Florida has 2 types of these critters: there’s the pure Spanish feral pig (which most people don’t even recognize as a pig - it has tiny legs and a dark shiny coat, although the boar can be quite big and menacing); and then there’s the Yorkie, the big pink British pig. I once simply had to sit and wait for 20 minutes while a huge herd of these things emerged from the swamp and snorted its way across the road.
They’re both destructive, of course, and hunting is a great idea (it used to be liberally permitted in Florida). However, my son hunts pig from time to time and says the wild ones are awful eating.
We’ve got Javalinas and feral pigs.
I have seen a Russian boar out near the S. Llano river in Junction. I’d say about 6 or 7 hundred lbs. with foot long tusks. Scary as hell.
You gotta get the smaller ones. The bigger ones I’ve heard are just BAAAD even if you like pork. But I have heard that the ones less than 100 lbs are good eatin’.
I’ve also heard that it depends on what the critters are eating — I would suppose if the pigs are eatin a bunch of swamp crap, than they would be likely to taste like crap, but if they are eating grass and open range greenery then they are good. I intend to put the theory to the test at some point...
Nice when you can test a theory with a Weatherby .270 and a New Braunfels smoker as lab tools.
I don't know how he's cooking them but every time I've cooked it people have commented that it was the best pork that they'd ever had. I love wild pig!
In Texas, the little dark pigs are called javelina, and they’re not very good to eat.