What a Day

[Art]

Our son wanted to re sight in his M4 clone (FN) after some warranty work. When we got there one of the board members asked if we were going to use the 200 yard range. He said it would be closed for a bit while they cleared out the hog traps. The range has extensive damage from feral hogs. Not a problem since the M-Forgery was going to be initially sighted in at the 25 meters in one of the 50 yard pistol bays using the military sighting in target.

Well they got back from the hog slaughter about the same time we finished on the 25 yard line. There were at least a couple of dozen dead porkers from shoats to a couple of big boars and sows. There was even one pot belly pig that was probably somebody's pet at one time. Anyhow, they asked if anyone wanted one and I took a 50-60 pound shoat home and disassembled it. What I didn't notice, this is really unbelievable, was a tennis ball size exit wound that is typical of 5.56mm/.223 soft or hollow points at short to medium range and it cost me some backstrap. I'm not the man I used to be at all, Though I feel lots better than I did a year ago, the cancer has weakened me enough it matters. If the boy kid hadn't been home we would have never gotten Porky hoisted up in the garage. I don't have any strength in my hands and those of you who have processed game know what a liability that is, especially the skinning part. Maybe I shouldn't have done it but I'm not sorry I did.

We were supposed to go shooting tomorrow too but probably not.

[Allen]

Keep up the spirits. When we stop doing things we soon find out we can't. At least you had some help.

Don't forget to take those pictures. As big a pain they may be now sometime in the future they will represent the events of the day.

[lyman]

well let's see

range day with the son,
free porkchops,


sounds like a win win to me,

[Major Tom]

Wild hog meat has a flavor of its own!

[bruce]

Be thankful for what you could do. Be thankful and take advantage of what you can do. Sincerely. bruce.

[Art]

Wild hog meat has a flavor of its own!

This is true, and variable, as with most game animals but more-so with wild pork, flavor is dependent on age and diet. My sainted grandmother once said she didn't like the flavor acorns gave wild pork in the fall . Old boars are barely edible on their good days. This shoat should be a really good eating little porker, she has a good bit of fat for a wild pig which doesn't hurt a bit. If I was hunting for a wild pig for the table shoats or sows under 90 pounds would be at the top of my list.

I personally have enjoyed the wild pork I've had, but I've been selective .

[RED]

My only encounter with feral hogs was in the southeast swamp area of Georgia. They were called Pine Barrens by many of the locals because the paper companies who owned most of the land and pines had been planted on thousands of acres. Pine cones and palmetto roots was about all they had to eat. I had a local friend that had lived hunted there all his life. He and others looked at the feral pigs as a nuisance and would kill them on sight as well as the invading armadillos. One day we were preparing for deer season and suddenly we spied what we thought was 2 feral pigs in a wallow just off the side of the logging road. Bobby (the driver) slammed on the brakes, pulled out a Colt Huntsman .22 pistol, and fired one round and pigs scattered everywhere. A shoat crossed in front of the Jeep and I nailed it with a 5.56 round from a O/U Savage. I took it home and tried to smoke cure the hams and fileted the loins. No matter what I did the meat tasted just like a pine tree. You are what you eat!

[Art]

In Louisiana "piney woods rooters" caused so much damage to newly planted pine acreage that a "hog law" was passed outlawing free ranging swine; And Red, you are absolutely right, you are what you eat. Fortunately the forage of these "pigs on the range" has little to do with pine. I'll give a review after we eat some.

The Ag professor I had at LSU said you know a piney woods rooter is ready for harvest when you pick him up by his ears and his head balances the rest of his body .

[Allen]

No matter what I did the meat tasted just like a pine tree.

Euell Gibbons would have loved that.

[barretcreek]

Pine nuts are staple of Middle Eastern cooking and I've seen Prickly Pear jam. What are high bush cranberries?