Hunting South Texas Pigs with a Muzzle Loader.

[gjkershul]

I have an opportunity to to hunt pigs in South Texas this year and I am considering huunting with a .54 Great Plains shooting a conical or an Enfield Carbine shooting a .58 Minie ball.
1. What are the ranges that can be expected on such a hunt?
2. Am I using appropriate arms?

 

[paulvallandigham]

The pigs in South Texas are " Javalina", a very small pig that rarely is bigger than 30 lbs. It is very difficult to get much of a long range shot at these pigs unless you are hunting roads, and lanes, on private ranches, and the little guys just happen to wander out across a lane. Mostly, they stay in thick cover that has lots of barbs and thorns on it, and shots will be short. Either gun using a round ball or conical will be sufficient. They are taken with much less.

 

[Joel Lehman]

You may be hunting feral hogs, which are must bigger than javelinas. My brothers and I don't shoot them on our south Texas hunting leases because we think they are too cute. Beauty is in the eye beholder when you pay big bucks for a lease.

The javelinas has poor eyesight. I have walked within 10 yards of a family of 5 javelinas when the wind was towards me.

A 54 round ball in the head of a feral hog drops them in their tracks. The web site texasboarhunter.com has a wealth of information.

Good luck hunting. Take your sun screen.

Joel Lehman, Austin TX

 

[Joel Lehman]

I made a mistake. The website is www.texasboars.com. I limit the shooting distance to about fifty yards for me, the distance I can accurately hit a feral hog in the head.

Joel Lehman

 

[rabbit03]

I assume you mean ferral hogs since you did not say Javelina!

The ferral hogs here are tough and nothing to fool with. Your choice of rifles will be quite adequate and the ranges will be anywhere from right in front of you to whatever you feel comfortable with making a good shot on one. I would say stay within 75 yds but the rifle will kill them far beyond that. However for safety sake I would make a clean kill if I were you and have a back up pistol just in case.

Where in South Texas?

rabbit03

 

[gjkershul]

Near Freer, Texas is where I will have an opportunity to hunt feral pigs.

 

[rabbit03]

That's where I live, population about 3,500 pilgrims and a few unwelcomed immigrants!

Which Ranch?

rabbit03

ps when you comin?

 

[Dillohide]

Javalina's are not pigs. They are closest kin to ant eaters but they are not in the hog family. We have an over abundance of wild hogs in Texas and South Texas has more than their share. Sizes run from 40 to 500+ pounds. Anything over about 250 pounds will probably have such a strong meat flavor that you can't eat it. Ranges will be the same as deer. Average is 100 yards but could be 50 to 200+ yards. Please kill all you can. Deer hate them, I hate them, at least while deer hunting. :grin:

 

[Bountyhunter]

I would love to come kill a few, but, I am not big on the idea of paying trophy prices to kill a pest.

Do you know of a place I could come kill some pigs as a favor to the landowner? If so PM me.

I am a landowner and would respect their rights.

 

[redwing]

Javalina {Sharp Spear} "Ranch Rats" on the Texas Game and Fish web site are listed as being more related to the Hippo. They go on to say that they are in no way related to others in the rodent family etc. They developed in North America and moved to South America. The Wild Hogs are from Europe are not native to America.
Any way if you want to hunt Javalina and not pay high fees check out Arizona. They have vast areas of Public lands and lots of Javalina. I have hunted there a number of times during the HAM season. That is Handgun,Archery,and M/Ls season. Great fun in the Sonora Country. :bow:
If you want a guided hunt check the Apache Rez. I think its the White Mtn. Apaches forgot not sure. But a call to the Arizona Game and Fish will set you on track.

 

[paulvallandigham]

The original post just asked about hunting pigs- no mention of feral, or wild, or anything. You don't find javalinas very far North, and certainly not north of the border states here in the USA.

You don't have to go all the way down to South Texas to shoot feral hogs. They are all over Texas, and also over many other states. They are considered nuisances in most jurisdictions. In Florida, you can kill one a day.

As for meat fit to eat, you obviously don't know how to prepare meat properly, or you would never make such an assertion. Strong flavored meats can be made edible by soaking them in salt water, or in water with vinegar, to draw out the blood, which carries most of the enzymes, that make the meat " strong " smelling.

All wild animals, including feral hogs that are not feeding on Corn, are going to taste strong. Deer that feed on pine bark and pine nuts have a bitter taste to the meat, compared to deer that feed on corn and soybeans, which smell and taste like beef.

Most people don't like bloody meat, and dislike Liver because of it. If you draw out the blood so that the meat goes from dark purple/red to pink, the flavor improves dramatically. You do have to trim away all the fat and sinew, as those tissues also carry enzymes that consume sugars in the muscle, and turn the meat both bitter, and tough.

Liver, eaten fresh is as sweet, and tender as Prime Rib. Honest. But liver that is allowed to age continues to break down sugar in the organ, making it tough and bitter- just like the liver we were served in our school cafeterias when we were small school kids. YOu can improve the cooked taste of wild meat, including boar, or feral hogs, by using a sweet BBQ sauce for basting, by using sweet onions, and bacon from a domestic hog to sweeten the meat. I also like to use green bell peppers, and a Granny Smith apple( tart Green apple sold for making pies) cut up in sections to garnish the meat, baking roasts in aluminum foil, to help sweeten the end result. With proper soaking, all the smell and bad taste are gone, and its up to you to then spice up the meat to your own preferred taste.

 

[Dillohide]

I'll stick with what I said, from my experience. Most big heavy wild boars getting up in the 300 lb and over range have stinky meat that processors don't want to mess with and neither do I.

 

[redwing]

WRONG Javalina have been found as far north as central Utah. :hmm: It depends on the weather conditions on how far north they wander. :yakyak:

I have seen them in the snow fields near Prescott, Az. :grin:

 

[KHickam]

I shot one this morning - about 150 lbs at about 50 yds. Took 2 shots but there was a deep slough between me and it. With really no way over there without a boat.

 

[rabbit03]

What time's supper?

rabbit03

 

[Hamourkiller]

I have seen the pig meat be both good and bad. Depends on a lot of different variables. Reproductive activity, diet, drought conditions etc. all play their part in quality of meat.

The Old Timers I learned to hunt Hogs from had a sure fire method for dertermining if a hog was worth cleaning. They sliced a hunk of meat from the hind quarter and cooked it. If it smelled like a skunk, they either left it or fed it to the dogs. If it smelled and tasted good the animal was properly cleaned and processed.

The worst tasting hog meat I ever had was eating a diet if fish trapped when the river went down from flood. The fish got trapped in the woods and as the water dried up the hogs went to feasting :barf:

A cut male hog (Barr) will taste good independant of size, but diet still has its say.

Acorn fed hogs are the best, even better than corn.

These critters are vermin that are destroying the land, the A&M boys killed the only natural control on them a decade back (some sort of fly)
and Texas wont let the good old boys sell trapped animals at market, so they are growing unchecked. We can hunt them with anything short of poison. Night hunting under lights or Night Vision scopes is allowed.

Take care.

 

[Dillohide]

The Old Timers I learned to hunt Hogs from had a sure fire method for dertermining if a hog was worth cleaning. They sliced a hunk of meat from the hind quarter and cooked it. If it smelled like a skunk, they either left it or fed it to the dogs. If it smelled and tasted good the animal was properly cleaned and processed.

Take care.

That is exactly what I do. If the smell from the skillet doesn't run you out of the house, finish cleaning it.

 

[Bountyhunter]

Having worked with Seaboard and Dekalb Swine Farms, where the concept is to produce meat for human consumption, they told me this. The cause for the strong stinky meat is the hormones. Once the boar reaches sexual maturity, about 200#, his system goes into overdrive with hormone production, and thus taints the meat. Likewise, the sow, when reaching sexual maturity, begins the heat cycles for breeding and during that time, and just after birthing, while nursing, produces huge quantities of hormones, which, when cooked, will drive you out of the kitchen. Referred to as a "piggy sow".

The gauchos in Brazil and Argentina, rope and castrate all the male hogs that they find, then turn them loose. Later on, they kill them to eat.

There are too many hogs to waste time attempting to soak the testosterone or estrogen out of the meat. If they stink, leave them for the herd to eat and shoot another one. If the herd wont eat the carcass because it stunk so bad, your case is made.