After a trip to Disney World my wife Lu and I went south to Lake Wales to do some hog hunting before heading home. It was real exciting being that it was my first time hunting hogs with a dog and first time catching a wild hog by hand. I grew up on a hog farm and now it's cool to hunt the wild ones. I shot one with my Taurus RB .44 and caught one by hand in palmetto brush. I don't see how some people like the excitement of "canned" when there are so many real wild hogs out there. I can't wait till I head back to South Carolina this fall for another deer/hog hunt @ PVHC.
Florida Hog Hunting.
- Thread starter ruger1
- Start date
After a trip to Disney World my wife Lu and I went south to Lake Wales to do some hog hunting before heading home. It was real exciting being that it was my first time hunting hogs with a dog and first time catching a wild hog by hand. I grew up on a hog farm and now it's cool to hunt the wild ones. I shot one with my Taurus RB .44 and caught one by hand in palmetto brush. I don't see how some people like the excitement of "canned" when there are so many real wild hogs out there. I can't wait till I head back to South Carolina this fall for another deer/hog hunt @ PVHC.
robert
Expedition Leader
Please, feel free to come kill all of them that you want. Between their rapid breeding and some of our local idiots feeling the need to introduce them into other areas we're getting over run by them.
ETA- You're eating them? The piglets and small females are alright (especially BBQ'd :chef
but the larger ones, especially the males, aren't very good tasting.
ETA- You're eating them? The piglets and small females are alright (especially BBQ'd :chef
but the larger ones, especially the males, aren't very good tasting.Thanks Robert.
Yep, we eat them. I was raised with the rule "You shoot it, you eat it." I shot 2 gilts weighing in between 85 & 98 pounds in SC back in September and both tasted great on the BBQ and slow cooked in the crock pot. This one I shot in FL was the same way.
We come from a small farming community in Upstate NY and were really happy with the way we were treated in SC, everyone was so pleasant to deal with and I prefer to hunt SC than FL. Next year we are going to Mississippi to help a farmer get rid of some if they are still having issues.
Yep, we eat them. I was raised with the rule "You shoot it, you eat it." I shot 2 gilts weighing in between 85 & 98 pounds in SC back in September and both tasted great on the BBQ and slow cooked in the crock pot. This one I shot in FL was the same way.
We come from a small farming community in Upstate NY and were really happy with the way we were treated in SC, everyone was so pleasant to deal with and I prefer to hunt SC than FL. Next year we are going to Mississippi to help a farmer get rid of some if they are still having issues.
robert
Expedition Leader
Glad everyone in SC was nice to you; we tend to be pretty laid back overall.
I was raised that way too and I generally abide by it (there's not much I hunt these days), but they've become a nuisance species at this point and will destroy anything in their path that they can eat (which seems to be near anything they can get in their mouths). An average sized pack can destroy a good sized field in short order. They have no real natural enemies once they get a little weight on them and when they get over 200lbs or so they start getting kinda foul and have a higher chance of being diseased. Big, older males can be really nasty with a lot of testosterone in the meat and the adrenaline certainly doesn't help.
Unfortunately most folks these days don't seem to have a taste for wild game and so the meat can be hard to get rid of; even the orphanages haven't taken it for years and a lot of butchers don't want to mess with it either.
Whatever you decide to do, wear your gloves and safety glasses and clean everything well- you can catch diseases from them or spread it to other animals, especially domestic hogs.
From last year's news:
http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/field-notes/2012/02/south-carolina-hunter-catches-disease-360lb-hog-he-killed
National Geographic article
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/05/110502-wild-pigs-parasites-animals-pork-science-health-nation/
I was raised that way too and I generally abide by it (there's not much I hunt these days), but they've become a nuisance species at this point and will destroy anything in their path that they can eat (which seems to be near anything they can get in their mouths). An average sized pack can destroy a good sized field in short order. They have no real natural enemies once they get a little weight on them and when they get over 200lbs or so they start getting kinda foul and have a higher chance of being diseased. Big, older males can be really nasty with a lot of testosterone in the meat and the adrenaline certainly doesn't help.
Unfortunately most folks these days don't seem to have a taste for wild game and so the meat can be hard to get rid of; even the orphanages haven't taken it for years and a lot of butchers don't want to mess with it either.
Whatever you decide to do, wear your gloves and safety glasses and clean everything well- you can catch diseases from them or spread it to other animals, especially domestic hogs.
From last year's news:
http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/field-notes/2012/02/south-carolina-hunter-catches-disease-360lb-hog-he-killed
National Geographic article
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/05/110502-wild-pigs-parasites-animals-pork-science-health-nation/
Last edited:
john101477
Photographer in the Wild
Very cool! I am in Florida right now and trying to con my Brother In Law to take me pig hunting soon.