Anyone actually eat one of these?

[Old Stony]

Anybody actually eat these old buggers? I save the legs and sometimes backstraps off of the sows, but the boars over 100 lbs. I donate to the critters of the woods and they are consumed very quickly...generally in a day or less.
I see where at least one state has required a permit to hunt them, and requires you to take the carcass after you shoot it.
Meat from a feral sow can be quite tasty if cooked slowly on a smoker or similar prep, but an older boar?

[rkittine]

I am not big into "Gamie" meat, but back when I hunted I did shoot a boar and had it butchered. The only thing that I liked was the sausage that the guy made, probably because it was so spiced up I did not taste the meat. I used to hunt with a guy who would slow cook woodchuck for hours and eat that too, but I will stay with McDonalds even though I have no clue what they put in there (Actually I do as I used to be a supplier to Cavalier Provisions, who handles a lot of their meet.) Then there are the IKEA Swedish meat balls, which I love and used to be horse meat until the FDA got them.

Bob

[hounddogman]

Yes pretty good if you marinate it first. Does make good sausage also, the butcher I use adds fat to the sausage cuz wild pigs don't have enough, he makes excellent linguica

[eastbank]

i ate some weird stuff in africa and i think its all in how you prepare to cook and then the cooking its self, very slow and low heat. eastbank.

[taylorce1]

Sure did eat the two that I shot, wasn't much difference between them and regular pork except I don't have any way to cure hams and bacon. The meat was a little leaner but tasted like regular pork. The worse part was the darn fleas while skinning the pigs getting all over me, made me wish for a propane torch to singe the hair off of them before skinning.

[Doyle]

I've eaten lots of wild hog and here is my take:

If he has 'nads that are showing then I give him to the buzzards. If he is young enough that his 'nads haven't dropped yet then he gets cut up just like a sow.

[Scout]

If he's running with sows, he's going to stink.

[603Country]

Doyle speaks the truth.

[reynolds357]

I eat sows. I do not eat boars.

[Sure Shot Mc Gee]

Don't have them piggy's A root'en and A toot'en around here yet. But their coming North along with those South of the Pecos Fire Ants. Hopefully they'll both arrive on the same day. Been said: the best way to skin those dirty tings is to drag them down a old county blacktop road (at night) at high speed. Any Truth to that rumor.

BTW: Never shot one or ate any part of one that I know of. To close to being totally nasty for me to even try. I do have limits. Uff Da!

[FrankenMauser]

No thanks.



I spent six years with a guy that rated his meat according to two factors:

1. Time cooked.
2. Times cooked.

Of course, that was primarily due to the fact that most of it was roadkill....

If, for example, he told you that something was "three times and 15 hours cooked", it was in your best interest to stay away. (Likely implying that it was sauteed, slow cooked [crock pot], and then re-fried or baked.)

That crazy, roadkill-eating, from-deep-in-the-bayous Cajun, however, wouldn't touch a boar that hadn't been castrated for at least 2 weeks (preferably 4+).
He referred to such 'tainted' pork as "pig nut bacon" and the saying and sentiment rubbed off on me. To this day, when I taste uncastrated boar, I instantly state to those around me, "Bah! It's pig nut bacon!"
(Which usually results in weird looks, because it's only pork belly bacon about 50% of the time.)

[wogpotter]

Yes a few times. A couple of myths about wild pig if I may.
1: Its not tough & stringy.
2: Its not always "gamey".

Smaller is better the Gamey comes mostly from old fat younger slimmer ones are (IMO) better all round.

Females seem to taste better than males across the board.

Marinating is good, slow cooking or smoking is even better.

Cleaning, gutting & skinning can have very negative effects on flavor. Make sure whoever is dong this knows what to cut & what not to!

[ZeroJunk]

There is a reason we castrate young male pigs.

[Panfisher]

The old timers used to say the loins/back strap doesn't have the boar hog flavor. Did butcher a very large barrow, had been castrated 6 weeks prior and was fine. Heck I would peel out a loin and try it.

[603Country]

The general rule I've followed successfully is that if they are male and stink, don't eat them.

As for how good wild pig tastes, my Dad (upon eating wild pig for the first time) said "if the pigs had antlers, I'd never shoot another deer".

[Old Stony]

I had one butcher tell me to check out the fat. If it was white it's okay, but if yellow pass on it. I don't know if there is anything to this, as I just keep leaving the boars for the coyotes and buzzards. The boar in the pic above was number 470 for me off of this property and I've given away a ton of pig butts along the way. I just don't have the capacity to keep the whole animals, so I freeze up the better legs and leave the rest.

[Doyle]

If it was white it's okay, but if yellow pass on it.

I wouldn't go by that. I've killed hogs in the orange groves of FL that had distinctly yellow fat - from eating oranges. Tasted fine.

[Saltydog235]

An old boar in a pine forest isn't anything but ditch meat. Shot a big nasty Bo hog a few years ago that took the buzzards a week to decide to dig into. Yotes came in after the buzzards. Pork's still cheap enough I'd rather not fool with the vermin.

[Double Naught Spy]

We shoot enough hogs that the landowner generally only takes the backstraps. I don't mess with any of it, but I have another guy that I take whole hogs to and he has everything but the guts, bones, and brains processed.

This 264 #er produced some huge backstraps that turned out wonderfully tasteful.

[Hunter Customs]

Old Stony, I never ate a wild hog but I sure like your rifle.
I did run into a lot of wild hogs when I was at Ft Polk.

Best Regards
Bob Hunter

[Buzzard Bait]

That is a fine looking rifle in the picture keep the rifle,, the hog, well Buzzards need to eat too.
bb

[mxsailor803]

Cook that ole girl low and slow for about 10-12 with some water soaked hickory and nom nom nom.

[rickyrick]

I've killed hundreds, but never ate one.... I hear that theys tasty... I have given many away... I always tried to find someone but not everyone wants them... Many have gone to the coyote pile...
Happy coyotes don't kill goats, so it works out...

[603Country]

Man, I can't believe that some of you guys aren't eating the pigs. That's some good meat. Some years ago the Wife cooked ribs off of a small female pig. I was waiting to hear her say they were ready. Finally went in the kitchen and she had eaten all the ribs (they weren't very big and didn't have a lot of meat). I said "hey, what's the deal" and she said that she had intended to call me, but the ribs were just so darn good. True story.

Anyway, when you kill the pig, which ideally would be a female of 80 to 100 pounds or so, hang the pig head down, split the hide along the spine with your least favorite skinning knife and take the backstrap out with your good knife. I debone the hindquarters too. No need to gut the pig at all, so the big mess is avoided. Then I take the remains to the back for coyote bait. It goes pretty fast. The meat is better than venison. You are gonna hate yourself for all the pig backstrap you wasted over the years.

[tahunua001]

to hear some guys tell it, it's just like any other pig but I know enough about diet to know that it really depends on where you shoot it and how old it is. that picture does not look like an old boar to me. I've seen sows with much larger tusks, I would say that pig would likely be edible assuming it got a lot of greenery in it's diet along with mushrooms, and berries and not a lot of meat in it. as pigs are omnivorous, they are as likely to eat a dead animal as carrion or coyotes and they'll really eat anything they put their mind to so depending on what they eat will likely determine how they taste as much as age and gender.