if a male is knocked down we cut him immediately. some folks say it doesn't help at all.
Seems to me that is sort of like cutting a deer's throat to bleed it after its dead, or cutting the tarsal glands off.
I've cleaned a grand total of one wild hog. I think if I was going to make a habit of it, I would get a 3000 psi pressure washer, hang the hog up and wash the heck out of it before I made the first cut. Hogs pee on themselves and wallow in their own filth and no telling what else. I can guess that guys sometimes get all kind of funk on the meat while they are cleaning them which may account for at least some of the variability of stories you hear about the quality of the end product....but that is only a guess. It just makes sense that a young sow would give you the best eating.
