For a short time back in the 60's, I worked for my father-in-law in his "custom-kill" meat business. Part of my job was "killin' the critters". We used an old single shot .22 rifle and we shot the hogs behind the ear with effective results. In later years, state inspection required them to slaughter the critters with a fiber bullet that contained no lead. A hog head or cow head shot with a lead bullet, was condemned by the inspector and had to be destroyed. Lots of folks wanted the hog's head and the butcher usually got the cow head. Some folks would be surprised at the amount of "cheek meat" on a big cattle head. Later on they went to a pneumatic gun that drove a rod/plunger into the skull of the cow, I don't know what they did about the hogs.
Bleeding the hog was a learned skill, that long slim knife had to be inserted in the lower neck and worked between the shoulders with out damaging the meat. Grandpa had a scalding vat and a dehairing machine that took a lot of the work out of preparing a hog for the frying pan. As I recall the water temperature had to be exact or there were big problems getting the hair off of a hog. I remember a few hogs that were so big, the decided to skin them as they wouldn't fit in the gas fired vat. Hogs don't skin like a deer or a cow!
I could go on and on with some interesting tales about the times I spent working with my Father-in-law at his meat business. You had to be a cowboy, a hog wrangler, a carpenter, a refrigeration mechanic, the list go on. Lots of the tales might cause folks to get a little bit queasy so I'll shut it off.
Thanks for stirrin' up some old memories! By the way, Grandpa is still butchering beef and venison on a small scale, special customers only. If the Lord allows him to live through August the 24th, he'll be 95 years young!
Treefarmer
