More Little Pigs

[alsaqr]

In the past year i've killed about 90 small pigs. Usually sit in a stand or blind overlooking a feeder with a .22 and shoot pigs.

Checked the game cameras yesterday. There are at least 25 small pigs running around with two sounders.

There is a stand in the tree behind the feeder. Will sit there with my .22 Hornet/20 gauge shotgun. The .22 Hornet does a decent job on adults. 3" number four shot works great on small pigs at close range.

 

[BigBore44]

Looks like good fare for a spit roasting.

 

[FL-NC]

Nice eating sized pigs!

 

[Flintknapper]

I'll probably dream about those little devils tonight...now that you posted it and I can't 'un-see' it.

 

[troy fairweather]

Mmm bacon.

 

[jmorris]

Only bad thing about those guys is dropping the rifle for the “giggle shot” so people can see how small they are.



They do taste better then the big old stinky ones that most folks like to shoot photos of.

 

[Patocazador]

Kill 'em, kill 'em, kill 'em! The more the better.

 

[jmorris]

Talking to a neighbor at our farm Sunday and telling him how I thought the pigs were smarter than I had given the credit, as they are absent on Friday, Saturday and Sunday like clock work. He said he would be happy to shoot them and get them out of the trap. So I took him over there and showed him how it works. Only problem was I left the “safety” on, so there was no way for the doors to drop while we entered and exited the trap.

So they were happily eating along.


Then startled when I activated the doors.



That didn’t drop. So they went back to eating.



He’s going to reset it and remove the safety today.

 

[Flintknapper]

Only bad thing about those guys is dropping the rifle for the “giggle shot” so people can see how small they are.

IMO that is the very best one to take out. Kill them BEFORE they start destroying things or are old enough to breed and make more. Good job!

 

[jmorris]

IMO that is the very best one to take out. Kill them BEFORE they start destroying things or are old enough to breed and make more. Good job!

I suppose they are also very tender and taste great but are a lot of work for about the same amount of meat you get from a chicken.

 

[alsaqr]

I suppose they are also very tender and taste great but are a lot of work for about the same amount of meat you get from a chicken.

That is true. i usually kill several small pigs at each shooting. Each buzzard or coyote gets his/her own piggie.

 

[jmorris]

I which each could get their own, we wouldn’t have hog problems at that point

 

[Choctaw]

IMO that is the very best one to take out. Kill them BEFORE they start destroying things or are old enough to breed and make more. Good job!

Yes sir, kill them all but especially the little ones. It kind of feels like shooting puppies but it has to be done.

 

[jmorris]

The camera was going off about 40 min ago so I called to drop the gates with more than 20 in there.



The camera is mounted to a little cedar in the trap and I haven’t gotten anymore photos since. So either everything vanished or they knocked the connection loose from the battery to the camera.

 

[jmorris]

Well, I was worried about gate pushing out of the frame. So I built an angle iron bottom rail.

I wonder how many had to hit it at the same time to bust all the wire and fling the gate and frame 90 degrees open?

 

[alsaqr]

Yep, the critters are growing. The camera date/time went haywire when i changed batteries.





i have ten rounds of 3" 12 gauge shells loaded with copper plated BB shot. The 500 Mossberg will soon thin their ranks.

 

[whughett]

Dumb Question and there is some even dumber State regulation against it. No bodies rounding these piglets up, a hog farmer perhaps, raising them to market size, theres money in hogs.

I’m assuming of course that feral hogs are just genetically the same as domesticated ones.

 

[jmorris]

Dumb Question and there is some even dumber State regulation against it. No bodies rounding these piglets up, a hog farmer perhaps, raising them to market size, theres money in hogs.

Here is a list of them if you live in Texas.

https://www.tahc.texas.gov/animal_health/swine/FeralSwineFacilities.pdf

There is more money in it to them, if they feed them out and sell them to high fence ranchers that sell “hog hunts” to city slickers.

After the breakout I had above, there had been zero activity in my trap but they are going to every other feeder on our property. I was (probably still) going to build another set of doors to move from feeder to feeder on the ones that we already have cattle panel around with holes cut in them for entrance and exit. Then I can just move my trigger and camera from location to location vs doing a lot of work each time.

The brave ones started coming back in on the 26th. That’s over a month they have been avoiding the pile of corn! There were also lots of acorns this year and it took longer than usual for them to clean them all up too so that might have been a factor as well.

 

[alsaqr]

Dumb Question and there is some even dumber State regulation against it. No bodies rounding these piglets up, a hog farmer perhaps, raising them to market size, theres money in hogs.

In Oklahoma it's illegal to catch and raise feral hogs. Hogs caught in my traps DRT.

There is a market for adult hogs that is closely regulated. Must have a license to transport and a transportation permit for each trip to the slaughter house or hunting ranch.

My thing is shooting small pigs before they grow into hogs. Will be doing that next weekend.

 

[Thibaut]

I'll probably dream about those little devils tonight...now that you posted it and I can't 'un-see' it.

Ditto. At least we won't have to listen to the fracas.

 

[whughett]

In Oklahoma it's illegal to catch and raise feral hogs. Hogs caught in my traps DRT.

There is a market for adult hogs that is closely regulated. Must have a license to transport and a transportation permit for each trip to the slaughter house or hunting ranch.

My thing is shooting small pigs before they grow into hogs. Will be doing that next weekend.

These threads always take me back to the 40’s and 50’s. Growing up on a Southern Ohio subsistence farm our pigs were a sustainable source of food supply for a family of eight kids and three adults. November was slaughter month, one or two steers and several hogs were slaughtered and processed and supplied the family with frozen beef, and smoked pork products for the coming year. No part of those pigs were wasted, from the rendering cauldron over the wood burning pit to the smoke house to the sausage stuffer, every part was used. LOL. I can even recall the bladder being inflated and dried then becoming a toy rattle.

Readjng these posts, and watching You Tube videos, something so vital to families in those days are now such complete vermin to the point that many are shot and left to rot is somewhat disturbing, but certainly understandable of some folks.

Paying someone to shoot pigs in an enclosure, not so much. JMO

 

[Thibaut]

These threads always take me back to the 40’s and 50’s. Growing up on a Southern Ohio subsistence farm our pigs were a sustainable source of food supply for a family of eight kids and three adults. November was slaughter month, one or two steers and several hogs were slaughtered and processed and supplied the family with frozen beef, and smoked pork products for the coming year. No part of those pigs were wasted, from the rendering cauldron over the wood burning pit to the smoke house to the sausage stuffer, every part was used. LOL. I can even recall the bladder being inflated and dried then becoming a toy rattle.

Readjng these posts, and watching You Tube videos, something so vital to families in those days are now such complete vermin to the point that many are shot and left to rot is somewhat disturbing, but certainly understandable of some folks.

Paying someone to shoot pigs in an enclosure, not so much. JMO

Yes. My earliest years were on a working farm in the Deep South. My Grandfather's. Pigs raised hell in the Fall (I remember it being much colder then than now) for good reason. That gunshot echoed. As did the ensuing silence.

 

[WestKentucky]

You have a serious problem. You need a free range pet tiger or something to manage things while your gone. Keep the bacon train rolling.

 

[whughett]

Yes. My earliest years were on a working farm in the Deep South. My Grandfather's. Pigs raised hell in the Fall (I remember it being much colder then than now) for good reason. That gunshot echoed. As did the ensuing silence.

Another memory. The pigs, accustomed to someone, usually one of us boys, walking among them to slop, were docile. As the brains were eaten. Slaughter was accomplished by grabbing a hog by the ear, straddling it’s back and striking between the eyes with a small sledge. It’s jugular was then slashed and the pig hoisted up to bleed out. From there it was scalded and scraped. Never saw one skinned.

 

[Thibaut]

Another memory. The pigs, accustomed to someone, usually one of us boys, walking among them to slop, were docile. As the brains were eaten. Slaughter was accomplished by grabbing a hog by the ear, straddling it’s back and striking between the eyes with a small sledge. It’s jugular was then slashed and the pig hoisted up to bleed out. From there it was scalded and scraped. Never saw one skinned.

I think there probably was and is much argument as to the humane procedure for pig slaughter. It was a big time on a farm. Important time. From there to the smokehouse and then hams to the table on holidays. I've been known to mesmerize my sorority sisters with my farm stories. Pigs were always front and center. Heh.