I love hunting hogs year round, love eating them as does my family. Yes I understand how destructive thay can be to framers, fences and fields. And they eat up our deer corn.
I kill all the hogs I can, sometimes 2-3 at a time, I also have a trap set. A 200# boar usually will get drug off because they are just to tuff to be eaten.
What I dont see is that some "deer hunters" will shoot hogs of any size and NEVER quarter it up for eating because "hogs are to dirty or smelly" to mess with. If you quickly get it on ice there is no odor or gamey taste to the meat. It makes very fine meals.
Like I said, I hunt them all year, eat them all year. With the prices of "Deer leases" so high I'm gonna get my monies worth in hunting and meat.
I don't hold it against anyone if they choose to waste the hog, I just don't entirely understand the thought.

I love pigs! Personally I think pigs are becoming a huge part of the "hunting" economy and there are many guides and outfitters making a living on them.

Should they be a game animal? NO but if there populations decline too much then we will lose a valuable resource for outfitters and hunters and I personally do not want that to happen. And I am being selfish because I want the possibility of hunting them anytime of the year day or night. They are the perfect animal to hunt in my opinion!!

I have personally never eaten a hog but I have only shot one and since it was a large male I was told dont eat just throw it in the gut pile for the coyotes so that is what we did.

I do plan on butchering one up this year and having a nice bar-b-q with it.

They meat is outstanding, but you must get it on Ice quickly and keep it drained and covered with ice for a week. Then the meat turns very light colored because all the blood has been drawn out of it. No blood, no gamey taste.
I smoke mine as quartered and then pull it off the bone while very warm, then vaccum seal into meal size portions. Add or don't add BBQ sauce to your like.

hear ya bro. like pappy always say's: hogs the other wild game can see if a place tis over run with hogs choot-en em & let lay. yet first got on here an people offer ta help & they get turned down. have been seeing more deer bye switchen over ta choot-en hogs & let the deer room free. got some nice pics of bucks even after they turned it in ta 4 deer county. every one tis different.

Then to to Kroger to buy a $6 pack of bacon—meat that's likely shot full of antibiotics, anti-parasite, and anti-fungal drugs—after having left an organic animal to rot. Most folks are smarter than that, though, we hope.

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I clean every hog I shoot. Even 300lber's make great smoked pork. You just got to know how to quarter them without getting urine on the meat. I have let more hogs pass than I have shot because I didn't have time or wanted to clean them. To each their own, but whitetail deer do 99.9% more damage to crops in the USA than pigs do.

luv pigs cant fathom some not eating them the 60 to 80 pounders melt in ur mouth put them on ice til no blood and meat is light as stated above and have a cookout

I also eat everyone I shoot. Also do the keep them on ice trick. I've fed it to people that swear wild hogs are nasty, and I've changed a lot of peoples minds after eating something I've made with them. There are a 100 ways to prepare it and cook it

And so two questions....for 60-80lb hogs..

1) From DRT to being quartered on ice, how much time is considered to be the 'right' time? What is too long?

2) How long is 'just right' to soak in ice? 3 days? 5 days? 7 days sounds excessive.

I don't like to put them on ice. I try to get them to a walk-in cooler and I let them hang about 4 days. Seems to me, when on ice, the water causes the meat to be mushy.

I too am an ethical hunter, looking for fast humane kills. I suppose my opinions are somewhere in the middle of this discussion though. For example:

I shoot eater hogs when it "hog killing weather" and hang them for a week to cure, then bone them out, bag them and freeze them. Enough for the annual food supply. At other times, I shoot the boars, cut them open and hunt coyotes off them. I have had hogs kill and eat my baby calves, at times...so I shoot them all at that point, and give the eaters to friends if I decide not to clean them. Sure miss the old guy that used to grind sausage for me on a 50/50 basis, he preferred the sows, said they made the best sausage.

Since each sow can have three litters of pigs a year, I don't really think we will be hurting the population any by shooting any we see, with any firearm we have available. Killing them with a knife is a real experience, just make sure you have dogs holding them down, or else you will get bloody.

If any of you have had to replant (or know someone who has had to) a 200 acre cornfield after a sounder hogs went down the rows and dug up most of the corn kernels, you can understand why the farmers hate them so...especially when they are paying up to 400 bucks for a 50 lb bag at 50 to 100 pounds per acre....never really seen a deer do that! Deer typically prefer forbes (browse like goats) for the majority of their food intake. That said deer do have upper and lower teeth and will pull young wheat shoots out of the ground before the roots take hold. Of course they seldom devastate an entire field (overnight) or cause a replanting need. Besides, wheat seed at 20 bucks a bag is more affordable than corn. Deer will do some damage in heavy soybean areas, but overall they usually only take a small percentage of the crop. I have personally been on deer predation hunts in soybean areas...basically you get a permit kill any deer you see, but the State will only let you drag them out of the field (at the most) and they usually have a warden to supervise you.

And last but not least, if you have never waded into a sleeping/resting group of hogs, try it sometime...talk about excitement, you WILL feel alive, just make sure you got a fast shooting and reliable gun (and a backup pistol plus a long sharp knife just in case), because you are usually gonna get charged at some point. It is as close to dangerous game hunting outside of Africa as you can get (well ok, but understand I have never hunted grizzly).

I hope this information doesn't offend anyone, as I am just relaying a few of my experiences on hogs/hog hunting.

I generally take the back straps only unless it's a young 'un.

we clean and eat em all 50 lb to 300 lb. you can make sausage out of anything , my wife and kid's love eatin them to.

Call me crazy but I'm the guy that feeds the coyotes with hogs I kill.. Unless my employees want em

We clean and eat a few of the smaller ones (generally 80 lbs and below) but when you harvest 10-12 various sized hogs over a three-day weekend (and have other work to do on the ranch during that time period) and I can't give them away, then like Daniel, on my place they go to the boneyard and feed the coyotes and buzzards.

tis overrun with fire ants here, roast what i can, some times i get heart burn. rest left ta de buzzards. their is places were hogs are a problem, mine is i gotta get a hunting licence just ta legally & chill yet, its okay ta choot & let lay. wast of good meat, u seen price of pork in the store. hogs the other wild game don't mind paying ta hunt. just getting were cann't aford it. dont do no good ta complain.

I like wild pork. Most of what I kill gets eaten by me or someone else. I generally clean quite a few pigs a year and it does get old sometimes dealing with them.

Ill take some back straps and tender loins when I feel like it... I may do that for 1 pig out of every 10 I kill.... dump the rest.. not cuz they don't taste good because they eat pretty well..... sometimes I just don't have the time and to be honest I just don't have that much freezer room... and they need to go anyway.. makes good yote bait also. If anybody want them id be more than willing to give them away but im not haulin them or cleaning them for you lol

Poor land owners that dont get a break..i am willing to save all my hogs and drop ship em to the isis for free

wow a land owner with chance ta offer Free hog hunt for Wounded Warriors

That is probably about the ratio for us as well. Besides, we would not have the freezer space for all the hogs killed and would go broke in fuel and processor fees trying to donate them.

Same here. The nice thing about hogs is that my wife doesn't think they're cute . . .

We take the leg quarters and back straps on all of them. If they weigh over ~120Lbs they become sausage. I've made my own sausage in the past, and I'll probably do it again, but presently I take the meat off the bones and bring it to a processor who charges about $1.10 per pound to grind, season, and stuff it into links. I picked up about 45 pounds of sausage this afternoon!

Any of yall own the land you hunt on?

I have already been debted by hogs tearing up my ground. Rooted up the rifle range I put 100 gallons of diesel in to plow last March. Got it smooth as a baby's butt so I could mow it at 5 mph or faster. And a half mile of rifle range takes a while to mow. They caused the ground to be so rough and beat the old tracotor up so bad that the weight rack punctured the fuel tank. A full day of fixing the tractor and I still have to replow the land they rooted up.

F-em, and they can go to hell. I'll kill every one I can and I will eat all I can. But if there's not enough room in the freezer at home, the buzzards and coyotes can have a free meal.

No I will not cut them a break and I will take no chit off them. I see one on my land, and have time to get a shot they will get fired upon, and most likely hit, don't care how far away they are.

do own here, used ta use old hand grinder, wife found electric grinder ar yard sale for $10.00, i was busy looken for $1.00 tennishoes its a jungle out their. ever try pig jerky for my bro. reicipy he used for deer. way better than store bought. Sasquash would kill for it . wishen hog would show up for game of lazer-tag, need more jerky

TCB here, have ya asked for help? first got on here, people asken for places ta hog hunt. & it was: gotta pay to play. i know plenty of hunters, some use dogs, i likes ta sneak up on ems & go boo that would live ta help ya out, & not go thar ta tear things up, but ta help out. reason asking. have seen big numbers & big hogs around here in the past. last two years, big difference few hogs & lot smaller.