Wild pig hunt

[sabertooth]

I have a friend in Tennessee which is about two hours from where I live and he told me about how anybody can go to certain areas and hunt for wild hogs which are epidemic in certain areas.

One day I would like to go get one my self.

Anyone ever had wild hog meat ?

Quote from the site -
"Feral hog season is open year-round on private lands with no bag limits whatsoever. In other words, we want you to kill as many hogs as possible to slow their spread. So please help us take aim at controlling wild hog populations."

http://www.state.tn.us/twra/feralhog.html

[CitrusHigh]

never had the real deal, but I've had truly pastured berkshire pork heart, and judging by the flavor (it's one of my favorite raw dishes), the wild counterpart would be even more flavorful.

Are these large or small variety pigs? Large ones can be 400 lbs or more, whereas the small ones stay pretty small. If you're going after a large variety, don't corner them ever and try to get a clean shot because they can be rather ferocious.

I'd love to have that kind of opportunity, definitely take advantage if you can saber!

[Neone]

With wild animals I found it easiest to see the whole 'you are what you eat' thing.  I noticed that eating rabbits from one area that had access to certain plants tasted different than ones from another area, and time of year the available food changes along with the taste.

Thats one place where that whole 'dont eat (whatever) at (certain time of year) or it will TASTE BAD!', because in winter they're eating a lot of cedar bark and it does chance the flavor of the meat. (which if you're used to something tasting different isnt going to be a big deal to you.. just to people who have a problem with 'THIS DOESNT TASTE LIKE BLAND BEEF!! ITS TERRIBLE!!'.

I would go and do my firearm course and get all that out of the way... The only problem with it is that (unless you already have your gun and stuff) its going to cost you a decent chunk of change; so if you're only doing it for the meat then its going to take you a few pigs before you have shot enough meat to negate the cost of everything... But once thats all done you can get 50lbs of meat (or however much you're going to get off a boar) for $1.50 and a little work... and you wont have a butcher saying to you "Sorry sir, but we cannot sell you brains/adrenals/whatever" which is really nice.

[Josh]

Some people think that pork is very dangerous for trichinosis.

[sabertooth]

Thats an other thing , I heard pig brains were good eaten and I remember hearing my granny tell about how her grandfather would eat pig brains and occasionally give her some. It wasn't raw but from what I can tell it was very lightly cooked. I would love to try wild pig brain, fries and adrenals. What about other pig organs are they any good?

Wouldn't wild free range hogs be fairly clean of parasites like trichinosis or other worms?

Maybe I could find a couple of red neck Boys to bag them for me, for real cheap, so that all I would have to do is pick them up.

[cherimoya_kid]

Thats an other thing , I heard pig brains were good eaten and I remember hearing my granny tell about how her grandfather would eat pig brains and occasionally give her some. It wasn't raw but from what I can tell it was very lightly cooked. I would love to try wild pig brain, fries and adrenals. What about other pig organs are they any good?

Wouldn't wild free range hogs be fairly clean of parasites like trichinosis or other worms?

Maybe I could find a couple of red neck Boys to bag them for me, for real cheap, so that all I would have to do is pick them up.

Pig brains taste awful, because they are so bland.  I think all brains do.

I couldn't tell you about wild hogs and trichinosis, but I've heard that deer often have it.

[jfgrout3]

I've gone pig hunting here in Maui a few times. We hunt with dogs and shotguns with slugs. Some Hawaiians use dogs and hunting knives only. Wild pig tastes similar to the commercial kind except maybe not as sweet, depending on what it's been eating. Sometimes the pig meat will be sweeter if it's been eating a lot of wild guava, which is plentiful here. It's also a bit leaner, except for the back fat and belly. The meat is cleaner though, and I ate some organs raw, the heart and liver. The pigs are considered feral and there is no limit. They're mean suckers too, they can easily kill a dog or human with their tusks.

[CitrusHigh]

Saber it would be way erroneous to think of these animals as free of trich, or even less likely for trich. If anything probably more likely. Predators and omniovores, especially omnivores who eat other omnivores are wayyyy more likely to be crawling with parasites, but will likely be symptom free. And this is good evidence for us that parasites are healthful and belong in the body, especially of omnivores and carnivores to facilitate health and perform janitorial functions. All coons, opossums, coyotes and skunks that I've opened up have been brimming with visible worms. But in at least the skunk I can verify that she was symptom free. I watched her go about her business for a while before I took her life and she acted perfectly normal. Furthermore upon inspection of her insides, I noticed no trauma to her internal organs and her coat was clean and glossy. In other words, even though there were parasites through and through, they seem to have had no deleterious affects on her. And we could expect the same for us if we were meeting all the criteria. Meaning we weren't intaking too many toxins and we were consuming enough of our native diet in it's unaltered form to replace whatever tissue is being consumed by our little helpers.

So, if you've got vices, maybe stay away from piggies and other carnivores. Although I regularly, when available consume one of my favorite dishes in large quanitites, which is truly pastured berkshire pork heart raw with a dash of salt and loads of pepper. Such flavor, mMMm, time to call up the lucky pig people! Also I've made pate, with the liver and eaten the liver raw and as with the heart, it has a very complex, rich, but not gamey, flavour. Also I do have some vices myself, or rather certain habits which are often construed as deleterious to one's health, such as smoked cannabis, goodly amounts of caffeine from tea and espressos, and a fair amount of cooked foods, and I've never been as healthy or as malady-free in my life as I have been for the last 2 of my 3 RAF years. Of course, I believe wholeheartedly that I'm invincible, so that may have something to do with it! 

[goodsamaritan]

Yesterday we went on vacation to a place where they served wild boar cooked meals.
We chanced upon a freshly killed wild boar.
My chance to finally taste this fatty beast's raw bacon portion. (belly.)

AMAZING!

Super FATTY AMAZING!

I immediately asked politely if I could order an entire wild boar the next time they ordered from their indigenous people supplier.  Will probably get it next week!

[edmon171]

From the cdc website on trichinosis:

"Some people infected with trichinella may never experience any symptoms at all"

I think that is a very loaded statement and deserves some pondering. I take that as support for the idea that if you are healthy, the parasites will be symbiotic but if you are ill, they may become virulent. Also the statement suggests to me that for every case that gets reported, there may be hundreds or thousands of cases where people have the parasite and don't report it because it never made them sick and so never got tested.

 I would agree the parasite is more prevalent in the wild boar because they are more likely to have consumed small gave that are intermediate hosts to the infection. So if you are worried, just freeze it first.

I have already started feeding raw pork to my dogs and will try some myself when I find something that hasn't been grain-fed.