Wild hogs

Ok, I know this may be an odd subject. Please feel free to insert all the piggy puns you want.

I was watching a show on the problem that wild hogs are being the largest vermin ins the southeast US, and becoming a massive problem for Europe and Russia.

I am embarrassed to admit I really had no idea that wild hogs existed in such abundance, and the havok they are causing in the southeast. Does anyone have experience with this?

And they are getting huge in Russia. Up to 700 lbs.

My survival question is this, how valid of a food source are they?

well if you can kill the young ones they tast like well pork lol they are a pig after all a wild hoge is a farm hog going wild hunderds of years agaio.
on the other hand a old bor is tuff and gammy and meaner then a rfattel snake to boot

reply to post by nixie_nox


the amazing thing is the transformation that takes place when a captive, domesticated pig becomes feral.. its like a mutant transformation..

they are very gamey tasting, chewy, salty and risky to hunt.. can be worse than coming across a black bear in the south!!

would be fun to hunt with a saiga 12ga!!

Theyre tasty roasted.. But be careful hunting them as theyre quite dangerous . If one gets ahold of you your fooked.. Seen and treated some nasty wounds that people have got from wild boars over the years. Remember boys and girls DO NOT PLAY WITH WILD ANIMALS.
And yes they do multiply fast ...

I saw this show !!!

glad you brought this up ,you know wild boar are very dangerous animals they can hunt you in packs! Ancient Europeans had a healthy respect for these things
and adorned charms and religious icons and weapons and jewelery and coates of arms with them

wild pigs are no joke I've encountered them in the wild ,we lived in Louisiana
and my family was picnicking on this lonely bayou,it was really beautiful there
and we were all heading back to the car when a family of pigs showed up three adults and one little bitty newborn stripey one. Our dachshund did the math and decided he could take down the little one and went for it. Naturally that enraged Mama Pig and they all came charging hell for leather at us. The dog was terrified and hid between my Dads feet ,I thought this was it for sure we would all be killed by these pigs. But we held formation (because we were all to scared to move),the pigs interpreted this as a show of strength stopped their charge took their baby and left

they were huge and they were not afraid of us

I use to hunt them all the time when I was growing up in southern OK. Like all wild and farmed raised animals the age and how much they suffered affects the meat.

If you kill one that has just matured and it will taste like pork. That is unless you didn't get a clean kill and the animal suffers for a while. That releases a great deal of adrenaline into the blood stream which gives the meat an almost bitter flavor.

You really don't have to worry about them coming after you unless there are little boars around. The mommas get very protective and it could turn your cheerful trip in the woods into a nightmare.

Also always try and shoot one near a tree with branches low enough for you to climb. If you don't get a clean kill then they will come after you and you don't really want to take your second shot from the ground. When you shoot one you don't have to worry about any of the other ones if they are in a pack. They will scatter like deer, its the injured one you have to worry about.

If you are treed by one after you shot him make sure you don't drop your weapon while climbing. The boar will stay near the tree waiting for you to come down for a very very long time.

You are really better off not hunting them in a survival situation unless you absolutely have to. There are to many things to go wrong for a risk that probably isn't worth taking.

There are some wild boar packs not far from me.

One tale that has circulated is where a hunter saw one and shot it, without getting a clean kill. The boar screamed and charged. The man managed to get into a tree and emptied a magazine into the boar to kill it. As he started to climb down, he heard more of them coming. He said there must have been 20 or so boar roaming around at one point, and with his gun empty of ammo he wasn't about to climb down. He sat all day and watched them rooting, fighting, and eating their fallen comrade. Finally, just before dark, the boar wandered off out of his sight. He sat there for a couple of hours listening and, assured they were really gone, made it back to his truck.

That's the tale he tells. The verifiable facts are that he was missing all that day, his truck was parked nearby (other hunters have verified this), and no one has come forward to say he was somewhere else.

Boar are the most dangerous animal we have here. They are voracious, omnivorous, and extremely tough and hardy. You can unload a 12-gauge slug into their skull and probably do no more than tick the thing off. They do run in social circles, and trying to take down one boar out of 5-20 in a group is asking for trouble. I would rather take on a raging mamma black bear or a starving cougar with a pocketknife than a pack of boar with a gun.

We shoot them on sight if they ever stray this far. And never mind the meat. It's tough, stringy, gamy pork; edible but far from desirable. They are not domesticated pigs turned feral... they are the evolutionary ancestors of domesticated hogs. And anyone who has raised swine will tell you: even a domesticated ticked off hog is nothing to mess with.

TheRedneck

reply to post by TheRedneck


whoo hoo, good posts! confirming everything I always feared about them

I honestly don't think how scary these things are can be exaggerated, it is worth noting that a hog skull is the scariest of all skulls you might think that it would be wolf or bear or mountain lion don't kid yourself look up wild boar skull online you'll die

I know that the kings of Europe used to hunt them in the Anglo Saxon days and such and they used dogs and long spears with a stop in the middle to stop the boar from running up the spear and killing the hunter. From what you've been saying about having to hide in trees and such that sounds like the best way.

I dread these things and they are spreading into new areas all the time

Originally posted by nixie_nox
Ok, I know this may be an odd subject. Please feel free to insert all the piggy puns you want.

I was watching a show on the problem that wild hogs are being the largest vermin ins the southeast US, and becoming a massive problem for Europe and Russia.

I am embarrassed to admit I really had no idea that wild hogs existed in such abundance, and the havok they are causing in the southeast. Does anyone have experience with this?

And they are getting huge in Russia. Up to 700 lbs.

My survival question is this, how valid of a food source are they?

Some history on our wild oinkers.

texnat.tamu.edu...

Here in East Texas we have our fair share. I think most are crossed between "escaped" Russians and feral domestics. These critters can destroy an asphalt road.

I wont go into what they can do to a field.

150-300 yards out they make great sport!

Food source? Oh yeah. They're reeeeeally lean though. Cant make sausage without adding fat to the mix. Back strap (tenderloin) is amazing. The Ribs are to die for and hams are amazing!

Kill'em, cook'em, and eat'em!

Heeeeeeeeere piggy piggy piggy!

BLAM!

Originally posted by TheRedneck
There are some wild boar packs not far from me.

One tale that has circulated is where a hunter saw one and shot it, without getting a clean kill. The boar screamed and charged. The man managed to get into a tree and emptied a magazine into the boar to kill it. As he started to climb down, he heard more of them coming. He said there must have been 20 or so boar roaming around at one point, and with his gun empty of ammo he wasn't about to climb down. He sat all day and watched them rooting, fighting, and eating their fallen comrade. Finally, just before dark, the boar wandered off out of his sight. He sat there for a couple of hours listening and, assured they were really gone, made it back to his truck.

That's the tale he tells. The verifiable facts are that he was missing all that day, his truck was parked nearby (other hunters have verified this), and no one has come forward to say he was somewhere else.

Boar are the most dangerous animal we have here. They are voracious, omnivorous, and extremely tough and hardy. You can unload a 12-gauge slug into their skull and probably do no more than tick the thing off. They do run in social circles, and trying to take down one boar out of 5-20 in a group is asking for trouble. I would rather take on a raging mamma black bear or a starving cougar with a pocketknife than a pack of boar with a gun.

We shoot them on sight if they ever stray this far. And never mind the meat. It's tough, stringy, gamy pork; edible but far from desirable. They are not domesticated pigs turned feral... they are the evolutionary ancestors of domesticated hogs. And anyone who has raised swine will tell you: even a domesticated ticked off hog is nothing to mess with.

TheRedneck

I've had to climb a tree before. Once for hogs and another when we called in some coyotes.

The coyotes were coydogs and wanted a "closer look". The coy's never broke the grass line of our kill zone (thankfully) but they closed within about 25 feet of our truck.

If they had, they had a LOT of automatic fire about to rain down on their parade!

What a rush! Aaaaah. good times.


The hog was when I was out goofing after a morning deer hunt and took my single shot .410 for a turkey. I heard the thing snortin around and I showed that tree some real lovin!

thats why I ALWAYS carry a .45 and a few mags extra. Shot placement is everything as you likely know. If they dont die you can at least take out a leg or eyes. When your safe, you can finish the job.

My (now ex) husband and I were terrorized by a wild boar while on our honeymoon in 1988. It was on Merritt Island Reserve near Cape Canaveral. We were on a path and I saw something up ahead in a clearing. I looked with my binoculars and saw a black boar and she had teats so I know it must be a mother. I am not good at judging distances but like I said I looked with binoculars. Well we turned and started moving away and it wasn't but a few seconds later when we heard this awfulsnarling, snorting and stomping. She had covered that distance so fast! We turned away and started moving slowly and did not look back. I guess she went away but I know we were very lucky.

Feral Hogs are what we are talking about. These are domestic hog that have "escaped the farm" and gone wild. It only takes a few weeks for a hog to go feral in the wild.
Yes, they are an excellent food source. Can you say Bar-B-Q
On the other hand Wild Boar or Razor-Back or Russian Wild Boar is a wild breed that has never been domesticated. As a food they suck, as a game animal they are quite a challange.
Both are very dangerous, especially a sow with young, they will kill you to protect the pigglets. A 500-700 pound angry mother, best run up a tree.
In the late 80's I had to climb a tree to stay alive, wasn't even hunting boar, just cross paths, can you say wrong place - wrong time.
Happy Hunting !

Also to note, they have developed extremely sensitive sense of smell, their eyesight is fairly poor so nature made up for it by giving them a tremendous ability to smell, so if possible in the wilds when you see a wild boar, remain downwind from it and you should be ok...

I found this image that shows the vitals of a wild boar. Notice how low the heart sits in the chest cavity. Also, keep in mind that a head shot can be a difficult one. The hog brain is not particularly huge and they have a pretty solid skull.

I'm in Michigan and the DNR has open season on these all year because of the damage they are doing to the forests.

reply to post by brokedown

Yeah, I think I saw part of the show nixie was referring to last night after I posted. Escaped hogs and razorbacks (which is what I was talking about) are two different critters.

The show was on Discovery, and it was talking about cross-breeds in the part I saw. I wonder how much of those are Russian boar and how much are just feral Porkys?

TheRedneck

Here in the UK we're starting to see a rise in wild boar/pigs, they're popping up in a few areas and seem to be doing well. On another note i had a friend who worked a pig farm and i used to go up there and do a bit of shooting on the land. I'd gone up there one night and he was driving a fork lift truck with its forks raised, when i looked there was a massive pig on the forks with its head missing. He explained that it had gone down in the pen and the others had eaten it. It was a disgusting sight and brought home the reality of what these animals are capable of. The workers also hated going into the pens, if you tripped and didnt get up quick...well you wouldnt get up.

[edit on 17/7/2010 by Catch_a_Fire]

I had no idea domestics were so vicious.

I of course, have read old yeller, and know how vicious they can be, but had no idea how big and smart they get.


I am not a hunter. Have never hunted. But I think if I were to ever pick it up, I know what my challenge would be.

That and turkeys, I heard wild turkeys are pretty smart too.

Thank you all for the information, this turned out to be really interesting.
But not a single good piggy pun =)



[edit on 17-7-2010 by nixie_nox]

Originally posted by nixie_nox
Thank you all for the information, this turned out to be really interesting.
But not a single good piggy pun =)



[edit on 17-7-2010 by nixie_nox]

No pun?!

We were all rooting around for information on this subject for you And I'm sure there were several people who went hog wild when they saw this topic. And I'm hamming it up in this last post so you can have a few piggy puns.

I couldn't believe how crazy people went when I started a thread with that video, except the premise of the thread was you're dead in a survival situation if your enemy storms you with one of those scopes where you didn't have one. People went ballistic.