Hey all.
I might be going on a hog hunt in the coming months. This is the kind where you use a few hog dogs that bay it up, turn a catch dog on it to hold it and then come in with a well placed blade to the heart or largest vessels in the neck area. I’ve never done it. I have watched several videos on it though.
If I do go, I’ll need a capable knife. I have a Kabar that’s old, but in great shape. I think the tip would have to be sharpened though. I’d prolly screw it up if I tried something like that.
If you were going to go in a hunt like this and needed an appropriate knife to do the job, what would you pick?
If you have knives that would do the trick, please post pics as I’d like to see them too.
What knives would you suggest if the budget was $150 ???
thank you for your time.
^ Thank you for starting this thread NB! After reading through all of the posts, with keen interest, it prompted me to call my brother.
My brother, lives near the South/West part of the Salinas Valley. He pretty much takes care of our families piece of property, which is close to 1200 acres, located near the mountain range separating Big Sur & the Salinas Valley. He's the hunter/guide in our family, & when he was younger (before his wife & kids), he lived & breathed, wild pig/deer hunting & would take/guide people mainly City people from the Bay Area or SoCal for hunts out on our property .
Anyway...we just got off the phone after for speaking for well over an hour....
I found it rather kind of funny, with me being a knife nut & all, that he doesn't put a lot of thought, or money, into knives. He said as long as it's a mid-sized fixed blade & it's sharp & could also be used as a skinner, that's all that mattered to him. He couldn't even tell me a brand name he uses....so no help there.
FWIW: My brother was in a horrific accident not long ago, with burn injuries he was very lucky to have survived. He was actually driving with his wife while we were on the phone, on his way up to Santa Clara Valley Memorial, to see his Doctor & PT....everyday he's alive and breathing, is a blessing. We speak with one another every single day now!
My only advice to you (after speaking to him), is: BE CAREFUL!
I'll see if I can get a couple of pictures from him to post here; until then, this will have to suffice.
Any pointy knife 7"+ would do the trick on most hogs. For a full grown boar you'd want the traditional bayonet-style or other super-pointy knife because they have a lot of 'armor.'
Make sure the knife isn't longer than the hog is wide - there's a chance you'll stick your dogs. Dogs get real close when they're bailing, and everything is moving around in a frenzy.
A fuller can help introduce air into the heart. This will kill it much quicker.
The idea is to twist the knife around so you cut both the heart and lungs, which both sit in the same area (directly behind the shoulder).
Stay behind the hog. Pick up its back legs if you can so it can't move around. Don't stand in front of them, they bite just like dogs.
Take a belt or something, a dog collar will do. You thread it between the bones in the back legs, and use it as a handle while dragging it out (if you want to keep the meat). Much easier than just grabbing the legs. Hogs are heavy!
Excellent post, CW!
Have no clue why you would want to get that close to Hog/Bore. They can gut you in a hart beat. That being said I am a bow hunter. Lived is SC for 23 years. Any time big game was open you could hunt them. And they are nasty.
Rich K.
I really do not think you how bad these guys are. The males with tusks. Will open your stomach up. And or kill your dogs.
^^ I'd have to agree with you here, Rich. There's no way in hell, I'd ever want to purposefully go out on a hunt, and have to kill a wild boar, with just a hunting knife. But like all the other hunter's here, it's the dog's he owns (Border Collie/Australian Shepard/Catahoula mixed breeds) that do the really dangerous work & most of the time, in his word's: "have the hog all stretched out," by the time they catch up to them.