Not again.......! Feral Hog Control in East Texas

Longtime Lurker 1st time poster [Cont]

Finally last Friday was gonna be our first hunt.
I don’t have a real blind yet, ground or stand. [We are going to get one, I just haven’t gotten around to getting it yet] So we got some cammo blind fabric and draped it over the golf cart and tied it down with velco strips. (I know… Kinda getto but you gotta work with what ya’ got)
The golf cart has a windshield that folds down in half so that was our rifle rest and the only thing that wasn’t covered.
I backed into a spot off our sendero facing the feeder about 50 yards from it.
I have an ATN X-Site HD I night vision scope and let my son mount it on his 300 Blackout.
I had a night vision monocular so I can see what was going on too.

For those of you that don’t know, the ATN unit is super heavy, like almost 5 lbs with extra battery pack. His gun was too heavy to hold for any amount of time, so I would use the monocular to call out any movement down range.

The wind was blowing perfectly into our position. It came from the feeder directly into the golf cart and down the sendero we made. The only problem we thought we might have was if the hogs were to come in from the road, we were convinced that we were going to be sniffed out but it never happened.

It was great sitting there with my son, in the dark, hunting game, on property that we owned.
I can’t even describe all that I felt but it was a time that I will cherish for as long I have breath.

At one point in the night, something did walk up the sendero from behind us, and when it got about 20 feet from us, it cut into the bushes and kept moving. It was making a wild low grunting growl and it was fast. You’d hear the sound then seconds later you’d hear it 25 yards from where you last heard it.
It scared the both of us since we weren’t sure what it was and neither of us could catch it in our scopes.
It passed on but left us both acutely aware that we were in their comfort zone and not ours.

As the night went on and after lifting the NV to your eyes so many times your eyes begin to play tricks on you. You think you see something but then you refocus and there is nothing there.
One time about 10:45 PM I pulled the NV from my eyes and was just looking out with the light of almost a full moon. I thought I saw a bait bucket move and thought, ‘that’s weird.. my eyes are really mixed up?!’
But then it moved again!??!
I pulled the NV up and saw a pig under the stand just going to town on the corn there!!!!?!
I was like “OMG!!! Josh PIG, PIG, PIG!!!! “
Josh was trying to get his rifle up and find it in view when it slipped right back into the bushes.
That pig wasn’t there even 25 seconds and it moved on!!!??!?!?!???
I was like, “Oh man did you see it!!!?!”
He said, “No, I never saw it..!!?”

What happened?, Did we miss our only chance?, Were we blown by our scent?, Did we make some weird noise? We didn’t know what to think. We just sat there in stunned silence for a few minutes hoping he would come back…..

It’s now 12:45 am and we are both getting tired as this was the end of a normal work day for the both us. All of a sudden I noticed a hog walking out of the brush just to the right of the feeder.
It was the same pig. I whispered as fast as I could, “Pig, Pig, Pig, Pig”
Josh has the rifle ready but can’t see it again. He says, “The IR illuminator is lighting up the bush too much and it’s washing out my view!!!?”
Crap, crap, crap, crap..!!! We are going to lose it again!?!?!
He says, “Let’s switch spots!!”
So right in the middle of all this I’m supposed to slip my not so slender body under his while he stands up and leans forward so he can sit where I am currently sitting..!!??! All the while not making a sound that would alarm the hog!?!? Are you kidding me!?
I said, “Ok, let’s do this now!!!”
He’s up, I slide over and he somehow slips into my now vacant position.
I bring the NV up to my eye and he’s still there, still feeding not aware that we are freaking out.
[Did I mention that we are newbies at hog hunting?! This was our first :p]
Josh takes aim and the pig turns broadside, perfect shot..
I say,”SHOOT!!!” and Josh says, “I can’t see again!!!?”
The night vision scope was turned up so high that the pigs eyes were reflecting back into the scope and washing his view out!!!?
Finally the hog faces to the left, starts to eat again and Josh lines up his shot.
Just about then the pig makes a quarter turn away and Josh lets go a round down range.
It strikes the pig just between the left ear and the front shoulder and exits out right behind the right ear.
The pig dropped to the ground instantly and never took another step!!!!
We were so hyped up by that point we couldn’t even stand it!
He was shaking and I was beaming..!!!
[Continue]
 
Longtime Lurker 1st time poster [Cont]

We had successfully hog hunted on our own property for the first time.
I was never so relieved and excited at the same time.
I’m so proud of my boy 

I will shrink back into the weeds and watch y’all post with the utmost respect and admiration for those that have tried to hunt and succeeded.
I can’t wait to see what new adventures y’all will take me on.
Thanks Flintknapper for keeping this thread alive.


PS: on the Heart Girth scale, while hanging, it was 47.5 in = 275 lbs.

BetterPict_zpsvvfrlyog.jpg

Hogdown_zpsxbpunmlg.jpg

ProudSon_zpswpdst6p7.jpg

HangingWeight_zps0aiqnxdo.jpg
 
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Great story!!
You guys are officially hooked on hog hunting now! These sort of experiences will stay with you the rest of your life. I expect to some day be close to my last breath on this earth when I'll mutter something about "remember when we had that big spotted hog wander in on us?"
My best friend shot one while visiting here from Washington a couple years ago that was spotted like yours, and did it with a .300 Blackout as well. You just don't see that many spotted like that one. Great job!!
 
Nice story. I felt like I was there with you, JGarduna. Isn't it wonderful when you work to make a dream come true? Keep us posted as you go along.
 
JGarduna,

Looks like that .300 BLK worked great on 'Ol Chips Ahoy :).

Great job, and it is always great to have memories like that.

Now go out and shoot about 7,000,000 more of those :).

Just my .02,
LeonCarr
 
For doubters the 300 Blackout is not a viable hunting cartridge for deer sized game, here (#1902 and 1904) are two huge Boars {250 & 350 pounds) and each taken with one shot. At any reasonable range..out to 200 yd...the 300 is just plain deadly.
 
275lbs.!? Can you eat a hog that big!?

Ok, so…. My first passion in life is not hunting, all though it’s a close 2nd :p
My first passion is cooking. I love to cook. And I love to cook what I hunted.
I only hunt what I’ll will eat. [Dove, Deer, Rabbit, Squirrel & now Hog]
I pride myself on making delicious meals that people really enjoy.

So here’s the problem:
“Everyone says you can’t eat the really big hogs!!” (anything over 160+)
“They taste bad! Just leave them for critter food”

I just can’t do it…. I can’t… I gotta try 
I have processed many a deer in my day. Some I shot, some my son shot but up until last Friday night, I have never process my own hog!?
Sure I watched a lot of YouTube videos…
[Some guys were overly cautious, like headed for surgery covered from head to toe and others were actually cleaning their hogs barefooted :p ]

I don’t know about you but I get a little confused when I get too much conflicting information.
I end up not really knowing the best way to accomplish what I’m trying to get done.
Such was the case with processing my hog.
I knew I wanted to try to get the most meat off but didn’t know the best way.
[Something about scent glands ruining the meat just threw me for a loop]
Ok, just to illustrate how confused I can get….
I saw a video where a guy used a propane torch and burned all the hair & bugs off the hog to make it easier and cleaner to processes.
I said to myself, “I want this to be easier and cleaner!?! I’m gonna get me one of those ”
But not having used one of those before I spoke to a friend and he said, “They can be a little intimidating. They are loud.”
Well when it came time to use it, I got it out but decided against it. Then my son saw a tick on the hog and he said that he wanted to use it to burn all the hair and bugs off.
So I hooked up the torch to the propane tank and we lugged it to the where the hog was hanging.
We cranked the thing up and in the middle of the night, out in the woods that thing sounded like a jet engine..!!!! IT SCARED THE CRAP OUT OF BOTH OF US!! :O)

My son hit the back of that hairy pig with it and the hair burst into flames.
[two things here: 1) guess what pig hair smells like when burnt? News-flash: nasty burnt hair :-\
2) Burnt hog hair is super smokey and will snuff out your torch if you are too close.]
The fire leapt up the back and started to drop burning hair on to the forest floor where the ground was filled with dry cut grass.
I’m kinda freeking out and Josh is holding a now extinguished torch and trying to blow out the fire eruption that is going on on the back that hanging pig!?!? [This was not our finest hour ]
Did I mention that the entire area now smells like a hair fire!? The earlier breeze is now gone and we are standing in a cloud of burnt hair smoke and it ain’t goin’ nowhere!!? 

Hey, you don’t think clearly in the wee hours, at least I don’t…

Crises averted, the forest fire never happened and we decided that the torch was just too much at this time. Maybe we’ll try it again another time. (we wont)
We just decided to move forward and skin this beast.
Anyway, now it’s well after 2 am in the wee hours of a long day and I gotta cut into an animal that I have never even seen in real life o_O
Well…. If others have done it.. I can do it… So I jump in with gloves and a few sharp knives.

First thing I do is cut around the trotters and start to skin him from the top down.
Did I mention this was a monster size pig.. like 275lb’s..!!!!

Trying to recall all the videos I watched and relying on previous deer I’ve processed we got through it relatively unscathed. Skinned, quartered and de-backstraped. It took a long time but with the help of my son and a bone saw we got all the meat on salted ice.

I left the carcass out in the field for the other wild critters to have a meal and we headed out.

I kept the meat in the cooler with drain plug opened and added salt and ice for the next 5 days.
It has been in the upper 90’s everyday but cooler has kept its ice and draining nicely.

It’s Wednesday now and I pull out the large backstrap to prepare for dinner.
It looks like a giant piece of meat from HEB and doesn’t smell at all.

F9C4A012-5B11-4484-88D2-52021C68B80C_zpsbicx23ap.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]
This looks promising 

I cut it up into 3 pieces and filet into a wide 1 inch thick steak of meat.
Salt and pepper it, spread a layer of breakfast sausage on it and sprinkle dried cranberries on that.
I roll the whole thing up and wrap that in strips of bacon then tie it all up with butcher’s twine.
Then bake it at 350F for 2 hours in a broiling bag with a little water.
When it was done I dusted the top with light brown sugar.

4D5119F9-D064-43C5-B830-6A2B7C2E31BF_zpsfviy6e60.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]

A939A0DF-1799-4D38-99B3-B04945C04D33_zpsxt5zx4ii.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]

2BE21C7B-7FF3-4012-8906-111E1E58A7C7_zps0cq38sfw.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]
Served it with creamed corn and stuffing.
Everyone went crazy for it!!

Not a hint of weird smell or off taste. It was perfect.
Not really sure why but this hog was perfect to eat and I can’t wait to smoke one of the hams for Labor Day that is coming up in a couple of weeks.

I know this is not the cooking channel but I just wanted to pass on the knowledge, that not all giant hogs are inedible. I won’t post like this on this channel again about this. Just trying to help us all grow in knowledge and strength :p

JohnnyG out….
 
This guy might be a challenge for someone to cook.....I feel satisfied with putting a smile on the coyotes faces with him. He was in a trap this morning and really PO'ed over the whole situation. He had turned the trap around 180 degrees and was taking it back into the woods further about 1 ft. every time he made a run at the sides of it. I'm normally pretty comfortable being around hogs in traps, but this guy could have turned that trap over in a heartbeat once he figured out how to get his snout underneath the bottom of it. He got a few subsonic .22's in the brain in a hurry...and that was no easy feat considering how wild he was in there.
I have had a group of about 18 working around this area lately, but sure didn't expect this guy.
Pictures don't always give a person a real perspective of size....but to give you a better comparison....I'm 6'5" tall and this guy was nearly 8 ft. from snout to heels.
DSCN1531_zps7vuw1iia.jpg
 
Another shot of this mornings hog as I was trying to get him in the truck for disposal. This is hog # 554 I have taken on this property.
DSCN1534_zpsjtakpyne.jpg
 
Stony said:
This guy might be a challenge for someone to cook.....I feel satisfied with putting a smile on the coyotes faces with him. He was in a trap this morning and really PO'ed over the whole situation. He had turned the trap around 180 degrees and was taking it back into the woods further about 1 ft. every time he made a run at the sides of it. I'm normally pretty comfortable being around hogs in traps, but this guy could have turned that trap over in a heartbeat once he figured out how to get his snout underneath the bottom of it. He got a few subsonic .22's in the brain in a hurry...and that was no easy feat considering how wild he was in there.
I have had a group of about 18 working around this area lately, but sure didn't expect this guy.
Pictures don't always give a person a real perspective of size....but to give you a better comparison....I'm 6'5" tall and this guy was nearly 8 ft. from snout to heels.
DSCN1531_zps7vuw1iia.jpg
Click to expand...
Now that's a hog.
 
JGarduna said:
Ok, so…. My first passion in life is not hunting, all though it’s a close 2nd :p
My first passion is cooking. I love to cook. And I love to cook what I hunted.
I only hunt what I’ll will eat. [Dove, Deer, Rabbit, Squirrel & now Hog]
I pride myself on making delicious meals that people really enjoy.

So here’s the problem:
“Everyone says you can’t eat the really big hogs!!” (anything over 160+)
“They taste bad! Just leave them for critter food”

I just can’t do it…. I can’t… I gotta try
I have processed many a deer in my day. Some I shot, some my son shot but up until last Friday night, I have never process my own hog!?
Sure I watched a lot of YouTube videos…
[Some guys were overly cautious, like headed for surgery covered from head to toe and others were actually cleaning their hogs barefooted [emoji14] ]

I don’t know about you but I get a little confused when I get too much conflicting information.
I end up not really knowing the best way to accomplish what I’m trying to get done.
Such was the case with processing my hog.
I knew I wanted to try to get the most meat off but didn’t know the best way.
[Something about scent glands ruining the meat just threw me for a loop]
Ok, just to illustrate how confused I can get….
I saw a video where a guy used a propane torch and burned all the hair & bugs off the hog to make it easier and cleaner to processes.
I said to myself, “I want this to be easier and cleaner!?! I’m gonna get me one of those ”
But not having used one of those before I spoke to a friend and he said, “They can be a little intimidating. They are loud.”
Well when it came time to use it, I got it out but decided against it. Then my son saw a tick on the hog and he said that he wanted to use it to burn all the hair and bugs off.
So I hooked up the torch to the propane tank and we lugged it to the where the hog was hanging.
We cranked the thing up and in the middle of the night, out in the woods that thing sounded like a jet engine..!!!! IT SCARED THE CRAP OUT OF BOTH OF US!! :O)

My son hit the back of that hairy pig with it and the hair burst into flames.
[two things here: 1) guess what pig hair smells like when burnt? News-flash: nasty burnt hair :-\
2) Burnt hog hair is super smokey and will snuff out your torch if you are too close.]
The fire leapt up the back and started to drop burning hair on to the forest floor where the ground was filled with dry cut grass.
I’m kinda freeking out and Josh is holding a now extinguished torch and trying to blow out the fire eruption that is going on on the back that hanging pig!?!? [This was not our finest hour ]
Did I mention that the entire area now smells like a hair fire!? The earlier breeze is now gone and we are standing in a cloud of burnt hair smoke and it ain’t goin’ nowhere!!?

Hey, you don’t think clearly in the wee hours, at least I don’t…

Crises averted, the forest fire never happened and we decided that the torch was just too much at this time. Maybe we’ll try it again another time. (we wont)
We just decided to move forward and skin this beast.
Anyway, now it’s well after 2 am in the wee hours of a long day and I gotta cut into an animal that I have never even seen in real life o_O
Well…. If others have done it.. I can do it… So I jump in with gloves and a few sharp knives.

First thing I do is cut around the trotters and start to skin him from the top down.
Did I mention this was a monster size pig.. like 275lb’s..!!!!

Trying to recall all the videos I watched and relying on previous deer I’ve processed we got through it relatively unscathed. Skinned, quartered and de-backstraped. It took a long time but with the help of my son and a bone saw we got all the meat on salted ice.

I left the carcass out in the field for the other wild critters to have a meal and we headed out.

I kept the meat in the cooler with drain plug opened and added salt and ice for the next 5 days.
It has been in the upper 90’s everyday but cooler has kept its ice and draining nicely.

It’s Wednesday now and I pull out the large backstrap to prepare for dinner.
It looks like a giant piece of meat from HEB and doesn’t smell at all.

F9C4A012-5B11-4484-88D2-52021C68B80C_zpsbicx23ap.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]
This looks promising

I cut it up into 3 pieces and filet into a wide 1 inch thick steak of meat.
Salt and pepper it, spread a layer of breakfast sausage on it and sprinkle dried cranberries on that.
I roll the whole thing up and wrap that in strips of bacon then tie it all up with butcher’s twine.
Then bake it at 350F for 2 hours in a broiling bag with a little water.
When it was done I dusted the top with light brown sugar.

4D5119F9-D064-43C5-B830-6A2B7C2E31BF_zpsfviy6e60.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]

A939A0DF-1799-4D38-99B3-B04945C04D33_zpsxt5zx4ii.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]

2BE21C7B-7FF3-4012-8906-111E1E58A7C7_zps0cq38sfw.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]
Served it with creamed corn and stuffing.
Everyone went crazy for it!!

Not a hint of weird smell or off taste. It was perfect.
Not really sure why but this hog was perfect to eat and I can’t wait to smoke one of the hams for Labor Day that is coming up in a couple of weeks.

I know this is not the cooking channel but I just wanted to pass on the knowledge, that not all giant hogs are inedible. I won’t post like this on this channel again about this. Just trying to help us all grow in knowledge and strength :p

JohnnyG out….
Click to expand...
Great. Now I'm hungry.
 
JGarduna.....
I will process and either eat or give away sows of any size and have no problem with the quality of their meat. Boars in my experience can be another matter. I had a group of Hispanic workers that live nearby that I have given a number of boars to, and they do eat them. They cook them in the ground after skinning and packing the carcass full of things like oranges, limes, onions, etc...they say they come out very good.
Years ago I bought a fairly recently neutered boar (domestic) that the farmer said would be just fine. Trying to fry parts of it, you could smell it cooking throughout the house. I never tried again and I will continue to only process the smaller boars up to about 100 lbs..
Best of luck in your cooking endeavors...
 
JG, congratulations on your recent land purchase. Sounds as if it has already proven to be a good investment.

In your story (which I thoroughly enjoyed) you mentioned hearing a low 'growling' sound at one point. That was your Boar (or A Boar) making that noise. He had managed to detect your presence and was making known his 'displeasure'. It is quite un-nerving...the first time you hear one do that.

Glad you guys finally got him. He was quite a bruiser.

As far as 'table fare' goes, the size/weight of a hog really has little to do with the quality of the meat. There are a lot of other factors that determine whether or not the animal will be palatable or not (Boar or Sow).

Again, congratulations and thanks for sharing your experience with us.

Best of luck for future hunts, but regardless the outcome.... always cherish your time spent outdoors and with your Son.

Flint.
 
Stony,

That is a big 'ol Hog! Good job.

Please be careful out there by yourself. I know you are a seasoned hunter and have a lot of experience (and respect for) Feral Hogs, but things can go wrong quickly with a Big Boar like that one.

He'd have his way with you if he managed to turn that trap over.

I don't know about you, but I can't run as fast as I once could (about to be 62 yrs old).

But I can still scream like a Girl!

Just don't know if that would ward off an attack or not? ;)
 
I guess some day I might run into a scale to weigh some of these guys, but haven't yet. I would guess given comparisons to some I have shot, I would guess this guy somewhere over the 350 as he was really well fattened up and not just large. He was an old bugger with both of his tusks worn down to about an inch on each side. I hooked up a hoist something like a boat winch on a pole by a barn on the property and use that to lift one, but one this size is about all it (or I) can lift. I have a similar winch I welded onto a piece of angle iron that I stick in the hole at the rear of the bed on my truck, and I've used that one them too....but it's a challenge also.
Flint....I really appreciate the concern. I am 71 yrs. old and sure don't have the reflexes or strength that I once had. This hog was one of the wilder ones I have seen for some time and I had to get some lead into him pretty quick. I had a .22 in my hand when I approached the trap and probably should have picked up the Hi Power 9mm that was sitting in my pickup if not the rifle.
Hopefully some of the smaller ones that had been hanging around there are in the trap this morning...my freezer is getting a little low on legs and lots of folks seem to want them nowdays.
 
Nobody home in the traps this morning, but looking through some of the pic's from my game cameras, I have been getting some more big boars at another feeder later at night. If the rain will hold off, I might just have to spend part of tonight out with my nightvision. I have a couple that look like they would certainly go over the 300 lb. mark.
 
Couldn't get a hog to show up last night. I went out at 8:00 and stayed until 4: 00 this morning. Had some hunters sneak in about midnight and had 4 shots fired, but never found them. I tried to find the game warden, but they can be hard to get up and motivated late at night. So...no hog...no hunters....no warden.....I need coffee and some sleep!
 
Stony wrote:

Had some hunters sneak in about midnight and had 4 shots fired, but never found them.
Click to expand...

On our property its 'Hog Doggers' that we have problems with. They know to wait until midnight (or after) to run their dogs....since property owners are either asleep or reluctant to go 'looking' that time of night/morning.

On some of the 'hog dogging' forums...some members are so bold as to 'brag' about being able to go just about anywhere they want at that hour of the night.

By no means do I wish disparage an entire group of folks, there are responsible Hog Dog owners out there. But the bad ones clearly outweigh the good ones where I live.
 
Flint....I think you are absolutely right about the hog and dogs. I actually caught one of the guys dogs once with a protective collar around it's neck, but never could get the owners of it to come out of the woods. I hollered at them for a while, but it's too dark and dense in there to get to them in a proper manner. I finally had to turn their dog loose as it was only doing what it was trained to do....not it's fault.
I didn't hear any dogs last night, but someone was definitely in there, probably within a couple hundred yards from me.
Some hunters have no respect for anything....
 
Stony said:
Flint....I think you are absolutely right about the hog and dogs. I actually caught one of the guys dogs once with a protective collar around it's neck, but never could get the owners of it to come out of the woods. I hollered at them for a while, but it's too dark and dense in there to get to them in a proper manner. I finally had to turn their dog loose as it was only doing what it was trained to do....not it's fault.
I didn't hear any dogs last night, but someone was definitely in there, probably within a couple hundred yards from me.
Some hunters have no respect for anything....
Click to expand...
I would have kept the dog and call authorities. It may have had a chip then you would find the owner. Or tell him to come out, if not shoot the dog. They have to pay some penalty poaching/trespassing. Then they would get the message that it will not be tolerated.

Having discrete cameras scattered around with signs at entrance saying video surveillance in use for prosecution.
 
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