Wild hogs in Florida
Or, you know, bacon delivery? A lot of critters are getting a bit too comfy in suburbia because we don’t shoot them. Here in The City (My The City), it’s coyotes. And don’t shoot a 400 pound hog with a shotgun. It just annoys the pig.
In the mountains near my house, there are feral pigs. And hunters are encouraged to hunt them and trap them. A friend of mine has several pit traps for them. One day, he happened to be near his traps and decided to check on them. Lo and behold, he’d snagged one. Trouble was, he only had his handguns, a 1911 Kimber. So, he shot the hog. And shot it again. Started to load his second magazine and realized it was probably a waste of time. Went home and got his 300 Winmag and one shot took down Mr. Oinky, who, by the way, was delicious.
September 15th, 2011 at 9:27 am
A friend of mine here in Texas assures me that the Texas feral pigs are not tasty at all, unless you get a sow.
September 15th, 2011 at 9:32 am
You can do it w/ a handgun or even a .22lr if you get the cross point right between the eyes.
September 15th, 2011 at 9:32 am
@CaptainVictory – you friend’s not doing it right. 🙂
September 15th, 2011 at 9:35 am
Really, 12g 3″ magnum slugs won’t kill a pig?
September 15th, 2011 at 9:37 am
Thing about wild pigs is you don’t want to get close enough to find out if the shotguns works. They’re some mean fuckers.
September 15th, 2011 at 9:50 am
This is a growing problem and feral hogs are dangerous. I don’t believe the problem is being given enough attention, I guess we’ll have to wait until a Florida retirement community is terrorized and somebody is killed and then eaten. I must disagree about the usefulness of 12 gauge shotgun against a 400 pound pig. Loaded with 1 ounce slugs a 12 gauge shotty will do way more than annoy a hog.
September 15th, 2011 at 10:28 am
I was on a pig hunt once in which one of my “team mates” shot one head on in the snout with a Compound Bow (or arrow to be more precise).
At that point, the pig thrashed and charged, and very quickly broke the shaft end off so that it had a foot and a half longh aluminum spear to compliment its tusks.
It was a 30-30 shot to the ham end that brought the encounter to a close, but not before it was elbows and assholes up trees and fences to get away.
He will not use a compound bow from the front again.
September 15th, 2011 at 10:46 am
I hunt pigs with nothing short of a double-rifle in .600 Donkeypunch!
September 15th, 2011 at 10:48 am
“You can do it w/ a handgun or even a .22lr if you get the cross point right between the eyes.”
No doubt that is true but you *have* to get it right. I was present once when a “tame” (read farm raised) pig was shot “between the eyes” with a .22 rifle. All it did was seriously piss off the pig. The guy had a hell of a time getting another “good” shot because the pig wouldn’t stop moving and it was *not* safe to get too close.
September 15th, 2011 at 11:10 am
6.8 is great on hogs. I have a ton of customers using it for just that.
September 15th, 2011 at 11:26 am
Is there anything to warn people so that they don’t fall into the pit traps?
September 15th, 2011 at 11:59 am
Yet another reason we should all carry rifles in our cars.
September 15th, 2011 at 12:29 pm
In California there’s a no-bag-limit, all yer round, Open Season on wild pigs – including Sundays.
September 15th, 2011 at 12:39 pm
“So, he shot the hog. And shot it again. Started to load his second magazine and realized it was probably a waste of time”
Where in the heck was he aiming? I’ve killed hogs with .380s by shooting them in the head.
September 15th, 2011 at 1:19 pm
“So, he shot the hog. And shot it again. Started to load his second magazine and realized it was probably a waste of time”
Maybe he just REALLY likes shooting pigs?
September 15th, 2011 at 1:38 pm
Well played Mr. Jeffersonian, well played.
Comedy in the line of “It don’t take me long to look at a horseshoe!”
September 15th, 2011 at 1:56 pm
Frank W. James is probably the leading authority on hunting feral pigs. He also says not to eat them because of disease. I forget what he uses but he has a specialized rifle/scope/ammo combination that he likes.
http://frankwjames.blogspot.com
September 16th, 2011 at 7:59 am
I’ve hunted hogs successfully with my Colt 1991A1 in .45 ACP. Also with a 30-30, and revolver in 45 LC and my booming .280 Rem Remington 700. One of the guys I hunt with (crazy ass redneck) likes to jump on the pig and stick them with a knife.
They aren’t hard to kill.
As with all things:
shot placement,
shot placement,
shot placement.
Don’t know who Frank W James is (or why someone in Indiana would be the best authority on killing them) but he’s generally right to warn about handling many after you kill them. Wear rubber gloves. Cook the meat well – to 165 or more. Hogs eat anything and wild hogs (or any hogs raised outside) have a high risk of trichaena (ie: the hippy pork you get at Chiptole, or Whole Foods). Regular pork can be cook to a much lower and tastier 145. It should be juicy and slightly pink.
Smaller pigs taste better. And the reason sows taste better is “boar taint” from testosterone. Cut their nuts off before dressing the pig. It’s the reason farmers castrate animals, though the vegan hippies hate it.
They aren’t as mean as people thing either, though if you shoot and wound one he won’t be happy. Most feral hogs will try their hardest to avoid you.
September 16th, 2011 at 9:38 am
Back around 1970 or so my Mom and the ex-brother were driving along Alligator Alley in a huge station wagon and struck a feral hog. The car was drivable, but later totalled. The hog got up and ran away.
September 16th, 2011 at 1:49 pm
Before I would take anyone with me on a feral hog hunt, I will personally supervise the setting of headspace and timing on the M2 .50cal. I also insist that all handguns are at least .88 Magnum or larger. For those new to feral hog hunting, the best safety advice I can give you is that you need to stay out of the back blast area of the AT4. Even the newer AT4-CS has a back blast area, though very much smaller than the original weapon.
Here in MS, we no longer allow Claymore mines on pig trails as there have been some accidents.
September 16th, 2011 at 3:50 pm
Farmer Frank James is a farmer by trade who has for some decades written gun magazine articles for beer money, and he now has a blog. He has spent a lot of money on a lot of hardware and spent a lot of nights squinting into a night-vision scope on a suppressed AR10, and killed a lot of hogs.
As for safety, I would submit that once you start talking about eating the flesh of any creature that wasn’t raised on a sterile, sanitary factory farm, you run the risk of exposing yourself to an assortment of diseases, mostly parasitic in nature. Cooking the meat thoroughly will kill anything that can harm you, however. Think of stews and slow smoked BBQ here.
And yeah, the wild ones, due in large part to their diet, are rather gamey. Those that eat a lot of acorns, for example, can have a bit of a bitter aftertaste. An excellent way around this is a strongly flavored marinade. Cabernet sauvignon wine makes an excellent starting point for a marinade because it is made from the most acidic of the common wine grapes and helps tenderize the meat, which may be tougher and stringier than what you’re used to from the supermarket. Don’t forget appropriate spices in the marinade–I like garlic, bay leaves, whole peppercorns, and hot peppers. Soy sauce can be a welcome addition also.
And while I’ve never hunted feral hogs, though I sometimes think I’d like to, a number of old hunters have told me that a 12 gauge with buckshot works well on them, as does any of the early 20th Century type “full power service rifle” calibers, with appropriately chosen controlled-expansion hunting bullets.
September 16th, 2011 at 9:07 pm
Not to mention the copper jacketed lead after taste
September 16th, 2011 at 10:53 pm
I thought all it took to take out a pig was flinging a bird at it with a slingshot.
September 17th, 2011 at 4:17 pm
+1 Blake and Sid