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Please use these jump links to get right to what interests you most or just scroll down to learn . Distribution of Wild Hogs in Texas Anatomy of Hogs; Shot Placement! How to Age a Harvested Hog? Field Dressing and Meat Prep of Wild Hogs (Soon!) History of Wild Swine in Texas (Soon!) Biology/Morphology of Wild Hogs in Texas (Soon!) Boar Attacks - Are the Stories Real? (Soon!) Texas Laws Regarding Boars (Soon!) Recipes for Cooking Wild Pork . Click to View Sample Hunting Packages . |
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Distribution of Texas' Wild Hogs, as of 1999 Based on Texas Parks and Wildlife data and County Extension Agent surveys 
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. . The situation is particularly pronounced in the case of feral hogs. Their lungs are smaller than other big game, and tucked tightly up BETWEEN the shoulders. If you must body shoot a hog, please make it squarely through the shoulders. If you get behind the shoulder AT ALL, all you are going to hit is stomach. That is a deadly shot, but finding your animal may be quite difficult, and death may come slowly and painfully. Losing animals, or failing to dispatch them quickly, is not very sportsmanlike. Besides, cleaning a gut shot animal is no pleasure. . 
. . SO WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? Well, a real sportsman will know his limitations and that of their weapon, and stay within those limits. That might mean passing up the shot, but few have that kind of willpower. If you are not close enough and good enough to put a shot in his ear canal, straight to the brain, then here is the best second option. Wait until you can get the boar in a quartered away body position. NOT BUTTOCKS STRAIGHT TO YOU, just quartered away 30 to 45 degrees. Aim LOW at the FRONT of the shoulder ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE of the boar and let fly. This should make the bullet or broadhead enter behind the shield on the close side of the animal (or at least where the shield is a lot thinner), and then pass through part of the stomach, the liver, and at least one lung, hopefully both lungs, and maybe catch the aorta, too. The bullet or point will stick in the base of the neck or opposite shoulder. A pass through is nearly impossible. Done properly, the animal will not go far, or last long. You should get some sort of blood trail if you kept the hit low, and/or a smelly old guacamole trail if you opened the stomach up enough. . www.texasboars.com has done an excellent job of showing this different anatomy of a hog. They do it in a series of photos, depicting a real hog stripped of it's skin, then shield, then muscles, then rib cage and shoulder bone, to reveal those small lungs and small heart, hidden well forward in the chest cavity. The hog shown is a young boar of maybe 70#, and even he has a half inch thick shield, plus two inches of skin, muscle and bone covering his vitals. . Personally, I shoot hogs almost strictly in the head/neck, either right behind the ear, where the head and neck come together, or where the neck and shoulder join. It just depends on the distance of the shot, and the angle of the animal's body to me. I do this because it puts the animal down on the spot, and they are usually dead before they hit the ground. This is important, because everything that grows in my part of Texas will either poke you, prick you, stick you, bite you or sting you, so I don't want to have to trail a shot animal off through the bushes. It also makes for better eating, because an animal that is dispatched instantly never has the chance to pump itself full of adrenaline and lactic acid, both of which toughen meat and impart a poor flavor. . Using the behind the ear shot placement, I have dropped 175 pound boar with a .22 rimfire, and up to 375 pound boar with my .243. BUT, I get to practice this stuff A LOT, so I shoot especially well. Not everyone can. Know your limitations, and those of your weapon of choice, and stay within those limitations. |
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. . The exact things to look for are all to be found on the rear most jaw teeth. You can ignore the front teeth, the tusks, and the Euro teeth, if present. The Euro tooth is a very small tooth, a short distance rearward of the tusk on each jaw. Only European Boar and hybrids of domestic pigs and Boar will have these teeth. . 
The Euro tooth of a feral hog/european boar hybrid Photo from www.texasboars.com On sows and boar less than 18 months old, there will normally be three adjoining teeth in this rear most position. The first two are thin, looking much like a human canine tooth in shape. The third will be a tricuspid molar. Tricuspid means it will appear to have three parts or columns joined together to form the one tooth. . 
jaw teeth of a 2 year old feral hog Photo from www.texasboars.com From nearly two years old, until about 2 and a half years, the pig will loose the first three teeth, one at a time, and replace them. The two thin tooth replacements will look the same (except newer). The tricuspid molar becomes a large, bicuspid molar. . By the hog's third birthday, a fifth tooth, another bicuspid molar, will have erupted through the gum line. . By the hog's fourth birthday, a sixth tooth, a tricuspid molar, will have partially erupted through the gum line, showing two of the three cusps. By the fifth year, that sixth tooth will be
fully erupted. From now on, the only way to know how old the hog is, is
by the amount of wear shown on the teeth. No more teeth will show up. When
all these molars are all worn out, at about age eight, the hog can no longer
get the nutrition they need from what they eat and they rapidly begin to
decline in health. It is rare for a wild hog to live past eight years old.
Jaw teeth of a 5 year old wild hog Photo from www.texasboars.com . |
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Please click on one of these links to view recipe, or just scroll down. Pork Roast.....Three Little Pigs.....Pit Style Pig Ribs.....More Coming Soon! . . Start with the ham of a 80 -90 pound hog, or two smaller shoulders. This should be about 7 - 8 pounds of bone in meat. Place meat on a rack in a large roaster pan. Sprinkle meat with a little black pepper and Season-It-All. Cut up potatoes, sweet onions, carrots, and celery and place ON TOP of meat. Pour 8 - 10 ounces of zesty Italian dressing over the top of this. Season lightly again with black pepper and Season-It-All. Seal the pan TIGHTLY with aluminum foil. Bake at 325 degrees for 2+1/2 hours. Remover aluminum foil and turn oven to 400 degrees. Baste with drippings and cook until nicely browned (about 10 -1 5 minutes). . This is one of the meals regularly served in our Texas hog hunting camps. If you come to hunt with us, you will probably get to try this dish. We normally start with a nice salad, and serve dinner rolls along with the main course. Peach cobbler makes a great dessert. If drinking wine with this meal, I prefer a Rose or Blush (pork is the other white meat, you know?). . . Pull both back straps (boneless) from a larger hog (150 - 200#). This should be about 6 - 7 pounds of meat. Cut these into about foot long chunks. With a long, thin knife (fillet works great), cut a hole LENGTHWISE into the meat. Do this by inserting the knife all the way into the center of the end of the meat piece, then cutting toward the outside edge. DO NOT cut all the way out. You want it to be like a tube. Insert a LONG piece of your favorite link sausage into this tube. Keep inserting until the entire tube is filled. Repeat for all pieces (usually 4). Season this meat assembly to taste with, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder. Cover each tube completely with bacon. Place in a baking dish with a can of beef broth or 2 cups bouillon. Bake TIGHTLY COVERED at 325 degrees for 2+1/2 hours. Remove cover and turn oven up to 400 degrees. Baste well with drippings and cook until bacon is crisp (about 10-15 minutes). . We sometimes serve this meal at our hunting camps, but that backstrap is almost too good for us to share. If you come to hunt with us on a package with "upgraded menu", you will probably get to try this dish. We normally start with a young spinach leaf salad, and serve homemade bread loafs along with the main course. Apple pie ala mode makes a great dessert. If drinking wine with this meal, I prefer a darker Blush or Merlot. With the bacon and sausage, you'll want a wine with more body than a Rose or lighter Blush. . . Use a full rack of ribs from a larger hog (150 - 200#) or both from a smaller hog. Use only the ribs from a hog in good body condition. If the ribs look poor to start, they will probably finish poorly, too. Pull as much connective tissue off the rib cage as possible. Put shallow slits through the connective tissues on the inside of the slab, between each rib, and deep slits across the ribs on the meat side of the slab. Brush on plenty of PICKLE JUICE. Yep, you read that right! The only extra seasoning needed is some black pepper. Cook directly over a medium low, mesquite wood fire until getting just a little bit of blackness around the edges of the slab (usually about 30 - 40 minutes). Be sure to baste well with pickle juice every ten minutes. Lightly brush with your favorite bar-b-q sauce and warp well in aluminum foil. Move to the side of the fire, where you can hold your hand for 15 - 20 seconds before getting too hot. Cook on this low heat for 1 hour, turning and spinning the meat around regularly so as to cook evenly. Remove the aluminum foil and test for doneness. Finish directly over what flame remains, if needed. . Potato salad, cole slaw, carrot salad and/or macaroni salad are all great side dishes for this meal. Texas toast from the grill, or tortillas, are the usual bread side, and pecan or sweet potato pie are perfect desserts. No wine with this Texas traditional dish. It's beer or tequila only, if drinking alcohol! Sweet tea, if not! |
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