re: possible boar sightings

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Originally Posted by trimmer21

I'


. If you watch the Wild Boar hunts from Eastern Europe on YouTube videos,you'll notice that they use a driven hunt and shoot hogs on the run. They keep them for trophies,but,they don't eat them. Wild pork served in hunting lodges and restaurants are grown domestically.

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Wild boar hunt is mostly presented (as EXCELLENT sales pitch for Outfitters or Scope Mfg or Gun /Gear Mfg ) as driven boar hunt.With experts shooting boars on a run.
They aim (and hit)the boar "behind the ear"to make the boar cartwheel,and expire in seconds.

Which is one way of hunting wild boars ,at least in Central/Eastern Europe+the Balkans.

Other ways(very popular and very widely practiced)is hunting them from elevated stands (European style wooden towers )at feeding spots(bait and feed as food substitute) or at watering holes. Many countries let you hunt them with searchlights at feeders/watering holes. Does require little shooting skill(versus shooting them on drives)and it is almost a slam dunk thing.
They are also hunted from stands(mostly again from wooden towers)on field edges and established trails.
Heck-they are even hunted spot and stalk. Many times, especially in thick bush or rolling land.

As for not eating wild boar meat - i am not sure where they do not eat them,but the countries i know of,they do. Happily.
Trophy is the hide ,made in a rug,similar to bear trophies............and the tusks,professionally set on wooden plaques.
"If" there are trophies-mostly the small or average boars are harvested(numbers game).Old boars are as smart as old bears.

side note:
A local guy from my place built a hang on treestand like "contraption",and in a 1 sq km wooded area (1.5 km from my birthplace)shot one year (few years back) 8 wild boars in a season. Just sat on a right spot and waited. Definitely earned major fame locally.

There are many horror stories about wild boars being destructive.
They are-but in a way,i think that is also a sales pitch of a sort.

Their way of life is quite noticeable on the landscape, and the local farmers from back home do not hate them less, then the farmers from let's say ,Texas,. Yet, they are part of the balanced landscape and they fit nicely in the ecosystem(they are not invasive species in Europe).

If they would be so unbearably destructive, they would be wiped out from populated areas in Europe many hundred years ago .

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Originally Posted by gbk

Wild boar hunt is mostly presented (as EXCELLENT sales pitch for Outfitters or Scope Mfg or Gun /Gear Mfg ) as driven boar hunt.With experts shooting boars on a run.
They aim (and hit)the boar "behind the ear"to make the boar cartwheel,and expire in seconds.

Which is one way of hunting wild boars ,at least in Central/Eastern Europe+the Balkans.

Other ways(very popular and very widely practiced)is hunting them from elevated stands (European style wooden towers )at feeding spots(bait and feed as food substitute) or at watering holes. Many countries let you hunt them with searchlights at feeders/watering holes. Does require little shooting skill(versus shooting them on drives)and it is almost a slam dunk thing.
They are also hunted from stands(mostly again from wooden towers)on field edges and established trails.
Heck-they are even hunted spot and stalk. Many times, especially in thick bush or rolling land.

As for not eating wild boar meat - i am not sure where they do not eat them,but the countries i know of,they do. Happily.
Trophy is the hide ,made in a rug,similar to bear trophies............and the tusks,professionally set on wooden plaques.
"If" there are trophies-mostly the small or average boars are harvested(numbers game).Old boars are as smart as old bears.

side note:
A local guy from my place built a hang on treestand like "contraption",and in a 1 sq km wooded area (1.5 km from my birthplace)shot one year (few years back) 8 wild boars in a season. Just sat on a right spot and waited. Definitely earned major fame locally.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by gbk

There are many horror stories about wild boars being destructive.
They are-but in a way,i think that is also a sales pitch of a sort.

Their way of life is quite noticeable on the landscape, and the local farmers from back home do not hate them less, then the farmers from let's say ,Texas,. Yet, they are part of the balanced landscape and they fit nicely in the ecosystem(they are not invasive species in Europe).

If they would be so unbearably destructive, they would be wiped out from populated areas in Europe many hundred years ago .

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Awesome posts,gbk. There's nothing like information from folks who grew up in different areas. Thanks for this.

If science could come up with something that would sterilize the wild pigs and not bother other species it might solve some of the problems. I have never seen one in the many years I have hunted Deer and Turkeys in 68a..........................Daniel

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Originally Posted by Species8472

Guess the 5 that my son and i shot in Texas failed to get that memo. The bacon we smoked off them was definitely leaner than conventional bacon but there was no mistaking it for anything other than bacon. Smoked a bunch of ham as well and it was decent too.

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The bacon is thin, they do not get nearly as fat, although maybe the ones you got down south were an exception. I shot a 250lb Eurasian boar and the belly was like 3/4in thick, yes I turned it into bacon but it is not bacon as most would expect.

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Originally Posted by trimmer21

I've had Wild Boar bacon and chops from a smoker and it was delicious. BIL shot a couple in Pennsylvania a few years ago that I'd defy anyone to tell the difference between wild and domestic.

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The meat is dark, it is a red meat and not a white meat, there is a difference and most of that comes with age. Domestic pigs that go to market are just babies.

The one I had ended up with boar taint, of the 3 pigs taken out that day mine was the only one with taint :(, glad I did not pay for it.

The animal was much leaner than a domestic pig, much darker meat (similar to the heritage pork we bought locally) but even with the taint the chops done up on the BBQ were amazing. The stink from taint comes when cooking, if you eat it cold and or cook it outside the stink is not nearly as bad, plus smoking covers up most of it. The hams and bacon we had done, yes bacon but when cured and smoked worked out to about 1/2" wide strips, are not bad at all, a fine way to deal with an animal with taint.

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Originally Posted by Fox

The bacon is thin, they do not get nearly as fat

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Bacon without fat ...might as well turn it into jerky :)

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Originally Posted by MikePal

Bacon without fat ...might as well turn it into jerky :)

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Think about the belly on a large buck white tail, add a bit more fat, that is what it looked like.

I'm starving now....I would think the legs would be good cured and smoked like a prosciutto, but won't know until on walks across my runway in 58.....:)

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Originally Posted by LiveBates

I'm starving now....I would think the legs would be good cured and smoked like a prosciutto, but won't know until on walks across my runway in 58.....:)

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If you are starving now you would be dead before the prosciutto was ready, ha ha.