Ham Slam?

[unregistered]

I love the idea of hunting pigs. I can't read or watch enough of it. So when I read the term ham slam it made me wonder, what makes up a ham slam? The only ones I can think of are European Boar, Feral Hog, Javelina (is this one included since its not an actual pig?), Bush Pig, and Warthog (and I have been told he ain't a real pig either). Are there any others that could be included in this list? It seems like an interesting goal. And on a related note does anyone out there know of any feral population of hogs in Alberta Canada? If so and you don't mind sharing please speak up, this pig huntin urge is driving me nuts.

[Biggie Hoffman]

The last time I saw the Ham Slam coined was an article Don Thomas did in Trad Bowhunter mag.
I don't think there is any "written down" trademarked rules but generally the Ham Slam is considered a feral hog, a javelina, a warthog and a bushpig. Beleive me if you get all four of those, it should be named something!

[unregistered]

Thanks for the reply Biggie. So Ham Slam is the brainchild of Don Thomas. I was wondering that. I think European Boar should be added to the list if it isn't already. I believe you can bowhunt them with traditional tackle in Hungary, but its proably pricey as hell. Still would be a blast though. I figure if your lucky you could have er done in three trips. Southern U.S.A for Javelina and Feral Hog, Africa for Bush Pig and Warthog, and Hungary for European Boar. Anyone tried this or know of any other pig like critters that could be thrown in?

[woodchucker]

How about when you get a bunch of Hog Hunters together.....Kill a bunch of Hogs.....

And have a HUGE "Pork On Your Fork" BBQ!!!!!!!!!!    

[Don Thomas]

Biggie got it right. You could add Africa's red river hog and giant forest hog, but I don't know anyone who has killed either of those super tough species with a bow. A point of definition: our feral hog and the European ("Russian") boar are the same species, Sus scrofa. Same goes for this critter wherever it's found: US, South America, the Pacific. You could take the SCI route and try to turn this into six different animals, but biologically they are all the same. Besides, slams should come in groups of four, so I'm sticking with the original version. Everyone else is free to make up there own. Also, my tongue was firmly in my cheek when I wrote that article... I really don't care about slams of any kind. At the end of the day I'm with Woodchucker. Let's kill some pigs and eat 'em. Don

[unregistered]

Hullo Don thank you very much for replying. I love your books and I always look for your articles first in any TBM.
I agree with you as far as slams go but I just can't get pig huntin out of my head. All pigs, any pigs, where ever I can find em (which right now is only in magazines and such). It sure would be great to hunt em all. And thank you for mentioning Africa's Red River Hog and Giant Forest Hog. I have heard of the Red River variety (isn't it endangered?)but not the Giant Forest Hog. I'll have to look that one up.
I have heard only rumors of feral hogs in Alberta, does anyone know of any huntable populations in Canada? Or if not where is the closest huntable poulation living over the border?

[Rusty in Fla.]

If you're a turkey hunter a grand slam is an Eastern, A Rio, a Merriam, and an Osceola.
  Around here you could shoot three different hogs on any one given day and have all three look vastly different.
 We have feral hogs, those were at one time domestic and look like it. They come spotted white, spotted brown and any mixture in between. They look like they came right off the farm.
We have the piney woods rooter. Black to gray with a very long proboscis. These will be thin for the most part and even if you catch them via a trap or dogs and pen them up you'll never put much weight on them.
 Then there is the russian. Prue hog with an attitude. These will usually be black to very dark red  and are most likely to have the hair on their back stand straight up when they find you in their neighborhood.

[Don Thomas]

True enough, Rusty. But feral hogs, piney rooters, and Russian boars are all the same species, the same way Key deer, Coues deer, and Saskatchewan whitetails are all whitetails. Don

[Rusty in Fla.]

True they are the same species but they are vastly different. Like the difference between a Great Dane and a dachshund.
  FWIW I went to the local news stand yesterday evening. I got the current issue of Hobby Farms magazine. In it they had a great article on southern hogs, granted these are the domestic kind but it is a good read non the less. They state in the opening that if cotton was king in the antebellum south, hogs had to be queen.

[Biggie Hoffman]

I agree with Uncle Don. We also have the "piney woods rooters" here in Ga. but they are the same biologically as the feral and inhabit the same areas geographically. It's a stretch to make another critter out of them.

Also, the only pure strain russian in this continent are on game farms and cannot be considered "hunting" by any stretch of the imagination, so, shouldn't be considered as part of any legitimate grouping anyway.

[Marty]

All I need is the elusive "bushpig" . You know anywhere I can get one of thoswe Biggie?

[Biggie Hoffman]

yes...........I..........do

[Littlefeather]

I love pork!  

[jamie2778]

if you want to hunt hogs with attitude come down under we have lots of them just waiting to catch your arrows

[Biggie Hoffman]

Jamie is it true that they pull the arrows out and spit them back at you???


:-)

[Terry Green]

So,....a bushpig is an Australian pig I recon???

If so, would a New Zealand pig count as a bushpig?

[unregistered]

So after an exhaustive 30 minutes searching the internet I have found the following pigs and pig like critters...
1)Javelina (can you hunt other peccary species?)
2)Feral Hog and Russian Boar (pure blood Russian Boars can be bowhunted in Hungary at the usual ridiculous prices)
3)Warthog
4)Bush Pig
5)Red River Hog (very similar to Bush Pig)
6)Giant Forest Hog (apparently grows up two meters long and butts heads like sheep during the breeding season. One crazy swine!)
My goal here is not the creation of some uber Ham Slam, I am just curious as to how many different huntable pig types there are. Does anybody have any others to add to this list? And has anyone seen one of these Giant Forest Hogs before? It sure would be somethin to watch them butt heads (unless that is a rumour).

[Don Thomas]

Actually (and i should have mentioned this earlier), there are two species of New World peccarry: our familiar collared version and the white-lipped peccarry, which lives farther south, is larger and more aggressive. The giant forest hog lives in parts of Africa that are very difficult to access; as noted earlier, I don't know of anyone who has killed one with a bow (same for the red river hog).I took all this into cnsideratin when dreaming up the original definition. If another one were to be added, it should probably be the white lipped peccarry. And a bushpig is an African animal. All hogs in Australia and New Zealand are Old World swine, Sus scrofa, same as our own south.Don

[alligatordond]

I far as I concerned a ham slam is when your guest( ol'DonD doesn't shoot pigs) shoots a pig that you can drive the truck to.

[Gene Wensel]

There is a little known but large population of pure strain pigs in southern New Hampshire on the Blue Mountain Forest Preserve near Newport, sometimes known as Corbin Park. It is 24,000 acres high fenced in the 1800s by a very wealthy and powerful guy named Austin Corbin. It was stocked with pure strain pigs captured in the Black Forest in Germany and several other species. When Mr. Corbin broke his neck in a runaway buggy accident, his heirs sold the property to a group of businessmen as a private game preserve. Annual membership is VERY expensive. I was fortunate enough to get an invitation to hunt about twenty years ago and killed a big boar there. The place has lots of pure strain boars. No color phases, all grizzled with straight tails. The property remains very private/exclusive and also has a large population of red deer/elk crosses. Their antlers are almost black in color with great crown points. It was a great experience. It waslike stepping back in time. It had guys like Teddy Roosevelt, Rudyard Kipling and Bill Ruger as members on their roster. Pretty neat and very fair chase.