View From The Porch: ...and this little piggy (should have) stayed home.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

...and this little piggy (should have) stayed home.

New Jovian Thunderbolt has a post up about his buddy's latest feral hog expedition in Texas.

The more I read about pig hunting, the more I want to play.

19 comments:

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...: Aye. You can hunt year round, help out farmers, and they aren't as cute as Bambi. (I always thought that Wilbur and Babe guy was a bit annoying...) I am so jealous of his oppurtunity.; 1:01 PM, May 13, 2010
ajdshootist said...: That sounds like fun got just the Rifle for that my latest toy a 275 Rigby otherwise nown as a 7x57 mauser.; 1:04 PM, May 13, 2010
Paul said...: When do you want to go?; 1:11 PM, May 13, 2010
Jenny said...: NJT -Congratulations!

Tam - Gonna give Larry a call to try it the old fashioned way? :); 1:27 PM, May 13, 2010
Grumpyunk said...: Tam, There are real European Boars just South of you.

Watch your email. YerUnk; 2:02 PM, May 13, 2010
Stranger said...: Lots of fun. Especially if you keep one eye out for a climbable tree as you prepare to shoot. Why a tree?

Back when troop trains were almost end to end across west Texas, some newly minted pfc decided to step off a sidetracked train and smoke a hog.

The hog smoked him before a clip of hardball did its work. I have had a lot of respect for ham on the hoof ever since.

Stranger; 2:06 PM, May 13, 2010
og said...: yeah, I have been thinking a lot about the hunting of the hogs.; 2:10 PM, May 13, 2010
Rabbit said...: It's fun, and it gets real fast and exciting in a hurry. One of my hog-hunting buddies is a L6 paraplegic. He hunts from the back of a quad ATV. So far, I've been able to convince him he has to keep it well-tuned and running when he shoots.

Generally, I prefer to set up from the bed of the pickup as an elevated platform.; 2:16 PM, May 13, 2010
Carl H said...: This is the hour of pride and power,
Talon and tush and claw.
Oh, hear the call! –Good hunting all
That keep the Jungle Law!

WV = 'borkines' which is < porcines; 2:34 PM, May 13, 2010
El Capitan said...: I've rarely seen any porkers that would dress out larger than a buck or buck & a quarter. Every so often you'll see a big ol' sow, but Texas Gulf Coast hogs just don't seem to grow into Hogzillas. Guess we shoot 'em too quick...; 2:35 PM, May 13, 2010
Rabbit said...: Almost forgot.

http://www.youtube.com/user/JAGERPRO

Thermal imaging/night hunt.; 2:43 PM, May 13, 2010
TimP said...: Yeah, pig hunting is pretty common here in Australia. Most people don't eat them, but there is at least a few dog food companies that will buy the carcasses. Never got the chance to hunt any myself though unfortunately, though I have chased them around when I was a kid (<10).

Also Knife and dog hunting like what Jenny mentioned is fairly common, so much so that most hunting shops will have a whole selection of "pig sticking" knives. These are very long (7-10' or longer on occasion), stabbing knives. In the post war years SMLE bayonets where popular pig stickers.

Also the traditional way is with a spear or sword. That way you don't need dogs to make up for your lack of reach.; 6:05 PM, May 13, 2010
staghounds said...: But the piggies DID stay home, the buddies went to them!

And there is very little meat on a wild pig.

Jenny- how about the medieval, longer lasting, and prettier way?; 6:34 PM, May 13, 2010
Robert said...: Every so often you'll see a big ol' sow, but Texas Gulf Coast hogs just don't seem to grow into Hogzillas.

IIRC, the hogzillas were all farm raised and released after they got that size, specifically for hunting. There isn't really any way for pigs to naturally get that size. The food density is too low.; 6:45 PM, May 13, 2010
John B said...: I were going to offer to buy you a pig sticker. It seems all my betters already made the offer. Besides, I think Tam with a spear is almost as scary as George Takei (Mr Sulu) with a sword.; 7:23 PM, May 13, 2010
Anonymous said...: Tam with Pig spear...

So I guess it depends with she accessorizes with armour and a helmet or strips down to the basics for speed whether we nickname her Diana or Athena; 10:50 PM, May 13, 2010
Matt G said...: They'll get to a couple of hundred pounds in the Hill Country. I know, because I've shot a few.; 11:58 PM, May 13, 2010
Anonymous said...: "there is very little meat on a wild pig."

Disagree. Proportionally, they have more meat than deer and can get bigger.

Tam, if you need a rifle, I have several available. Running an AR in 6.8 would work too.

Al T.; 8:52 AM, May 14, 2010
theirritablearchitect said...: You want an experience hog hunting?

Do it on the Old Continent.

Trust me on this, the song, horn playing and rituals one goes through before and after the hunt are just as great as the actual hunting of die Schweine.

The typical calibers are stuff most don't use or ever readily see here, either. 9.3's of various vintages are the name of the game, with several of the guys in the party I've hunted with doing the very German dreiling thing. Still very popular in that crowd over there.

Taking an extremely long lunch afterwards with the party is possibly the highlight of the event. Traditional blutwurst sausages and spaeztle with plenty of fresh beer.

I abstain from all but the first shot of schnapps, but there's plenty of that too.; 10:45 AM, May 14, 2010