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Thread: Pig day .

  1. #1
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    Pig day .

    My neighbor and I raise two pigs together . It works out better then us each raising our own . They seem to grow faster with eating competition.
    This year has been a challenge, we got the pigs a month late , and I broke my leg .
    But my neighbor is a pretty good guy and he was willing to do the brunt work by himself .
    So today we took the brown pig , he is skinned , split and hanging on the poles .
    Used my trusty little .32 colt Ballard to put him down , I just love the little .32 shorts for this . I think it's near about perfect .

    Tomorrow we will get the halves broken down , ham, bacon and chops in brine to cure , and hopefully the first grind on the sausage .

    Attachment 254288
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  2. #2
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    Winger Ed.'s Avatar
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    I wish I had the place to do that, even though it's a rather traumatic experience for the pig.
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  3. #3
    Boolit Master elmacgyver0's Avatar
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    Poor little pig!
    Enough of that, bet he tastes good!

  4. #4
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    Good for you! Do you leave your buddy pig alive a while longer? I always have struggled with that part, seems like the one left behind goes backwards. I try to get ours done in September so I have lard for elk and deer and moose burger, and that leaves me with a huge chore at an inopportune time.

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  5. #5
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    If the weather cooperates we will do the black pig next week ,
    If I was able to hobble around a bit better we would have done them both at the same time .
    Normally though we do both pigs at the same time to save a whole lot of extra clean up work .
    We also prefer to get the feeder pigs early enough to butcher early November .
    But the fellow we get them from had a sow lay on a litter and it put us back .

  6. #6
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    I get a pig every year sad thing is they always die but the wake is tasty
    Reloading to save money I am sure the saving is going to start soon

  7. #7
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    Funny , I've never had a sad thought on kill day .
    They get to be real jerks when they get over 180 lbs or so .

  8. #8
    Boolit Master

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    Mine are always nice and love scratches. What annoys me is when they get big enough to dump their water. Seems like they do it for fun.

  9. #9
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    My Dad used to pay a guy he worked with to keep one or two for us along with his. Thanksgiving was a four day weekend for their shop and usually cold enough in Kentucky to kill hogs and work the meat, so that was our weekend. Made sausage, cured hams and shoulders even rendered lard. I still remember fresh cracklins. It's a lot of work for sure but the reward is well worth it.

  10. #10
    Boolit Master OldBearHair's Avatar
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    Neighbors woring together

    I have two pigs on the camera at the lease about 30 minutes away and keep up with them on the computer. Even have them named. Lester and Big Louie. I am thinking that Lester weighs about 75 lbs and Big Louie like 150 lbs. Didn' get a chance at them during the deer season, but we have plans for them early Spring. We have Spring early here in Conroe Texas. Wasn't feeding enough corn with one feeder in the area and the other seven, a sow and big piglets left. Well they will be back later. Hog lard makes me sick but I can have ham, canadian bacon, and bacon that has no fat and I don't put pork-fat in the deer sausage. Use beef tallow. Catch pork loins on sale,buy a couple, rub on the rub, including cure and put in an improvised smoker and I can get along alright.
    I really like you guys way of raising the pigs together and sharing the work. As an old friend of mine used to say "many hands make light work".
    Last edited by OldBearHair; 01-05-2020 at 09:14 PM. Reason: add wording

  11. #11
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    Sharing the work sure does make things more enjoyable , especially come pen cleaning time
    I rather enjoy the processing part of it even the packaging .
    It seems to get easier every year as we gain some experience.
    There is a lot of satisfaction in knowing where your food comes from to .
    Not to mention how tasty that first slice of bacon is when you empty the smokehouse .

  12. #12
    Boolit Buddy Iwsbull's Avatar
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    Hog killing time is one of the things I miss the most from growing up on a farm. We never killed just one it was always at least two. I am jealous of you. Rendering out the lard and eating way too many cracklings. Good times.

  13. #13
    Boolit Buddy
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    We generally named ours, Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, not very original but appropriate. The last two turkeys we raised were called Thanksgiving and Christmas. Names like this seemed to keep the kids from becoming too attached.

  14. #14
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    Here piggy, piggy, piggy !!
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  15. #15
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    I killed a pig for a family Christmas eve dinner once. Used a ruger mkII. Cooked it outside in a pig roaster, with 6 inches of snow on the ground and I wore an old red snowmobile suit. The pig turned out absolutely great.

  16. #16
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    More people need to raise their own meat this way. To many in this country have know idea what is involved in raising stock and getting meat to the table.

  17. #17
    Boolit Master OldBearHair's Avatar
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    Back when I was raising hogs, I found that if you want more lard from the pig, feed it wet feed. We had two pens of pigs that were far from being registered OIC or Hampshire stock. We feed a lot of donated day old bread. One pen get dry food, the other pen got watered down food. (like slop!) Those pigs put way more fat on than the dry food pen.

  18. #18
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    I do miss living back on the ranch and being a part of it all, pig butchering day is a big event. Some years we've had as many as 8 or 10 to do but the last few years its been more like 3-4. Having a couple milk cows helps to usually have some sour milk to add to the pig feed. A .32 would be just a perfect pig gun as some years a .22 won't quite get through their noggin.
    Lately we have been butchering a lot more pigs though, because of the pig flu outbreaks once the pigs leave the pig barn to get on a semi at the big hog farms (pretty much only Hutterite colonys now) they can't come back in the barn. So the hogs are loaded into a converted school bus out of the hog barn and taken to the loading dock at the edge of the colony. Any pigs that don't make the truck or the trucker rejects have to be immediately put down since they can't go back to the barn. My extended family I used to live with are ex-Hutterites and get the call right away "You wanna buy a pig?" usually they're in the 200lb range for around 100 bucks and dressed, scalded, scraped and split. Hard to turn down a deal like that! We got a 180lb pig for our wedding dinner a few years ago that way, and always pickup a few during hunting season to mix for sausage. Just got pictures of the boys brining a few hams and making some bacon this week so they must have gotten another one here recently. I still remember the smell of my second mother rendering lard and making soap once we had the fat chunked up. Still remember the smell of that soap in my clothes and stiff as a board line-dried jeans. Not many kids of my generation had that and even less of the next one will.
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  19. #19
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    Hmmm , slopped hogs get fatter . That's something I think I might try . We don't usually let our pigs get much over 220-230 lbs
    And getting enough fat on them for proper sausage making is a challenge some years . Like this year , finishing them in cold weather doesn't help either .
    Just a guess , but we will probably have to buy a few pounds of fat from a local butcher for sausage . We will find out for sure this afternoon when we start processing.

    There is a pretty big outdoor flea market a few miles from me , threw the summer and early fall I stop and raid the dumpsters for the produce that gets thrown out by a couple venders .
    It's rather amazing how much two pigs can eat even when they are only 50lbs or so And still want their grain ration .

  20. #20
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    We've been doing something a little different the past 5 years or so. We let them graze grass and dig (while feeding waste products) until they're 175# +/-. Then push them hard on ground barley and peas. This idea came from a farm book from the 1870's. The actual meat yield went way up over the pen only method. We also have access to quite a bit of waste beer that gets used when they come off of pasture, they definitely gain better! And I always have enough lard for both the pigs and a few elk and deer.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check