I have read over and over and over and over until I have got to say something......
' Big Boars are not worth eating".....
Oh contrare contrare ....... If they are not rank they make some of the best sausage and lots and lots and lots of it..... RICH in taste....
So, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.... Including guides that don't want to deal with them.....
Case in point..... when he came straight in, his head looked like a black cylinder block.... hence "Blockhead".
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That brute made some of the best sausage I've ever had in my life!!!
I wish I had another one in the freezer right now....
Dang!!!! That is a brute for sure. I've heard similar about all big hogs so what about sows?
Yes.... Meet the famed "Bride of Horsetail" from Wild Things......
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And this gal was from The Bacon Strip....
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I also have another "Unedible" boar to show you as well.....
Back in a bit.....
I completely agree Terry. I have killed alot of big boars and the only hog that I have not eaten was a 150# hog that I think didn't get the heat out of quickly enough.
HA ! We just finished up a 297# boar ! Was delicious. I imagine whoever started that BS had no idea what they were talking abt
No such here in PA but similar debate over bears. I suspect it depends on how they are handled and processed.
Quote from: Wheels2 on July 12, 2021, 05:30:26 PM
No such here in PA but similar debate over bears. I suspect it depends on how they are handled and processed.
No, its a myth, a wives tail. If they are rank you will know it. What I am talking about has nothing to do with handling or processing. :campfire:
I generally won't shoot a big boar because of the strong taste, and I've had a few that had it. BUT, the two biggest I've shot were both delicious. Both were in the fall and were eating acorns. I think It mostly comes down to age, what they're eating, and, of course, prompt dressing and cooling and proper trimming.
Quote from: Squirrel Hunter on July 12, 2021, 06:38:22 PM
I generally won't shoot a big boar because of the strong taste, and I've had a few that had it. BUT, the two biggest I've shot were both delicious. Both were in the fall and were eating acorns. I think It mostly comes down to age, what they're eating, and, of course, prompt dressing and cooling and proper trimming.
Nope again... It has nothing to do with that either.... It has to do with them being rank and you can SMELL that ...is anyone listening?
I have found they make the best sausage period. I smoked the hams and the shoulders on both of the sows in the pics above.... I'm not grinding up sows. :nono:
The OLD Beast of Paradise.... Yummmm Sausage!
CLICK HERE FOR THICK SHIELD AND SHOT PLACEMENT INFO (http://www.tradgang.com/videos/tg/hog1.wmv)
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None of my big hogs were killed during 'acorn season'. :campfire:
I agree! But with that said, most of the big ones around here are really rank, and not good for much other than a euro or shoulder mount. If 2 pigs come in for me, and one is 80# and the other a boar of 250#, 99% of the time I'm shooting the smaller one!
Bisch
I've eaten a lot of boars, they were all great eating. I did kill one that had been rutting hard, and there was no mistaking that smell, we left that one lay! All the other boars made great sausage and lunch meat, not to mention carnitas and crockpot meat!
We eat a lot of wild pork...boar or sow, we aren't picky!
Bisch... this one was shot 'around here' in TX, and you know where, by friend Michael Langahans and I dropped it when it changed me.(the case for heavy bows) and the 'locals' had a Fiesta after we gave it to them. He wasn't rank.
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Not talking about individual animal shot choice, just the myth. :campfire:
First one I ever shot ( first wild pig I'd ever saw ) was being run by dogs, probably #150 lb. Don't know if he was just rank or if it was because of being run with dogs. My wife threw away her cast iron frying pan after cooking sausage in it. Told me I better not EVER bring another one home. Lesser men would have listened , but I have tried to shoot sows and smaller ones since and the few I've shot have been fine. Do you think that being run by dogs made that one so rank , or was he going to be rank regardless ?
Quote from: MCNSC on July 12, 2021, 09:19:49 PM
First one I ever shot ( first wild pig I'd ever saw ) was being run by dogs, probably #150 lb. Don't know if he was just rank or if it was because of being run with dogs. My wife threw away her cast iron frying pan after cooking sausage in it. Told me I better not EVER bring another one home. Lesser men would have listened , but I have tried to shoot sows and smaller ones since and the few I've shot have been fine. Do you think that being run by dogs made that one so rank , or was he going to be rank regardless ?
HA!..... WE HAVE A WINNER! Nah, not the dogs I would say, but just luck of the draw. I don't believe just running all of the sudden causes rankness. Like I said, you'll KNOW IT! You win on the SMELL! :biglaugh:
Great story. My uncle ran everyone out of the house trying to cook the 1st one he killed when I was a kid. He left soon after. :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:
T, seems I remember that story, didn't you get charged twice that hunt?
Skin a smelly boar, switch gloves and knives to cut him up, you'll have a non "rank" pile of meat.
We always hose them off before cleaning and that helps as well. I've kept and cleaned several 200+lb boars including the one in the pic.
Take the precautions I stated, maybe even brine soak the meat as I do sometimes, and it's gonna be fit to eat.
That said we feed many to the buzzards and yotes. If I'm gonna clean 20 a year out of the 50 I kill chances are I'd rather clean as 140lb sow instead of a stinky boar. But if I have someone wanting a dead pig and I get a boar, they get a boar.
I've not had anyone complain.
A buddy killed a monster hog at some sort of hunting reserve last year...I think it was something like 600#. I wasn't involved in the processing, but I've eaten the sausage and it was great!
Having killed a few as they are plentiful here, I can say that when it comes to being edible....some are and some 'ain't'. I've had them as good as anything you can buy in a store and I have had them so bad that you turn the burner off, use a can of air freshener to get the hideous smell out of the kitchen, then proceed to the freezer to throw the rest out! When it's bad....its REAL bad.
As others have said, if it smells rank when you kill it, then that's your que. Chalk it up to predator control and save yourself the drag. All the unedible ones have been big boars.
I love that picture with the kids!! :biglaugh: Made my day!
GCook, correct... not talking about a normal hog smell, which doesn't 't smell attractive..... I'm talking rank.
Russell, yes, two nights before another friend shot on in the evening and it was held up in a TX clump as u call it. An small open area in the middle with only two pathways for him to leave. Now it was pitch black dark an Michael was holding the light on the hog over my shoulder at one opening, and the guide was holding the light over the guy that shot its shoulder at the other opening.. The boar decided to take his chances with me. ....
He didn't make it out.......
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I have a couple more I can show, another around where Bisch lives... and another dandy out of SC that's a rare snub nose.
Well I probably haven't killed as many pigs as some, only a few hundred, but the worst ones I ever tried to eat were sows with nursing piglets. Pigs eating carrion usually aren't much for eating either.
Pigs on green grass or acorns usually make for better table fare.
I kill enough I am picky what goes on my smoker or in my freezer. But boar or sow is not the most important factor in that decision.
Honestly, if you're making sausage, the quality of the meat is less of a factor than if you're smoking a shoulder for pulled pork or butt roast.
Yes Cook.... that's why I make sausage out of the big boars.
Quote from: Terry Green on July 13, 2021, 08:08:38 PM
Yes Cook.... that's why I make sausage out of the big boars.
Me too bud. And honestly, that's what we do with most of them we keep. Works great for all kinds of recipes.
I gotta quit being so lazy and clean more of them.
As stated above, never mistake a strong boar smell for rank meat. You get a much better idea after skinned and cleaned. Much more so if you try to cook a rank one after that, lol.
Yep pretty much live on different varieties of game meat, and have said for a long time there is no such thing as bad meat, just bad choice in cooking or preparation method.
In NZ we have a style of cooking called Hangi. Its super heating rocks using some flavoursome wood. then burying rocks in the ground with the meat etc on top and covering whole thing over with dirt. Left to cook that way in the steam and smoke for half a day and even the biggest smelliest boar will come out tender and juicy with a hint of smoke flavour.
Think I saw that on a Meateater show.
Yep, some good some not! One of the finest wild game dinners I've had was a smoked ham from a big boar. Due to their numbers our state Wildlife Dept encourages killing at every lawful opportunity. If I pop one and he's rank no harm done with exception of the usual broken carbon! Unfortunately getting past their refined sense of smell limits my kills substantially. He's a beast Terry!