Hog Processing

[crabo]

It looks like I have finally found a place to hog hunt. I've cleaned and processed deer, but never a hog. Any good tips?

[Lonegun1894]

Two sharp knives, a hacksaw, and if your hog is over 100lbs, a helper if you can sucker someone into it. Aside from that, since you said this will be the first time for you, allow a little more time just due to it being more solidly built and slightly different than a deer the first time or two you do it. Just handle it like any other meat, keep it cool and clean as much as possible. Try not to puncture the guts, etc, etc. Nothing special about processing them, other than the smell being stronger than many other game animals, but it isn't bad. My last one was about 200lbs, and wasn't bad at all, so dont let them intimidate you at all. Took him with a .22 LR pistol at about 40yds with one shot that took out the top of the heart and both lungs. Aside from that, hope you have a great hunt and enjoy the meat.

[newton]

I shot my first hog last year. It was surprisingly easy to butcher. They are just more compact than other animals. I just quartered it like I would anything else that size. They have a LOT more fat on their body than a deer, that's one thing you will notice. They do smell more. One thing I did that I should not have was to cut up the meat, getting it ready for grinding, and then leave it for a couple of days in the fridge. The blood started to seep out of it and made things smell pretty bad. But I have ate most of the hog and its fine.

Another thing I did was not even thinking I cut out the belly portion and threw it away. I do this with deer to make cleaning easier. But there is a lot of meat there and would have made some tasty strips when fried up I'm sure. Also, there might not seem like much meat on the ribs, wild hogs are leaner than pen raised, but those ribs smoked and then slow cooked in the crock pot sure made some tasty BBQ.

Man, I am getting hungry sitting here thinking! I got to get back out and hunt another one!

Oh, you will be surprised at how much meat is on one. Does not seem like as much of the animal is wasted as a deer for some reason. I am sure its just one of those trickery things of the mind, but its interesting.

[rr2241tx]

If you are going to skin it, make your initial cut from the flesh side of the hide down the middle of the back instead of the ventral side, this makes the shield easier to deal with, especially on a big one. Scald or pressure wash off the hair BEFORE you open the body cavity and you'll have a lot less mess to deal with. If at all possible, shoot them in the ear or the top of the head. I think that about covers most of the discovery learning mistakes I've made.

PS: If you're going to make tamales, don't shoot them in the head, bone shards are a rude surprise. Oh, and make sure all the teeth are accounted for, they are hard to chew.

[Dorado]

Hog are not hard to deal with except for the weight. They are dense and surprisingly heavy for their size. Make sure you get ALL THE HAIR off. Sometime it'll stick to the meat. You'll need a good knife or two, a good saw, and maybe an axe. Keep them sharp. Wear gloves and wash the meat well.

Hey if you need a hand cleaning them I'd be happy to help! (so long as I get to hunt too)

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Not much different than a deer, you'll be fine. Save any excess fat to add to the grindings of your next deer. Don't age the meat at all, just get in the freezer. Don't be afraid to try making some bacon/hams/sausage. The "value added" products are my favorite!

[Wolfer]

Lonegun
Don't you know you can't kill anything bigger than a squirrel with a 22 pistol.[smilie=s:

Ps. I couldn't find that chain jerk thingy

[flipajig]

I have cut up alot of them and treat them just like a deer.
I hqve cured and smoked the tenderloins and straps parts of the hams also turned the sholders into Buckborad bacon along with making bacon out of the flank and rib meat sausage and steaks out of the rest. Best eating out of pork that ive had.

[chutesnreloads]

Good to see somebody still knows the RIGHT way to make tamales.

[crabo]

If this works out, I am going to make one of these game poles. I should be able to hunt this place regularly. Both of my friends who want to go with me just want to pull the trigger. No desire for the meat or helping clean one. I told one that he wasn't going unless he worked. The other one will help.

dk17hmr, would a pulley work better than the ring for pulling the game up?

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?168234-Receiver-Hitch-game-pole

[dk17hmr]

Without a doubt a pulley would work better. I loop the rope through the eye hook and the gramble at least twice so I have a little mechanical advantage when pulling the rope. I ussally have someone with me when I am using the rig so they pull the rope and tie it off while I lift and hold the critter. Double threading the rope also give it enough friction when at the eye bolt tha its not hard to hold up while it is being tied off. If I had an 8 foot truck bed would have a winch and pulleys on it but my bed is so short I made the hanger to fit in the truck with the tailgate up.

[RugerFan]

Rather than bringing that nasty carcass back to the house, I learned to just skin and bone out the critters in place and bring just the meat back to the homestead for final processing. If you have a partner to help, it’s plenty easy enough to accomplish this with the hog lying flat on the ground. Don’t even gut them. That is especially important if you have made a quartering shot and the stomach and/or intestines is pierced. If you then unzip the belly, you will be greeted with a very unsavory diarrhea-like mess.

[Bodydoc447]

Without a doubt a pulley would work better. I loop the rope through the eye hook and the gramble at least twice so I have a little mechanical advantage when pulling the rope. I ussally have someone with me when I am using the rig so they pull the rope and tie it off while I lift and hold the critter. Double threading the rope also give it enough friction when at the eye bolt tha its not hard to hold up while it is being tied off. If I had an 8 foot truck bed would have a winch and pulleys on it but my bed is so short I made the hanger to fit in the truck with the tailgate up.

I'm not talented like many of you guys (and slightly jealous of y'all) and have to buy stuff like this. I got one from Cabelas for my Dad (who is 82) and he liked it so much I got one for myself. We used his on several deer and I used mine on a little buck and it worked quited well. The one we got have a pulley and a cheapo winch on it. I hope to try it out on a hog this weekend with my oldest boy.

Doc

[Dorado]

If this works out, I am going to make one of these game poles. I should be able to hunt this place regularly. Both of my friends who want to go with me just want to pull the trigger. No desire for the meat or helping clean one. I told one that he wasn't going unless he worked. The other one will help.

dk17hmr, would a pulley work better than the ring for pulling the game up?

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?168234-Receiver-Hitch-game-pole

I made one a few years ago for a friend of mine. Used a boat winch instead of a rope. Just crank the handle and up it goes. No need to worry about ropes and tying them off. It does make it a bit heavier.

[TreeKiller]

The local butcher shop hoses the hog off when it is hanging by the head. Makes a cut around the neck and then uses a box knife with the small hooked blades for carpet. Cuts the skin down the hog in about 4 inch strips, starts the strip with a knife and uses a towel to pull the skin off in strips. When it is cool and ready to cut up it looks like a beef that has been skinned nice and smooth.
Dan

[TXGunNut]

I generally dress it as I would a deer except for one thing-if it smells really bad I fold my knife and walk away. If it passes the nose test dress it, skin it and get it cooled off ASAP. If they've been feeding on garbage and/or carrion or are big old nasty boars they won't be something you want to eat. The smell may be tolerable once you get it dressed but you'll learn when you've crossed that line.
I love sausage so I spend quite a bit of time getting all the meat off the ribcage, neck and shoulders. I've never had a hog under 200 lbs that wasn't better meat than the domestic pork I buy to mix in to raise the fat content.

[TXGunNut]

And congrats on the place to hog hunt, BTW! I used to be a deer hunter but then I went hog hunting. I'll still shoot a deer for management purposes but I'd rather put a nice hog in the freezer than a deer. You've been warned! Oh, and they're kinda fun to hunt too! :shock:

[RugerFan]

I generally dress it as I would a deer except for one thing-it it smells really bad I fold my knife and walk away. If it passes the nose test dress it, skin it and get it cooled off ASAP. If they've been feeding on garbage and/or carrion or are big old nasty boars they won't be something you want to eat. The smell may be tolerable once you get it dressed but you'll learn when you've crossed that line.
I love sausage so I spend quite a bit of time getting all the meat off the ribcage, neck and shoulders. I've never had a hog under 200 lbs that wasn't better meat than the domestic pork I buy to mix in to raise the fat content.

I shot a large boar that had funky smelling meat. I brought it home anyway and turned the whole thing into smoked sausage. That did the trick and it was fine eating. No difference at all.

[crabo]

The place I have to hunt is a private gold course out in the country. My friend's dad would take his electric golf cart out and try to find one at night. If he saw one, he would shoot at it. He would go at different times during the night. He was more concerned about being a deterrent than killing them.

He was most successful with his trap. It had deer corn in it, but no activity around it. We are thinking about mixing up some special concoction and start seeing if we can trap them or shoot them around it.

There was a place where they rooted up last night. We stayed out until 11:00 and then came home. I think we need to set up my popup blind and spend the night out there.

[Fishman]

I'm not an expert, but I have cleaned a few pigs and made good things out of them. One thing I do is wash them really good with a hose, inside and out, before I begin. It's amazing how dirty they are, and I suspect most of it isn't dirt.

I skin them and try hard to keep from taking much of the fat with the skin.

Domestic pig backfat is great to add for sausage if you can find it. Many wild hogs are pretty lean and can be difficult to make into sausage without added fat.

The only pigs I've seen shot in the summer were covered with flees etc. I don't recommend cleaning them this way, it's nasty and you get bit a lot. Cold weather is fine.

The insides smell way more nasty than a deer. But the ribs are really good so the "Texas deer camp special" where you hang the deer without gutting and whack everything tasty off with a knife will leave some meat behind. The front shoulders also have more meat than a deer so try not to shoot them.

[TheGrimReaper]

I've always read/been told to wear rubber gloves do to parasites too.

[Adam10mm]

There's a few ways to do it. You can hang it and cut quarters and groups off or you can butcher it like livestock is done. Hang head down, saw in half, then quarter the halves and go from there with your shoulder, ribs, loin, and ham. Some gut right on the ground and others hang it then gut it. I butchered a domestic pig a couple months ago so it was a different kill. I washed the animal after cutting it to bleed it, then hung it, gutted it, skinned it, then used the "off the carcass" method of butchering. Hung head down, took the front quarters first, then the backstraps, then the hind quarters, then the ribs, then the neck, jowels. I boned one leg as it hung and separated the other and boned out on the table. All that was left hanging was the head, spine, pelvis, and one leg bone. Skinning is pretty easy, just pull more than you cut and cut only when you have to. When you start a cut around the leg, make a small cut to break the skin, then turn your knife around and cut with the inside of the skin. This will keep your knife sharper. I'm not a fan of scalding and skinning takes the hair out the equation anyway. I always rinse my meat before I package it, so any stray hairs that might be there are removed before wrapping. I like hanging everything head down like livestock. I don't remove the esophagus when I remove the offal. If you don't and hang head up, the digestive fluid that is still in the esophagus will drain down into the body cavity and start to break down the meat and ruin it. If you remove the esophagus, it's a non-issue.

Hung
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/freakshow10mm/DSCN0119_zps2aea800c.jpg

Skinned
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/freakshow10mm/DSCN0133.jpg

Front quarters, neck, backstraps removed
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/freakshow10mm/DSCN0136.jpg

Final state
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/freakshow10mm/DSCN0152.jpg

Half of a backstrap cut into chops
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/freakshow10mm/DSCN0158.jpg

Beer brined backstrap cooking low and slow (250 degrees)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/freakshow10mm/DSCN1498.jpg

Here's a nice cut chart if you want to stick with primal cuts.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/freakshow10mm/cuts.jpg

[crabo]

Freakshow, thanks for all the info. I appreciate all the time it took to post that.

[pls1911]

Quality pork is pretty reasonable cost wise. Of course I'm not feeding but three mouths at the moment, but the pigs I pile up to feed buzzards and coyotes. Often, several a day, an too far out to haul 'em in for folks to care for it..... In places, west Texas has broad shoulders and a LONG reach.

[Adam10mm]

Freakshow, thanks for all the info. I appreciate all the time it took to post that.
Not a problem. I very much enjoy what I learn from my experiences.

I would say my largest inspiration source would come from www.farmsteadmeatsmith.com. They are a custom slaughter/butcher in WA that uses the traditional hand tool method of butchering. No machinery, just hand knives, saws, and cleavers. Go to the home page and scroll about halfway down to the video right underneath the Chicken Harvest class post. If you don't want a fluffy story, skip to the 6 minute mark. He explains and shows in detail the "livestock" method of butchering a pig, where the pig is gutted and cut in half, each half then quartered and broken down into meat groups and cuts. Oh, yeah, the hanger steak is an ultra premium cut of meat. There is only one and it's either discarded or the butcher keeps it. It's the diaphragm muscle and it's a tender meat with so much flavor. Cook it gently to medium and you will have a phenomenal piece of meat with exceptional flavor. You won't find that in your grocery store, only from a custom butcher or if you butcher it yourself.


Pls1911, if I lived closer I would take every pig that you killed off your hands. If it's edible, I don't waste it.

[derrickman]

TxGunNut is correct......Ifn they smell bad when you walk up to them leave them alone.
Only happened to me once & I've skinned more than a few but in some other areas it can happen quite often & it is generally the boars from what I've been told.

[pls1911]

Many time of the year tou's need to resharpen your knife after you carve offall the ticks and fleas to get to the skin...
Brother smokes a mean Hill Country whole hog (itty bitty ones ... ) for the boy scouts he has out once a year.
Shreds 'em up for BBQ on buns, except for the parts we sneak aside forums cooks.

[Lonegun1894]

Lonegun
Don't you know you can't kill anything bigger than a squirrel with a 22 pistol.[smilie=s:

Ps. I couldn't find that chain jerk thingy


I have more faith than most I meet in what can be done with proper placement, and dont mind putting in a lot of practice and then coming in close enough to make sure I get the placement part of the equation right. Um, I mean, I shot at the hog and got it's attention, and then it looked at me, saw how ugly I am, and died of a heart attack. Yeah, thats what REALLY happened. :kidding:

For what it's worth, I wasn't looking for hog or I would have brought a bigger gun, but I also knew the .22 LR would do the job and I wasn't going to pass on that meat as my freezer was almost empty and the friend who was with me but told me not to do it cause the hog would kill us had also been saying his was almost empty too, so we both needed the meat and split it. BTW, and this suprized me also, but that 36gr HP fired from a 4.5" barreled pistol passed clean through that hog. I'm glad I didn't have to follow a blood trail as the hog only went about 10ft before it collapsed, because the only blood was the puddle it was laying in when I got to it. So the caliber will do the job, and as we all know, a larger caliber will give you more leeway in case something happens to make the shot be slightly off of where you wanted it, but any reasonable caliber weapon will do the job if you put it in the right place. About the only things I wouldn't personally use would be anything smaller than a .22, or anything firing birdshot. Buckshot, slugs, boolits of .22 and bigger, if placed right will all do the job. Get in close, place the shot, and enjoy the meal shortly afterward.