Hello all!

I need to know if what I want to do is possible time wise that is. I hunt on a ranch about 2 hours from where I live. Lately I have been wanting to try scalding a hog and processing it myself. I would like to know a series of things involving this.

1. Is it possible to make the trip home 2 hours away without gutting it and start the scalding process?
2. Should I gut it and try to scald it?
3. Would I have to scald it at the ranch I hunt on and then gut it?

All and All I prefer to make the 2 hour trip and do it at home.. I really wouldn't be getting around to gutting it for about 3 or 4 hours because I'd have to heat up the water and stuff. Please let me know your take on this and what you would do..

We always scalded our before we gutted it when I was growing up.

yep, we would usually wait for a cold front to blow thru, shoot, take home and hang to chill while we were getting water hot enough to scald.

Later we just got to gutting in the field, hang when we got home (need to be quite cool air temp), and skin them and let hang overnight to chill before quartering them.

Feral hogs at least in our area are so full of thorns etc I don't really know why anyone would want to scald one and leave the skin on. I would gut skin and process like any other animal.

wash it off.. use a blow torch...then heated pressure washer... boom

yep, the only ones I can remember scalding were domestic pen raised hogs ... don't recall ever scalding any of the feral ones

Logic at its best.

Well the reason I want to process it myself is because it seems fairly easy to gut and quarter it. I just hate the little hairs that are on there when I quarter it. I do it in the gut yard on a gamble on the back of my truck at the ranch. So when I gut and start to skin, I notice I get the little hairs on my glove on the meat when I start quartering it.

So are you saying as long as I keep the hog cold after I kill it I will be okay driving the two hours to prepare to skin and then gut it?

All the ones I've done over the years have also been domestic. But if you do decide to do a wild hog it would depend on the temperature. If you feel it is cool enough to make it home to scald it first, keep a close eye on it for bloating. As Soon as you notice it start bloating & rigamortis setting in gut it.

On the other hand you can always help with the hog population & shoot 2 of them. Clean one at the lease, & wait until you get home for the other. Let us know how the know how the chicharones turn out.

Then smoke it whole.....

No offense but if you are getting a lot of hair on it you must not be skinning it right. And if you do get a little hair on it just wash it off. A wild hogs skin is nothing like a domestic is. They ought to be some really tough chicharones.

You da man

Non takin! so I am not getting A LOT of hair on the meat. I am getting just enough to where it disturbs me, and I want to find an alternative to it. Even when I do wash it off. I notice the silvery thick content or slime that is on the outside of the meat captures some of the hair in it. I find that part hard to just wash off. It's like I have to go through it with some tweezers just to get the really tiny hairs off.

Stickman, don't kill the biggest pig. Just shoot one small enough to fit into your biggest ice chest, giant box, etc. Cover the pig with ice until you get home, then do whatever you want to then.

Okay, I'll just try that. I figure I'm going to have to just do a trial and error test. Thanks for the advice sir!

Stickman you can use a scotchbrite pad to remove the slime layer. It takes the hair too. I'm pretty sure I learned that here on the THF some time ago. I tried it and it works.