My buddies and I are up around 50 taken so far over the past 8 years. We drive 10 hours to get to south Georgia, & take 'em in a swamp. Sometimes they're eating acorns, other times just eating whatever scrub is down there. We have noticed some differences in flavor, but haven't tracked it down to diet just yet. We once shot some in a different area that tasted noticeably better, and they were regularly parking themselves under corn feeders.
Across all those swamp hogs, we've not yet gotten a bad one, even with 3 or 4 having gone over 200 lbs. This includes boars. I did walk up to one smelly one, but he surprisingly ended up eating just as well as the rest. A good hose-down seems to be important, but I don't know if power washing or shampooing them would be worth the extra effort.
As a rule, though, we look for 100-ish pounders or less. We haul 'em intact back to the cabin and dress 'em there, then put 'em in a walk 'in cooler. When we're ready to leave, we section them with pruning loppers or a sawzall, then toss 'em in coolers & cover with ice for the ride home.
My buddies make sausage with their meat, but I've never cared for it. I don't know if they add domestic hog lard, or what, but it's not my kind of sausage. I've not had much luck with grilling it - any off flavors seemed to be accentuated, and it cooked too fast. If I don't watch that meat carefully on the grill, it'll clunk-up into shoe leather in a hurry.
I smoke my portions whole, and that seems to work out best. 225 degrees or so, and it cooks much more quickly than domestic pork. The pieces are far smaller than a domestic hog, and there's precious little fat to work with. Those that do have fat have carried it on their backs, rather than as intramuscular fat (marbling).
Brining for 10 hours and/or injections really improves things. The meat retains far more moisture, and those hogs that might have had some off-taste have it greatly reduced, and usually eliminated. I did a test at a New Year's party where the guests could choose from 2 piles of pulled meat. One was a domestic shoulder (took 20 hours to smoke it), and the other was brined shoulders, hams, and a loin from my trips (took 6 hours to smoke). To my considerable surprise, everyone chose the Georgia boars.
Still, I dunno that I'd look at it as a reliable way to feed my family. I know that if I keep at it long enough, I
will get a nasty one that won't make it into the cooler. The flavor profile across individual hogs will vary a lot. Smaller critters means more processing time for less usable meat. The drive is a pain. And I've had trips where I only brought back 1 hog across a 3 day hunt.
Then I compare that against my local grocery occasionally having butts on sale for < $1/lb. Kind of an easy choice.As a, "Guys Spring Break" trip, though, it's a hell of a lotta fun. We go down again 9/30.
FC
