Feral hog damage pic.

[Horsefly]

Power pole that was near stock pond at our hunting lease. Hogs would roll around in mud then rub against power pole. Power co. Set new pole next to old worn one so I cut it off at ground just because I wanted it. Power co. Kept top part. I thought it’d make a cool table pedestal with glass or expanded metal top. It’ll stay at barn cause my wife just doesn’t have the artistic vision I have. 

[Horsefly]

Funny thing is, down in the heavy timber where they can’t drive are poles worse than that one. It’s worn more than it appears in picture. 

[Dr.Hess]

That's some damage.  I'm glad they are not running around this area.  Although, I think my neighbors would probably clear them out for food if any show up.

[AzRednek]

On 2/16/2021 at 8:33 AM, Dr.Hess said:

That's some damage.  I'm glad they are not running around this area.  Although, I think my neighbors would probably clear them out for food if any show up.

I was told only young females make good eating. Both sexes of mature feral hogs he told me are barely edible. He will cook a mature hog outside because of the odor and makes dog and domestic hog feed with it. He complained very bitterly about feral hogs destroying his sweet potato crops. Claiming unknown farmers in the area illegally poisoning the feral hogs and other animals including pet dogs and cats brought in what he named big city Yankee animal lovers but apparently the southern Missouri authorities weren’t very interested in investigating. He was a friendly very talkative old guy we stopped and bought dry ice from

I’ve  only seen one feral hog in Arizona. I was using a hand held Javalina call. It ran across a dirt trail with two barking collared dogs in pursuit. Feral hogs can be hunted year round here but a hunting license is required.

[Horsefly]

Yep. The man was right about sows being best eating and young bores 75lb and smaller are ok especially for smoke sausage. Townies that never dealt with raising their own meat expect fresh pork to taste like bacon and hams from store or meat market that have been cured. Me telling about damage I’ve seen feral hogs do is like my Dad telling about the war. Unless you see it you don’t or can’t really believe it. 

[Dr.Hess]

When I was visiting a friend in central Texas once, he showed me the damage they do to a field next to his property.  There was a patch of ground, maybe 40x40, that looked like someone took a tiller to.  Literally everything turned over, and deep too.  Before that, I had no idea what they did.

 

The "authorities" say that just hunting them does virtually nothing for control.  Traps and killing them are much more effective.  And, a domestic pig turned loose goes feral in a matter of weeks.  The huge teeth just start growing, the meat becomes virtually inedible, etc.

[Horsefly]

Kalifornia list hogs as game animals with limits. We would get kicked off our hunting lease if owner found out we passed on shooting a hog. The state was going to spread feed mixed with Warfin (prob. spelled wrong) and hunters raised hell because people consuming meat would be dangerous. I read recently 60 percent would have to be killed annually to keep numbers from increasing. I believe it. Heard all my life does cycle every 3 months 3weeks 3days. That’s up to 10 shoats with ideal conditions. We learned at young age any male animule with his cookie-makers working isn’t good eating. Cleaning a deer is a piece of cake compared to a hog. You’ll work your buttocks off just getting hide off. Old timers scraped hair off after dunking in barrel of boiling water. Fried cut up skin and called cracklings. Never forget when I was a wee lad watching them chain hoist a hog out of barrel of boiling water when it was probably zero degrees and got real close so I could watch the guts fall out when they cut his belly open. When the steam from its guts hit me in the face the fun was over for me. 

[manureman]

  There’s just about as much art in scalding hogs as science.

  You want your water 150 degrees and you want to leave them in just long enough that you can easily pull a pinch of hair out with your thumb and forefinger. If you don’t leave them long enough or get your water hot enough you’ve wasted your time and if you over due it, it’s even worse you’ll set the hair and have to skin them then and hogs don’t skin easy and if you get them hot enough to set the hair the hide softens up till it tears off in really little pieces.

    I figure this is where the expression getting a good scald on something comes from. 
    To many of my old neighbors are gone now but we used to all get together and have a helluva hog killing and beer drinkin every winter. Us men would set in and kill , scald scrape , gut and hang em , then it would take several days of them hanging for us to get healed up enough to work them up.

    There was always several families and most of us figured on one hog per person per year, usually 25 to 30 hogs total . The men would then work out side cutting them up and trimming , grinding etc and the women would be inside wrapping them up and labeling it. Then everyone took care of curing and smoking there own hams and bacons as some prefer to dry cure and others liked to use brine.

  I ain’t worked up a hog for several years now but the last few times we did here we skinned them as it was faster than scraping them. We used Wyoming knives to cut through the hide in long strips an inch or two wide then grabbed the strip with a pair of vice grips and peeled it off that way, worked way better than trying to skin one like a beef.

   Then we’d have another big beer drinkin a few days later when we rendered the lard by throwing the fat trimmings in a couple big cast iron kettles and cooked em down and ate the cracklins till we was ready to bust. I still have my cracklin shaker in the kitchen with just the right mix of salt and red pepper in it . Anyway it was a good excuse to get together and drink beer while the women were inside scraping the heads to make head cheese and mincemeat.

    My kids were in on all of it so at least they have the know how if they would ever have to do it they’re selves and as much as enjoyed those days I hope my kids don’t ever have to work at getting their groceries that hard.

[Horsefly]

When it finally would get cold enough to kill a hog here in Texas, it was a mad rush to get them shot and scraped right at daylight because it may be 50 degrees by afternoon. Us kids would tear into the cracklings looking for one with a bristle that got missed to use as a handle. Never thought about skinning in strips. Gotta be the way I’ll do it next time. Kinda like peeling an orange in sections. Me and my twin brother would sharpen knives when older dudes scraped. 

[manureman]

  I’ve never touched a hair on a wild hog so don’t have any experience to draw on there, but I think those little 100 pound guilts would skin in strips pretty good. 
    The two most important things I’ve learned from skinning tame hogs is hang em head up it makes working around the front legs easier when you can pull down on your hide strips and it allows you to get a little wider bite to start your strip if you start working from the neck rather than a hind hock.

  But the Wyoming knife is the time saver . I’ve skinned a few without them and it’s more of a chore cutting your strips than it’s worth to my thinking, you can hook the gut hook under the hide and just sail through them verses a regular knife.

   Once in a while on a tough one I’ll grab a bolt and wrap the hide around the head of the bolt to give the vice grips some extra bite on the square shoulders as a bloody slippery piece of hog hide is just that. I would think one of the skinning tools that look like ice tongs where the harder you pull the harder they bite might be just the thing for this chore but can’t say for sure, don’t remember it till I need it and then it’s to late again kind of thing.

[Horsefly]

Skinning yeller cats is way easier. I hang pigs and deer by the head too. Easier to catch guys in a bucket to move out of the way while skinning. Don’t have to stand in guy pile. If I shoot the deer I field dress right where they drop. We shot 4 coyotes off one nasty stinking old boar last fall, but something I just don’t get is sometimes song dogs or buzzards won’t touch a hog. They just melt into the ground. My brother said maybe they’re so tough they can’t get a starting spot to rip chunks off. Fixing to look at Wyoming knives.