Eating and preparing wild hog?????HELP!

[bobke]

Hydro-
Where exactly west of SA are you hunting?

[hydrotech]

around Eagle Pass??? never been there before

[bobke]

My company used to have an 18000 acre lease in Maverick County-you are going to be amazed at the amount of game you will see. Hogs, javelina, turkey, deer, quail, etc. We even had an old Pony Express station on the place-lots of interesting pieces to be found with a little looking around. You're heading to 'hog heaven'-enjoy the hunt.

[hydrotech]

ahhh that is awesome! i just realized my buddy works in Eagle Pass but the ranch is in Dilley, texas. I am meeting him in Dilley.
hopefully thats still good!

[bobke]

Hog central!!

[Bennybone]

HT -

Not sure how many night hunts you've been on but depth perception is different, so I like to review this video before the hunt to remind myself of shot technique.

Enjoy

With commentary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH27qZtzX...g&index=26

Without commentary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnqptBYfESI

Not my Video

BB

[txgunner00]

ok those are good points...so i think my plan is to hang my kill up and skin it without gutting. then cut the backstraps off, remove the meat from hind legs as one big boneless ham, then remove the front shoulders....throw the rest of carcass away...if the ribs and belly aren't much use. Then put meat in coolers to take home...sound like a good plan? I leave today for TX!

That's pretty much how I do it. Don't forget the tender loins. They can be removed "surgically" with out any mess. The only time I open the guts is to recover a bullet.

[hm2 clark]

This is how we smoke a pig here.

[hm2 clark]

Sorry about the picture guys, my kid had to post these for me. Pictures are a couple of hogs killed with a 130gr 6.5 Sicorocos (1 a clear spine shot) . The smoker and the food.

[hill.brandonj]

Hydro. Where bouts in Missouri you from. I'm near cape girardeau. I also will be going to tecas at the invite of an insurance adjuster acquaintance who actually live in a place says is 15 hours away! Cannot think of the name of town he said though. I'll think of it about the time I post this.

[sneaky one]

hm2, what's that first pic of in the smoker? Chops-roast?--Baby back ribs? Droooll....

[sneaky one]

Tx-that's good advice-on hog meat recovery methods-yet no gutting,-guys out west have done that method on elk.= Safe quick, and sterile.
I need to start hunting southward!

[denimdeerslayer]

Don't shoot the big one if you want something eatable and nothing with balls. Up to about 80lbs max. Clean head shot or in the base of the ear.

[Kikn]

They are typically too lean for ribs, bacon, etc. I buddy of mine from where I grew up runs hogs with dogs in the river bottoms. He will occasionally castrate and release boars in the 120 lb range with the hopes to re-capture & slaughter them several months later. It's amazing how quickly they fatten up when they aren't chasing tail all the time. Talk about some fine eating...:p

There is a danger in doing that. If you are running dogs, the now much larger boar smells like a sow, and the dogs will think it doesn't have big cutters, when it really does. Boars have a very distinctive smell, good way to get your dog jacked up.

[Nukes]

...He will occasionally castrate and release boars... It's amazing how quickly they fatten up when they aren't chasing tail all the time. Talk about some fine eating...:p

Dang!

[joker31]

Hog hunting here in florida is more than likely saving hundreds of dogs from being used to fight each other...I know a lot of guys who used to fight dogs that now raise hog dogs instead because the money is better and the skills are almost the same "for the handler"

[mongoosesnipe]

Sourced from the NY Times:

PORK

THE other pink meat?

That could be pork’s new slogan after the United States Department of Agriculture on Tuesday said it was lowering its safe cooking temperature to 145 degrees, from the longtime standard of 160. The new recommendation is in line with what many cookbook authors and chefs have been saying for years.

Remember LOW AND SLOW for temp/time in the smoker.

the lowering of cooking temperature is only valid for commercial raised pork wild pork is susceptible to participates and is the primary source of humans contracting Trichinosis which are round worms which occupy your muscles which is bad times.... cook wild pork thoroughly

http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/trichinellosis/

[Flyby]

I've found it depends on where the hog is harvested as to whether to eat boars or anything over 100 lbs. In South Texas I prefer 100 lb or less sows. They have to scavenge for food and eat just about anything, the meat tastes like it too. In North and East Tx they have a lot more food (including our gardens). I eat both boar and sows from N/E Tx. 150 lbs gives a lot of meat and it tastes great. We're finishing off a 200 lb boar from East Tx that tastes great. I keep the shoulders and hams to smoke, and grind the rest. I smoke the hams / shoulders for 6 to 7 hours in indirect heat at 225 degrees. The meat falls off the bone and makes unbelievable pulled pork. I won a wild game cookoff with it a couple years back. I wrap it in foil the whole time and inject it with garlic butter inject from Academy.

When we get low on pork we trap or shoot another one. Its a regular staple in our freezer.

[JASmith]

Awesome discussions about preparing harvested meat!

I was ten years old when I first heard this recipe for bear:

1. Place meat on pine board.
   
2. Boil for two weeks
   
3. Toss the meat
   
4. Eat the board.
   

Might be just as useful for hogs.

(I will admit that 'useful' may not have the same meaning for everyone!)

[wheelguner]

My shooting partner grew up on a 500+ acre farm in South Georgia and knows most of the folks in the surrounding counties as well. We do our best to thin out the pigs that are ruining the crops for the farmers. It is amazing how much damage even on pig can do. We are lucky in that there are a number of local meat processors that will butcher and prepare them for us. We only take the hams and some sausage and always get a mixture of 50/50 pig and ground beef, the rest goes to the local food banks. That 50/50 with a few spices (varies as to what we find first) makes a helluva good burger topped with Vidalia Onions