I know that some of you do not skin out your hogs, but for those that do-
What is the easiest method you have found?

Get someone else to do it!!!!!!!!! LOL Did one last Thursday and was sweating up a storm even in an air conditioned skinning shed. I do mine almost exactly like I do a deer. They seem to be easier to do the quicker you can jerk the hide off. I had a 125 and I could actually pull the hide in places like a deer.

Last one I skinned I used a utility knife. Extended and lock the blade about 1/4" out the end. Hang the hog then cut lines about 1 inch wide strips all the way down. Grab a strip with a pair of vice grips and start pulling....

That's why I started burnin the hair off and cookin them in their skin!

You need a few sharp knives because that hog skin dulls your blades fast and I usually skin like a deer by hanging it upside down and starting from the legs and working down.... Good luck !

A golf ball, a rope and something to pull it with....atv or truck.
Search it on YouTube

Well never saw anyone doing it with a hog just a bunch of deer, may just have to try it out next time im out.

The golf ball and rope thing doesn't work as well on hogs.

I hang them head down and do them like a deer. I gon't gut them. The issue isn't that the hide dulls your blade...it's the hair. Their hair is like wire. If the knives are cheap and/or metal is soft, yes, it dulls them quickly. A good knife, made out of D2 or something like that will get through a couple of hogs. Otherwise, I use the little knives with the throw away razor blades (not a box knife, though it would work OK, but isn't shaped right).

I get the backstrap, hams, shoulders and neck meat...sometimes the tenderloins, sometimes not. I do not de-bone the shoulders...they are used strictly for carnitas. Most wild hogs I see are not worth going after the ribs as their is little meat on them.

Thanks for the suggestions. I like the utility knife / vice grips one.
Roadkil,
I like your method too, but when I told my wife I was going hog hunting she said to make sure and bring the ribs home- "ALL OF THEM". She has always said that when I went.

I split the skin right down the spine, then it peels off in two pieces.

some good tips

I use a razor knife and start from the feet down. never waste your good knife on a pig it dulls too quickly

I like using the carpet/utility knives. I keep one with a straight blade and one with a carpet hook....looks like a gut hook.
It works great for guttin or slitting the hide without going to deep.

The utility knives I keep are the folders you find at Lowe's. Blade change is simple. Do NOT get the cheapest bulk pack of blades you can find. They are not all that sharp and they dull quickly. Pay some good $$ on good blades.

Same as a deer except I leave the guts zipped up, give the quarters to someone else, eats the backstrap

This is pretty much my take on the topic. I've tried the rope and golf ball trick several times with limited success. It worked maybe one time out of three or four on a hog, and required a lot of fiddling. Cutting the hide into strips with a box knife works okay and I use that technique on larger hogs. The smaller ones (less than 140 Lbs. or so) I just hang upside down and skin normally.

I really like this method!

After I've cooled a boar for 2 days, I'll hang it from underneath the jaw and let gravity help me. I'll start with the normal cuts on the skull and work the skin off while gently peeling and cutting in small strokes so I don't cut through any meat. Working where the fat meets the meat I can still pull with one hand and cut with the other. As I get to the fore legs I will make an incision from toes along the inside of the leg and towards the sternum. Since the pig is already broken down the middle, I can still use the cut I made from the leg to start pulling the skin and gently cutting along the ribs and meet up with the previous cuts along the back. work your way down to the hind legs and you have hair that stayed against hair, and nothing to contaminate your meat.

Same here. No gutting.
We cut them down the middle of the back, remove straps and reach in to get the tenders.
Skin hams and shoulders and then remove them.
You can remove some neck meat if you want, we do not.
This leaves a nice bundle to feed the buzzards, no mess.

T minus 24 hours until I leave for the State of Texas to add some piggies to the freezer!
Going to have a great time. Been awhile since I have been able to hunt anything. Iy has been so bad that I HAVE NOT even purchased my hunting / fishing license for this year (old one expired MARCH 1, 2013)

Hehe!! Best wishes on your hunt! I understand your wifes desire for ribs...report back to us her reaction when you present her the boney things...

Hopefully you'll pop a pig with nice ribs like the ones I've been killing lately. No way I'm wasting them....

I use a Gerber gut hook to split the skin down the back as well as the belly. Skin one side at a time. I have a really good skinning blade custom made my a fellow member. It's a pain to get a good edge on but holds up well on hogs thus far. I use a Cutco serrated blade to cut around the legs and split up to the rectum. Skinning is actually pretty easy if you do it when they are still warm. Bigger ones with a little fat on them seem to be easier than the fat free small ones.