Wayne:

It’s been at least 20 years since I fooled with a big hog and that one had been in the pen on feed for 6 months or so. 70% might be stretching it a bit since their hides are so thick.

The best is when you catch a sow with a bunch of pigs about the size of a football. Put ‘em on cow’s milk that I get from the dairy down the road. Start adding cracked corn to the milk and keep them on it a couple of weeks to a month.

Skin ‘em and dress ‘em like squirrels. Then smoke ‘em whole on the smoker. (Low & slow). You can’t beat it.

Yummy!!

Pap

Coach,
You must have a pretty good sized smoker!!!

Dumb question,having never had eaten that meat before,I presume that it is pretty good tasting???

I hear that in your area these feral hogs are causing much damage.

Wayne

The hogs have been real bad this year!

The picture shows only a small fraction of what they have done to my yard this year. They particularly like St. Augustine grass!

The other picture shows my smoker in action during Thanksgiving. I can smoke a brisket, a ham, and a turkey all at the same time.

The pigs, like I described above are VERY good. The big hogs can be RANK! A medium sized 100-150lb is good if he has been on feed for a while.

Coach--

I went boar hunting in Tennessee a couple of times...agree with you about them being rank. My wife tried cooking some of one of them, and it almost stank us out of the house. Gave up on the meat and hunting them.

Larry

Coach,
Super nice smoker!!!

Yeah,it looks like the hogs can do some real damage.

I imagine that in some parts,there is no closed season or bag limits on them???

License needed??

Wayne

I built my first smoker in 1980. This one is #13.

It is made of 30” pipe with 1/2” wall. It’s got a 1” plate running almost the full length of the smoking chamber. That allows the heat to run under the meat, then over the top. ( Notice how the smokestack next to the firebox is smoking)

I can put a brisket in it at 8:00 pm, leave it throttling at about 200 all night, then, take it out at 8:00 am the next morning.

Then, I like to “let it set” in an ice chest for a “couple of hours” give or take.

When it’s time to eat, I’ll slice ithe “flat” paper thin with my #12 Thorpe.

I prefer the big end or “point” since it is juicier.

Wayne: You need a hunting license but there is NO bag limit.

Our high school FFA chapter sponsors a Hog Hunt in January and gives prize money for: Biggest Hog, Most Hogs, and Most Total Weight.

We’ve had teams bring in 2 or 3 trailers with 30-40 hogs.

Even with that, they seem to get more plentiful.

Coach,
Sounds like you have a good plan for smoking all that meat.

I think that there has to be a lot more harvesting of hogs to bring the problem under control.

I understand that the farmers/ranchers sustain millions of dollars worth of damage to crops and property each year.

Wayne

I have a theory that some of these enterprising property owners are facilitating the breeding of the critters to continue the money-flow opportunities.

Completely unsubstantiated, but it's my theory.

There's history and a name attached to that phenomenon, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_effect