Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Around the Campfire => Topic started by: criveraville on December 13, 2011, 12:46:56 pm
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I went hog hunting Friday evening after our school Christmas staff party..... Needed to get out in the woods..
I sat in my blind and about 1:30 AM I heard a hog eating corn. I then saw the trail cam flash. I tried to spot him in my scope as it was a full moon, but the cross hairs are too fine. I held up the spotlight and spotted him there eating corn. Solo and big. I held the light in my left hand and the 270 in my right hand. I turned the light on, aimed and fired. That beast took off and did not show any signs of having been hit. I was pretty bummed as I sat there in the cold and still darkness. I waited about 15 minutes and went to look for blood. There was none where the hog was standing and took off from. That meant I either missed or there was not an exit wound. I looked some more and found small amounts of blood and what appeared to be lung tissue.
I decided to wait until morning to track the hog especially since there was very little blood. I headed home and was thankful for a nice warm bed. In the morning Diego and I returned. The child tracked the hog and spotted blood and tracks better than I could. He tracked him until he found him 200 yards under some large cedar trees. I found the entry wound. It was a perfect shoot in the heart/lung area. The bullet did not pass onto the other side and there was not an exit wound. I was surprised at how little the hog bled as it ran off at what appeared to be a full gallop. He was a big boar and to big and stinky to eat.
Cipriano
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Too big and stinky to eat? What do you do w/ them then? Are you hunting to erradicate them? Just wondeing. I'd have to keep somethin. Good shootin' anyways. dpgratz
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Yes. I tried to cook boar meat once from a big boar that my friend gave me that had been processed into sausage. I cooked it before church one Sunday. Do you remember what a portajohn smells like in the middle of July at about 3 PM? Well that is what my house smelled like after cooking that boar meat. If it had been a sow I would have processed it or if it had been a smaller boar.
I kept the head for a skull mount and am picking up the leg bones once the coyotes clean them up. Hogs are a huge problem down here. They eat everything including turkey and quail nest and are very hard to hunt. They mostly only come out at night and are super skittish. This is only the second hog I have harvested.
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You got any pictures? What part of Texas do you live in?
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LOL on the portalet Criver.
We are starting to get them around here now, hope to go for one someday.
Sounds fun, 1:00am, armed, in the woods, mean pigs. Sounds FUN!
good job, dpgratz
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My wife won't even let me bring stinky boar meat in the house.
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Good hunt there Cipriano. Really admire the way you include your son in your activities.
You sure did right leaving that old boar in the woods. Damn things stink.
Lane
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Interestingly, I've butchered wild boar up to almost 300 lbs and have yet to get one we couldn't eat. I'm quite sure there are stinky, inedible boar out there, but so far haven't gotten one. Makes me wonder if it matters what they're eating?? I wondered for awhile if it was just the old fighters that were so bad, but we got one this spring that was about #230 with a heavy shield on him and both tusks broken and his meat was fine. Weird.
George
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George;
I think a lot has to do with how fast they die, are they mating or fighting. I've shot boar hogs at the Alexacarri Plantation that were eating oats in the food plots and not chasing sows that tasted no different than sows. But, I've never seen one of those great big Boars that are covered in scars, missing ears from dogs and chipped teeth that didn't stink. Maybe again because they don't fall dead real quick. :-\
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Hi Folks, I've never hunted any hogs, but I've heard a lot about "boar taint". I've also heard it's easy to avoid. Just castrate the boar ~ 2 months before you slaughter it! Ron
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It could very well be whether the boar was sexually active or not. I haven't killed any real big pigs but I have a nephew who is a big boar magnet. Both of his 2 big ones tasted fine though one stunk a little. Also, people have the mistaken idea that hogs in the wild routinely get massive, but that's not true. A 250# hog is very rare in the wild, on the order of a Pope and Young buck while deer hunting. Most of what we shoot is between 50 and 150lbs. There are game ranches where trapped wild boar are released and are impressively large (it's illegal in Texas to release a pig once it's been trapped, but boar can be released into a completely fenced game ranch). They paid dearly for those big boar and consequently the hunters pay more too. In the wild, however, a real big boar (300lbs +) is extremely rare. I know a man who has killed several between 300 and 400lbs and at least a couple higher in the wild. He is a hog hunting legend down here. This is what a hog over 400lbs looks like.
http://www.texasboars.com/photopost/albums/userpics/wildboar.jpg (http://www.texasboars.com/photopost/albums/userpics/wildboar.jpg)
I never asked Kevin if he ate that one so I don't know if it was rank or not. I'd sure like a crack at a big one like that someday, but I'd hate to meet it unarmed in the dark. I would never try a stone point out of a self bow at a hog like that, the vitals are completely protected by close to 2" of gristle. Also, the recovery would be downright dangerous. There used to be guys down here that hunt with dogs that would catch and castrate boar so they could be caught again later and eaten. That is now against the law, once they're caught they must be killed out right, taken to an approved holding facility, or taken directly to a hog buyer where they are killed and processed.
Sorry for the hijack Mr. C.
George
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Gonna hijack for one minute.
When I was a kid we once bought a hog at auction and had him processed. Was a farm raised top-hog
about 220 lbs. Processor told us that the meat might not be any good cause though the hog had been
cut one of his testicles had not dropped.
When my mama tried to fry the meat it stunk so bad it ran off the dogs. True story.
Lane
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Last pic
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Nice Hog. :) :)
Pappy
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You got any pictures? What part of Texas do you live in?
I am in Stephenville, TX.
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WOW! Thats a big hog Cipster! And he is d-e-a-d. Nice work buddy.
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bowtarist it wasn't funny with my wife when I tried to sneak that sausage into the breakfast that morning. Thank you. The hunt was fun.
Eddie that is the rule now.. Thats why I didn't bring any meat home from that hog George shoot in the.... ribs >:D from that first Cross Plains get together :laugh:
Lane thank you for the compliment. It's intersting you say that because when I drove up to see Cowboy "Paul Wolf" he asked me where Diego was. It just isn't hunting without him and it isn't fishing without the wife and girls.
Ron thats a good proper name for it... Well this hoss would have been tough to castrate.. His ears were all sliced and healed over and he had lots of scars on his face.
George anytime. The first hog I shoot was a 330 lb boar that came in at dusk to a varmint call. I know how much it weighed because we managed to load it into my truck and the next day I took it to the feed store and weighed it. I had the skull and it had massive tusk, but it was stolen out of my classroom years ago. Funny thing is I since it was February and cold and I was so proud of it I left it in my truck bed for a few days when I parked at school (college). That is until my wife protested enough and I went out and dropped him off for the coyotes where I had shoot him.
Lane anytime buddy... lol.... that sounds like the boar meat i tried to cook....
Thank you Pappy ;)
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Thanks Pearly.. When I sent George the pic he said I shoot better when he's not around.
Cipriano
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I was once given a domestic boar that injured his spine while breeding. My wife and I were mostly broke so I took it. He was quite strong and even the cured hams were quite smelly. I ground the hams to make ham loaf and it sounded like I was grinding steel wool. Maybe the breeding does have something to do with it.
But I think a boar hog is "always ready to go" if you pardon me.
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Yes Sir!
That is a nice size hog.
Head should be a nice size and weight.
Cipriano, did you say his tusks are intact?
-gus
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Big hog
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Here's a picture of a picture of that big 330 lb hog I shoot back in 99. It was my first hog to bag. I hunted that piece of land for over 12 years and never once saw the hogs during the day. It took one 270 bullet to the neck and this big boar was down.
I wish I still had the skull...
Yes sir gus it is all intack ;)
Cipriano
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Cipriano who is that skinny little feller with that big ol' hog?
Lane
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Lane,
That is the young man I was just 12 years ago :laugh: No I am a big ol' feller... ;)
Cipriano
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Cipriano, that is one fine hog. Please post pictures of the skull once it is done. I would love to see it. Wild hogs haven't made it to my neck of the woods yet, but when they do, I will probably be calling you for hunting advice. When is Diego going to get his first hog?
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Nice hog Cipriano!
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Cipriano, that is a big hog. It's nice to see someone not exaggerate about the size of the hog they shot without weighing it.
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Clint thank you. I sure will post pics when I get the skull done. My good buddy is doing it for me. He's a master craftman and it will be top notch. You really don't want hogs in your area, but I imagine you will have them soon enough. Sure thing. Give me a buzz, but George is the man with the hog hunting know how. Diego actuall had a crack at a nice hog, but he was asleep in the blind and by the time he was ready to shoot the hog took off, but he made it over to George's blind an hour later and George shoot it. There is another big boar that is coming into the feeder at night. I'm hoping during the Christmas break Diego and I can get out there so he can take a crack at one.
Thank you Stephen.
Thank you Eddie. I help onto that weigh receipt (before and after and then their calculation) for years. I don't know where it went. I think it's really easy to overestimate hog weight because they just look so big and massive and the big bones makes folks think they weigh more than they actually do.
Cipriano
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Man, that thing is a MONSTER!! Congrats. Stephenvill huh, our highschool team used to play yalls team every year in the play offs and get our buts whipped half the time.
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Whoa, that second pig is a real monster Cip! Don't think I've seen one that big to date. Sorry this weekend's hunt didn't work. One of the other guys and his son is out there and Cross Plains got enough rain that it's gonna be a mudfest for them. I'm hoping to head down to Lufkin early next week on a hog hunt. If late in the week works for you and the rain stops we might could give it a try when I get back. I have enough vacation left that I have to take most of the next 2 weeks off.
George
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Thanks Jimbob. It was rather exciting when that thing came in to a caller. Where did you go to high school.
It was George. Me either. Too bad I really didn't know what a trophy it was. No problem. It is really wet out there. That would be great. I am off until Jan 1 starting today so I sure wouldn't mind coming up to help you out there :laugh:
Cipriano
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Saaaaaaweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet! Dude, I'm glad & sad we don't have enough Hogs up here in MI to hunt...
I hope you saved the skulls and leg bones Brother~ Those are cool!
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I went to La Marque High. Home of the cougars.
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Nice hog and congrats! Your son looks very happy for ya! ;D I am supprised to hear they arent any good eating :-\ I would think allot would play into the tast of the meat, just the first time I heard you dont want to eat them and that they stink that bad(the meat) You said he was eating corn? I would think corn fed hog wouldnt be bad but Ill take your word for it lol. I also have heard they are becoming a real problem in your area and others. NICE JOB! And thanks for sharing!
Josh
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Nice shootin! Those are some fat bastards for sure!
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Josh, they all don't stink, the vast majority do not. Also, there's no way a pig at a feeder can get enough corn to make it a staple in their diet. There's never just one pig. The bulk of their diet is gonna be a local food source. Cipriano has had the good fortune to shoot 2 huge, old boar. When you want to eat a pig, you shoot a smaller one. My favorite are about 125lbs, but I've eaten them up to about 250lbs.
Not only that, people can mistake the smell on the outside of a pig for how the meat will taste. My wife grew up on a hog farm, believe me when I say that they can be the worst smelling animal on the planet. The last big boar we got stunk pretty bad on the outside, but once his hide was off, he was fine. I'm too stingy to assume they're gonna taste bad until I get to actually smell the meat. So far mine have all been good. I have a friend that runs night vision hunts down by Houston. His clients kill hundreds of hogs a year and the last time this came up on the hog forum he said he'd never had a bad one. Hunted hard like that, the average size of the pigs are gonna be a little smaller. Just like with deer it's crucial to get the animal gutted and cooled ASAP. He's also anal about washing them off before field dressing them. There might be something to that as well. Also it is much more important with boar to not cut into the private area. The bacteria that live around a boar's you know what are nasty. One of the guys took some of that stenchy stuff to a scientist to try and see if it could be reproduced and sold as a lure. They told him it was a biohazard. :o
George
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Very nice hog Cipriano, Congratulations