Howdy from Gilbert AZ!

[sawhorseray]

Howdy folks, I'm Sawhorseray. I've been making my own sausage for about 20 years and smoking it, maple-honey and Canadian bacon, and wild hog hams for about the last fifteen years on a PS Seasons P100 electric smoker, had a Weber 22 since 1977. Three weeks ago my wife and I moved from Elk Grove, CA to Gilbert, she's got a lot of family here. My reward for leaving the State of Confusion arrived at my house four days ago, a Meadow Creek SQ36 offset BBQ smoker. While I've always done all the cooking in our house it's become to clear to me that I'd best be prepared for a whole new set of culinary challenges. Aside from cooking my other interests are hog hunting, fishing, and playing around with my 18 month-old English Springer Spaniel, Bob. I was a union carpenter for 34 years and have now been retired for almost 13 years, I'll be 68 in October. I guess it's time for me to start perusing the forum, maybe watch a little more YouTube about controlling the heat on a offset. Glad to be here! RAY

 

[BillN]

Welcome to the forum from sunny SE Arizona. Ray where do you hog hunt?

 

[sawhorseray]

Welcome to the forum from sunny SE Arizona. Ray where do you hog hunt?

My partner and I used to lease a 2200 acre ranch in the hill outside of Coalinga. I whacked about sixty hogs there over the 15 years we hunted the place, got a lot of nice bucks and wild turkey there also. I got rid of my jeep and CA is too far to go for a pig anyway, so in the wintertime I'm going to give this place a shot.

http://blueroosterhuntingranch.com/hunts/

I'll take out the backstrap and smoke the hams, everything else will go to grind for sausage. I'd post some pics but I haven't had much use for Photobucket for quite some time now, they became kind of tough to use for me. RAY

 

[BillN]

Wow Blue Rooster Hunting Ranch is rather pricey. FYI... A days drive you can be in central Texas and for approximately $500 to $700 get a 3 day hunt unlimited hogs including room and board.

 

[frognot]

Welcome aboard Ray!

There was a recent thread in Q-talk about wild hogs that you might want to check out.

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=274143

 

[armor]

Welcome from VA!

 

[sawhorseray]

I have a Lance 850 cabover camper that keeps me pretty darned comfortable wherever I go. For hog hunting I carry two 165 qt Igloo coolers, one filled with one gallon jugs of water from spent OJ, Minute Maid is my favorite. I like sows, I truly believe they make far better tableware than the boars. I've been known to whack a sow when a guide was telling me to shoot a boar hog a few feet away. What's he going to do, flush his $100 tip down the toilet because I killed the pig I wanted in the first place? Uh, no. I like to gut and skin them myself, halve the hog with a meat saw, toss into a 165 qt cooler, and surround it with the frozen gallon jugs of water. I've kept a pig for four days in 100º heat using this method many times, no stink, no problems. Like I said, I take the hams and backstrap, everything else I debone in my driveway when I get home. I make Italian sausage with PS Seasonings 260 sausage blend, a bottle of cabernet sauvignon, and a knob of garlic, minced. It's always a blend of 60% wild pig meat and 40% domestic porkbutt, friends and family have raved about it for years. I'm too old these days to want to process more than one pig at a time. RAY

 

[OferL]

Welcome!

 

[Titch]

Welcome to the forum from Victoria, Aust.
Nice friendly bunch here that are very sharing with information.
Enjoy your time here, I sure have

 

[cowgirl]

Welcome to the forum Ray. Glad to have you aboard!

 

[toys4dlr]

Welcome to AZ from a little north of you.