Who has trapped feral hogs for meat?

[TexasTurkeyMama]

Outside the poultry yard fence I have noticed a pair of feral hogs on my game camera. DH suggests that we
build a corral (hog-al?) with a trapping gate to catch them, feed them and put them in the freezer. Has anyone done this project before? How did it go?

 

[DavidReaves]

I've had several feral hogs as meat. Mine weren't trapped, just shot and butchered. We even had one boar hog, about 300 pounds, that was okay. To be fair, though, he was somewhat corn fed, as he was eating substantial amounts of corn from deer feeders. To remove any sort of gaminess, I "wet aged" the meat. After quartering, I put the meat in large coolers with ice and water. Every day I drained the water and added more ice. I did that for about a week.

If you want to trap, you might consider using wire cattle panels. There is lots of information on figure 6/9 hog traps. I think Texas A & M has an extension paper on using them, even.

There's certainly nothing intrinsically wrong with the meat. I'm not an expert butcher, though so we used most of the meat for sausage.

 

[texsuze]

Not sure why you'd want to feed them. IMHO most feral pigs are well-fed, with acorns (fall/winter), row crops, newborn wild animals, and corn, (since folks rarely ever think about putting exclosure fencing around their deer feeders). If you corral and attempt to keep them, then, for how long? Seems like unnecessary expense, plus, you risk harboring all the wonderful diseases these swine can carry. Set up a game camera or two and plan on some hunting. Just my opinion.

 

[TexasTurkeyMama]

Not sure why you'd want to feed them. IMHO most feral pigs are well-fed, with acorns (fall/winter), row crops, newborn wild animals, and corn, (since folks rarely ever think about putting exclosure fencing around their deer feeders). If you corral and attempt to keep them, then, for how long? Seems like unnecessary expense, plus, you risk harboring all the wonderful diseases these swine can carry. Set up a game camera or two and plan on some hunting. Just my opinion.

The feedout is to stabilize the hogs' food supply, making the meat better, thus saith DH.

 

[TexasTurkeyMama]

I've had several feral hogs as meat. Mine weren't trapped, just shot and butchered. We even had one boar hog, about 300 pounds, that was okay. To be fair, though, he was somewhat corn fed, as he was eating substantial amounts of corn from deer feeders. To remove any sort of gaminess, I "wet aged" the meat. After quartering, I put the meat in large coolers with ice and water. Every day I drained the water and added more ice. I did that for about a week.

If you want to trap, you might consider using wire cattle panels. There is lots of information on figure 6/9 hog traps. I think Texas A & M has an extension paper on using them, even.

There's certainly nothing intrinsically wrong with the meat. I'm not an expert butcher, though so we used most of the meat for sausage.

Thanks for the nod to TAMU Extension for trapping. Hope to put my hand on it.

 

[Coops Dad]

I've put a lot of hogs in the freezer and both my wife and I think it's more flavorful than market pork. I've trapped them, killed and butchered, and I've shot and butchered them. I prefer younger sows over anything else unless I can get a couple of ones young enough to still have stripes and spots. They are so tender! We still have about 80-90 lbs in the freezer from the last time I went out.

Either way, I rest the cut portions of meat in the fridge for two days before freezing it. We run a lot through the sausage grinder, season some of it but leave most of it as grind. It's great with cubed venison in chili, or as the meat in meat sauce for pasta, or gently fried and seasoned for tacos.

I also like putting a seasoned butt in the crock pot with a couple cans of Dr Pepper.

Gah. I'm starving now.

 

[cassie]

I haven't known anybody that trapped them, but I have known several people who just shot them and then processed them. I think feeding them corn like you are doing for a while is an excellent idea. That way they will keep coming around so you can shoot them at a convenient time, and the corn will help meat flavor.

 

[cassie]

You don't need to pen them to feed them. You can just put the feed out.