Like Pigs ? Hog Hunt - Saskatchewan - 2012

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1bighead

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Lads;

I'd like to do a trip report on a recent hog hunt I did in Sask. We went to Red Man - Wild Boar Adventures, run by Kelly Readmen and family, located approx 18miles outside of North Battleford, SK. I flew in from Ottawa to Edmonton, and we drove to N. Battleford on 29 March.

A more detailed report to follow - once I get the pictures sorted etc - but in all we had an excellent time chasing European/ Russian hogs around 130 acres of Saskatchewan's finest Coolies, ravines, swamps, and brush, for three days.

Amid some big changes in the weather - from rain and sleet to sunny and hot - we managed to bag 1 x 350 lb Boar, and 1 x nice little 120 lb meat hog (a sow).

See attached photo of the big boy. It was the first time we cleaned a pig - which was a trophy - which took us nearly three hours to get it from the meat pole to the cooler.

HogHunt_nearswamp_Apr2012-1.jpg


FYI I shot him from approx 20 yards with a Remi 12 guage, pump, mounted with a Nikon - 2 x 7 - Prostaff Shotgun scope. Ammo was a Hornady SST slug. The shot hit him in the neck, behind the right ear - just forward of the shoulder - and he dropped in his tracks.

These Boars can be hunted 365 days a year, with no hunting licence, and the area is shotgun, blackpowder, or bow only.

The owner, and his family, are gracious hosts, salt of the earth farmers/ hunters, and took great care of us. We will be going back.

http://redmantrophybiggamehunts.com/pdf/wild_boar_adventures.pdf

have a good one, bighead
 
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Awesome pig! So how is wild hog meat? Bet it is sweet! Love to bag one of those one day. I really wish at times I could live in the US where there are feral hog problems. I'd be filling the freezer with hog all year!
 
jjohnwm said:
Am I reading this correctly? Did this "hunt" take place in a 130-acre pen?

I'd hide my face too.
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Yes, 130 arces and its fenced. Did this answer your question ? Actually it was quite easy really. We swooped in low, in helo's, over the hogs that were staked to the ground. We used machine guns, mainly, and frags when we got in close enough to see thier curly tails.

Save me the sacrimonious BS, I've got meat in my freezer, and it wasn't a cake walk.

We wanted to hunt hogs but keep the experience in Canada, not south of the border. We supported a local outfitter that raises his own pigs and lets them run wild.
 
Ltbull01 said:
Awesome pig! So how is wild hog meat? Bet it is sweet! Love to bag one of those one day. I really wish at times I could live in the US where there are feral hog problems. I'd be filling the freezer with hog all year!
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I cut some of the loin out of the smaller one, froze it, and brought it home with me. We had it last night, and it was awesome. My wife seared it in the cast iron skillet, then finished it in the oven with some olive oil, garlic, and greek seasoning. Very tender, dark, flavourful meat. The rest is getting ground into sausages, and cut into chops.
 
1bighead said:
I cut some of the loin out of the smaller one, froze it, and brought it home with me. We had it last night, and it was awesome. My wife seared it in the cast iron skillet, then finished it in the oven with some olive oil, garlic, and greek seasoning. Very tender, dark, flavourful meat. The rest is getting ground into sausages, and cut into chops.
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Thank you for the pics of the large wild boar 1bighead.
I'm a firm believer that the older mediterranian recipes are the best for this really lean pork meat.

Cheers!
 
Nice pig.
Congrats on your success.
Im from the US South and have hunted them with gun, bow, handgun and caught them with pit bulls. They can be formidable.
 
Ive done a bit of bow hunting out there for hogs,and to the guy that mention led the fenced in "pen" have you ever hunted hog before? Their extremely tough and dangerous not to mention tough to find. Sask is overpopulated with the ####ers but their still tough to find.
Good job on the hunt! I havnt seen one that big for awhile,congrats
 
skoal said:
Ive done a bit of bow hunting out there for hogs,and to the guy that mention led the fenced in "pen" have you ever hunted hog before? Their extremely tough and dangerous not to mention tough to find. Sask is overpopulated with the f**kers but their still tough to find.
Good job on the hunt! I havnt seen one that big for awhile,congrats
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After trying it I have to admit that I was more than a bit nervous tramping through the bogs after them. When they know you're out there, they like to escape into the thickets, swamps, and the sides of the steep coolies that blanket that part of Saskatchewan. Just before I bagged this fella, I had spent nearly two hours following trails along the lake shore, and through a pile of blowdown. I had just walked back, and met up with my buddy, when not a minute later he appeared along the exact same track that I was on. To think that I walked probably within a few feet of that thing while I was nearly knee deep in slop, was quite a sobering experience.

After reading a fair amount of how to hunt them, and what type of firearm to use, if you are targetting anything over 200 pounds I highly suggest using a 12 guage with sabots, a .30 cal rifle, or be an excellent shot with a bow. The property owner, and local rancher, is also an experienced bow hunter and he said that last year a guy shot one of the big boars with a bow, using mechanical arrows (?), the shot failed to penetrate its hide, and it actually ricoched straignt back at him. My buddy had his bow with him but didn't manage to get a shot off.

The big boars have a cartilidge plate that surrounds thier vital organs, that starts midway up thier back. On this particular specimen it was over an inch thick ! I've never seen anything like it ! When we finally got it all peeled back the head and hide alone weighed close to 150 pounds. In fact, when we tried to cut the head off, we also found out there is hardly a neck at all ! Its all shoulder, skull, grisle, hide ( that alone was at least an inch thick) and that thick protective plate ( another inch at least).

After we dropped the big one, we were trying to target the smaller "meat" hogs that weighed in at around 100-150 pounds. However, they are extremly quick, have a very good sense of smell, and thier ears are like a mule deers if they sense danger. If they spot you they high-tail it out of there at a high rate of speed in a herd or just scatter The key is to figure out where their "safe routes" are and have someone set up by a swamp or thick brush for when they tear past.

The second day of our hunt it pissed with rain,, sleet, was windy, and down-right miserable. But almost everytime that I was going to pack it in cause I was soaked, we'd bump a herd or them - or a solitary boar - and I'd forget all about being cold and wet. Despite getting washed out, the second day was the best day.

The last day, an hour or two before we were going to quit, I was headed out for lunch and walking up a tree line to meet up with my buddy. Just as I crested the top of the hill I bumped two hogs that had just started entering the woodline. The last one stopped, and stared, just for a second but it was enough time to drop her with a shot into her shoulder/ vitals.

I'll get some more pics up tommorow sometime.
 
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