What is to big and what is to small????

[fishingitup]

Is there such thing as to small or to big when it comes to wild hogs??????

 

[RLL]

Sure, but to a great degree it is personal preference. I don't kill them below 15 lbs or so. Just not worth the effort. On the other end, it's not just size. I've killed boars at 300 lbs and they ate good. I've killed boars that were 200 lbs and they were unedible. Some boars are just rank. Some are old. I give them away. The point in that the really large boars tend to be older, more mature, and often are very good eating.

 

[hatchet1]

if you can bring yourself to do it, the truth is ,the fattest pregnant sow you can find will make the best eating.

i would make sure the land your hunting though has a darn good population first, this
would be the quickest way to deplete your resources

 

[soreloser]

While in Georgia we caught or killed over 100 hogs a year, everywhere from straight off the teat to 300+ lbs and I have yet to taste a bad one.

Some folks claim big hogs don't taste good, I say learn to cook..

The fat milkers are tasty for sure, but there's nothing like stripping a 10lb'er and throwing the whole thing on the grill...mmmmmmm

 

[PIGIG]

a lot of it is all about diet when it come to any living creature to be eaten!

 

[Kentuck]

Don't know about size but I will take a sow over a boar any day. I've got one boar at the taxi now and that's enough. I think sows have a little more meat to them.

 

[fishingitup]

How do i cook my meat? i have tried some things and it ok but have not found the best way to cook

 

[soreloser]

Depends on what you have. There are so many things that you can do with it. I butcher all my own stuff, so I take hams off the rear quarters for roast or pulled pork. Cut the loins and back straps into pork chops and dry rub them of course. You always got the ribs, boil them first and then BBQ on the grill. I turn all the scraps and extra meat into my own hamburger meat and use in chili, spaghetti, or anything else you can use ground meat for.

Slow cook a roast in a crock pot and then pull the meat and add BBQ sauce, it sure does make one hella good sandwhich.

Cut whatever front shoulder meat you can get into 1/4" thick strips, dry rub and fry up for breakfast.

 

[BDB]

I hear it both ways with the big boys, depends on the diet as much as anything I would guess. I'd say a nice 150-180 live weight hog is what I aim for (and even sometimes hit

)

I never do the "make the whole think into sausage" path any more either.

I put a recipe in the recipe forum for pork backtraps only a couple of days ago that is amazing.

These days I steak out one back leg. When I defrost the meat, I brine it for 24 hours then grill it with whatever seasoning or BBQ sauce I feel like at the time. Front shoulders go in the crock pot and taste amazing and just fall apart. The other back leg is for a ham. Once cured and smoked I now get the butcher to cut the whole thing and freeze it as individual ham steaks. Unless I want to make a split pea soup, a whole ham is too much but a nice ham steak can be defrosted at any time. My last hog was 145 on the hook and I only sent 23 pounds in for making sausage, the rest I cut for for roasts chops and steaks. Can't beat it!

 

[jackman]

I call those 10 # pigs " PIGS IN A BLANKET"

 

[Rancho Loco]

I'll pass up a trophy boar with 4" teeth to shoot a 200 lb. dry sow, fat on green grass.

 

[HeavyHorns]

I have to agree with Hatchet. I good fat sow eats very well. In fact, the hog pictured in my avatar was about 185 on the hoof and pregnant. Obviously, did not know until I field-dressed her. Fortunately, the ranch I hunt on has a good population.

As far as cooking the meat, try putting a shoulder or ham in a "baking bag" with potatos, carrots, celery, and spices....

 

[easymoney]

IMHO, a dry sow between 150 and 200lbs is what I try for. Size is not as much of a factor with me, as elk are far larger to haul out and it ALL gets boned out anyway. The taste of sows vs boars is why... I make all my pigs into sausage and sometimes it is hard to hide the ballsie flavor...

 

[Franklin3]

nuthin beats a sucklin pig on the barbie.
I have and will continue to eat any and all I kill but for just plain tender its all in the age of the meat.
about 60 days is perfect.

 

[Speckmisser]

While anything with stripes is too small for me (unless I'm doing depredation), a 40lber would not be out of the question for me.

On the upward side, that big, fat boar I shot at Tejon a couple of years ago is still one of the tastiest pigs I've ever eaten. While I know people kill bigger ones, you won't find many, truly wild hogs, that are a whole lot bigger than that one was...at least not in CA.

I won't say size doesn't matter (ignoring what my wife keeps telling me), but it isn't the end-all-be-all.

The rankest pig I ever killed weighed in, dressed, at about 78lbs. It's some of the only meat I've ever thrown away. Inedible, even as sausage.

 

[larrysogla]

We have shot up to a 300 lb. wild boar in Thomsons, Texas near Houston and the Gristle Plate(shoulder armor plate of wild boars that protect them when fighting and tusking for the right to breed the sows) was about almost 2" thick and try as I might my 4" hunting knife will not go thru......and the meat from that 300 lb'er was so good and turned out to be as tender as the smaller ones. The meat cooked easily as carnitas for the tamales that my friend made.....mmmmmmmmm really good tamales....and I also cooked my share of meat and it was easy to cook on the pot also and was very good tasting.....better than store bought pork. The ranch owner has also killed 2 wild boars that were on the 500 lb'er side(the first one was caught in his trap and was so big that it was lifting on it's back the FLOORLESS steel trap that weighed somewhere around 150+ lbs. and would have ran away with the trap on it's back IF NOT FOR THE FACT THAT THE TRAP WAS CHAINED TO A TREE!!!) The second 500 lb'er was shot by the ranch owner with a 12 gauge slug in the shoulder at pointblank range from a treestand and it was still trying to stand up and get away so the ranch owner had to put another 12 gauge slug to finish it off. Both 500 lb'ers were good eating and easy cooking meats on the pot and on the table. All the wild pork we harvested in that Houston area ranch were sweet smelling like fresh green grass rubbed on your fingers when we open up the belly skin and the meat were very good tasting.....as I said better than store bought pork. Now that is just in that particular ranch.......but still I have not yet harvested a bad tasting or bad smelling wild pork even in San Antonio, Texas or here in California.....lucky me I guess. 'Nuff said.

 

[Metdawg44]

In March a friend and myself hunted on a ranch and both took nice hogs. Mine was a 200 lb. boar and his was very close to 400 pounds. His big hog had no rank odor whatsoever. He has told me the meat has been delicious. Same with mine.

 

[fishbites]

To paraphrase: A pig is a pig is a pig!
I don't discriminate. I shoot 'em all. Most places I hunt want them gone and are willing to put no restrictions on what size is killed.
When it's cooked THEN you know if it willl be fit to eat or rely on the "smell" when you shoot it. Any reservations then go get another one.

 

[upper]

Fishbites,I agree on a pig is a pig deal,but all my pigs are eaten most of the time.Most here spend lots of time and money on the quest to harvast a hog.You are fortunate as are others to have places that are overrun with hogs and need tending to.This is a heartfelt hunting site,And your reception here will be good on hunting storys less on shoot em till there gone storys.I personally am in the same position as you,but I still love to hunt,and the other is killjoy here.You'll see.Upper