Porkchop....

Bird · Mar 10, 2003

( I don't remember mentioning butchering a hog )

Oops, I read something into there that wasn't there. After Porkchop was shot and bled, I assumed (always a bad mistake) that your family finished the job.

bgott · Mar 11, 2003

When I was 10 or so we lived in southern Oregon for a while. I watched the neighbor butcher a pig and he didn't have any luck with a .22. He shot that thing about 10 times and finally went to the house and got his 30.06. That did the trick. Both in S. Oregon and N. California there was people that would come out to your place and do custom butchering. They had a gin pole on the truck and would bring a trailer rigged with a kettle for scalding hogs if that is what you were butchering. I have no idea what the cost was. That service might be hard to find in the south, most people just aren't going to spend the money on something that isn't really that hard to do.

Egon · Mar 11, 2003

Chances are the officials have put out enough rules and regulations to elimate any butchering except at an approved site.

If you do it at home by youself you'd be okay but hiring someone to come in might be dicey for the fellow your paying.

Egon

Bird · Mar 11, 2003

( didn't have any luck with a .22 )

Apparently didn't know where to aim; a .22 short will instantly kill a hog or steer.

bgott · Mar 11, 2003

I think he might have had a problem with a moving target. It's been years, I can't remember exactly what his problem was. I do remember it being great Saturday afternoon entertainment. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

skent · Mar 12, 2003

Great Story.

My family had been butchering hogs every thanksgiving and a Steer in January for decades. That is until the mid 70's when everybody was moving away with growing families of their own.

We restarted the tradition back in 95, when my wife and I, along with our four daughters took over the family farm. My uncle, being in his late 70's, didn't have the muscle, but knew how to teach. He would tell me where to cut, why and how. The best way to learn is to just get in there and do it. You find shortcuts and methods that work best.
We would purchase pigletts in July (First year was 2, we later worked our way up to 8 at a time) and grow them until November. A .22 was always enough, and sticking in the right spot at the right time was a must for good bleedout. The first one was the hardest. The girls all cried, but learning to process from pen to smokehouse is a rewarding task. Knowing how to salt cure hams, grind and stuff sausage, bacon, chops,
eating just don't get any better. Doing it yourself is alot of work, and requires lots of time, but it saves lots of money and we get the meat cut exactally the way we want, and seasoned the way we like it. Occasionally a loin might get cut wrong, so it goes to sausage and we live with it. Hogs are really one of the easiest to process.

Yes, we still get attached to every one, we actually name them, but it comes with the condition that they end up on the dinner table.

With Easter coming up and the ham having just finished being smoked, should be a welcome treat.

Bird · Mar 12, 2003

( A .22 was always enough, and sticking in the right spot at the right time was a must for good bleedout. )

Of course we always used a .22, but a rancher friend and neighbor, several years old than I, told me about helping his dad butcher a couple of hogs while he was still in high school. He said his dad shot the first one and cut its throat, but then he told his dad that the high school ag teacher had told the class that it was better to just slit a hog's throat without killing them first; that they bled out better. He said his dad handed him the knife and told him to kill the other one. He said backing out when his dad told him to do something was never an option and he wished he'd kept his mouth shut, but that by the time he and that squealing pig got through wrestling in the mud and blood, he never again told his dad how to do anything. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif