Posted on 04/28/2020 4:08:43 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Wyatt Walton is busy right now. The founder of Lone Star Trapping has set up shop in south central Texas, but makes his living capturing feral hogs across the state.
Trappers have expanded company to help provide food Want to provide knowledge on consuming meat On top of the traps and late nights collecting the animals, Walton and his partners have branched out, launching Texas Specialty Meats--processing wild boars and shipping the meat all across the country.
"You know, these feral hogs were brought to America for meat," said Walton. "Well, when the stock laws came, and you had to fence everything, these wild herds of hogs that they used for a resource over the years just went wild. That's where we got to where we are now." And where we are now, is an abundance of hogs amidst a global pandemic.
But Walton thinks he's in a perfect position to help.
"In this pandemic, in the shortage, we piled our resources and made it available. There was kind of like an overnight demand, people asking for it," said Walton.
He says the most difficult thing is convincing people that wild boars are good eating, especially in Texas, where more people have seen them running along the road, rather than being put in the oven.
"I've got to take some hogs over to the processor this next week that we've sifted through, and I'm going to get my cameras out and show a lot of that process, just because people don't know, and people not knowing is the biggest hold back," Walton said.
At the end of the day, Walton is a businessman, and hopes this venture goes as planned. But he's also aware of the situation we're currently in, and was the first to get involved and give back.
"We're partnering up with Feeding America, so portions of the box or portions of the meat are going into the hands of the needy that can't provide for themselves," said Walton.
It's the way he's seen this business going since he started it, and now that it's taking shape, he's hoping it's something he can hang is hat on.
"If [they] can say, 'that guy was a steward, he did something. Not only was he removing them and impacting Texas, but he impacted the long-term fight of this epidemic by creating a market.' I think I'm going to be proud of that if we can get there," said Ward.
For more information, log on to texasspecialtymeats.com or lonestartrapping.com
My good buddy Phillip uses a 17HMR for hogs, squirrels,rabbits, and Turkey’s head shots to the hogs they go down like hit with lightning. For small game walk about targets of opportunity hunting I usually take a 10.5” 1:7 5.56 with full power 62gr core loc and also mags full of handloaded 55gr FMJ loaded down to 1500fps over the crono. All my ARs have adjustable gas blocks with wing nut robs I just mark the spot to cycle the light rounds vs the full powered switch over is 45 seconds to drop the mag and turn the screw. FMJ loaded light do short work on rabbits and squirrels while leaving enough meat to eat them.
I always carry Gods caliber the 10mm Auto 15+1 in my Glock been tree’d by a sounder once and 6 rounds of 44 mag was not enough to dissuade them. I recommend anyone hunting hogs to always have a sidearm with something with a 4 in the caliber.
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