Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Pig preps for eating

On the 29th I leave for a central TX pig hunt. This is a low budget - hunting at a buddy's ranch - type hunt.
I have been told sows taste better than boars - is this true??
My plan is to take 4 sows and 1 boar as food is my main reason for hunting. The good news is that I pull a refer trailer and will be able to maintain 28*-34* all the way back to WY.

A few rookie questions:
After field dressed do I skin them out the same way I would a deer/elk/antelope?
My friend says the daytime temps are 60* and nights slightly cooler - do I put them in the refer trailer right away or let them hang for a day? I have no way of hanging them in the trailer. Once in the trailer they will be laid on a pallet.
I am not interested in pickling the feet, eating organs or the tongue. Are there any parts that are not normally eaten on a deer, that are especially good from a pig?
I am told that there is not much bacon on wild hogs.

Any other tips to keep the meat in good shape are appreciated.

He says most shots will be around 60-75 yds with an opportunity for a 200 yd shot. I have several guns that have no blood on them and would like to get them all bloody.
I plan on taking:
760 Pump Carbine in 308
Husky 6.5x55
Marlin 356 Win
Super Redhawk 44
Desert Eagle 44

I have yet to find a hog that didn't taste great boar or sow! I have "heard" if you can smell them before you get to them than they will be "bad"?

Clean them like a deer, get the guts out ASAP especially in warmer weather. Get them on ice and cooled down quickly.

Good luck on your hunt!

If you see any "abnormal" amount of external parasites, or if parasite so up in the internal organs-intestines, general run, down diseased condition,walk away pitch it fast and go get another one. Most are o k some shouldn't be eaten on a bet. Most biologist's here pile and compost the trappings so no one can get to them!!!!!!

I'd like to hear more about the refer trailer!

Semi trailer or something smaller?

Not an expert by any means, but some general things I have found on various hog hunts.

I was always told the sows taste better than boars and a younger hog (50 pounder) is going to be better tasting than an old and heavy hog. What I have found is that a 200 pound boar can taste just as good as a 50 pound sow as long as you clean it properly (pretty much true of any game meat).

Three biggest things I believe contribute to good tasting meat are:

1. Get the meat off the carcass as fast as possible.

2. Let the blood leach out of the meat. To do this, just throw them in a cooler of ice water for a few hours/overnight.

3. Trim off any brown spots from the meat as well as any silver/sinew before freezing. Vacuum sealing before freezing is even better if you are able.

4. Don't overcook the meat! I will either use a slow cooker for something like lechon asado or pulled pork, or, if I am grilling it, I will only cook it to about medium.


Wild hog meat is great, one of my favorites, and I prefer it over pork from the grocery store. Using the above mentioned tips I have always enjoyed any size hog I have shot as have friends who would have normally left the hog I'm serving them for the crows.

For kicks, this is lechon asado (Cuban Roast Pork) made using a 200 pound boar. Tasted awesome, paired with garlic bread, black beans and quinoa (wife's idea, traditionally it's rice).

Unless you have a reefer, there is no need to rent one.

I have never eaten a wild hog over 200 lbs. Boars and sows eat just fine, as long as they are in good shape. Look for the same things you do when you clean a deer. I was told you could cut a small sample of the meat and put it in the microwave for 30 seconds. If it smells ok, it is ok. I just heard this the other day, so I havent tried it.

Take ice chest and cut the hog up into backstraps, tenderloin, ribs (if you want them), shoulders, and hams. Ice them down with the plug installed for 24 hours, then pull the plug, and drain all the water. Leave the plug out, tilt the ice chest where it will stay drained, and keep the meat iced down. Make sure nothing plugs up the drain hole... the meat will sour if kept in water.

You can keep the meat a week or more this way. Just like putting it in a cooler with a misting system.

I have quit gutting hogs. I shoot them regurarly on a friends place. I cut the quarters off and cut out the backstraps. The rest go to the buzzards. Skin the quarters after you leave the field and then age as you feel necessary.

One thing to remember is to ALWAYS wear gloves to work with hog meat. Some percentage of them carry bruecellosis and you DO NOT want to get it. The porcian Bruci. virus will live up to 48 hours after the hog dies so wear gloves to work up the meat if that is sooner than 48 hours after pig death.

I don't need to rent a reefer. I will be towing one down there and bringing it back.
Thanx for all the tips.

What Oldman03 says!

We always drain our pigs!

My personal rule of thumb for an eatin' pig is if I can pack it up with one hand, shoot it! Sometimes I'll go a bit bigger, mebbe 40-50 lbs, but I can still get job done with a .22!

Good luck and have lots of fun!

You better fully cook it or get a case of too many diseases to list. Complete cooking really helps. Had to clean too many traps over the years, now I love to see them in the compost heap. Good luck and learn as you go !!!!!

The sows I have shot have always been fine. Ditto young boars. I shot one young boar that was probably 175 lbs, and he tasted fine, just tough as a damn boot. Still tough after 20 hrs in the slow cooker!

You won't believe how good a 20 lber is!

Boars over a 100 we generally drag to the gut pile. Sows are preferred, but smaller boars can be very good.

You won't believe how good a 20 lber is!

20-30 pounder-- split down the middle and cooked on a caja cooker or grill... Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

It's absolutely a different pork and a tenderness like nothing else.

Lucky guy to hunt some pigs!
That Marlin 356Win ought to be a great exterminator.

Kill, bleed if possible, quick boil if possible, scrape off the hair, gut, clean up with water, and chill. Work up chilled hog at one's leisure. Working up hot pigs is a pain in the ass.

Myself I like to shoot sows leaning towards upper two digits -80-90lbs. ,, still easy enough to handle and you get a good amount of meat .
At our lease if you get them coming in then kill one they won't come back for a while . I guess they send out a group text or something . A small pig doesn't have much meat and you might have an empty freezer for a while with a small one .

I like to fillet them hanging head up -makes for cleaner skinning of the pig .
No scientific proof but I think cutting up a pig immediately makes them a bit tougher than they'd be if left whole and aged for 2-3 days .

Good luck .

Best size meat hog, IMO, is one in the 80-90 lb range. I like to gut, skin, and quarter, and freeze the quarters. For eating, I thaw a quarter, then brine it for 24 hours with a salt and apple juice solution. I then apply a rub made up of various spices and put back in the fridge overnight before cooking.

I put the quarter on my Weber cooker, with a smoke box full of soaked mesquite wood chips. I use a meat thermometer, cook on the grill using indirect heat, until internal temp has reached 195 degrees.

Result is some very tender and tasty wild hog!

Bart, stay below 125lbs for eating. Get the darn hide off as soon as you get back to camp...then chill it w/ice. powdr

I usually stay at about 100lbs if I can get it.

I was planning on 5 hogs. If I go small maybe 8 to fill the freezer. I do want a large boar for the skull. Maybe just take the tenderloins and choice cuts on that one.

I agree with the guys that say any size pig is good. Bigger, over 200lb pigs bring more per pound than smaller ones. These are bought for sale mainly to restaurants. When skinning; hang head down, skin, cut head and feet off, then gut. Beg, borrow or steal a reciprocating saw and quarter if you can soak these in near freezing water over night do so. You might want to add a little salt or vinegar to the water. Cook as you would store bought pork, bearing in mind that they might have less fat.

As far as shooting, bear in mind that 90% of a pig's vitals are between its shoulders. Almost any shot behind the shoulder is a 'gut shot.' Google Texas Boars and learn. Captdavid

Not my experience on Boars. Most have been good but you get hold of a lusty one and you will ooze hog pheromones for days after eating some. This will not enhance your love life or general popularity.

I like to shoot the little shoats and BBQ them whole. Almost any size sow will be good. Boars smaller is better but no guarantee in my experience. Feral hog and venison make great lean sausage with more flavor than domestic pork. You can get bacon from feral hogs during pecan or acorn season and it is really good more like the Cajun greeades than standard bacon.

Chill them as fast as you can. Dowsing with hot water can make skinning easier and it will make the fleas jump off if they have them. I have heard of others spraying with rubbing alcohol for the same reasons. Some areas have the fleas bad and others none at all.

Good Luck and enjoy Tejas.

The small ones are as good to eat as it gets. We killed some grown sows once and ground most of it into sausage.
The sausage was too tough to eat.

Stay with the 100 lb pigs. Do wear gloves. Quarter up and get on ice fast. We have killed 400 in the last 5 yrs, 200 lbs rare in west Texas. 150 more the norm. Take pics to post. You need a 4x12 Redfield to shoot them with.

Meat for the freezer

The story:
As usual I ran out of time and Jan isn't the best time to zero guns in WY/MT. I loaded up extra rounds to zero everything there and set off for TX. Zeroing the Marlin 356 Win went OK except the Bushnell Holo Sight doesn't show up well at all during overcast days. I'm guessing not to well in sunlight either. The Desert Eagle started out OK but then developed a hiccup. The action would stick shut and one of the barrel lugs had some peen marks on it. That evening I took the peen marks off with a chain saw file and it worked good enough to get the pig. However it did start sticking again and I noticed the peen coming back. It is 25+ yrs old and may need new recoil springs. The Super Redhawk had no issues as did the 760 pump in 308.
The Husky was another story. This is a commercial push feed action (mdl 3000), that I picked up with a cracked trigger guard. I had JB Welded the guard, filed, sanded and painted it. Only to have it recrack while tightening the action screws. Seems there is stress somewhere in there and I didn't have time to figure it out before I left, so I went with a cracked trigger guard. The first time I pulled the trigger I got a blast of gas in my face. Fortunately my large and bulbous nose blocked most of the debris from doing more damage to my face. Eye protection works!! My nose was peppered with carbon and I had 2 small pin holes that were starting to bleed. After pretending to be a man and ignoring my injuries, I beat the bolt open and pulled it to the rear. The case remained in the chamber, but I could see the primer pocket had doubled in size and the primer was missing. I set that one aside and we blasted rocks with my buddies very heavy M1A.
Back at the ranch a cleaning rod popped the case out. According to my calibrated fingers it seemed about .030" oversized at the base. Once home, I called a gunsmith friend thinking that it might be really big headspace or could have been recahambered to 6.5x57 or 6.5 Roberts. He suggested that it could be 6.5-284. He was able to compare the prints while we were on the phone, and the numbers showed that a 6.5x55 case could headspace in a 6.5-284 chamber (only .007" difference). I located a 6-284 case and sure enough it chambered easily. I will load up 2 or 3 rounds in 6.5-284 and fire them remotely. I'm thinking this gun was re-chambered and the barrel never marked properly.

Saturday there was a gunshow in San Antonio so we went to that and spent way too much money. My buddy brought home a GP-100 and a Dan Wesson - both in 357. I brought home an A- Bolt in 7-08. We squandered the rest of our money on reloading supplies, parts and other cool stuff that no one should be without.
Sunday we went about scouting for pigs and I was getting the lay of the land. We also set up all the reloading stuff that I had brought him and I showed him how to reload. It was nice being able to load 20 rds, walk out the back door and try them out in a gun he had just bought.
Monday afternoon brought the first kill. The Desert Eagle with a 240gr JSP over AA#9, took the largest sow of the group. I'm guessing 150 lb on the hoof. She ran about 25 yds and piled up. Later that evening the 356 Win with a 200gr JSP over 4064 dropped a 130 lb sow in her tracks. Both shots were about 25-30 yds and while they were feeding. The white sow was somewhat skiddish and knew something was up. The black and white sow was oblivious to our presence.
Tuesday evening we came upon the 140lb boar. Light was getting dim but the Super Redhawk's illum reticle allowed for a 35 yd shot that hammered the boar. The 320 cast bullet over H-110, went thru the boar and into a lilttle 30 lb pig. The group of 20 scampered away. The following day we found the hide, feet, and a trail of bones 40' long, that belonged to the little pig. The pack/herd had eaten their wounded comrade.
With shots being so close I thought it would be nice to get blood on the newly acquired Browning. We found some 243 brass, 7mm bullets and a set of dies from his deceased uncle. Using 4320 we put together some loads and bore-sighted the rifle. A large sow (150lb or so) was spotted in the evening. Normally a 40 yd shot would be a no brainer, but I had to shoot thru a heavy gauge wire fence. After shooting, I saw the pig run off with some of her organs/intestines hanging out. I thought- she isn't going far. Her blood trail consisted of quarter sized drops and fist sized puddles with muscle, organ and bone fragments in it. After following it for over a mile and losing daylight, we gave up. I don't know how much blood a pig has, but she lost most of it and kept going. It was 71* over night and neither of us thought the meat would be any good the following morning. I don't know if the bullet was deflected by the fence or if the shot was just that far off because the rifle was only bore sighted.
My buddy manged to get blood on his GP-100 when he dispatched a 40 lb pig with it. I don't know if has blood on his Dan Wesson yet.

Is this for making a football?

Soaking them in diesel fuel for a week wouldn't make them taste any worse. Wild pig is just good for targets. Have had some cooked by some of the best Texas pig cookers and it still ranks lower than MREs.