Mini Fattie (Whole Wild Pig)

pardon my being stupid, but what is a mini fattie- I'm thinking sausage and bacon wrapped scrambled eggs.
That's not what this looks like.

Sorry about that!!!!! I attached a nice pic of a trailer load of feral pigs.

HA! Ok, when I first read the title I was thinking a half sized breakfast sausage as that's what most of us think of when someone says fattie. But looking at the pics, I thought WTF is that?!?!

Now that you added the last pic... You actually catch them? I thought everyone just shot them when they saw them. And just how hard are they to catch? Inquiring minds want to know.

Funny! I was thinking the photo (at least the uncooked one) looked like some kind of bottom-feeding uglyfish with huge tailfins! A long time ago, I used to know someone who hunted feral pigs in Texas with a long-barreled Colt 45.

I thought it was some weird fish too. Tried to Google it.

They are really not that hard to catch. I use corn, and have several big traps (8x8).Find a trail that they use, then set out trap, with front and back open. They get use to going through it. Then lock one end down, corn under the trigger. I have caught over 2000 of them, mostly due to neighborhood damage.

So how did it taste? Wild pig tend to be very lean, was it tender?

I have seed wild hogs and bears living exclusively off white oak acorns that were very fat. Really red meat and very white fat all over. Good eating.

Yes, the pig was very tender, and flavorful. If you look at seasoned pic you see fat on the ham. After the photo I turned and seasoned the other side, which covered that spot too. I run all my pigs through a cooler bath to clear most of the red color from the meat. I placed the pig kinda bowed up to fit the Que, next to the bottom rack. The bottom rack had a pan with just water. I set the Temp to 300, inserted temp probe into the ham, but not connected. Time set for 4 hours, noticed smoke at 110 deg. At 243 and 3 hrs, I connected temp probe w/o opening door 192 deg. Pig was done. This was my 2nd time using water, not sure but I think it helps to set higher temp, use water to hold down and steam. It works for me. Much better than checking the fire on my old stick burner.

Do they have any belly worth making bacon?

I have caught them upwards of 250lbs, but they just don't have enough for bacon. I think its a different kind of hog. The wild ones run too much and I think they eat better. I really have been thinking of doing some experimenting with them, maybe checking their cholesterol levels as I kill them. I would bet its pretty low.