Beast

How is wild pig on the table? I've heard everything from its awesome to horrible. I'd love to shoot some wild pork too one of these days.

For me it depends greatly on how it is taken care of right after it is killed. Skinned and Gutted as quickly as possible is important. I personally have shot very few boars for the simple reason that they are more gamey. A 70 lbs sow is phenomenal if properly handled. I know guys that soak in buttermilk and all that jazz. I get it skinned, gutted and on ice as soon as humanly possible. And corn fed taste better then swamp pigs. That said even some of the biggest boars I have killed where still edible when castrated, skinned, gutted and iced quickly. Pigs that ride in the truck back to the house intact 30 min after an hour recovery at 80f+ here in FLare destined to become crappy sausage.

I used to shoot a few before my wife and I stopped eating pork altogether. Out of 15 or so pigs/hogs, I never had one that tasted bad or gamey. Used to take em straight to a tree or skinning rack and quarter them.

We would pressure cook it and then do whatever we were going to do with it. You do get a thick yellow syrup in the pressure cooker...one of the reasons we stopped eating pork.

I do believe that they die faster from an arrow compared to a gun. Shot one with a 30-06 and boy did it take for ever to die - shot thru the boiler room. Arrow shot hogs went about 50 yards, even my biggest one (well over 200#) only went about 50 yards before rolling over.

Totally disagree that hogs dies quicker with an arrow than a gun. All but one on the hogs I killed were shot in the head or neck, all but one died right now, I killed the first one with a behind the shoulder shot last year and he didn't even kick, the first one I shot that didn't kick. One I shot through the neck this Feb. looked dead but when I walked up to take pictures he almost got me, had to draw my handgun and shoot in one motion, he died at my feet. Hemorrhage by arrow is not nearly as fast as brain or spine destroyed by bullet. Additionally, a large caliber bullet through the lungs will kill them every bit as fast as an arrow if not faster.

We'll have to agree to disagree.

I can only got off my experience. I don't follow the shoot 'em behind the ear philosophy - would rather they bleed out some. Based on my experience and of the pigs I have shot, they died faster from an arrow than a 30-06. My experience is limited to the wild FL hogs, primarily in the 100-200# bracket.

Medium-large caliber bullets to the ear hole are almost always a drop em where they stand. Large caliber body shots they can cover some ground afterwards. An arrow anywhere from the lungs to a high gut shot will take them down fairly quick. Shot two boars around 150# during deer season this year. One in the lungs the other high gut. High gut in hopes he would run off somewhere far from my stand and die. Didn't make it 10 yards from where i stuck him, epic fail

Rich M wrote:We would pressure cook it and then do whatever we were going to do with it. You do get a thick yellow syrup in the pressure cooker...one of the reasons we stopped eating pork.

Can you elaborate on this? I have a love/hate relationship with pork; love the taste of BBQ pork but sometimes if I over-indulge it sends my GI system on a rollercoaster to he11.

I'm not exactly sure what you are asking. Pressure cooking the wild pork would tenderize it and then we'd usually BBQ it.

The yellow syrup did not have any odor I remember, just a strong yellow colored "juice" - think apple juice but thicker. I really have no idea what it actually was from or if it is harmful or anything like that.

We don't eat pork anymore out of choice, the syrup was just one of those weird things. (I get a clear watery looking juice when cooking venison...)

Wannabelikedan wrote:One in the lungs the other high gut. High gut in hopes he would run off somewhere far from my stand and die. Didn't make it 10 yards from where i stuck him, epic fail

Guy I hunted with did this too - shot 2 large boars in the gut, hoping for them to run off and they didn't go far at all. He was shooting a 270. Pigs were 250-300# class.

I have made lots of wild pork, both in the smoker and in the oven. It has always tasted like pork and I never found it so tough I had to pressure cook it at the start and I have eaten hogs up to 160 lbs in weight, both sows and boars. However what ever works for you. Tufrthnails hit it ion the head when he said a lot depends on how the animal was cared for after death. Everyone of the ones I killed were washed off, gutted and skinned and put in a walk in cooler as soon as they got back to camp, which isn't very long after they are shot. For the guys from the northern part of the country, If you want a successful hunt you must go to where the hogs are plentiful, the members here have give good suggestions on where to go. No sense taking a long road trip and then going to a marginal state to hunt hogs because it is closer than the better states and then be disappointed in the results.

Anywhere in the south with cheap out of state licenses and public access are the best bet. Here in Texas, we have a lot of hogs, but our out of state fees are horrendous.

You typically cover quite a bit of ground when pig hunting. They can't sweat, so they overheat easily in warm weather. This makes it pretty easy to narrow them down, because it concentrates themin creek and river bottoms for most of the day. Keep an eye out for fresh wallows, rooting and rubbing trees. (They will rub the mud off on tree bark after wallowing) their eyesight is not the best, but they can smell and hear dang well. Try to slowly work into the wind through areas and keep an ear out. They are very social and vocalize quite often.

Here is a group I ran into in a river flood plane last summer while pre-season prepping for whitetail. Turn the volume up and you can hear just how loud they can be. The boar is lightly vocalizing at the beginning. He was about 180-200 and I estimated about 30 pigs including piglets.
https://youtu.be/BC-2fz10w7E

I always get acouple of these Bugers after deer season. I usually trap em cause I'm picky about which ones I want to eat. I've found for my taste buds a 120-150lb live weight sow works best. I cook em whole on the smoker. Anything under 75lb seems to be a lil mushy and greasy for my taste.

Born and raised in FL, have killed many hogs from hunting or trapping. Only ever had 2 boars that were so rank they didn't make it to the table. When one is killed we process them out and let the meat sit in a cooler of ice for a week. It is bleeding them out by draining the water off and re adding ice daily.

Now as far as hunting them goes, like mentioned before you need to look for areas with water. Usually year round they won't be far from it. They wallow to stay cool, but also to help with the bugs. Find the thickest cover you can near water and food and you are golden. They will bed like deer will in the high grass swamp at the base of small clumps of trees or bushes, or in thick palmetto patches. They can and will move at anytime of the day but best movement is first thing in the morning or right before dark. In Florida they are considered a nuisance animal and can be hunted year round with no size or bag limit

Easiest time to get on em for me is right after deer season. Jan-March generally food is pretty scarce by then and the locals have quit throwing corn. Summer and fall time of year is pretty tough for day time movement. The ones I've seen lately hole up in water all day and likely to travel anywhere at night making for tough hunting. If I were to do it outside the above time frame I would bait em and hunt em at night with a green light. Might be worth just paying to hunt em over a established bait pile if you want good odds of seeing anything.