Nice Lake County boar down

[bisonic]

Headed up to Lake County this morning to check things out with the recent rains and flood. Stopped by the ranch at 7:45 and this bad boy was down 15 minutes later! I spotted him from a central road while he was rooting around in the valley and moved to a tree 75 yards out. He sensed something while I was setting up and looked around, but I froze and he went back to rooting after less than a minute. Dropped him right there with my Tikka T3 270 and a hand loaded 130 grain Game King. Bullet went in at the shoulder, thru the lungs, and stopped against his shield on the far side.

Heading back this afternoon for more!

 

[THE ROMAN ARCHER]

super nice boar! great job on the smackdown! hope u have a lucky afternoon hunt! wish i was hunting right now!.......tra

 

[elkguys]

nice hog down! enjoy the good eats now

 

[16onrockandroll]

What does one that size weigh? I'm trying to get into pig hunting, and I hear weights thrown around for which ones are good eating and whatnot, but I don't have any scale as to how big a such-and-such pound pig looks. Should be easy enough if there is a group, but a single would stump me.

 

[bisonic]

He was 180 lbs on the hoof, a good sized boar but not enormous. If you're looking for a trophy mount, the the bigger the better, but if you're looking for the best tasting meat there's no doubt that a 100 lb or so sow is what you're after. When the boars get big they tend to get a smell to them that doesn't really affect the taste but can make them unpleasant to cook and eat. Sometimes you can tell when you're dressing them, other times the smell only comes out when you cook them. Generally I will have most of a bigger boar turned into sausage even if they don't smell, keeping just the chops and a few pieces for the smoker. There's no hard rule though, some big ones don't smell much and some smaller ones do, and some people don't mind the smellier stuff (though it makes me gag).

I wouldn't worry about it much for your first few hogs - just getting a pig is fun itself and you'll enjoy whatever you get. Hopefully then you'll be able to be a bit more selective in what you harvest.

 

[SoJo]

very nice boar...congrats!

 

[JNDEER]

Nice job

 

[myfriendis410]

Nothing like meat in the freezer! Good job.

 

[rooster85]

Lake County hogs never get old. Good job!

 

[HOGHUNTER714]

Nice Job!!!! Now thats what I'm talking about! I'm headin to the Ranch myself on Thursday. See if I can put a few down and maybe a turkey..Thx for sharing!

 

[16onrockandroll]

Awesome. That's about what I would have guessed by the picture. Can't wait for my first!