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Sourcing Texas Feral Pigs

ren_74229

Given that Texas seems to have serious Feral Pig problem...is their any way to "help" them out by buying some of their meat?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/22/aporkalypse-texas-feral-pigs

A quick scan online only showed Frontier Meats, but they appear only to have bacon, and Frenched racks. What I'd be more interested in are things like shoulders, heads, hams, hocks, bellies, etc. And given that this stuff is generally "unwanted," I'm hoping that it's both inexpensive and delicious! If anyone from Texas (or elsewhere) knows of a good source that can ship...let me know!

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ren_74229

Thanks @Tim Great info all around...I'll definitely holler if I somehow find my way to Texas.

Tim_Sutherland_52834

Here are some pics of pigs from my game cam last season.

The bottom pic is from a mates game cam (he never sets the date or time correctly) which shows the thick matted hide the piggies get.

As a reference the top of the feeder is just over 2m tall, or roughly the height of a standard door way. On the ~1,800 acres of deer lease we have ~10 active feeders, with each feeder at least 500m apart. All the game cams at each feeder will have pics of pigs like this.

In Oklahoma we used to trap the pigs. A .22 pistol would transport them to piggy heaven, you would slit the throat to bleed them and take the pigs back to the house. At the house we had an outdoor butcher station where we would gut and skin the pig before breaking it down into primals.

Back in Oz we would only keep piglets for food. The bigger pigs we would leave were they fell. As pigs are omnivores they will come and forage on the carcasses of their friends - this makes it easier to shoot more of them. The piglets we would run down, catch and place in a pen for 24+hr. This would allow us to clean their system out before eating them. We would simply shave, gut and butterfly them before grilling over an open fire - very good eats in the outback.

@ren you are welcome to Texas at any time to bag as many pigs as you would like, just read this first.

As a side note if a Kiwi ever asks you to go pig hunting with them in NZ - don't, this is how they do it - bailing dogs and knives. Also, as I learnt many years ago in Army Officer training, "Don't march on Moscow, don't fight a land war in Asia, and don't ever, ever drink with a Kiwi." (Apologies to the 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein and the Princess Bride).

matthew.snyder77

I've ordered from Broken Arrow Ranch several times. Not sure how their model works, with regard to 'feral' vs 'wild' vs 'free range', but their site claims they offer "truly wild animals". I have always been pleased with their products.

http://www.brokenarrowranch.com/

*****

I remember not too long ago hearing a story about a food bank/homeless shelter in Louisiana that was forced to destroy thousands of dollars worth of wild game meat (mostly venison) that had been donated by local hunters. Apparently it was against local health codes to offer wild game on a menu anywhere in the state, be a shelter or a restaurant or whatever. They couldn't even give the meat back to the hunters... they were forced to take the meat out to the Dumpsters behind the facility and douse it with bleach. Never mind the dollar value of that loss, just think of how many individual meals that represented...

ren_74229

I can understand the reasoning for not being able to sell wild game...but given that there's such a glut of this stuff, there's got to be a way for me...a random person in CA to get my hands on this stuff without having to travel to Texas myself?

Tim_Sutherland_52834

You can shoot the pigs in Texas have either process the meat yourself or have one of the many small processing operations that are around do the job for you (most are only open during deer season though). It is not legal to sell the meat from wild game. You can give it away, and there are charities/food banks/prisons/etc that will take the meat (with some caveats).

The pigs are a huge problem here (I'm in Dallas TX and have a year round deer lease in west Texas NW of Abilene. I also have shot pigs in Oklahoma and Central Texas) and if you had the time you could eat wild boar 10 times a day, every day of the year and not make a dent in the population.