Hogs are back!!!

[LC '92]

Steph done good! I live over in Burleson County and we shoot hogs like that here a lot. Biggest mistake we have found is shooting them behind the shoulder. There just isn't anything there and they will run forever. Next time, tell her to aim at the ear or just behind it. Any hit from the front of the shoulder blade to behind the eye will pile up the biggest hog. We have even killed them with the .17 HRM when hit through the ear flap.

Also don't let anyone tell you those 250-300 pound boars aren't good to eat. Cut off one of those big hams and give it a try, they are great. I realize it wouldn't have been so hot on the one that layed out all night, but don't be afraid to try it on the next one. You don't even have to dress it, just cut the hams off the carcus as it lays there.

I have relatives up there in Tyler and recognized that red dirt of yours. Sure grows good magnolias, roses and Dogwood.

Good luck with the rest of those hogs and keep us updated with pics and information.

With best regards,
Jeff

 

[InlineDieselFan]

Steph, nice looking piggy, and real good timing, the pork ribs will be done in about 15 minutes, and it is dinner time!!

steve

 

[dancer]

Congratulations to Steph and call it a good job. After snakes, wild hogs are the critters that I fear the most to surprise in the woods. They are unpredictable, very dangerous because of it, and one the size of your most-recent one can kill you in two passes!

And they're hard to kill, or even drop. An anecdote from my youth: a neighbor family to our farm in South Arkansas set up one day in the fall -- maybe '55 or so -- to butcher their fattened barrow. Went to the pen, let him out and herded him over near the hoist and the scalding barrel. When he'd gone as far as he was willing, the patriarch popped him in the head with a round from a Winchester Model 1894 .30-30 which was also the family deer rifle. The hog was annoyed and started to move off. In short order the .30-30 was emptied into the hog -- probably six shots in all -- which continued to march away across the pasture, still not running according to accounts. Other guns were brought out hastily, including a WWII trophy Luger 9MM parabellum and a .22LR rifle, and more hog shooting took place. I wasn't there for that phase and don't really know how many bullets the hog took but it proceeded into a marsh where a human wouldn't go after about a 250 yard journey.

Three weeks later the hog came back! The neighbor swallowed any pride he might have been chewing on and called my dad who went over with our old Winchester .22 semi-auto rifle, and I went along. Dad dropped the hog with the usual bullet between the ear and eye into the brain. It didn't even grunt but just stiffened and quivered once and that was it. We helped the neighbor build a fire to boil the water for the scalding barrel.

The hog had originally weighed between 250 and 300 pounds. It was considerably lighter than that when it returned. Wounds were healed and barely visible. The consensus was that the hog had laid up in mud to heal its wounds and recover, and gone back home for something to eat. I never heard how much lead might have been recovered during butchering or later...

 

[EddieWalker]

Dancer,

In high school, I had a friend who's dad leased some land in the Hayward Hills of California. They aren't much, but they do get mighty steep in places.

He brought in a cow to butcher. If I remember correctly, he put a 30-30 to it's skull to kill it. For whatever reason, the bullet glanced off the bone and the cow took off. It was very spooked and five or six guys with deer rifles spent two days shooting at it, hitting it and chasing it around those canyons until they finally killed it.

Kind of like the keystone cops. I'll also clarify that just because they had deer rifles and knew how to pull the trigger, not a one of them are what I'd call hunters or marksmen. It's a miracle that they didn't shoot one another.

Eddie

 

[RobJ]

It's a rare picture of a hog...I usually shoot first and then take the pictures. I'll trade 3 deer for 1 hog. A pig is a pig and they taste the same. A deer is not a cow and everyone wants to compare the taste to beef. We use to eat a cople deer a year but got out of the habit while building the Elkhart house. But a couple pigs we've killed don't last long.

I know I don't have to tell you this but control them or they will overrun the place. They can turn a hay field into something that looks like a disk went through. They can reproduce 2-3 times a year if I recall. They will run off the deer because they are going after the same general food.

But at least you can hunt them year round and at night and with dogs if you want. I hear the brown ones taste better.

 

[SkyPup]

Way to go Steph, that is one fine boar you shot there!

I use my Sig P-229 .357 SIG with 125 grain hollowpoints on ours, works real good if you can get a side shot to the side of the head between the ear and eye, but I've also dropped them with one shot facing them head on aiming into the brisket.

Keep up the good work!

 

[ByronBob]

Unlimited pork chops. I bet your meat bill is low.......

I'd pay to fly from NY to your place for the opportunity to hunt one. I'm sure many here might.

I do like what your doing with the place.

 

[EddieWalker]

I'll trade 3 deer for 1 hog. A pig is a pig and they taste the same. A deer is not a cow and everyone wants to compare the taste to beef. We use to eat a cople deer a year but got out of the habit...

Hi Rob,

I'm with you. I'd rather eat wild hog over deer anytime. Deer taste different depending on where you shoot them and what species they are. I grew up hunting Columbian Blacktails in California and it seems everyone has a complicated recipe and procedure to make them edible. Soak them so long in this, cover the meat in a certain souce or whatever. They just don't taste very good. Mule Deer are just as bad. I'm not sure if it's the animal or the food they are eating, but I've never had either that you could just put on the grill and eat.

Whitetails are different. They taste allot better than the other two species I've hunted. You can almost eat on without covering the flavor, but not quite. Mostly I make jerky or ground out of venison. I eat all of it, but only those two ways.

Hogs are good right on the grill. You don't have to flavor them, hide the taste or do anything at all. Wild hog isn't like domestic pork. The meet is a different color, texture and flavor. They really are two different species.

Elk, caribou and wild sheep are also very tasty just the way they are!!!

Steph wants to shoot a buck now, so that will be one of our next goals. We couldn't tell were the bullet hit on this hog because of the coyote damage, but we think the rifle may be off a little. Next weekend we'll do some target practice and make sure it's accurate. If so, then the practice won't hurt either of us anyway. We have a few deer here, but they are all tiny. I've seen legal bucks every season, and had plenty of oportunities, but haven't killed one. It's not about killing a deer for me, but finding a big one that gets me exited. For Steph and her first deer, any buck will be exiting to both of us!!!

Eddie

 

[Renze]

doc bob, you really don't know hogs. leave a pig, or any, carcass on the ground and they'll just eat it.

That reminds me of my grandfather telling us how they fed dead chicken to the pigs, in the old days of poverty...

BTW hogs dont even wait untill their mate is fully dead, as soon as it shows its weak, (coughs loud enough) the others start to taste it !!!

When there was a prohibition of animal transportation because of foot and mouth disease, some years ago, we kept 3 groups of 80 hogs each, in our machinery barn. If a dead pig wasnt removed immediately, it would be torn apart within a day. If we were lucky, we had to remove only the head, some bones and an empty skin, the hogs provide themself access into the carcass from the rear end...

 

[DaNag]

Gotta tell you, Eddie...Steph probably has quite the fan club in addition to those who post their congratulations here.

My wife isn't exactly a princess, she's gone bird hunting with me on occasion - mostly because she likes watching the dogs. Still, she never shoots.

Even though she'll probably never hunt herself, she's incredibly impressed with Steph. From the first photos you posted of her in makeup and nurse's garb, to her first kill, to the later images of her proudly standing over her game...it's just great stuff. We guys find this fascinating, but I think many women do so as well...Steph's quite the inspiration for many of them, and is probably a little famous in many private circles.

My wife and I instant message each other throughout the work day...and a note she'll never get tired of seeing simply states:

"Steph got another hog!"