Rossi Rifleman

I thought I would show you a slice of my heaven and my one of my latest upgrades to the rancho. I call it my lighted shooting gallery! Pardon the size of the image but it is tough otherwise the see the brushline 100-yards distance.



This is a feed station that I look out on from the side entrance of my home. The brushline in the back represents the entry point of about 95% feral hogs that terrorize my yard. That brush funnels thousands of acres up to this point between the powerline on the left and my lake on the right. I decided to add a pole line with moonlight type of lights across that point of brush so that I could see the critters that I usually have to hold a light on to shoot. The lights went up a week ago and I have hammered three large hogs to date!

The bad thing is that the work just about put me under. I had been hitting it hard outside in the 95°+ heat for about 10 days and the ditchwitching and setting the poles was about a 12 hour run with peak temperatures at 102°! I started having problems during that night and by Friday I was a mess. The diagnosis was heat exhaustion and my Doc feels I came pretty close to having a heat stroke. I've been in a bit of trouble with different things throughout the week and still under the effects over a week later. Was it worth it? Oh hell yes, and my Doc will be out as well Sunday night to try to kill a good hog! If my wife reads this last statement I'm a dead man as she has been the one dealing with me.

Those three deer in the picture are part of a bachelor group of eight that hang out here at the house. At least a few members of the group are always in view throughout the day. The one on the far left with his butt to you and head down is going to be a great 3 1/2 year old scoring around 140" to 145". This will be the last year I see him up at the house. Next spring he will be in the back with the big boys. Oh, I will add that I never kill a deer around the house. Don't matter how good he is.

That is awesome what do you do with all that wild pork meat? donate to food shelter, make sausage? Just curious is all.

akuser47 wrote:That is awesome what do you do with all that wild pork meat? donate to food shelter, make sausage? Just curious is all.

Fill our freezers and then drag it off. In that they are feral animals, they cannot go into the food banks. Kind of weird and at times I feel bad leaving it behind but you can't get anybody to take it as if they want it they already have a freezer full. The calls go something like this:
"You want a hog?"
"Is it dead?"
"Yes"
"Is it cleaned?"
"Yes"
"Is it cutup?"
"Yes"
"Is it in smoked links?"
"No"
"Naaa, don't really want it"

Just real old school slaughter houses will take them, the new guys don't want to mess with them. The closest outfit that will process a feral hog for me is a 27 mile drive (one way). When one of my sons was in Afghanistan early in the war, I had two hundred pounds of dry sausage made. I sent him a Medium Flat Rate Box every week he was there. I had read the shipping restrictions and it said no pork products. I figured, what the hell. So did the fellows over there. I bet no more money has been spent on eating a hog than I did that hog!

Hehehe... my dad, who lives off to the right in that photo the same distance I do just shot a hog in the Gallery! Standing on his porch in his underwear! Living the dream, living the dream!

Pretty sad that food banks have to worry about being sued by the needy,that they are trying to help to the point they don't accept food from so many sources. Our local Miejer use to donate bread and donuts to shelters and food banks until they got sued. so now they destroy tone of food products that used to go to help people. sad Well at least you have a stockpile. I have eaten plenty of wild hogs I think it is good but maybe that is just me. lol

Just out did myself in the "Shooting Gallery"! There was a bunch of 35# hogs in the pen at 2 am. Snuck up on them and then rushed the last 20 yards forcing them to be back of the pen! Closing the feeder pen gate I caught 12 but one escaped by jumping on the back of another and then over the hog panel. 11 in the pen. These are 3 month old hogs so there are 2 to 3 moms out there in the brush that are full of piglets. I'm hoping that they come to check on them because this could end up being quite the killing if I can get to them. The sows should be carrying or just dropped an average of 6 each, either way the little ones would be out of the picture for good. When you think about it, a lot of hogs represented here tonight... 30 to 32 hogs.

After a couple of hours and no sows, I decided to go with the "birds in the hand", 11 of them.
The bad thing is that the sows not showing up means that they have little ones on the ground.

Wow RD! Those will be some tiny pork chops!

Gives new meaning to "baby back ribs"?


Jeff

Actually, these fellows are split like a half of a chicken and roasted by the side. Very popular down here for a cook out, nothing like your own half of a hog!

That was what I was gonna say have a hog half roast LoL that is great They seem like fire ants they just keep coming and coming the good thing is if the world infastructure ever falls you will always have fresh meet from the hogs.