NDR springtime boars!

Capt. John

Capt. John

Active member
With duck season over and most of the Spring migration already through south Texas I've been looking for things to keep me busy. This time of year I am usually behind a spotting scope bird watching but most of the waterfowl seems to be past me on their way back north. With all of the rains we finally have gotten, the pigs have been going nuts reproducing. With these variables put together I decided to spend a night at the ranch I hunt outside of Woodsboro chasing some boars around. As a hobby I'm learning how to do taxidermy and wanted some nice boars to work on, not to mention some hams. On the way down the 4 mile easment road to the ranch I came across a four foot diamondback rattler. I've been looking for a nice one to mount for a javelina scene I'm currently working on. After a small chase and safe catch, I was on my way with the first catch of the day. Once at the ranch I put my snake boots on, grabbed my pack and started stalking food plots. I came across a few small boars and 3 large sows all having small striped babies with them. I'm not heartless, momma with babies gets a pass from this guy.
I made it to the third food plot and what do you know, a 225 pound narly black boar all by himself! It wasnt long and he was on the ground and I was getting the four wheeler. After finishing the field care, and loading him in the walk in cooler I went and washed all of the fleas off of myself and went to bed. The next morning was a replay of the night before, except the boar wa not quite as large. It was a great half day of caping, cleaning and prepping meat. I spent the next few days smoking hams and making pulled pork to handout through the neighborhood. Slow cooked boar hams are delicious if you take your time doing it. Add a few shiner bocks to the meal and its hard to not feel like a king.
I just thought I would share my second passion, wild pigs. Deer hunting down here has become such a numbers game its almost no fun anymore. Spot and stalk pig hunting has filled that spot in my heart since I moved here years ago. Its challenging, fun and its relativily easy to gain permission to hunt them. And did I mention they taiste good? Thanks for reading and looking. John

Boar from the first night!
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Second boar, next morning
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Smoker going non-stop all weekend!
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The meat is all ready to go, a little apple cider vineger. and some sweet baby rays sauce. Slice or two of pablano pepper, and its perfection my friends!
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It just falls apart after 12 hours of mesquite smoke.
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John, I can smell that BBQ! Can you share the recipe specifics? I have a couple wild hog shoulders John Bourbon left with me on his drive home from hunting in FL. I have my smoker built and am ready to do some cooking! 12 hours ...but what determines done? Temp, feel? What temp are you smoking at?

TIA,
 
John,

Makes me miss home, grew up in west Texas and miss those hog hunting days. Really miss the mesquite BBQ but dads been bringing me a trick load of wood every chance he gets. I just can't get use to cooking here in Mississippi without mesquite.

Neil
 
Sure thing Dave! I like to make smoking a daylong event usually so I use minimal wood and tend it about every hour.

Let me start with the meat prep. I soak the meat for about 48 hours in a cooler of ice water with 2 2 liter bottles of coke in it. After the soak is done I get my pit going with some charcoal as a base for my wood. Not much, maybe 15 pieces. I like to use smaller chunks of mesquite. It burns faster but puts out good smoke. Once I get the smoke rolling I dry rub hte meat with brown sugar and a spicy dry rub from the grocery store. I smoke it for an hour each side then wrap it in foil for the remainder of pit time. Temp usually hovers around 200 or so. I tend the wood hourly. I can tell its done when I open it up and can pull the bone out of the meat. I then chop it and transfer it to a crock pot with apple cider vineger, just a large splash, and bbq sauce. Low and slow. The longer it cookes the better it gets. I like to eyball stuff when I cook. NEver pay much attention to the time!
 
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Neil, where at in West Texas? We have a mule deer lease out in Iraan. Its my favorite part of the state!
 
Yep, some good eats right there.
But I would have taken a couple of piglets over a big boar any day of the week!
 
If they are younger pigs, then a simple brine & smoke will work. I do mine in a brine similar to alton brown's turkey brine for 12 hours, then coat with a rub and smoke low & slow. At least 4 hours. Like John mentioned, when it falls off the bone, its done.
 
Capt,
Very cool. Nice boars.
If I didn't live in Michigan, I'd be in Texas....though, everything in Texas wants to bite you, stick you, poke you, kill you or eat you. ;) ...according to my son.

I did a bunch of hunting on the Esse Ranch as well as Choke Canyon, Beeville, Pearsall & Uvalde. I got a nice boar off a friend's ranch in Whitsett (George Jambers). George is the fella who owned "Old Bucky" which is the buck who's head was on buck stop lure if I recall. He had a 10,000 acre ranch (almost small by Tx standards) and was developing trophy animals and had a 15' high fence around the entire ranch. Wow...hard to imagine financing that.

The thing (as you mentioned) that I found hard to believe was the FLEAS on the wild boar. Holy Smokes...those suckers don't just bite...they tear out chunks. I guess that's a small price to paty for some great hunting and great eating meat.
Lou
 
Thanks guys, yeah I'll admit had I not been going for something that my wife will inevitably tell me to "go hang in the garage" I would have been shooting 50 pounders. I do them a bit differant. Skin, split down the middle with a saw, and smoke. Talk about good stuff. Lou, I hear you. unless its 30 outside, I have snake boots on. This is the d-back that I caught the same day I'm mounting.
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John,


I was born and raised in Abilene, stayed there for college and a few years after that. I worked for a small Oil and Gas company in Abilene but spent most of my time in and round Corpus. I took a new job here in Mississppi about 5 yrs ago and still miss Texas. My family has had a few leases around Childress and my dad just called to tell me about another lease he just took over north of Lubbock. Miss the days of big leases and being able to see for miles on end.

Neil
 
Very cool post. That is something I have not hunted for but If I ever get to spend some time down south I sure would like to give it a shot.
 
Dave we smoke our shoulders at 225 until temp gets to about 170 then wrap in foil until internal temps hit right at 190-200. Pull off smoker let rest for an hour and then pull foil off. Lately the wood I have been using to smoke is white oak 2/3 and wild cherry 1/3 a nice clean and sweet smoke.
 
First of all, John, sure glad you are helping in controlling the population of wild hogs in Texas. I have heard that you guys have your fair share down there. Secondly, I sure did enjoy your photos along with a play by play account of how to cook it. By the time you finished my mouth was watering------Badly!
Al
 
I'm glad you guys are enjoying the pics! Sam, without going into details lets just say he spent some time in a chest freezer. Works very fast on snakes and no holes to sew or glue later on down the line. Rattlers are the only snake we hold any prejeduce against at the ranch. All others get left alone. Lucky enough to see a horney toad that day as well, but to quick to get a picture of him.
 
Anthony, my usuall hog gun is a Winchester 94 with a large loop chambered in 45LC My favorite load is Bitteroot Valley 300 grain bear loads. With open sights its a very good brush gun for stalking. Its at the gunsmith getting a new link installed so for this trip I was using my deer rifle. A remington 700 bdl LH in 30-06. Shooting 180 grain lead points. South Texas brush is thick and thorny and this time of year the grass is shin tall as well. I really do not like tracking hogs in that stuff. I always carry a .44 revolver as well when tracking as a backup. When pig hunting the brush you either get good at climbing trees fast or carry a big gun. I'm a big guy and climb like a tree sloth so the big gun option is best for me!
John
 
thanks for the story and I too have my mouth watering...

one side question, you mentioned mamma with piglets get the pass. Everything I read about is how they are invadign so bad. So in a twisted sort of way, does it make sense to nail mamma and maybe the little oinkers don't make it? would that not help the "population issue" That said I have no real world experience of what you have down on that ranch so maybe it make sense NOT to bust all the mammas

just food for discussion.

Either way, I have hogs on the list of things to get and eat!!
 
Eric, you hit it on the head. There are people here that would rail me for not doing exactly what you said. The ranch I hunt is managed very well for a good number of hogs and deer. when the population gets to high on hogs they trap them in huge pen traps and kill them off that way. They are way smarter than deer. If you just start shooting into the big groups, they get the point and will change there habits to stay away from you. Usually by moving over to the next property for a while. Hogs are a big problem in most of the state and get treated like vermon by most ranchers and hunters. I wish I had a huge scientific answer for my desicions but I dont. I just dont have the bloodlust against them that most do. About 5 years ago I shot a sow that had her brood with her still. I felt like crap because of it and told myself then that I would never do it again. Now I just try and shoot boars and 50 pound eater sized pigs at times. This will surly bring out the critics but its how I do it.
 
Hey John, thanks for the reply, like I said, no judgement by me, just curious. Once when I was like 15 or so, I spine shot a buck, he stood there, really unable to move. then finally tipped over. but just looked at me with fear and terror in his eyes, I will never forget that. Ever since I have always tried to neck shoot a deer. My logic is the main arteries, the windpipe, or the spine all get pretty much wiped out and they are dead pretty quick or I flat out miss and they win that round. Not a lot of inbetween. We all have our deals.

thanks for sharing. Now I think I have to find a pulled pork sandwich for lunch, darn hungry now.
 
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