NC Hog Hunt Success and questions...

kylekrm944

New member
This past weekend we made a trip to the NC/SC line to hunt hogs with an outfitter. I brought my stepson along hoping for him to get in on the action as well. We hunted pigs last July in MS with thermals in a vehicle stalk method.

This was over feeders.

We were in the stand early (about 3 pm) and sat until the cold pushed us out. My stand saw BlueJays, Cardinals and Quail fight with squirrels until dark. A few minutes after dark, a possum came to the corn pile and ate for 2 hours straight. A bunny showed up in the mean time and was more animated to watch.

About 10 pm broken branches and squeals interrupted my shivering. The smaller pigs, true to form, were the first to the corn, and the larger ones brought up the tail end of the mass of 30 or so pigs. Talk about chaos! I didnt have a green light, my step son got to use that, so all I had was a white light. I picked my bacon, pointed the gun to the sky and slowly eased the white light down. One pig squealed and they all took off! I frantically found one not moving, quartered away and he fell instantly as the 77 grain 556 hit its mark. I couldnt get a good head shot on entry but the exit wound showed the bullet coming out near the jaw....

We drug the boar to the skinning shed and weighed him in at 140. He was really really smelly and I was convinced I was still going to skin him out for the smoker until the Outfitter talked me out of it. In MS last year we killed 3 big (185,225 350) boars and ate every one of them.


Is there a reason this guy stunk WAAAAAY more than the 3 we killed in MS?

Do you process boars that are smelly and what is the result of the meat?

I was quite bummed as this was a "meat hunt" and I came home empty handed.
 
he was a breeder, they smell really bad. He would have tasted fine, but the meat would have stunk just like he did while cooking. You wouldn't have been able to cook him in the house.
I have too have eaten really big boars over the years. WE now generally only save the sows.
 
I eat them all. Largest was 265lbs. Just cook them slow for 6-8hrs with some butt rub and you'll be fine. Here's my stinkiest, just crawled out of a wallow.

 
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You put the right rub or marinade on the sole of a shoe and you can get it down. I've only killed a few and I'd only kill sows for the purpose of eating. If the farmer wants them all killed then kill em. They don't go to waste the other hogs will eat them.

The boar meat I froze got fed to the dogs. My Lab had enough sense and was spoiled enough to pass on it too. He just gave me a "what the he11 is this?" look.

That being said I'd also rather kill a nice lactating doe instead of big musky buck.
 
One guy out here told me his hogs stink when they eat acorns. The one we had that stunk was full of them. Any truth to it ?
 
The musky "wang" smell is hormonally related. Actively breeding/fighting boars will be very strong smelling and tasting. We have killed some 300-400 pound solo boars that tasted no different from sows. We have also had some 125-150 pounders that would make your eyes water to clean, much less try to cook and eat. This is why commercial farms castrate the boars and slaughter houses mix culled breeding boars 1:10 with sows in ground products like sausage to cut the smell/taste
The smell is evident when you get to them. If they are strong I prefer not to try eating them. Evaluate each one individually and don't toss a big boar that doesn't smell strong. Don't waste time on a really strong one either.
Diet has a much less pronounced effect as long as pigs are healthy and carrying a little fat. A fat May sow that has been eating wheat for two months is hard to beat though!
 
Originally Posted By: WedgyOne guy out here told me his hogs stink when they eat acorns. The one we had that stunk was full of them. Any truth to it ?

Our hogs eat acorns from Sept-Nov. sometime a little later but we have only had 3 rank hogs and none of those were killed during prime acorn season.

Originally Posted By: canuroperThe musky "wang" smell is hormonally related. Actively breeding/fighting boars will be very strong smelling and tasting. We have killed some 300-400 pound solo boars that tasted no different from sows. We have also had some 125-150 pounders that would make your eyes water to clean, much less try to cook and eat. This is why commercial farms castrate the boars and slaughter houses mix culled breeding boars 1:10 with sows in ground products like sausage to cut the smell/taste
The smell is evident when you get to them. If they are strong I prefer not to try eating them. Evaluate each one individually and don't toss a big boar that doesn't smell strong. Don't waste time on a really strong one either.
Diet has a much less pronounced effect as long as pigs are healthy and carrying a little fat. A fat May sow that has been eating wheat for two months is hard to beat though!


The statement above is dead on the money IMO. My wife and I have killed well over 100 hogs. Only 3 have been what we call "rank". This rank condition can be smelled from a distance if you are approaching the dead hog from down wind. It has absolutely nothing to do with how the meat is handled after the kill. If you touch the hog with your bare hands or get up against it with your clothes, the smell is very difficult to get off.

Originally Posted By: guesshe was a breeder, they smell really bad. He would have tasted fine, but the meat would have stunk just like he did while cooking. You wouldn't have been able to cook him in the house.
I have too have eaten really big boars over the years. WE now generally only save the sows.

The above statement, sorry guess but IMO is partially wrong. The taste would also be bad. We tried to eat the first rank one we killed because I didn't want to waste it. Not knowing what was in store, we cooked some inside in the oven, then shortly after, weeks about the time we stopped gagging from the first go around, we tried again on the grill outside. I believe my wife when she said she could still smell it in her oven 3 YEARS later. I tried steel wool scrubbing, pressure washing and I think finally time just cured the outside grill years later lol. We still laugh about that hog today and my wife does the sniff test to every hog we kill. We have eat way more boars than sows because we give most of the sows the pass and primarily target the boars. Most are really good eating but when you find a rank one, and you will know as 944 did, feed the scavengers. Just for the record, coyotes don't care and will gladly feed on a rank boar.
 
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I think I read somewhere that some European dry sausages/salamis actually call for rank boars, but that's probably beyond what most people are willing to do.
 
Thanks everyone. I had a conversation with the outfitter and got an invite back at a reduced fare. I absolutely love wild hog! Just yesterday the wife went shopping and had to hit the meat counter- first time since August!!!

I'm jealous of you guys in pig land!

I know the glands in the legs are responsible for the tainted meat, will the backstraps have that taint too? If a boar is very rank, can a "from the top skinning" be done and backstraps salvaged?

I think the next one will get a hose down to determine rank vs. pig smell and at the very least some backstrap saved...

Kyle
 
Good luck on your next hunt.
The "glands" that cause the problem are in the scrotum! And the smell/taste is throughout the carcass.
I grew up on a 200 head hog farm and was taught early that pork with any wang to it was for folks that don't know better. LOL.
Seasonings and cooking outside may make it acceptable for you.
 
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