OT - Bacon removal.

East Texas is less 4 hogs as a results of our weekend hunt. I took a good friend out Friday night after the chores were done. We hunted the easy way, sitting in the jeep under a tree for shade since the smoke and the moonlight had it looking like daylight throughout the woods. It was a beautiful night watching the moon through the pines and the weekend is one of those weekends that I appreciate breathing and being able to do what I love to do.

My friend and I were talking about lawn more motors when I saw a hog walk out into the open field. I turned the key on and got the light ready as he leveled his rifle on it. I hit the light, he knocked it down and we went back to our discussion about lawn mowers hoping for more. When we drove up on it we both realized we had a good sized one down. Turns out it was the biggest he had ever taken and scaled him at 327 lbs. I got plenty of pics, but I left the dang camera in the jeep and didn't bring it home. Here's a pic of his cutters that I took with my phone.



Saturday my girl friend came down to the trailerhood and helped me water some trees while I smoothed out some more ground trying to create an extended lawn. We finished up early and decided to go to the woods rather than into to town.

We were rolling in the jeep when we came across a small herd. They don't like the jeep anymore and bolted right away so I backed up into some brush and we got out and headed through the woods trying to intercept them. I spotted one hog and had Jen get behind me and we crouched down and approached. Problem was that the closer we got, the more hogs began to show themselves. We had 9 total and closed to within 40 yards using a single tree standing in the pasture, but I couldn't get us to the tree. So I got on my knees and had one hand on the ground and my left hand up with my finger in my ear as she leveled the rifle on my back. lol. Now that's why they call me tripod. She put a high shoulder shot on it and dropped it in it's tracks. Her first hog and with plenty of excitement to boot.

Here's my soon to be better half enjoying a well deserved trophy.



It's a war against these dang things and if anyone has ever driven a tractor through the craters these things make, you'd probably have a rifle close at hand as well. Problem is, for everyone of these things we shoot, there are a hundred we haven't seen yet.
:roll: :roll:

Kinda like taking out 1000 lawyers. It's a good start.

A good friend of mine went to Oklahoma a few years ago and got a nice hog, it was pretty good eating. I'm planning on going in a year or two when I get the money. I've heard they are causing major issues down south, we've been fortunate here in Iowa to not have many escapees from the hog confinements.

A lady that enjoys hunting, and is cute?! You better hold on to her!

The Discovery Channel aired "Hogs Gone Wild" last week. They are catching the hogs alive and donating them to go to the homeless. Some people are terror stricken by therm. You sure don"t want to be caught out in the open without some protection. Personally, I prefer lead poisoning, but again, that"s not politically correct.

That's a good looking hog. The girl friend isn't bad either. Does she drive tractors too? She looks like a keeper.

Well CL up the road from you we just shoot and let them lay where they fell. I think only the young ones are worth eating

same thing over here in Sheridan...anything over 200# i leave for the Texas Eagle's [buzzard]
i got treed about 25 years ago by a pack of hogs...all i had on me was a small pocket knife...dont go anywhere on place without firepower now...gettin too old to climb trees.

Billy, I went through your fair city going and returning to Palestine a couple of weeks ago. Things were greening up but not the lush greem that indicates plenty of moisture. The situation is getting desperate. I don't imagine that anyone has even tried planting yet, have they? The hay fields sure look dry.

I appreciate it! Yeah, she's a keeper and she has me feeling pretty dang lucky these days. She's driven the old Workmaster a time or two.

I've noticed that most times it's the boars that can be foul but sometimes they're not. We kill so many of these things that most of the time we just roll them onto their bellies and take the back straps but there's been a few times when I'm carving on a nice sized sow with good fat I'll take the hams.

There's something about wild hog fat that just isn't the same as farm raised pigs. The fat doesn't melt like bacon fat that we're use to from the store. I don't know why, but I don't want bacon from these wild ones. Ribs are allot tougher too but we've got a home-made rub that if I leave for overnight and then back in foil the next day it taste great and falls apart.

We also have them, see this survey
http://www.pressconnects.com/assets/pdf/CB172981412.PDF

Well, can't really be sure this is the same gal as you were fishing with about 11 pages ago, but they look enough alike that I guess I'll spare you a Congressional inquiry into the matter. LOL

I assume this is also the lady to whom you gave the tasteful (tasty) Bar S bouquet. Fishing, hog hunting, bacon flowers- you've sure got a way with the ladies! I think if I could have applied some of your techniques, I would be happily single today!

My neighbor is from Tyler. She owens some land there. We are planning a trip down sometime this year to shoot hogs.Her and her husband,my wife and myself. Looking forward to it.

Stop by sometime. I have a shop open now. Small engine shop just north of the square on old 75. Only thing growing around here is sand and rocks.


All American Small Engine Care
619 N Commerce
Centerville TExas.
903-536-2322

Hey, I just may do that sometime. I went through there on I-45 and I thought about you. It was a spur of the moment trip. The BIL was in the hospital in Tyler. He lives west of Palestine near one of the prisons, so we go up to Buffalo and take 79 to Tucker, then north about 10 miles.
C. L.

well if you fellas are out and about that way again, stop by for soda and be ready to play "20 tractor questions".

I'm hunting over here by Cayuga and yes, it's dry and the ponds are about half dry.


One thing that gets me is that every I look at the weather forecast, they call for rain next week. When next week gets here they're still calling for rain next week. :?

By the way, if there are any antique tractor shows coming up where some of you fellas are going to be, I'd sure like to go. Not show, just go. :wink:

Here's my soon to be better half enjoying a well deserved trophy.

OK, I will ask---do you consider yourself a trophy catch for her? I would say she is may well be a trophy wife?

Just a little confused, with a whole lot of envey. Next thing you will tell us is she has a winning lottery ticket.

You best put the guns down, and get hitched real soon............wow, and she drives a tractor too.

Just kiddin, but don't let her get away.


Like in a square mile, how many of those hogs would be a estamated amout? Is there any animals that eat them in your area? Can you bait them? And one last question, how big do they get?

Dave, I'm worried about you. There you were, in the woods on a perfect moonlit night, with a beautiful woman, and you are talking about lawn mower engines. What's wrong with that picture??? LOL.
Seriously, I was up your way the other day, near Pickett, just south of Tennessee Colony. My BIL has a hog problem there also. You want to be really careful out there at night. A hog can hurt you, big time.

OOPS: I PUT MY FOOT IN MY MOUTH. I stand corrected after I reread your post. You were in the moonlight on Friday night and your girlfriend came down on Saturday. DUH.

that is one lady you do not want her to get mad at you. lovely looking besides.

What is the difference in taste compared to a domestically raised Hog ? I would think they eat the same feed other than the additives for weight gain.

Why dont the Game commission allow marketing of the meat ?

Forget about everything else...that is a nice looking woman...

Iowa, I ain't never been accused of being a "trophy", and I've had to correct a few folks that my name isn't dumbarse, but I'm not stupid enough to let this little lady get away from me. :wink:

Roy, that's something you'll have to answer for yourself, but all I can tell you is that every time I cook up some hog meat they way I like to do, there ain't any need for tubberware afterwards. :wink:

I've seen these wild pigs eat other dead animals including other dead pigs, I've seen them eating grubs under hay bales, chasing cows trying to latch on for milk, hanging around calving heifers to clean up the after birth, I've seen one with it's back legs in the air while half of it's body was dug into a crawdad hole, I've seen where they've taken out 15 acres of freshly planted corn and root just enough to pick up the corn, I've seen them crater hay fields in the Spring loading up on various plants that build up starches in their root systems and I've seen them knock over deer feeders to get more corn. They're not at all like a farm raised pig, they adapt to anything, they're fast, they can swim like a deer and smarter than most folks give them credit for. Which is why some of us folk like to hunt them. I've heard it said before that a good hog hunt is like a poor boy's grizzly hunt and I've been in a few situations that have made me realize that sometimes that statement ain't far from the truth!

I'm hunting these things to help out some land owners eradicate them. To be honest, all we're doing is harvesting a few and running them off until they decide to come back. Which usually isn't for very long.

From what I've learned over the years is that it's really only the boars that you have to worry about as far as how the meat taste. Seems to me that when a boar is after a hot sow it releases a hormone that runs all through it's body. You'll know it as soon as you walk up on it, you'll smell it. If it has that musky sour smell, there's a good chance you don't want that meat cooking in the house, cause it's going to smell just about the same. On that note, I've seen large boars that were fine for consumption. Just depends on what they're up to when you harvest them. Another thing you guys might want to consider is if you're going to hunt some, you may want to do it before it gets real hot. In about another month I won't consider butchering one. There's some strange things crawling on these varmits in the summer that are down right nasty and when the carcass starts to cool off, they tend to jump ship and find anything that's warm and moving, which is usually the hunter standing next to it! :shock:

CL, it's a small world and I hope your brother in law is going to be okay. Maybe one of these days some of us can get together at one of these tractor shows and shake hands.