Can I hunt boar on the BI?

[MikeyMike11]

Is there a season for hunting wild boar on the Big Island? Looking to provide some meat for my family. I could use a rifle, or bow. Thoughts on this? Would people think I was a savage if I rolled into the gas station with a dead pig in my truck?

[leilanidude]

It is open season for pigs, large or small, boar or sow. One sees dead pigs in the back of trucks, routinely. Do you live on the island?

[MikeyMike11]

It is open season for pigs, large or small, boar or sow. One sees dead pigs in the back of trucks, routinely. Do you live on the island?

Not yet, we are buying a home in Hawaiian Shores. We hunt where we live in Montana, and I know boar to be pretty tasty. 

It's good to hear people take advantage of the hunting on the BI, this is a healthy source of wild game, and currently the Mainland is having huge issues with these animals displacing all manner of native wildlife and destroying species.

[ChunksterK]

If you do end up hunting here, please dispose of the inedible portion of the carcasses responsibility. A significant number of local hunters think it is perfectly OK to dump rotting heaps of pig along roadsides. Having said that, I wish you well and support pig hunting as both a food source and hog population control measure. They really can be destructive to the environment and agriculture.

[MikeyMike11]

If you do end up hunting here, please dispose of the inedible portion of the carcasses responsibility.  A significant number of local hunters think it is perfectly OK to dump rotting heaps of pig along roadsides.  Having said that, I wish you well and support pig hunting as both a food source and hog population control measure.  They really can be destructive to the environment and agriculture.

That is a good point, here we leave gut piles in the wilderness, where the animal was felled. This usually makes for a good meal for many other animals which will scavenge the remains. What is recommended on the BI? I am not opposed to hauling out a gut pile, but the animal will need to be cleaned on site. I also detest those hunters which are poor shots and injure an animal. I would not let it get away, for the sake of ending its misery. We do not have boar yet in Montana, but I don't doubt they can survive here. They are slowly moving north, east, and west out of Texas. We do have many other invasives though, mostly fish.

[ChunksterK]

"What is recommended on the BI?" - MikeyMike11

Not being a hunter myself, I can only repeat what my responsible hunter friends and neighbors have told me. When doing licensed hunting in the remote reserves or with permission on large tracts of private land, field dressing and leaving the guts and bones in place is the way to go. I think a lot of the dumping results from kills made in more populated areas and/or on small tracts of land. Sometimes pigs are cage trapped in people's yards or small properties and killed on the spot, and some people even raise captured piglets and slaughter them at home. When that is done, things get dicey with disposal of the inedible parts. (Burial is virtually impossible in nearly all of Puna.) One guy double bags such remains in plastic and takes them to the county transfer station, but I don't know the official rule on that. I do know that it is more sanitary and aesthetic than roadside dumping.

[MikeyMike11]

Thanks again for the response! I will probably focus on hunting in the jungle, as shooting a rifle in a populated area seems insane to me. We would be arrested and/or fined for that here. I also want to avoid pigs which have been eating garbage as well. I'm totally fine with packing out the sections of animal. I'm still young enough to where I can do that.

[MarkP]

If you have a compost heap going and enough wood chips or grass clippings, composting the guts should work well.

[terracore]

We use a pig trap on our property. It's easier than hunting and it's impossible to miss a shot when it's time to invite them for dinner.

I cart the guts etc out of sniff range and dump them (also on our property) and the flies and other pigs make quick work of them.

People pay for trap/removal service here.

The only reason our trap isn't baited is because our freezers are full.

[My 2 cents]

Similar to TC. I bait the trap when I see signs of them being around. I am fortunate to have a place to bury the entrails.

Main point....the pigs that roam the subdivisions in Puna do not eat garbage or taste like it. They eat the fruit from people's trees and veggies from their gardens. That's why people will pay to get rid of them, and it's why they taste great. No wild or gamey flavor at all.