Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Bow season public land pigs in Texas.

Been awhile gents. Im aiming to participate here more, so thank you for reading my posts.

I have yet to take a deer in Texas bow season. Seen em...but none have walked in close enough to send a flying knife into. I'm hunting Texas Type 2 public hunting lands. No bait, using a ground blind, canoe, and lots of walking. Early rut is just bleats... no estrus out.

However.... we are over run with pigs here. I've done my part to cull them at all oppertunitys. So far Ive hit 5, and recoverd 2. I have recovered bolts 4 out of the 5 hits. 3 of the recovered bolts simply needed a wipe off. But the 4th needed a new broadhead.

I hunted Pat Mayse for 4 days and saw 6 doe at 80-100 yds.
I saw multiple sounders of hogs. 30-60 per day.

I killed two at Pat Mayse. One was a 70lb piglet sow, pic posted, the other was a 120lb boar. The boar ran off too far too fast. He is feeding the yotes.

The Sow I cooked and put into vaccume sealed 1lb servings. Did her up St Louis style. 25 servings put in the freezer after eating our initial fill.

The next week I went out east.

A story about a blood track

Caddo Lake WMA Bow

Heard hogs while deer hunting with a 165lb compund cross bow. An Empire Dragon. Iron sights set for 40 yards. Comfortable with hold under, and over for 30 or 60yds

Sending headhunter 20in Carbon fiber 20inch bolts with a 100gr hypodermic mechanical 1.5 in dual blade. 350 FPS ish

Heard the hogs on the far side of a cypress grove and got out of my pop up ground blind to walk up on em. 12 hogs milling for acorns. I can not get closer without entering a bog.

Hog in the open 60 yards. Facing me, apears to be a  boar, steady, Send it.

At the last second it lifts the snout. I hear leather slap, and see it reel to my left.

Set my timer for 20 minutes and go back to the blind to gater my equipment for the tracking.

20 minutes passes by and I walk around to the far side of the bog to where I saw it. No blood on that spot. No bloody bolt.

Walk 10 yards in the direction of the run off, and spot blood.
Place track stick, look for more. 5 yds out find blood, my intact unmolested, blood coverd bolt. Grass ends and now I am tracking on bare dirt, with fresh fallen leaves. I am posting a tracking stick at each blood sign. ( Any stick available. 1-2 ft long. Just stab it in the spot where you find blood. )

This hog is only leaking every 5 ft. On leaves it is hard to find it. I literaly am crawling at times to find it.  Also she is zig zagging and the blood is spilled at each turn.

Finally the blood trail straightens out and I'm getting gouts.

Im 100 yds in and am hot and tired. So I place my final tracking stick and put my hat on it. Then I walk to the right of the track 45° going out 50 yds and walk back left thru the predicted line. Looking for blood. Find it. Stab in the bloody bolt there and repeat that jump. Found it!

Hog has a wound on it's right rear anus, and a wound on the left cheek.

I attached a drag line on the snout and pull her out of the thicket she fell in. Then over to an open area with a bent tree I can trust to support this 200lb sow.

Get my bolt and hat. Then start looking at it. Im not going to be taking this pig out intact.  My bolt went into the cheek, down the throat and all the way out her nethers.
Pierced guts are already expanding her belly.

Good news- she is huge. I give her a spine split and skin the back straps. Neatly remove those and skin and harvest each of the hams.Then skin, and harvest each sholder. Trotters are detached.

I now have 50lbs of pork in various trash bags. To keep the flys off. Load em into the pack and boom I'm on my way.

But wait.....

This ballooning carcas is less than 250yds from my blind. That wont do. I do not want to abandon my blind area because of coyotes and vultures. So out comes the drag rope, and I'm playing " Hide tne body." With a much lighter easiser to drag giant [bleep] filled football. LoL.

I get it another 200yds away and find a muddy wallow.... perfect. Now ... pierce or not to pierce? This getting critical, but it's late and im sweaty.  I just get my line and go get my meat and bow back to camp. Both me and this harvest are gonna need ice after that workout. Ill post pics Thursday. This location has only one bar. No photos can upload till I get up out to civilization.

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SHOULD YOU PAY TO PROCESS A FERAL HOG?

If its gut shot, you can harvest the shoulders and hams and backstrap without opening the body inner cavity / torso. Dont waste your time on gut shot full harvest. Take the untainted easy meat.

Get it hanging.  Skin it, take a filet / flexible knife and begin cutting  the fat off of it skined. Once you have as  the tallo fat trimmed then pull the hams and shoulders. Trim them.
Then trim the hanging torso under where the hams and shoulders were.

Now. Harvest the back straps and loins.

Put everytbing on ice in heavy trash bags.

Let them rest on draining ice in a closed cooler for two days. Then cook or debone and parcel into meal bags.

The ribs can be cut free with a saw zaw or a sharp hatchet / cleaver.

Dont forget thg  hog cheek bone meat. Jawline has a hockey puck that is tasty.

Get the fat off.  Thats the gamey smell part.

I bone the hams and shoulders after their ice time, then I fajita cut them and marinated them in lime juice and MCormic taco seasoning. In 5lb batches in the fridge. Then i put 1lb serving in vaccume sealed food saver bags in tbe deep freeze.

Its part of my breakfast this AM.  Pull a one serving bag, defrost air fry, and bam as tasty as bacon.

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Make sure you wear gloves. A big percentage of feral hogs carry swine brucellosis. Four are [bleep] if you get it. Google and read about it. Be careful.

Here is some I was looking at yesterday afternoon

Bunch of 30-40 pounders.



windows screen capture

Awesome, gotta love a hog hunt success story