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Do you eat Feral Hogs?

Do you eat Feral pigs??

  • Yes.

    Votes: 36 66.7%

  • No way.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Never had the chance

    Votes: 18 33.3%
  • Total voters
    54
MattMan81

MattMan81

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2020
Messages
5,006
Location
The Mitten
So if the weather is right. Looks like over Christmas we are gonna go see family in Florida. No way to chase some deer on public. Legally. Not enough property at there place. But I see you don't need a license to kill hogs. My wife says she won't eat them. But does anyone on here eat them? Any reason not to? What reason to?
Curious what your options are.
 
MattMan81 said:
So if the weather is right. Looks like over Christmas we are gonna go see family in Florida. No way to chase some deer on public. Legally. Not enough property at there place. But I see you don't need a license to kill hogs. My wife says she won't eat them. But does anyone on here eat them? Any reason not to? What reason to?
Curious what your options are.
Click to expand...
When I find them I kill them. When I kill them I eat them. Yes. They’re dirty swine but the taste fine.
 
Pretty sure you’ll need a license. When I hunted public in Florida I still needed a general hunting license and a wma permit to hog hunt. Maybe it’s changed recently?
 
I stand corrected. You don’t need a license on private property.
 
I’d eat one, but I’ve never killed one. There are some nasty nasty bugs in a feral hog though. Everyone knows about trichinosis, you may have seen it on meateater. Bad news but there’s worse. Hogs in America can give you brucellosis, erysipeloid, tularemia, tuberculosis, salmonella, leptospirosis, anthrax, coronavirus (not that one), the plague, vesicular stomatitis and more. All of which are a bad time, but be clean and careful and you should be good
 
You forgot Pseudorabies. Its bad here. Never dress animals with open cuts on your hand, which I always seem to have. I dont mess with them


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Aeds151 said:
You forgot Pseudorabies. Its bad here. Never dress animals with open cuts on your hand, which I always seem to have. I dont mess with them


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Click to expand...
I don’t think people can get pseudorabies can they?
 

They can’t be that bad for ya. I’ve ate em but if you process yourself there are particular lymnodes you need to be aware of. They have some good processing hog videos out there but make sure you watch on that explains cutting out those lymph nodes or whatever they are. They will ruin the meat.

Lots of guys around here just get a bunch of sausage made out of them and that stuff is great.

Guys at my buddies work would pay for the hogs that we would kill at my buddy’s camp.

Also it’s fun to shoot the big boys but this is one time you want to go @Nutterbuster on them and kill the young ones. 60-100 lbs will be a lot more tender than that 250 boar.
 
MattMan81 said:
So if the weather is right. Looks like over Christmas we are gonna go see family in Florida. No way to chase some deer on public. Legally. Not enough property at there place. But I see you don't need a license to kill hogs. My wife says she won't eat them. But does anyone on here eat them? Any reason not to? What reason to?
Curious what your options are.
Click to expand...

Where are u gonna be in FL?

What date range u in FL?

It’s legal to kill hogs during deer season on most WMAs and most areas go thru end of December

I’m in Central FL and can probably to tell u some WMAs

I also have a buddy has a hog hunting property in panhandle that he guides or let’s people hunt over feeders usually for a pretty cheap price


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I hunt them and eat them regularly. There is a difference between pigs depending on location. Nasty swamp pigs eating palmetto are darn near inedible. Got to soak in vinegar and water and then milk to make it good. Pigs in farmland are a different story. The younger the better. Piglets or fat young sows. Find a reputable processor before the hunt that does pig. Unless you want to learn where the glands are that should be removed quickly. Process quickly and for goodness sake don't gut shoot the thing. I wear rain gear and hose them down before skinning when doing myself. Best shot is behind the ear or center of neck. The heart and lung is directly behind the shoulder and you lose a lot of meat going there. You'll miss the vitals going for the deer heart shot behind the shoulder.
 
The little 50-100 pounders are delicious...not like ur store bought pork...nice red meat with a slight nutty/game taste....the big 1s are ok sometimes but from what I seen u may get a good eater big 1 once and then the next 1 will be rancid. While ur cleaning it u can just smell the meat and it'll smell off/bad. I agree with the diet having a huge difference....the marsh hogs eating pine cones, oysters, and fiddler crabs probably not as yummy as the hogs eating acorn and green grass
 
The one i ate was delicious!
Buddies made the trip to Texas last feb and brought back a big sow!
I usually butcher their deer for them, so i can only imagine how good a job they did on this hog :grin: ...But still delicious!
 
Yes they're good. Make ham or sausage out of them, or slow cooked and shredded pork. You need to cook them to 165F because they can carry parasites, so the tenderloins and grilling cuts get overdone. IMO they taste as good as any store bought pork I've ever had.
 
I eat every single one I kill, I do wear latex gloves while cleaning them, I think the greatest risk from the consumption of wild pigs is trichinosis. Trichinosis dies after the meat has ben frozen below 0 for 72 hours, but I always make sure to cook them well done I don't ever eat wild pork rare or pink.
 
I second what @grc0003 said, make sure you remove all of the glands. The glands look like little brown or grey pods a little smaller than a grape. They are located just below all hind quarters at the flank, there are glands in the neck, and between the muscle packets in the rear quarters as well. If I shoot a small one, I inject the whole hind quarter and smoke it all day, I steer clear of the hind quarter gland while cutting up the ham.
 
I've eaten pigs from 5 to 200+ pounds. Acorn fed, palmetto fed, freshwater clam fed...the works. Knock on wood, I've never had a bad one. But I've also never had a bad deer or duck or...anything really. Low standards, maybe? I dunno. I really wonder sometimes if folks won't admit to being a little skeered of wild game, and that trepidation makes them taste things that they wouldn't notice if the meat came pre cut on a little foam tray.

Chicken tastes like chicken tastes like chicken. Same is true with wild game for me. Only real difference is younger animals are less chewy.
 
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