Best way to finish off a pig
General Topic
Was pig hunting last weekend and was in the right place at the right time, etc. Bottom line, I nailed one. Tough little girl, did a good through and through that had her down but she wouldn't expire. After over an hour waiting in the rain, I decided to finish the deed. The area I hunt does not allow firearms at all. So it was a knife job. I aimed for the heart through the ribs and it seemed to do the job, but it felt like amateur hour. Does anyone have good advice on a sure-shot (I wish) location to stick the knife to kill a downed pig quickly? Don't say slit the throat, because I know that doesn't work. Thanks
Right place if I understand you correctly.
Use to hunt hogs with dogs and that's how we did it - killed a couple hundred that way. Some good times!
If you want to be safer about it have a buddy hold rear legs like a wheel burrow.
A fishing arrow fletched with a broadhead. Cheaper than using your regular shooting arrows.
Bowmania
Bet the hawg gawd fella knows ;)
I forgot to mention I did stick another arrow into her while she was down - another (eventual) kill lower rib cage through and through, after which she just kept breathing. There was a thread some time ago about the toughest animal. To me hand's down it's a pig.
I've never shot a hog with a bow but have dispatched a few on the farm...
I'd agree, tough critters
I would shoot another arrow or two; whatever is needed.
But if you had 2 arrows through her and still had to go with a knife, then the arrows weren't through the vitals where they should have been IMO.
Maybe study anatomy online or better yet, evaluate your shot placement when you butchered the pig?
12g slug worked or me , motion less in 5 seconds
Sorry thought this was a thread about Hawgsandsons again. Shawn
If you're forced to use your knife, insert blade in what we'd call the "arm pit". You'll need to insert blade completely, then cut downward toward sternum. That should do the trick by slicing heart and severing major arteries and disrupting blood flow.
I've had to do it a time or two when a pistol or shotgun wasn't available.
I like to take that ham bone and make bean soup with it. A VERY fitting end for a pig!
Woods Walker wins ! I don't eat very much wild hog, but I put a butt cheek in the crockpot a couple weeks ago..................mmmnnnn good !
Drycreek i hope it was the hogs. lol
Best way finish off hog has always been slow and low and Sweet Baby Rays sauce!
I've killed a lot of hogs with a knife in my depredation days with dogs... But it was A 12 inch long blade, probably a much different knife than you're using.
Miln described what I would do but first i would grab a back leg and lift to have control. The last thing you want is that pig getting its second wind and turning on you. Even a healthy full-size boar has a hard time if you grab a back leg and lift.
Been date, thanks for adding the reminder to grab the hind legs. That's pretty important.
stick em, just like you did
maybe you need sharper broadheads ???
Both arrows were through and throughs. Obviously they missed the heart (thought I shot low enough), but one took out both lungs, and the first one put her down.
Thanks for the advice (and recipes - ha!) I will try the armpit and down next time. Think I'm getting a better understanding of the term "pig sticker" - somewhere between an Arkansas toothpick and my typical 3" utility hunting blade. As far as grabbing/elevating the back leg or legs, sounds like a great idea if you have two people. Maybe solo if you leave the knife in the sheath, grab and pull back both legs, then grab the knife and lean forward to stick it. Don't think I'd even try to close with a boar - got a permanent leg scar from the tusks of one of those. Anybody familiar with a computer 3-d model of wild game where you can see the exact location of the heart and liver from various angles, angles that you can change? Side views are swell, but I'd love to have something more specific than "aim for the opposite shoulder" on a quartering away shot. That would be a cool 3D target - instead of rings that always seem to high anyway, have some electronic thing inside that senses/shows an arrow hit in the heart (best), liver (second best), or lungs (third best). A summer of shooting those kind of targets in 3D league would really help set you up for the fall hunts.
Sounds like hawgwash to me.
I have killed a few with just a buck knife. Do just like milnrick said, Insert fully about mid way up and slice down til the knife comes out the bottom. This is of course after you have the back legs and flipped them onto their side.
You would be surprised how much control you have on a hog by just grabbing one back leg and lifting. I'm not sure why that is.
If you did the same to a Deer or Elk or many other 4 legged critters you would get your butt kicked. On hogs, it really throws them off kilter.
Finish off a pig......Vote Trump!
Whisper sweet nothings in her ear. Used to work for me. Bendare, what if it weighs 200#? RD, lol!
I've killed. 28 with a bow this year. I had to finish one off with a knife. It can happen but usually not.
I had one that backed into a brush pile with just the head showing and just wouldn't die. I didn't want to ruin a broadhead. I had a field point on an arrow for practice, and used that. When into the brain about 2 inches, and that was that.
maybe someone will design a collapsable walking stick/bayonet combo that you can make decent spear out of. Keep you further away from the business end of a boar.
Muddy, That is typical cornered pig behavior. Walking up on a hog like that is asking for trouble...they will charge. What is interesting is that when running dogs on hog depredation for over a decade almost every hog would do as you described if it had the chance [protecting their nuts from the dogs]...and then when you came on them at close range [in brush,etc] they always somehow knew that YOU were the major threat and not the dogs...thus the charge.
Ben, if you shoot a pig through both lungs or the heart, it will be dead within seconds, the problem is that their vitals lie much lower and further forward than on deer and elk, which most people are used to hunting. You need to aim for the armpit. If you hit an inch back, it was a gutshot, and if you hit halfway up it was in the backstrap. If you hit the pig and it went down without dying, then you hit the spine, in which a follow-up arrow through the vitals would have killed it.
In the event you don't have anymore arrows, I prefer to cut the femoral artery just to stay away from the business end of a hog. I thin bladed knife inserted straight in to the groin, where the back leg meets the abdomen until you hit bone, and then slice quickly toward the front of the leg until you see a fountain of bright red blood. This will result in the same effect as cutting the carotid artery, and is much more ffective then cutting the jugular vein...not to mention safer. If you do it correctly you won't ruin any meat either. This is the most humane method as well because a spine-shot animal won't be able to feel anything behind where the spine was severed. I don't recommend this method unless it's a last resort though, as even a paralyzed pig can inflict a lot of damage if you're not careful. Hope this helped answer your question! -C
I shot 200 pounder last Saturday eve and spined it with the first shot. Aimed a bit high as I missed one low the week before. Anyway, he was lunging around so I put another one in him from my treestand. Started climbing down and he started lunging around again. Walked up and put another one in him at close range through the lungs and he expired in a couple minutes. They can be tough to take down in one shot. especially from 20' up. I shot another 200 pounder last year and thought I hit him low. Turned out to be a good heart shot and he went down 80 yds away. I'd grab a small one and cut its throat but won't take he chance on big boar. The other problem is the hide can be tough to cut through on one swipe even with a razor sharp knife.
Run them over with the truck. That's what I do.
I had some old film pics around here of a hog we killed in the late 80's that had a 2" thick shield low on its shoulder. When we rolled the hog on his back....he looked like a turtle...as that shield held its turtle shell shape. With that hog laying on his side, I took my sharp skinning knife and stabbed it hard into the thickest part of that shield and got maybe 1 1/2" into it.
To this day that was the toughest one i have seen.
