I have a question for you Ray, and anyone else with experience killing boars that are bowed up over a hot sow.  Do you think the meat was tainted in any way from the raging testoserone?

Another more general question...I have heard people say some hogs just taste bad.  I know one guy that says he likes to cut a small piece out of a hog and throw it on a hot skillet before he goes to the trouble of cleaning the hog because the smell will let you know right away from the smell if the hog will be "a bad one".

I haven't killed enough hogs to run across any bad ones yet, but some have been tougher than others.

Dan , the best thing you can do at nolton creek is listen to les. He is a great guy and will put you on the animals to the best of his ability. My brother had real good luck hunting on what Les calls hog hill, he had about 50 come down the road. Good luck and have fun.. it is a real nice place.

I've had very little problem with hog meat, except right on the immediate coastline of GA. The pigs there live in the tidal grass and feed in the salt creeks, digging for the little tiny crabs especially.

That mud has the most awful smell to it at low tide, and the pig meat smells JUST LIKE THAT mud when you cook it!!!! I won't even go down there to shoot pigs any more because of that.

As to big boars- I have had a couple pretty rank ones that were only fit for sausage but for teh most part I've never felt the meat was tainted to the ponit we couldnt use it- so far! Again, my hunting is limited in range...just SE GA and Southern South Carolina.

There's no doubt, though, that if you want to cook and eat a pig then take a herd pig, between 75 and 125 lbs and you won't find any better eating on the planet.

Shoot a big boar to get a trophy would be my advice.

I'll pass on the recipe we use if anyone is interested?

Cook strong smelling hogs on a open pit outside and not in your house. For some reason some hogs don't smell as bad as others. Size doesn't matter.

i ALWAYS cook it outside, on a grill...off the coals, letting smoke and indirect heat cook it slowly while I baste it with apple cider vinegar, crushed red pepper flakes, and salt...oh man!

The worst of the rank flavor is in the fat. If you take as much as you can off and slow cook shoulders, etc.(braise or smoke) you will have better luck. The sausage maker I use throws in a little domestic hog fat and will add cheese to some styles to give it a little fatty texture. Hogs tend to be real lean out here. Ray, the hogs that used to be out on Catalina Island were inedible! They ate seaweed, dead fish, each other whatever they could find. Nasty!

I've seen a lot of stuff that stunk over the years...but I've never smelled anything that rivaled those salt marsh mud dwellers for rankness!!!!!!!!

Yikes. Dead fish- I'm guessing they werent fresh either.....now that will curl your toes up just thinking about it!

Ray, Please reread the baiting section    

That's not stink you are smelling. That's aroma de here piggy piggy! CK

I hear you, Curtis!!

Okay Littlefeather, I have some pictures for you to look over and tell me what you see in them. I was going after hogs yesterday here in SW Georgia and I came up on this hog bed. I know here have been some questions about the "bedding" aspect of hogs and I hope there are some answers in these pictures. This first picture shows a 15 yard circle area with more than 16 piles of scat all over the area. Look just above my bow and left and right of it. This is like the bathroom area of the sleeping quarters. There is a bedding area (nest) between the two large trees in the background. This is how I see things, so please tell me if this is different in your eyes.



Picture two is a different angle showing many piles of scat that are many days/months apart. I'm guessing that a herd will use this bed many times in a year? This is all news to me so tell me your thoughts.


Picture three is a close up of the bed (nest). I think they will nest up and climb all over each other during cold weather to stay warm. Is this what you see?


The fourth picture is a sixteen button rattle snake that will be on the back on my bow this summer. The first arrow missed 1 inch high. The second split his head.


Thanks for all input, Clay

Clay, those are interesting pics. Let me ask you a question or two. Where are these "beds" located? Ridge, open range, or other? The reason I ask is because I don't generally see lots of scat around the bedding areas. I seem to see more scat around the feeding areas or between feeding and bedding areas than anywhere else. The other thing I see is that it looks more like a Sow with young pigs made the spot in the dirt. Generally, if this is truly a bedding area you'll see these same type (beds)spots scattered along the length of the ridge for maybe a 50 yard area and not just a small localized spot. They also will appear to have been made days and weeks appart but never right of top of a place that has been bedded in before. They will instead bed adjacent to an old bed and not right in it. Id say you are getting close to the pigs but I am thinking this is more of a transition between a feeding and bedding area. Maybe a mid-morning/mid-day nap area. Which way is East? Where is the nearest water. Is there a higher location in close proximity that affords good viewing in one direction but has a prevailing wind that is exactly the other direction? Remember, your area and lay of the land is unfamiliar to me so you will have to kinda chalk up some of this info yourself. You are close, no doubt. You also are behind them for over a week from what I see and they haven't freshened anything since. Im thinking you need to go uphill in the early morning and stay on the East ridges. Nice snake. CK

You are right on target. The "nest" is in a known hardwoods feeding area 20 yards off the creek and on the east side of it. There is not any sun light to speak of in this dark creek bottom. All the hogs i see in this area are smaller herd hogs and sows w/piglets. There is a very "very" thick clear cut across the creek on the west side. This is another known bedding area for both deer and hogs.

Clay

interesting stuff...

Dang, lucky guess on my part! What's on the little ridge just north of the area you took pics of? Looking at the pic and hearing what you say about the terrain across the creek, I think Id start putting my efforts there. Nice drawing BTW. CK

In my experience Clay you are going to find the big boars bedded up in the pine thicket, kind of backed up to that pond if the prevailing wind works to his benefit...if you can get in there (lots of briars usually) you will find some real heavy trails and cut up pine trees, wallows, etc..and your bigger boars will have themselves a few spots in there..but getting there without being detected and the hog exiting ahead of you will be a tough assignment.

CK,

I have a question about night hunting.

I know you do some hog hunting at night. If sufficient moonlight isn't available have you ever used a small battery powered light in a new set up location. I know you used that battery powered light at the bamboo blind but I didn't know if you had tried this somewhere else.

I have no clue how that would affect the game. I thought I would ask for any opinions.

Thanks,

Chris

oops. I double posted.

The same lights you used at my house have worked cole-calling elsewhere as well. There is a new light I am awaiting right now. Mark Horne has recently discovered a blue light similar to the green I already use. He tells me he has done minimal experimenting with it but is extreemly impressed. If mine arrives soon, I'll let you try it at Texas Sweat. CK

Cool pics and posts Clay.

Had some of your breading mix again this weekend on some cubed buff steaks.  Yum!.....thanks again.

Thanks Terry-
Glad you enjoy my breading mix. You need to fry some hog and turkey with it too! If anyone would like to get their hands on my breading mix, they can look up my personal information on Trad Gang to locate my website.

Thanks again Terry, Clay