Knife for Hog Hunting and Dispatching…What Would You Choose?

You would really want to check with the outfitter before you show up ready to stab a hog like Rambo. They may not let you, then again they may prefer it…

The OP already said this is the type of hunting it will be, asking if he can stick one is kind of a redundant question.

I do agree he should ask them for suggestions of what knife though, they also may have a knife he can use.
 
One of the techniques for quickly dispatching the hog is to pump the knife handle up and down.

Sever all the organs the knife can reach. A sharpened top edge facilitates this.

One thing I have not heard mentioned, is lateral strength. You want a knife that can handle lateral stresses.

I'd recommend spring steel, or 52100, Aebl, or 1080-1084, 3v, L6, etc with high toughness, and a substantial tang.

There is a difference between using a sticking knife like an Fdick or other thinner knife to dispatch a trussed/restrained/hanging hog, and one that may be spinning and biting, and trying to gore you.

I would avoid D2, 1095, more brittle stainless like 440C, etc.

Your thrust may hit a rib, so you want something tough enough to punch through without snapping. Most decent steels in the proper geometry will punch through a pig rib without major damage or issues.

Look for something with a solid, substantial guard. Avoid anything without one.

A hard shove with a sudden stop against a rib or shoulder bone can send your fingers up the blade if you dont have a good guard.

When the pig turns you may be hanging on by the knife handle.

I've seen a few custom made pieces used successfully, and more production knives (Busse being one).

I am no pig slayer!! I've never hunted a pig with a knife or otherwise. (I've been inside a few big game carcasses, including deer, elk, and domestic cows for slaughtering/butchering)


I have a few knives I would trust the deed to...

Others have said, check with your guide...really the man running the dogs will be the one with the most important opinion.
 
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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.
Your best bet is a small pickaxe. You smash the pig right in the head with it or through the body. It’ll tear a big enough hole in that animal it’ll look like a 30-06 went through it. Then you just leave that pickax in that pig and get away from it. Just let it die and come back and take it away.
 
I have had to figure out ways to get that tough hog meat into something edible and can share a few recipes : )

Sugar tends to remove the gamey taste. I always coat it in a marinade with a mixture of jam and brown sugar (and you can add other herbs or spices) and leave it overnight. Works great. I'd be interested in hearing how you do it :thumbsup:
 
Your best bet is a small pickaxe. You smash the pig right in the head with it or through the body. It’ll tear a big enough hole in that animal it’ll look like a 30-06 went through it. Then you just leave that pickax in that pig and get away from it. Just let it die and come back and take it away.

You've done this yourself? I haven't heard of someone running through the forest chasing a pig with a pickaxe before, would love to know more.

I've never seen a hog stop moving unless it's held in place by at least two dogs biting its ears, and whose heads are therefore about 6 inches from the hog's head. Even then they still jerk around. I'm picturing taking a swing at a boar and giving it a headache with the first hit, which would serve to make it focus 100% on you. Then as it lunges at you, dragging the dogs with it, you swing and miss and hit one of your dogs in the head, so now the hog is basically free. As its about to slash you, your third strike in a panic glances off its head and hits you in the shin, so now you can't even run away. Anyway, I wouldn't suggest this technique for beginners.
 
Really? A pickaxe? I'm hoping you just forgot to put the J/K after that comment.Also, a. 30-06 at anything under 50 yards-regardless of species or ammo- looks like a pencil hole, not a gaping wound. I learned this the hard way when NY opened up rifle hunting in some counties about 20 years ago. I was used to a sabot from a shotgun leaving a large exit wound (though nothing as spectacular as your imagination suggests) and though I hit that buck dead center of the heart, it went at least 3 times as far. Almost 60 or 70 yards on nothing but adrenaline. I forget sometimes there's kids that post here, so let's not be too cruel with the above silliness.
Great point about the guard and potential for grabbing a blade and not a handle in the heat of the moment.
Just as a final piece of unsolicited advice, when my dad first did this he was in his 70's. The dogs do a great job of pinning down the pig (he showed me his vids) and just like buck fever keep yourself as cool and collected as possible, do that slicing back and forth the guys mentioned.
I never saw fewer than 4 dogs on a hog in any of the videos he brought back from his hunts, so you should be able to have the time to pick a spot on the hog and do the job right.
The outfitters look at some of the fancier knives the same way we look at those Hibben fantasy blades, and they rightfully have the final say.
As a traditional archer I think that taking any animal with a stickbow is the biggest challenge of all, nice to hear you are tackling that too.
In fact, I think that taking a hog with a 50-60# stick bow is WAY MORE DIFFICULT than dogs and knives. You have a verrrry small spot that isn't armored, and the single bevel broadheads most of us use would probably be your only hope of punching through that on anything but a bullseye.

Check THIS out- Tim Wells takes a bear with a spear ... and later on a blowgun! (he lets the first bear go). I don't think we can link YouTube here, but just Google Black bear spear blowgun and it'll probably be the first result.
Good luck and don't forget to post some pics for us when you get back. And it would be enlightening to know what your outfitter says is on the "go" list as far as knives are concerned. Especially if you live in a state that prohibits daggers, I would like to know what they say you are allowed to use. I'm thinking that I would want to own the knife that I take the hog with and not use a loaner if I were you.
 
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Yeah right. Why not just carry a razor sharp Cold Steel Spetsnaz.

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You've done this yourself? I haven't heard of someone running through the forest chasing a pig with a pickaxe before, would love to know more.

I've never seen a hog stop moving unless it's held in place by at least two dogs biting its ears, and whose heads are therefore about 6 inches from the hog's head. Even then they still jerk around. I'm picturing taking a swing at a boar and giving it a headache with the first hit, which would serve to make it focus 100% on you. Then as it lunges at you, dragging the dogs with it, you swing and miss and hit one of your dogs in the head, so now the hog is basically free. As its about to slash you, your third strike in a panic glances off its head and hits you in the shin, so now you can't even run away. Anyway, I wouldn't suggest this technique for beginners.

Outdoor Camping Fiberglass Handle Small Size Tools Pickaxe
 
Thanks all for the VERY INFORMATIVE replies.

To be 100% honest, I don’t know if I’d be able to do it. I’d be scared even if it was a 100 pounder let alone those armored tanks with tusks flailing about at 3-4 dogs biting at his nut sack and twisting.

my actual dream is to kill one with my recurve or longbow. I’m hoping to get back to Texas so I can start trying. I’d also love to hunt them with a rifle.
My problem is I don’t know anyone with land or anyone that’s willing to help me find a place to bait and hunt them. Not easy to find places when you’ve never even SEEN a wild hog in the woods, let alone hunted them. I grew up where there were no wild hogs to hunt.

If I get the invite to go with the guys on a dog hunt with a knife, I’ll certainly go, but I’ll be more likely to WATCH than participate on the first outing.

Aby hunting info, feel free to message me. I never get tired of learning new things.
larry
You use the AR 15 on wild pigs that’s how you do it you can’t get near those things they will kill you.
 
You've done this yourself? I haven't heard of someone running through the forest chasing a pig with a pickaxe before, would love to know more.

I've never seen a hog stop moving unless it's held in place by at least two dogs biting its ears, and whose heads are therefore about 6 inches from the hog's head. Even then they still jerk around. I'm picturing taking a swing at a boar and giving it a headache with the first hit, which would serve to make it focus 100% on you. Then as it lunges at you, dragging the dogs with it, you swing and miss and hit one of your dogs in the head, so now the hog is basically free. As its about to slash you, your third strike in a panic glances off its head and hits you in the shin, so now you can't even run away. Anyway, I wouldn't suggest this technique for beginners.
I was just thinking of a small hand weapon the size of a hammer like this pickax but myself I wouldn’t do anything of the sort I would use the AR -15 and shoot them.
 
If you're gonna use a blade: make sure it's extra sharp...
As for me: I'd use my .375 JDJ Handcannon.
That'll let the air out of any living thing on the Planet...
 
Your best bet is a small pickaxe. You smash the pig right in the head with it or through the body. It’ll tear a big enough hole in that animal it’ll look like a 30-06 went through it. Then you just leave that pickax in that pig and get away from it. Just let it die and come back and take it away.
.....sorry but what utter rubbish. Hunted many hogs have you ? With a rifle even ?
 
I guess everyone's experience and approach is different. But from my experience, closer to the hog is safer if you're trying to stab it. Closeness is about control.

Hogs (and particularly boars) like distance. They use it to charge at you. They use it to swing around in a slashing motion. If you're close enough they can't do that easily. The 'safe zone' for a hog is immediately behind it, as close to it as possible, and preferably holding onto it to reduce its ability to move. The dogs are also crowding it, holding onto it, reducing its ability to move. At that point you're about as safe as you can be (obviously nothing in this is 100% safe).

Also, the closer you are, the more accurate you are in stabbing it. The idea isn't to poke it repeatedly all over ;). It's to hit a very precise location inside its chest cavity. You want it to bleed out as fast as possible, either from the heart or lungs. The whole basis for a safe kill is a quick kill (and therefore an accurate kill). With a knife, you place the point on the exact location you want, and then push. You can't get more accurate than that.

I feel like a spear would only increase the distance (and therefore danger), and reduce your accuracy (and therefore prolong the procedure of dispatching, which also increases danger).

Having said all that, boar spears must exist for a reason.
I have no experience sticking pigs, so I defer to your expertise.
I did see a vid or two of hunter-clients using a boar spear, and it took awhile to get the right angle, and location before the fatal thrust. Avoiding poking the catch dogs also was more complicated with a spear.
 
I guess I could see the benefit of a spear if you don’t have dogs, but that’s gonna take some serious determination and the understanding that you have a high likelyhood of getting gored.

I used to hunt hogs solo with a SKS and military FMJ. I would find a trail in the jungle and bush whack and belly crawl until I would hopefully hear one. Many times you would just bump into one and rapid fire from the hip or on your knees, with the hopes you would drop the pig before getting destroyed.

I would much rather have dogs (trackers and grabbers) to hold the pig.

And many, many guys I know use a simple old Buck 119. Cheap and rust resistant. I prefer a Dogs Head KaBar.
 
I saw videos of guys spear-hunting bear from treestands over bait.
If you're not bothered from an ethical perspective over this style of hunting: can you legally hunt them over bait?
 
If you're not bothered from an ethical perspective over this style of hunting: can you legally hunt them over bait?

Baiting depends on each state’s regulations but for hogs, most states will let you since they’re considered a nuisance animal with generous hunting seasons, most states are year round.

There’s also other restrictions in place as well like not being able to bait them on public lands, but private is ok.
 
I wasn't advocating that style hunting: just wondering about it a little bit... ;)
(I taught Sportsman's Education here in New York for 20 years...)
 
Thanks again everyone for all the advice and suggestions. I’ve read all of them and will prolly read them again in the future.
Rest assured I’ll take all the info with me when making any decisions about gear and tactics. I’ll update you all when I know more.

have a great weekend and keep yourselves and your families safe.
larry
 
Regarding that video of Tim Wells (I think that's who it is) killing with the spear, he made a point to say that the spear was the most ethical weapon he has used and the footage confirms the bear dropped within sight. I'd guess within 50 yards, probably more like 40.
Bear hunting over bait is kinda the norm where it is legal. If you live with bears as much as we do, you understand that it makes a lot of sense to preferentially hunt the ones that are seeking out garbage over natural forage. I had a little one (probably 175-200 pounds) that snuck up on me and my 8 year old daughter while we were picking from our raspberry patch. Only reason I knew it was there (at 20 feet) was because a neighbor from about 150 yards away yelled to us it was there. They are dead quiet on grass.
So this thing had zero interest in the berries. It wasn't aggressive, but they NEVER TOUCH any of my dozens of edible landscaping plants - things like big pawpaws, blueberries, currants, nectarines, nut trees... one bite of some fast food someone threw away probably has more calories than a whole raspberry bush.

I actually admired the way the hunter in this video demonstrated his attention to ethical hunting. He used a blowgun (!) for the second bear and although it reacted when hit, it probably felt very little pain. It took a bit longer for the blood pressure to drop and chest cavity to fill with blood, but I absolutely stand behind the idea that dying from an arrow or other edged weapon is less traumatic. No hydrostatic shock, no noise, etc. Getting hit with a gun causes that full body hydrostatic shockwave along with the shock of such a loud noise.
Anyway, please let us know what happens and if possible what your outfitter says about what they will and will not allow in terms of knives.
 
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