quote:

A buddy hunts hogs with .450 Bushmaster, and usually ends up losing one of the shoulders in the process.

His shoulder or the hog's?

The hog's.

I've fired it, and even hunted with it once, and the recoil is not bad at all. I've fired .308s that were worse.

Sounds like a perfect time to break out the .30 cal lever gun! Plenty of gun, 50-100 yards, yup,one in the ear and it will be down and you won’t damage the meat. I’ll take a 125 lb Sow over a big assed Boar on my plate any day! If you are looking for a wall hanger; try for the heart shot, which is actually lower than one would think. Read over Hog Anatomy and have a blast! I just got back three weeks ago from a hunt here in Tn. Hog hunting rocks! I LOVE to stalk them!
My Hog was not the largest by far, but it was a “toothy” SOB!! Tasty too!!!!!!!!!!!!! Enjoy Brother!!

https://imgur.com/a/7xGAQ

This pic is a little graphic...

https://imgur.com/a/CjtID

https://imgur.com/a/1VRWr

quote:

My Hog was not the largest by far, but it was a “toothy” SOB!!

Nice one! Congrats.

I’ve been hunting feral hogs in south Texas for a few years. Buy a Thermacell to keep mosquitoes away and buy some Sawyer bug spray with permethrin for tick and bug repellent. Watch this video and clean this way, people like to mess with the guts, trying to avoid the bladder when there’s no need - you can get all the good stuff this way without contaminating the meat or spreading disease and any knife will work (I’ve got over a dozen “field dressing” knives, from Havalon to Gerber and everything in between but a basic knife will work) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m-BmX-3Qqa4. I use 1-4 power scopes on my 375 H&H and my 45/70 Marlin lever action since my eyes aren’t the best. Unless a feeder is used on a regular basis during daylight hours the hogs tend to come out within 60-90 minutes of dark.

I’d pick a rifle that you can quickly take a shot with depending on the area. If there’s a feeder close then that will keep the pigs in place but if not and your not baiting they can run by pretty quickly before you have time to shoot during daylight. If you clean using the video above, use a large caliber and if it’s big enough shoot the body (I’ve used 458 SOCOM and 375 H&H and dropped them in their tracks with body shots. I’ve also used 6.5 Creedmoor for head shots). Smaller calibers require headshots.

Watch wind direction and smell, pigs have great noses and will smell you if you are upwind. A good swivel chair is nice if you have multiple directions pigs can come from. You can shoot off the blind window or opening frame but it can make some noise. Although unnecessary a tripod can work well in a blind or outside and this one is pricey but has worked well for me: https://www.btibrands.com/prod...fle-shooting-tripod/

If I think of anything else I’ll post it.

quote:

Originally posted by mrvmax:
Watch this video and clean this way, people like to mess with the guts, trying to avoid the bladder when there’s no need - you can get all the good stuff this way without contaminating the meat or spreading disease and any knife will work (I’ve got over a dozen “field dressing” knives, from Havalon to Gerber and everything in between but a basic knife will work) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m-BmX-3Qqa4

That's a great video breaking down the easy way to quickly dress a hog, if all you're wanting is the shoulders/hams and loins.

As mentioned earlier in the thread, that all that I and my hunting buddies usually do. Then I keep the two loins whole for smoking or roasting, and process the four shoulders/hams for sausage. I'm not a big fan of whole ham, but occasionally I'll keep some shoulders whole for smoking. However, to be honest, when smoking for pulled pork, store-bought pork shoulders usually turn out better than wild hog shoulders. (Likely due to the better ratio of fat to meat.)

If you have an ATV or other vehicle nearby, you can haul the entire hog back to camp, hang it, skin it, gut it, and really harvest all the meat - including the ribs, tenderloins, belly, etc. But it's a lot more work.

If you're shooting hogs in quantity, you don't really need to get that detailed, as you'll have plenty of meat already with just that basic dressing out on all the hogs.

I have put more down in South Texas with a 22 lr than anything else.

I use whatever I have with me at the moment but often have a 22 lr rifle in the deer blind with me in case the piggies come by.