Whiskey Hicks Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 We don’t have wild boar in NW or NE Ohio, and I’ve been wanting to plan a trip someday to bag a hog for the winter freezer stock. Where do you cowpokes suggest for vacation spots or outfitter packages when COVID eventually peters out at some point? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forty Rod SASS 3935 Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 Arizona is ripe with javelinas. Ugly buggers and crafty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Widder, SASS #59054 Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 Whiskey, You probably can find some good choices out there. Some might have restriction on the firearms, like SG only, or rifle only. While other places might allow handgun. I would think handgun pigs would be the most fun and challenging. ..........Widder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sawhorse Kid Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 Arizona has them and as I hear it .... Texas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 Believe it or not, California is nearly overrun with the boogers. You can google "Guided Hog Hunts in California" and get all sorts of information. Just for giggles (I do NOT know these folks!), here's one link: https://www.sacriverguide.com/wild-pig-hunting.php Here are a couple of ladies who used to shoot with the Kings River Regulators and California pigs they bagged: "Eve Nenjoy," about a dozen years ago Hank's youngest daughter, "Li'l Hankie," about eight years ago. Yup. There be pigs in them thar hills! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whiskey Hicks Posted August 13, 2020 Author Share Posted August 13, 2020 We go to the St. Pete area in Florida ever January, and I always see advertisements when I’m down there. It’s nice to know I’ve got some good options! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Riot Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 Do a search on Razorback hunting. Lots of places to choose from. Also lots of places calling feral hogs “razorbacks”. When I was a kid in 7th grade we lived in Arkansas. I had two encounters with real razorbacks. One at a garbage dump where I easily hot footed it away. One where me and my brother spent about an hour up a tree until the pack of a dozen finally decide we weren’t worth waiting for. My suggestion to you is whatever state or area you decide to go contact the dept of fish and game and talk to a biologist for that area and find out about the health of the pigs in that area, if you are hunting for the meat. Some friends of mine did two trips, one in California on the island of Catalina and one in Texas. After all the hassle to hunt on Catalina it turned out the hogs they harvested were inedible due to diseases. Really put a damper on things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103 Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 Daggone, Hardpan, looking at the fighting ivories on that pig, I'm just awful glad Li'l Hankie had the right rifle to drop it at a distance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Widder, SASS #59054 Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 Looks like Lil Hankie's pig is smiling for the photo op..... ..........Widder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finagler 6853 Life Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 We even have feral hogs in the south west part of Wisconsin. The DNR encourages deer hunters to shoot on site. I don't think you even need a license the hunt them. Just the land owners permission. Used a building contractor in south Texas who said I could come anytime. They used a service that had helicopters and ARs. A one day hunt was somewhere around $3,500. Choot 'em, choot 'em. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grass Range Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 I searched the inet until I found a guide in Tx that said I would not have to take the pig. Shoot and leave them. All others I checked said I had to have them cut and wrapped and could donate the meat to whoever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smuteye John SASS#24774 Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 Depends on what kind of hog you want to hunt. You can find outfitters for ferals or javelinas all over the place. There are also folks that put on canned hunts on imported species from European boars to wart hogs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joke 'um Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 I've heard that NE Virginia and SE Maryland have a lot of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sedalia Dave Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 They are all over the South. In Texas you can even shoot them from a helicopter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Harley, #14153 Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 A colleague in Houston hunts them from a Jeep with an AR in 6.8SPC. Hogs are so plentiful and destructive that shooters don’t harvest 90% of the meat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forty Rod SASS 3935 Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 We nearly lost a customer to a hog that hooked him out by the Salton Sea in SoCal. He killed it but before it died it put tusk into his leg just above his boot top and ripped the inside of his leg up about 15 inches. Gouged one of the bones in his leg and tore up a lot of muscles, but missed his femoral artery. Even so he nearly bled out and was in the hospital for weeks, and on crutches for well over year and the last time I saw him he stil limped nearly 40 years afterward. Pigs can be nasty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utah Bob #35998 Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 I kilt over a hundred in Florida in the 80s. There's probably more there now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bear Gunz SASS #47477 Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 Many outfitters in Texas offer feral hog hunts. If you want to keep the meat, the best time of year is winter months after deer season. It's too hard to get the animals processed before the meat spoils in summer months. Best eating hogs are sows or young pigs, 65-85lbs. Keep in mind, that feral hogs (also known as wild boar) are not the same as javelina (collared pecaries). Feral hogs are common in many parts of the country while javelina, which are not pigs at all, are only found from South Texas through the desert Southwest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trailrider #896 Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 There are several varieties of porcine critters. The primary ones in AZ and the Southwest are javelinas or Pecary, which are NOT wild hogs, although they look similar. They are smaller. Wild hogs are either European wild boar, sometimes called "Prussian" or "Russian" (sometimes pronounced "Roosians"), which are descended from that species imported by some sportsmen in the late 19th or early 20th Centuries for game preserves in Georgia, Tennessee and elsewhere. Some of these escaped from the preserves and crossbred with feral pigs, which themselves escaped from farmer's pens. European pigs tended to run a bit smaller than ferals, but over the years the crosses have often become quite a bit larger. My understanding is that the populations of"hawgs" in Texas and vicinity have exploded to the point where they have become a real problem and efforts to control them have largely failed. I hunted wild boar/feral cross in Tennessee back in the early 1960's at a place called Clarkrange Hunting Preserve. They were in heavy brush on hilly terrain and we used dogs and also just stood and waited for them. I don't know if the place is still in business. Them critters can be mean and can take some good, fast shooting, especially if they are coming at you! All pigs grow upper and lower tusks (tushes) that can be really nasty. Most farmers reduce their livestock's tusks, but wild hawgs can grow them several inches long and really sharp! I've seen these critters taken using bows and arrows, and in one case the hunter used a large knife as the pig went by. My three were taken with a .30-06 (one) and .33 WCF (two). Lots of fun and can be challenging. Good hunting! Stay well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 Posted August 14, 2020 Share Posted August 14, 2020 13 hours ago, Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103 said: Daggone, Hardpan, looking at the fighting ivories on that pig, I'm just awful glad Li'l Hankie had the right rifle to drop it at a distance! 10 hours ago, Widder, SASS #59054 said: Looks like Lil Hankie's pig is smiling for the photo op..... ..........Widder Ya know... I seem to recall that she used a .270; I'll ask her next time I talk to her. She is excellent shot; her dad, Hank, taught her well. Sadly, he passed last summer, about a week after her wedding. But ain't she cute? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bear Gunz SASS #47477 Posted August 14, 2020 Share Posted August 14, 2020 These are a couple of boars taken in East Texas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coyote Mike Posted August 14, 2020 Share Posted August 14, 2020 16 hours ago, Bear Gunz SASS #47477 said: Best eating hogs are sows or young pigs, 65-85lbs. Truth. I killed a big wall hanger in South Carolina, tasted like crap. He had some nice tusks though! The smaller sows are the best. There is a place in West Virginia, Mountain Meadows Hunting Preserve, its a fenced in hunt, they have several lots 200-500 acres depening on what you want to hunt. Nice accomodations and honestly, you dont really realize you are in a fence when its 200 acres. Nice hogs in there. Resonable price too. They can process the meat before you leave too. Which is nice for travel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trailrider #896 Posted August 14, 2020 Share Posted August 14, 2020 How the meat tastes depends on (a) what they have been eating; (b) how quickly the meat is cooled out; (c) the breed mix of the hawg; (d) how it is cooked (marinate for a couple of days. Mostly purebred Europeans are very lean and don't have any bacon on them! Been a long time, but I'll guarantee none of them are kosher! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bear Gunz SASS #47477 Posted August 14, 2020 Share Posted August 14, 2020 11 minutes ago, Trailrider #896 said: How the meat tastes depends on (a) what they have been eating; (b) how quickly the meat is cooled out; (c) the breed mix of the hawg; (d) how it is cooked (marinate for a couple of days. Mostly purebred Europeans are very lean and don't have any bacon on them! Been a long time, but I'll guarantee none of them are kosher! While I agree with most of this, in the case of feral hogs its not completely accurate. Boars (sexually mature males) develop boar taint (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boar_taint), this is common in all hogs both feral and domestic. Once the males have reached this point they are no longer edible in my opinion. We shoot them and leave them for the coyotes. Also, all feral hogs tend to be very lean. Even if trapped and fed straight corn, they will likely not put on much intramuscular fat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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