# Hog size meat yield and quality



## Teufelshund (Jan 14, 2013)

Is there a reasonable guideline, err rule of thumb where you can gauge what you can or should get from what size hog. A 50 lb piglet I can throw it over my shoulder but a 200+ lb hog laying dead a mile away from the truck, uphill half the way and you only have 20 minutes of light left and you're by yourself without any avaliable help is a different story. Should you make an effort to save as much of the meat or just get back straps and maybe hams. I've been told that anything larger than that is not worth the effort to take because of bad taste, too tough, boar vs sow, etc etc.


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## Ihunt (Jan 14, 2013)

The hams will taste a lot better than the photo.


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## Teufelshund (Jan 14, 2013)

Here's the photo, even gutted out I couldn't haul this one uphill, so I had to made some quick decisions very dark, very late in very unfamiliar surroundings.


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## NCHillbilly (Jan 15, 2013)

IMO, if you're not willing to take care of your kill, you shouldn't be hunting. Otherwise, you're just killing for fun. I use every durn scrap of a hog. Some big old boars can be a bit strong-tasting, but a 200-lb. sow is prime eating. I've eaten some great sausage that was made from a 300-lb boar, though. Hams, loins, tenderloins, shoulders, ribs, and a bunch of sausage. Maybe bacon on one that size if it's fat. You will usually get about a third of the animal's live weight in meat. And wild pork is good meat. I've drug deer for two miles out of the mountains before, and helped drag a 400-lb. bear nearly ten miles through some of the roughest, steepest land you can imagine. I don't waste meat if I can help it. That hog would look like buzzards had stripped it by the time I got through with it.


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## blood on the ground (Jan 15, 2013)

NCHillbilly said:


> IMO, if you're not willing to take care of your kill, you shouldn't be hunting. Otherwise, you're just killing for fun. I use every durn scrap of a hog. Some big old boars can be a bit strong-tasting, but a 200-lb. sow is prime eating. I've eaten some great sausage that was made from a 300-lb boar, though. Hams, loins, tenderloins, shoulders, ribs, and a bunch of sausage. Maybe bacon on one that size if it's fat. You will usually get about a third of the animal's live weight in meat. And wild pork is good meat. I've drug deer for two miles out of the mountains before, and helped drag a 400-lb. bear nearly ten miles through some of the roughest, steepest land you can imagine. I don't waste meat if I can help it. That hog would look like buzzards had stripped it by the time I got through with it.


yep!


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## Mudfish (Jan 15, 2013)

Get a GPS app for your phone. Some if not all the GPS apps i looked at will work even if there is no cell signal.  I agree with the others, no excuse for not taking care of your kill.


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## snook24 (Jan 15, 2013)

A good backpack with a knife sharpener, a good knife, 2 trash bags for the meat and a GPS and your good to go. 50-60 lbs of meat isn't that bad in a backpack


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## Teufelshund (Jan 15, 2013)

Well before you all get on your high horse and pontificate about "not taken care of your kill" take notice that my kill was dressed out in the field in the dark, and I was able to take the backstraps as well. If I could physically drag the whole thing I would have but I'm not 25 years old anymore and weather temperature conditions were not optimal for a 2 or 3 hour drag in the woods in the dark. My question was what is the most meat you would take given the size of the pig so if you can't answer that without criticism and maybe asking any other details then keep yor "opinion" to yourselves.


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## NCHillbilly (Jan 15, 2013)

Teufelshund said:


> Well before you all get on your high horse and pontificate about "not taken care of your kill" take notice that my kill was dressed out in the field in the dark, and I was able to take the backstraps as well. If I could physically drag the whole thing I would have but I'm not 25 years old anymore and weather temperature conditions were not optimal for a 2 or 3 hour drag in the woods in the dark. My question was what is the most meat you would take given the size of the pig so if you can't answer that without criticism and maybe asking any other details then keep yor "opinion" to yourselves.



So you ask a question, and get mad at people for answering it? I'm not on any high horse, just answering your question. In a nutshell, my answer was that I wouldn't shoot a hog for the backstraps. In a case where I didn't think I could get it out, I wouldn't shoot it. Otherwise, I would find some way to get it all out of the woods or take every bit of meat I could off of it. And I'm a long ways from 25 myself. As someone else mentioned, you can skin and quarter the hog right there in the woods and carry the pieces out. You seem to be awfully defensive for some reason? Don't ask if you don't want an answer. I just wasn't raised to waste perfectly good meat if I can possibly help it. Sometimes stuff happens, though. I've made a bad shot on a hog before and not found it until the next morning when it was already spoiled. Not a good feeling. I've also been out in the woods until after midnight before tracking or recovering animals that I shot, because it became my responsibility when I pulled the trigger or let go of the bowstring.


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## Teufelshund (Jan 15, 2013)

Not defensive, irritated that the thread deviates from the subject at hand to one of ethical behavior of what one should or shouldn't do faced with a situation. I was hunting for deer and the pig took its place, from what I read in this forum pigs are the plague and must be eliminated at all costs and perhaps some other hunters couldn't care less if you just let the whole thing rot in the woods. I took the shot OTG, gave fair chase and found it as I should. On the way out I had to consider darkness, 65 deg. temp. topography, Sasquatches, Wendigo etc. and I did put my best effort to get it out of the woods. But when you reach limits of physical ability, overexertion can kill you.


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## Teufelshund (Jan 15, 2013)

By the way, the backstraps are marinating and they look delicious.


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## NCHillbilly (Jan 15, 2013)

Teufelshund said:


> Not defensive, irritated that the thread deviates from the subject at hand to one of ethical behavior of what one should or shouldn't do faced with a situation. I was hunting for deer and the pig took its place, from what I read in this forum pigs are the plague and must be eliminated at all costs and perhaps some other hunters couldn't care less if you just let the whole thing rot in the woods. I took the shot OTG, gave fair chase and found it as I should. On the way out I had to consider darkness, 65 deg. temp. topography, Sasquatches, Wendigo etc. and I did put my best effort to get it out of the woods. But when you reach limits of physical ability, overexertion can kill you.



Understood.  And I wouldn't take any chances with them Wendigos, either.


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## Teufelshund (Jan 15, 2013)

So what do you think, Boar taste better than Sow?


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## snook24 (Jan 15, 2013)

Didn't mean anything rude just explaining how we do it since its much easier than dragging them out. Hope u enjoy and congrats on your hog...and as far as boar or sow of any size I don't notice much difference in taste when you throw them in the crockpot and make pulled pork


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## NCHillbilly (Jan 15, 2013)

Teufelshund said:


> So what do you think, Boar taste better than Sow?



To me, an ideal meat hog is a 120-150 lb. sow. But they're all good, the only ones I would avoid at all are big, mature boars.


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## rosewood (Jan 15, 2013)

Well, at distance, you can't always tell the difference between a 250lb hog and a 125lb hog, especially in low light.  So if they guy thought he could carry it out and then went to move it and found out otherwise, don't beat him up about it.  

Get yourself a game hauler.  Picked mine up at Academy for like $40 after the hunting season and it will easily carry something like 500lbs I think.  It also doubles as a way to haul in corn to a feeder if you are/can do that.


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## Teufelshund (Jan 15, 2013)

rosewood said:


> Well, at distance, you can't always tell the difference between a 250lb hog and a 125lb hog, especially in low light.  So if they guy thought he could carry it out and then went to move it and found out otherwise, don't beat him up about it.
> 
> Get yourself a game hauler.  Picked mine up at Academy for like $40 after the hunting season and it will easily carry something like 500lbs I think.  It also doubles as a way to haul in corn to a feeder if you are/can do that.



Based on this experience (and I will admit it was my first wild boar) I have learned that you can't always be prepared for everything in the woods, for my next boar hunting trip it will be a well planned outing, taking one of my children along, sharp knifes and plenty of Hefty trash bags, a much larger cooler with ice also.


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## snook24 (Jan 15, 2013)

If u hunt them in the spring or summer a bottle of bug spray helps. When u stop moving to clean a hog the mosquitoes will eat u alive so cover yourself so you won't be miserable


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## Teufelshund (Jan 15, 2013)

I was wearing an insect repellent bracelet called " bug-band" and that seemed to work pretty good. And you're right that's a must have.


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## oldways (Jan 15, 2013)

NCHillbilly said:


> To me, an ideal meat hog is a 120-150 lb. sow. But they're all good, the only ones I would avoid at all are big, mature boars.


x2 I have past what most people would call a trophy boar to kill a 80lbs gilt. But I catch a fair share of them barr my boars and fatten em for a couple of months.


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## snook24 (Jan 15, 2013)

Cool. I just know the worst time I had was when I didn't have any (cause I don't like to wear it while I hunt) and I shot one and that was the worst 20 min of my life cleaning that pig haha how does that bug band do? I've never tried one.


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## Teufelshund (Jan 15, 2013)

Did ok, it smelled like a citronella candle. Got it in my christmas stocking.


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## seriadlata (Jan 17, 2013)

I quarter, bone and pack my meat out every time. To me, pigs don't drag well....it's like dragging an anchor! LOL I have a pulley system, a big light, a headlamp, a bone saw and dry bags in my backpack. I carry two knifes, but I have never needed anything but my Havalon knife (the other is just a backup). The Havalon makes skinning and quartering a breeze. I skin the hog with one blade and then replace the blade for the rest of the quartering process. I also carry soap, hand sanitizer and surgical gloves for the sanitary aspect of butchering. With practice, you can hang, gut, skin and quarter a hog in 30-40 min. Then you are left with about 30-40 percent of the weight that goes into your pack. So, a 120 pound pig yields 40-45 pounds of meat. I do it this way because I usually shoot my hogs miles from camp on public land (so no ATV). It is also swampy, so I found hanging them keeps the meat much cleaner. I killed one on Altamaha this weekend that was around 100 pounds. I was deep in the swamp and it was just about dark when I killed it. By the time I was done butchering, I had about 4 miles to hike to get back to camp in the dark. This is normal for my hunts and I like it that way. I made sausage out of the whole thing and ended up with 36 pounds of ground before adding any other meat.


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## nockemstiff (Jan 18, 2013)

Seems I read somewhere that a store bought butchering hog is 250 lb, correct me if I am wrong - cannot believe everything you read on the internet. But judging by size of the hams and shoulder and back loins compared between wild and store bought I sure would have to think they are at least 250 lb. More fatty, but bigger than what I have taken from the wild.

Anyhow, I am not going to worry too much about what others say it might taste like. I am going to butcher, smoke, grill, and grind it just the same. My biggest was about 270 lb and I had half made sausage but the rest was fine eating, ribs and all. I enjoy cooking it up too much, my goal would be to take it all.

If I really had to decide based on time / weight - I know that the shoulders are easiest to remove and will be the lightest.  Your back loins are going to require some skinning out but I guess are relatively easy to get to. Tenderloins, once the animal is field dressed, I say are pretty easy to get to also and would definitely be a target for me. Unless you got a saw you can fiddle with removing the feet for a minute or two then you are going to carry them out too. Unless you are pretty good at it, popping the hams is going to take a minute or two and they going to weigh the most.

Ok, so what exactly did you make it out with?


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## bosullivan (Jan 19, 2013)

It doesn't matter whether its a boar or sow, 800 or 100 lbs. If you process it correctly, it all tastes just as good. I've been on the verge of puking from the stench while skinning/quartering an old boar, but it tasted just as good as the 100 lb sow I killed the week before. Also, for what its worth, I would never leave the hams, straps, or inner loins in the woods.


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## agwood1 (Jan 19, 2013)

Mudfish said:


> Get a GPS app for your phone. Some if not all the GPS apps i looked at will work even if there is no cell signal.  I agree with the others, no excuse for not taking care of your kill.



What GPS app is the best for you phone. I've been looking at getting one but I didn't know which is the best choice.


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## hunterofopportunity (Jan 20, 2013)

If you happen to kill one of those large boars and smell him 20 ft before you get to him,don't let it put you off.When we have one on the ground over 125lbs I always cut that boar,so he can't ruin the meat during cleaning.Start with the oysters and cut to the shaft and around and back to the oysters,don't grab the shaft,throw it all away as one.(trying to be sensitive to younguns)


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## Ihunt (Jan 20, 2013)

If you kill 100 boars you may have 1 or 2 that have that "rank" taste. Just keep it apart from everything else until you try it. If it taste bad,give it to your friends and they will stop asking for your hard earned "free" meat.


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