Me and a buddy took one of his co-workers out to kill his first pig last weekend. He had never even seen a pig in the wild so he was all jacked up to kill one. As you will see in the video, this pig didn't go down without a fight. 11 rounds of 223 down range before he finally called it quits. He ended up weighing right at 250 on the cattle scale. It's always great to see someone take their first hog and the excitement that comes with it, even if it isn't the prettiest thing. Enjoy!

But, but, "you dont need 10 rounds to kill a deah!" lol.

Cool video! I'm sure he was excited as heck and you should feel bad that you've prob hooked him on an obsession now

Man, I want me some night vision!

Well, that was fun!

You know, you can actually work the bolt forward much more quietly using the T-handle and forward assist such that you don't get the sound of the bolt slamming home to spook the hogs. It takes a bit of practice to do readily, but isn't hard to accomplish.

thanks for posting the thermal kills Bearclaw.
I'm really enjoying my ATN 320-2x.
I've killed over 20 hd of hogs in the last 10 days on some planted Corn fields.

Congrats to you and your buddy!

$700 worth of ammo later and we have bacon...

At what size do you think the pig isnt worth messing with for grub?

I wonder what it weighed without the lead???

I hear most people say 150lbs or so, but I usually smoke piglets or under 100lbs.

I imagine about 4 lbs...

Awesome video.

dang, he must have been jacked up on pcp or something. what was the distance on that first shot BC?

That unit is a "3x" but actually its more like 3.5x. The pig was 250lb. I didn't range it, but i would guess 50 yards is pushing it.

Awesome

You can actually eat them at any size and most will taste just fine. However If they smell like you just peed on the campfire instead of like a hog, They will smell horrible cooking. The big stinky boars will taste and smell better cooked on the smoker, I don't suggest you cook them in the house.
We eat all the sows no matter what size. I try to keep them iced down for a week minimum before freezing or cooking them.

Thanks Guess. Have you found that younger pigs taste especially different/better?
I've never smoked a pig over 150 lbs mainly because that would take a big smoker and the small ones are easier to clean and work with.

depends more on what they are eating. You really need to learn my method for cleaning hogs. Takes 10 minutes and you have backstrap, Boneless hams and shoulders. One of these days I'll try and put it on video.

If it is a boar and has that stinky musky smell I don't bother with it...but that is rare in my experience. If they are too big for the smoker or I alrrady have plenty for that purpose, I make a variety of sausages. I have not noticed a difference in the meat that is size dependent. It all breaks down when it is cooked right. Soaking them in ice for a few days does seem to make quiet a lot of difference. I drain and refill with ice each day. Having an ice maker at the house helps...

I haven't found one too big to eat yet. A 235 lb. boar has some really big tenderloins, though.

I will say, however, that if a pig has holes in it behind the shoulder, I'm not likely to eat it. Also, as dfwroadkill pointed out, I've killed one boar that just smelled "a little off" when I was cleaning him. I couldn't get much of anything to taste good when I cooked him and wound up pitching most of the meat.

I would love to see a video of your technique. I'm still hanging 'em, but I've gotten pretty quick at hanging the pig, pressure washing it, scoring the skin into strips with a boxcutter, butt-out/gut, pull the skin strips off with hog skinning pliers, shoulders off, straps off, tenderloins off, neck meat off for grind and then hams off.

If you're talking about the gut-less method I've tried it and liked it

cut and peel skin-
backstraps come off first
then front and rear quarters
reach in through the sides for the 2 tenderloins

there are several youtube videos available on the gutless method

Either way they are delicious!