You remember my buddy Frozen? The one that noticed me shooting, bought an XD, then a whole PASSLE of ComBloc guns? Well, NOW he has gone hunting. For feral pigs in Texas!
He has a scoped Remington 700 .308 that is his newest toy. All nice and zeroed in. Frozen loads his own bullets so he was confident with what he could do with it. He used 178gr Hornady Amax, for instance, for the bullet.
Him and a buddy (the one that took him down there and knew the land owners) lined up on 3, and they did the whole countdown thing… 3, 2, 1… boom! His buddy got Momma, and Frozen got 2 juveniles. In the head. With one shot (he admits there was some luck involved with the second pig behind the target.) Mmmm, bacon. (Well, actually, sausage. Apparently it is hard to get bacon off of wild pigs. Too lean?)
That was last Tuesday. He got another on Friday, too.
I'll let him tell it (again):
My Remington 5R milspec, fixed 16x SWFA Super Sniper scope on top of the first 3 kills.
So we set up in a ground blind, 82yds (we had a laser range finder) from the feeder. We put out our sour corn around 1730 (deer corn mixed with skunked rolling rock and raspberry jello mix) and waited. ~1915 the juveniles come out of the tree line while mom hung about 50yds further back in the trees. He wanted the sow, so I lined up on the piglets (they'd been weaned and were about 35-40lbs on the hoof). We did a 3 count and shot. My bullet entered just behind the ear of one of the piglets and went through both their heads.
Oh, the other guy was using his 7mm Remington Short-Action Ultra Magnum (7mm SAUM).
So, after the first hunt, we go turkey hunting for 2 days to let the pigs come back in. Friday we go out at the same time and do the exact same thing. Same bait, same everything. The pigs even came in at the same time. 3-2-1-shoot again.
I'm not sure about his load, other than it's 54.something grains of varget under 162gr Hornady A-Max's. My load is 44.5gr of Reloader 15 under Hornady 178gr AMax bullets, cartridge over-all length (COAL) of 2.800".
There. Something that will please you reloaders out there. Reloader data!
Anyway, it does sound like fun. Where was this? Texas, I believe. Some varmint control AND some meat.
11 comments:
I asked the same question about getting meat off of feral pigs on a forum, since these things are out of control down south and causing millions of dollars of economic damage. the consensus was that the meat is stringy and tough, without proper vaccinations some of it is not healthy and generally the best use for it would be in processed meat products.
Frozen is brining his, as we speak.
THANK YOU for posting this! I really like your blog!!
Common Cents
http://www.commoncts.blogspot.com
ps. Link Exchange???
SPAMMER!
I have hunted hogs several times in TX and it is an awesome sport. My Marling Guide gun is fantastic in the heavy brush. 405 gr SP over 52 gr Varget gives it 1600 fps.
Hogs that are under 125lbs are best for eating. It's the older and larger ones that get tough and stringy. The younger ones taste better than pork you get in the mega-mart.
Feral hog is excellent eating - but it is not pork. Best to cook it thoroughly and use a wet method of cooking. Crock potting is (IMHO) the best way to go. The meat has very little fat, so roasting tends to toughen the meat. The disease issue is solved by cooking until the meat reaches an appropriate temperature.
Al T.
Been hunting hogs for years in the ARKLATEX... They aren't good for much of anything. Too tough and stringy unless they're piglets. We used to use them for coyote bait.
Oh yeah, head shot one with a .30-.30 and it BOUNCED! Went to a 30.06 after that with 160gr Silvertips.
"Been hunting hogs for years in the ARKLATEX... They aren't good for much of anything. Too tough and stringy unless they're piglets. We used to use them for coyote bait."
With respect, sir, I've managed to make some mighty fine roasts, chops, and sausage with every TX wild hog I've shot or taken the meat off of. The last three went 200 lbs.
Javelina, however, are a different story. I'm done with them.
I look forward to shooting a pig someday - or better yet, talking someone strong enough to haul them back into shooting some and bringing me the meat - so I can try some of Hank Shaw's wild boar recipes.
http://honest-food.net/wild-game/wild-boar-recipes/
I've had some pork off a 200lb-ish wild pig. Mmm, good, and fairly tender. I've had other wild pork.
The safety problem with pork is solved by cooking well. As for tenderness, I have a crock pot. NO PROBLEM. :-D
Old NFO:
Pressure cooker.
It'll make even the toughest cut soft.
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