Does anyone else consider themselves strictly a meat hunter?

[MCgunner]

AKElroy, congrats on the epiphany. Wild pork is my favorite off the smoker. The ribs are awesome. I make up sausage, too, do all my own. Shoulders, neck, all that get ground, mixed, and stuffed. Awesome stuff. I smoke most everything pork. The hams can be a bit fatty to crock pot, but they ARE good that way. I just prefer 'em smoked with mesquite.

 

[brainwake]

You guys are always making me hungry....Do you get any bacon off them there wild ones?

 

[MCgunner]

Bacon requires lots of fat and, usually, feral pigs don't have enough. I have trapped a few that I could have made bacon of the belly meat, but I just grind it up for sausage. I'd have to research making bacon, never done it. Never cured a ham, either.

 

[ZeroJunk]

I have never tried any wild pig. Got to be better than venison.

 

[T.R.]

It's very difficult for me to pass up a legal deer or other animal. Although I've taken some big heads, these were mostly lucky situations for me.

A doe which weighs about 65 lbs after field dressing makes for a truly magnificent trophy on the dinner table!

TR

 

[Jason_W]

At this point, I would happily forfeit the opportunity to ever shoot a buck if I could get my hands on a doe tag every year.

If I drew a moose tag for Maine, Vermont, or New Hampshire, I would likely pass on a huge bull and instead take a small cow or even a yearling. In all three of these states, moose are required to be checked in whole. No quartering in the field is allowed. I can't imagine how much of a nightmare it would be to try and get a fully grown bull out of a cedar swamp or tangle of logging debris.

 

[Officers'Wife]

You guys are always making me hungry....Do you get any bacon off them there wild ones?

Hi Brain,

Actually on ferals you are better off using the bacon as very lean side meat. Sis in law actually broils it in the slab. But my brother will eat anything.

 

[AKElroy]

I become a meat-only hunter the last week in December, when the deer I really want are either shot at and missed, or taken by other hunters. Last-call deer are always the tastiest. Pigs are shot as pests first, but cleanly shot middle weight sows will certainly be coming home.