Hog Hunting Help

[argyle1812]

for starters does anyone know good places to hunt hog in washington state or the pacific northwest? second if so what caliber would be ideal? I have mainly military rifles mostly 7.5 swiss, 303 british, and 8mm mauser. im new to hog hunting so any help would be appreciated thanks.

[Madball6]

I have no idea what kind of hog infestation you have in your area, but if you do find a hog, any and all of those calibers are more then sufficient for dropping hog in the under 500 pound range. granted I have no idea what size hogs you have in your area but im guessing they are smaller then the max hogzilla sizes we have in the southeast.

[Madball6]

as a side note, if you are hunting them for meat, try to stick with sows under 200 pounds, boars over 100 pounds leave a foul taste in your mouth, no matter how quickly you gut/skin them. Boars over that weight are excellent dog food assuming your willing to raw feed your animals. Hoglets under 60 pounds make for awesome tasting smoked meat. Quarter them and smoke them and you have some of the finest hunt meat you'll find.

[Deja vu]

I have hunted hogs in Oregon. I don't remember the name of the place but it was near Bend. The hogs I saw where no where near the size of the hogs you will see on the internet but they where good to shoot and decent to eat.

When we went I brought 2 guns a 357 magnum Marlin and a 45/70 marlin. The guide said to go with the 357 because the 45/70 was too much gun if that gives you any idea of what to expect.

Our biggest hog was a 260 lbs sow. Most of them where in the 90-150 lbs range.

[Double Naught Spy]

Check with WDFW. Apparently distribution isn WA is a bit variable. For example, where there were hogs roaming in sounders in Olympic National Park in the early 2000s, none were known to be there in 2010.

as a side note, if you are hunting them for meat, try to stick with sows under 200 pounds, boars over 100 pounds leave a foul taste in your mouth, no matter how quickly you gut/skin them.

I don't think you are prepping your boars right.

[603Country]

Double Naught, I'm with Madball in that the big boars are just too stinky to mess with. If that's the only hog you have, then go ahead and cook it up, but if you have other options (sows or piglets) then go with the non-stinky meat.

As for weaponry, just about anything will do if the hog isn't out of reasonable range of the rifle. I never shot a hog with the 270 that has taken even one step after impact (so far). I never shot a hog with the 223 that DIDN'T take steps after impact.

And this thread reminds me that I didn't check the hog traps this morning. Gotta go do that.

[Double Naught Spy]

I know boars can stink before you shoot them, but I have yet to shoot one that does. If you run them down and they are full of adrenaline, that can definitely taint the flavor from what I have read, but shooting a calm one doesn't seem to be problematic at all.

Sows may be better, but we have no complaints from our boar meat.

[603Country]

Well...I also trap them (none today however), and some of the big boars have a big stink on them. No hogs around here get chased by anything other than a bullet. Just a general rule for me is that I only take meat from the sows and small males and females. I have plenty of them, so why bother with the smelly boars. My wife has already told me that I can quit shooting deer and just focus on the pigs.

[thallub]

I know boars can stink before you shoot them, but I have yet to shoot one that does.

+1
That!!!!

i kill a lot of hogs: Over 60 so far this year. Every one of those hogs get eaten by someone. A big boar hog will sometimes stink; that is because they urinate on themselves; must make them more attractive to the sows or something. The smell is all on the outside of the hog. Some folks get sloppy when they field dress and skin hogs and that can effect the meat.

A hog spoils very fast. A hog can spoil if left in a cooler for over 10-14 days. When the outside temperature is over 80 F you have a maximum of four hours to get the animal in a cooler or on ice before it starts to rot. Strong smelling hog meat is rotten hog meat or meat that got contaminated while field dressing or skinning.

We skin our hogs before they are field dressed, if possible. They are always washed down really good before skinning. A really cruddy hog gets taken to the car wash and scrubbed with a big long handled stiff bristled brush.

Killed this big boar hog last fall. Two friends took it home and processed the animal: All edible parts of that hog were kept. Ate some of the ribs from
that hog and they were great. The back straps on this hog were monstrous.

[603Country]

thallub,

That's very interesting info, and you have cooked and eaten the smelly ones, and I have not. Still, I think I'll focus on the smaller sows and males. Easier to deal with, and don't smell bad, and we can cook an entire half of a small one on our biggest grill.

And you take them to the car wash to clean the up. That got me to grinning. If I did that around here, it would sure make me into a local legend. Enough people already think that I'm a bit of a savage.

[FTG-05]

Don't see any hog in this limited resolution Feral Swine Map for the state of WA, but OR has some: http://128.192.20.53/nfsms/

Try calling your F&G people, if there are hogs in your state, they'll want them dead and they'll be more than happy to tell you where to kill them.

Good luck.

[rr2241tx]

As long as the boars aren't all foamy and actively trying to mate I have had no problem with "stink". Cut down one foamy rutting boar though and that meat nearly cleared the neighborhood every time my wife cooked some of it. Women don't seem to smell it or if they do, don't think it smells bad. Go figure.

[Mudinyeri]

603Country, I'm not sure what kind of hogs you're shooting with .223 ... or what part of their anatomy you're shooting, but I just dropped a ~175 lb sow with a single shot about two months ago ... .223 62 grain soft-nose bullet to the spine immediately behind the skull. She dropped where she stood, kicked a bit and that was it.

Now, if you're shooting 500+ lb boars ... .223 might be a little small.

[603Country]

Hello mudinyeri,

The 223 works just fine, but does have some limits. I haven't shot and lost but one pig (other than the one I missed) with the 223, 270, 220 Swift, or 260, but the 223 puts them down a bit slower. The one that got away was hit in the head with the 223, with a 55 gr Nosler BT, and I think that the bullet fragmented and bounced off his skull. It was an angled shot. Other than that, I've had to track a couple I shot with the 223, though the tracking didn't go further than about 100 yards. And I've tracked one or two that I shot with the 220. All pigs shot with the 270 or 260 fell within 10 yards of where they were hit. I've changed bullets in the 223, just because of the hogs. I now use the 65 gr Sierra GK. That should penetrate better, but I haven't had the chance to try it out on a pig yet. This week I'm hunting with the Ruger Compact in 260 Remington.

[rickyrick]

I have used .303 British on hogs, In most situations where I live its overkill. Behind the ear shots have three holes almost always; 1 in, 1 out, and one huge one blown out the throat. At longer ranges, if accurate enough, it'll probably do fine.

[Keg]

As far as too much gun...I worry very little about that...I would always rather have too much gun..than not enough.......

It amazes me the folks who would eat a large stinky boar......I have never heard of such til I started posting on this forum......

[Double Naught Spy]

It amazes me the folks who would eat a large stinky boar......I have never heard of such til I started posting on this forum......

Inexperience and unfamiliarity with how to make good with what you have got will limit your view. As noted, there is no reason to consume stinky boar...if you know how to prep it properly and then it won't be stinky and you get a lot more meat.

[Keg]

Inexperience and unfamiliarity with how to make good with what you have got will limit your view. As noted, there is no reason to consume stinky boar...if you know how to prep it properly and then it won't be stinky and you get a lot more meat.
__________________

I guess..maybe U could try to cover the taste..but why??? There are plenty other small boars or sows.... More meat is not the question..when there is an overabundance.....

[taylor351]

It is testosterone that causes the off flavor.
Keeping the animal from to much stress prior to killing it will keep testoterone down, but if a female is in heat nearby all bets are off.
It is best to kill a boar that is under 150 lbs to keep off smell down.
Or mix the meat with other flavors, or gind up int burgers or sausage.



Keith

[Keg]

Keith...That is probably correct....But Males have glands full of smelly fluid also......Whatever it is..it penetrates the meat..even with good care......
My question is why not just take those animals that have good meat for the table??? problem solved....

[thallub]

My question is why not just take those animals that have good meat for the table??? problem solved....

This area is over-run with hogs. i shoot every hog that comes into my scope. Traps do not discriminate. They catch whatever kind of hog that goes into them. All the hogs that i shoot and trap get eaten by someone. i absolutely will not let a hog lay and rot.

Big boar hogs are good meat for the table if they are properly cared for. I've often seen the lack of care given to wild hogs by hunters: Few bother to clean up nasty hogs. Several times i've seen hunters with bloated hogs that had been killed in 100 degree heat and never field dressed. They had fits of conniption when the processor refused their hogs.

i've watched that butcher sniff the meat and turn away wild hogs that were rotting. We can argue till the cows come home and some will never agree that boar hogs are good to eat if they are well taken care of: Even the guy who have never killed or tasted wild hog meat is indoctrinated with the myth that boars are not good to eat.

[Double Naught Spy]

Keith...That is probably correct....But Males have glands full of smelly fluid also......Whatever it is..it penetrates the meat..even with good care......
My question is why not just take those animals that have good meat for the table??? problem solved....

Glands full of smelly fluid? What glands are those? Do you mean the testes?

Otherwise, see...
http://www.thepigsite.com/swinenews/...-of-what-it-is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boar_taint
http://www.sapork.biz/a-review-of-th...of-boar-taint/

Boar taint is not limited to the boars and does not occur in all boars. It is more likely in postpubescent boars, but once again, does not occur in all of them.

[rickyrick]

We are not talking trophy elk or something. If its a pig on US soil, its vermin and needs to die.....eating not eating