“My husband took our neighbor hunting and he killed a wild hog. His wife cooked it. They threw it out because the smell was so sickening they couldn’t eat it. She recently got a new oven and said the smell finally left the house when they carried the old oven out. I don’t even want my dogs to eat anything that stinky.”
As I understand it, the meat runs good or bad, and the experienced (say a guide/outfitter) know what’s up when the pig is skinned.
Hell, shoot a bunch and keep the good stuff.
My son says the trick is to smell the fresh meat. If it smells like apple, it’s good. Otherwise, toss it.
The absolute best barbecue I’ve ever had was wild hog. But, but, it was the right kind of pig (younger adult) and the guy doing the cooking knew what he was doing.
That said, I hunt our ranch pretty regularly and these pigs are smart animals. You can walk up on a bunch and they can disappear into the brush quicker than you can get your rifle off your shoulder and bolt a round. We have a lot of oaks and they are after the acorns right now.
Ironically, no one in our part of the world traps them anymore as I’m told the buyers for them have all stopped taking them. The few buyers that still are active are all so distant that the trapper has to make the trip worthwhile which means he has to take quite a number of pigs on each trip. In order to accumulate enough pigs to make the trip profitable he has to trap for a while then pen and feed the small herd until he has enough to take. This also takes a bite out of the profit. And around and around it goes....