Pigs, pigs, pigs, and more pigs.

[doccherry]

At 1:30 AM the pig alarm went off. That's the deal where I mounted an infrared sensor on our back lava boulder wall and put the receiver in the master bath. When a pig walks past, it sends out 3 weird chimes. Well, it went off and then 10 seconds went off again and over the next two or three minutes it went off about 15 times. Crap!! They're knocking over my wall again and planning to invade my landscaping. I get up, rub my eyes, put on my moccasins, grab the crossbow, and out the door I go into the darkness. Once outside, I turned on the red dot sight and cocked the bow. It makes a pretty loud "click" when it's cocked so I do that before I get to the wall. Got to the wall, loaded a bolt with a nasty broadhead, and stood still. I immediately heard critters moving about in the clearing below the monkeypod tree. I brought the crossbow up and pushed the pressure switch that turns on a tactical flashlight taped to the underside of the bow. The whole clearing lit up and without exaggeration there were 8 or 10 huge hogs rooting beneath the tree. No little ones, all really big.

The closest one was 15 feet away and I let him have it. Loud squeals, hooves cloppity-clopping on lava, crashing through the 8-foot high elephant grass, silence, and then another loud squeal 30 yards away. Then total silence.

Now, I'm not the brightest light in the chandelier but I'm not an idiot, so I wisely decided to wait until morning to follow up. I did, and the blood trail was thick. I found the hog 30 yards away in the elephant grass. Lo and behold, it's a castrated male, maybe 250-275 pounds, just huge. I forget what the Hawaiians call the pigs that they trap and castrate. Ev and Nic and Uncle Ji will know.

Anyway, the arrow entered behind the shoulder and came out the ham. No idea where it went, but it zipped right through that hog. The meat from these castrated males is supposed to be great, so it's headed for the BBQ or the smoker.

That's about pig #30 in 2 years.

This is the photo of the pig lying in the elephant grass.

Aloha for now.

 

[doccherry]

Here's the photo.

 

[HOGHUNTER714]

Not Fair!!!!

Wish I could wake up to that....LOL Congrat's on the porker....

 

[leftyhunter]

Hey Doc did you get my e-mail from about 12 or so days ago?

Leftyhunter

 

[Bigisle87]

Doc- hawaiian name for the castrated boar is Laha'ole.. translation-without balls. nice pig, but judging from the size of the grass it's laying in, that boar didnt top 200.

 

[doccherry]

Bigisle:

That photo must be deceiving. The hog was huge, so big that it was almost impossible for me to drag the remains after taking the choice cuts. I could only drag it about 1 foot at a time, and only then with maximum effort. I had to drag it 200+ yards along a cattle trail to get it far enough away so the stink wouldn't cause problems with the neighbors. Luckily it was downhill or I couldn't have moved it an inch. That took about half an hour and was miserably tough to do. I've shot 200-pounders before [actually weighed] back in CA and they weren't even close to this. I told a friend at work about it and he told me that the castrated hogs get huge and delicious. We'll see.

On another note, here's the verbatim email I got from a school principal yesterday. They're having pig problems [as is everyone, it seems] and want me to help get rid of the porkers.




Hi Bruce: We had a visit from the pigs on Monday night and Wednesday night and possibly Tuesday. They like the mulched area under the palms on the driveway up to the house. They were here last night again and made a mess. You can see their hoof prints on the driveway. We had a program here last night that went from 6:00 to 7:30. I think they have learned to wait until after dark to come out. If you want to camp out on our front lanai you would have a good shot at them as they come right up the driveway to root around in the area by the top of the stairs and sometimes in the parking lot area by the bottom of the stairs. I saw the one out at 10:00 pm so they may be coming out anytime from 7:00 - 9:00 pm (best guess).

Aloha,
Barbara

 

[jhuhtala]

Nice work Doc! 30 pigs in 2 years, that's crazy! I only get calls from the school principal when my kid's getting suspended... I certainly would much rather have them contacting me with something like this.

 

[Glass eye]

Doc
Do you ever cook them buried in a pit with the ti leaves, banana trunks and hot rocks ?

 

[doccherry]

Glass eye:

No, I've never cooked them that way. First of all, the ground is so full of lava rocks that I can't dig a pit. Second, I don't know how to do it. Some of my Hawaiian friends cook it that way, but I've never had an opportunity to try it.

 

[spot&stalk]

That is a huge boar! Way to put a hurtin on those pigs

 

[Bigisle87]

doc- i stand corrected...

again, nice hog for sure. i'm finally going to be gettin back into the hogs behind my house... time to get off my butt and smoke some of the meat i got filling my freezer.
i went back into my nutfield on monday, and it's now REALLY overgrown... i had to cut trails through 8 foot high guinea grass in the field that i used to walk through with no problems... ran into a couple 50 pounders, one black, one white. cut a couple trails, and will be going back this weekend to poison the trails so they stay open for a couple months.

 

[DEERSLAM]

Nice! Congrats

 

[bigworm]

Nice hog Doc. There is a good market for those alarm clocks, most of us just can't afford them.

 

[Huntr Pat]

Doc,
Good job on the cross bow kill.

 

[doccherry]

Bigisle:

No need to stand corrected. I may be way off on the weight, but it seemed to be a huge hog. It was shaped weird, no huge chest and hump on the back. Must be due to the castration. It was perhaps the longest hog I ever shot. Really long body and a long head and long legs but no heavy cartilage shield like the regular boars. You may very well be right about the weight. It was a monumental task to move it, though. If you need help with your Kohala hogs, please let me know. I'd love to watch a pro prepare meat the traditional Hawaiian way. I'm totally ignorant when it comes to that and I'd be grateful for a lesson on how to smoke a hog.

 

[doccherry]

bigworm:

That "alarm clock" infrared sensor system cost me 19.95 on Ebay, shipping included. Just search for "Driveway Alert" and you'll find them. They're battery-powered and portable and I honestly think they would be a great tool for pig hunters anywhere. Just position them somewhere along a pig trail and sit back. You'll be warned when something is coming your way.

Problem now is that I am sick of having to deal with the pigs I kill. I just bought some rubber bludgeon arrowheads and plan to clobber the pigs, hurting them but not killing them. Hopefully they'll go away and not come back.

Ah, heck. You all know that won't work. A big boar will get hit by a crossbow bolt doing 325 fps with a hard rubber tip, turn sideways and look at me, and then go back to tearing things up.

Aloha for now.

 

[leftyhunter]

Hi Doc.

if you have to much pig meat and I know it's most likely illegal to sell it could you get a tax credit for donating the pig meat to say a local homeless shelter or a battered womans shelter? If you want there is an IRS office in the building where I work I can ask on your behalf I do know that you have to have more the 14 hundred dollars worth of itemized deductions before you can take deductions past your personal deductions. Its a hell of a problem to have something us calif guys don't often suffer from.

Leftyhunter

 

[Bigisle87]

Doc- thinking about it now, i shouldnt have said anything about the hog's weight, really. ive been tricked with hogs "in hand" after i shot them before, and im certainly nobody to judge from a picture someone else took. they can be very tricky to judge.
about the hog's body shape- i noticed the same things you pointed out. he seemed to be very round in the middle, with defined front shoulders, which is unusual for our pigs here on the big island. usually there is enough armor to make them look like they're a tank.. you're right about the lack of armor on him being due to the castration, from the ones we've killed, it seems to be when they're castrated, the hormonal changes cause them to not fully develop the armor, or "puna" and also seems to affect the meat quality greatly, making them YUMMY! hehe.. you'll enjoy him for sure!
about the pigs in the back yard..i've been semi-watching their movements, but it seems to have slowed somewhat in the past months.. probably due to the lack of water we've had, i think they're hanging out more in the 2 gulches we have within a quarter mile of here.. they're still here, just not as often. once i get that grass a little bit under control, ill be back in there regularly, and would welcome you to come on up for a hunt!
for the kalua pig thing glass eye was asking about.. its been a long time since we've done one, but our family is talking about doing one for new years eve this year. tell you what, it's a LOT of work thats for sure.
with the smoking part you were talking about- what is it you're looking to learn about it? i can send you pics of my smoker setup if you'd like, and some general tips if you needed them. im surely no pro, though.

on another note, have you been up to mauna kea since the eradication they did at the end of october? i heard they took less than 200 off the mountain this time (thank god) due to a rain-out on one of the 2 scheduled days. i went up for an afternoon bird hunt last week, and got rained out too.. havent been up ther efor sheep in a months, although my friend said he took out a nice ram and seen some big boys out on the hilo side about a month and a half ago.

 

[THE ROMAN ARCHER]

always enjoy your post Doc, thanks for sharing, really nice boar!.......tra

 

[Uncle Ji]

Aloha Bruce, congrats on a nice piggy, turn it into crock-pot chile verde great wrapped in a tortilla with jack cheese and washed down with an ice cold Corona. Have you considered a paint ball gun for target practice on nuisance pigs? It'd be fun and if the paint don't wash away you could keep track of returning pigs. Thanks for the infrared sensor info, just bought on on ebay but I got mine for 2 legged pigs (drug addicts) which have tried breaking into my house and tool shed 3 times while we were at home, hope I'm not forced to pop one of these SOBs so the sensor should help, man do I miss Maui.