Ooooo That Smell – Hunt Your Own Summer Barbecue

Whether it’s time at the beach or going on a family vacation, cookouts with friends or being lazy by the pool, most people love the summer. There’s so much to do. So much, that is, unless you are a hockey player or a hunter.

So what’s a hunter to do in the throes of summer, when the mercury is rising and the majority of the most popular hunting seasons are closed? Well, there are always hogs. With barbecuing a wonderful way to spend a day with friends in summer, there are probably few summer hunts that compare to seeking out and taking down the very porker you plan to throw on the pit cooker or spit.

With feral hog populations soaring throughout the South and parts of the lower Midwest and West, these creatures are abundant, destructive, challenging to hunt, great tasting, and except for California, where they are considered a game animal, open season largely year round to anyone with a general hunting license. Populations are growing so rapidly, experts predict it is only a matter of time, where like the coyote, hogs will expand into every state in the lower 48.

From very manageable public land hunts to cherry, outfitted offerings, hunters can determine their own level of effort and expertise they bring to the game, as well as their ability to access porker-populated ground and choose a hunt that is right for them. Hog hunts remain some of the most affordable still around where outfitters are concerned, and where many leased and/or private lands remain closed to hunters for other game, hogs are so destructive, many landowners will be willing to let you come out and try to take some f their property. Feral hogs can be particularly destructive on expensive food plots planted by deer hunters, so if you don’t mind the summer heat and want to tune up that rifle or shotgun on a live target that will provide a freezer full of meat, hog hunters are sometimes even welcome by other sportsmen who would otherwise be reluctant to allow them access to their piece of paradise.

With the surge in opportunity and those willing to take advantage of it, Winchester has made ammo selection for these hardy creatures easy with their line of Razor Boar XT loads, available in shotshells as well as rifle and handgun cartridges. Available in both a buckshot and a slug offering, these 12-gauge, 2 ¾-inch loads pack a wallop build specifically to drop hogs in their tracks. The buckshot offering is packed with 8 pellets of 00 buck, while the slug boasts a hollow-point slug for maximum energy transfer upon impact. Hollow-point rifle offerings are available for .223, .270 Win., .30-06 Springfield, .308 Win. and 7.62x39mm, while handgunners (and hogs make a perfect game for handgun hunting with close stalks an exciting way to hunt them) can purchase Razor Boar XT in .44 Win. Mag.

What’s more, hog hunting is probably among one of the best types of hunting to introduce a newbie to hunting as most people can relate to eating such common pork products as barbecue, ham and bacon and their potential size delivers a true sense of big game hunting excitement.