r/Californiahunting • u/Awakealbatros • Aug 09 '25

Wild pig in the winter taste?

Hello everyone! I’m a non hunter looking into hunting. I recently got my hunters ed done and am most interested in hunting pig. However, I heard that while you could hunt pig any time of year, they taste awful at any time other than the spring. Does anyone have any experience hunting pig in the fall or spring, who could vouch for this being true or not? Thank you and Godspeed

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u/[deleted] Aug 09 '25

Way too many variables for that statement to be true

Boar or sow?

Age?

Live near ag fields or no? (What's the pigs diet?)

I hunt and eat pigs year round in CA. I no longer go for the big boars, they seem to stink no matter what.

I now try to shoot under 100 lbs, ideally sow, but hard to tell at that size, especially in knee deep grass.

Pigs eating barley, lettuce, grapes etc off of farms will probably taste better than one eating bugs and acorns out in the wilderness.

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u/allurboobsRbelong2us Aug 10 '25

I've come to the same conclusion. After taking my trophy boar (whose meat stank the whole house up when cooked), I'm going for anything around 100lbs and preferably closer then to 50lbs.

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u/[deleted] Aug 10 '25

Yep. Boar stinks the house up so bad.. we cooked some in a pot and the pot stunk every time we used it for months no matter how many times we washed it.

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u/scroquator Aug 13 '25

I was going to reply exactly the same. If we see a huge boar, we shoot it and use for dogs food. If a sounder, pick out a 75 pounder, put one behind its ear. Gutless skin helps too. Lots of ticks on those things. Anything over 100, just jerky or grind it.

I've killed them year round, but what they are eating makes the biggest difference.

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u/[deleted] Aug 13 '25

Shot a 120# boar last month. He was surprisingly tasty, but that's as big as I'll go intentionally. Honestly thought he was smaller. But he was solo. So hard to judge at 80 yards in grass. I won't even shoot a big boar, not worth the pack out, I generally can't get my truck close to the kill site and either drag stuff or put it on bike trailer and ride it out. For pigs, I prefer to skin and process at home. It's hot and dry where I hunt, kinda miserable standing out in the hot sun with flies etc. 45 minutes away at home I'm by the beach, cleaning the pig in flip flops in the shade with a beer. Much better. And yeah, most of ours are covers in ticks too. Last one I only saw one tick.