A friend in Texas used to make rattlesnake chili. Was not my thing to eat but I still gave it a try. May have need a few Dos Equis first before indulging it that culinary delight.
Question for those who make chili at home...
- Thread starter psuro
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I forgot to mention the 38-40 and 38-55 were both octagon barrels.Holy $h*t PSU,
That is a great collection of rifles, I wish you had them back.
WOW, So Cool.....
MY .17 HMR Golden Boy has an octagon barrel, greatly enhances the rifle.
On the subject of wild hog hunting, I go to an outfitter in South Carolina who has 5,000 acres of mostly agricultural plantings, pine forests and bottom land along the Savannah River. He has dozens of tree stands and he uses corn spreaders to keep the deer and the hogs on his property. They use those spreaders mostly at night but often at dawn and dusk too. Sometimes during the day boars will visit to see if there is anything around that is ready to breed. If a lactating sow arrives especially with her brood they are not shot for a bunch of reasons.
Deer will visit too but your best bet is just like in Pa., hunt the heart of the rut when the bucks are running their rut lines, scrapes and tending does.
Hunting deer and hogs are two different strategies. Hogs are very hyper and when they come into the open and feeding on waste grains with other hogs they are always moving around and don't offer a good shot. Too many guys shoot anyways and make a poor shot placement. Now you have a wounded hog which will run for the swamps that have snakes and alligators and the guide will not go after them. A shoulder shot on a deer will anchor it but on a hog you may or may not have it drop. You have to anchor a hog with a head shot and that requires waiting for the hog you have selected to stop moving, go stiff legged, and stick their head out to sniff the air which will present a standing steady head or neck shot. That will stop any hog of any size but it takes patience to do this and you have to have the experience, confidence and practice to wait for that perfect shot.
I take two rifles to camp and used both on this last hunt. I shot one buck and one hog with a Remington 700 BDL in .308 using Federal Premium 180gr. Nosler Partitions. The other buck and hog were shot with a Sako 7mag matched with a 4x14 Leupold scope and using Federal Premium 150gr. in a Trophy Bonded bullet. I was hunting a huge 200 acre piece that had been logged of pines about two years earlier and I was told by the guide there was a rut line on the edge of the field on my side of that field but my stand had another field in between and over 200 yards to the rut line from my blind. So I had to be able to really reach out and I went with the flatter shooting gun, a more powerful scope, a lighter bullet with still plenty of energy from the 7mag, and I made that shot at 195 paces from the stand. Both deer were perfect shoulder shots taking some lung out plus some of the nervous system and dropped in place. Both hogs were head shots and were dead before they hit the ground. Patience is the best weapon you have. I watched all four animals for a few minutes each before I had the perfect shot but for hogs it is absolutely key.
Deer will visit too but your best bet is just like in Pa., hunt the heart of the rut when the bucks are running their rut lines, scrapes and tending does.
Hunting deer and hogs are two different strategies. Hogs are very hyper and when they come into the open and feeding on waste grains with other hogs they are always moving around and don't offer a good shot. Too many guys shoot anyways and make a poor shot placement. Now you have a wounded hog which will run for the swamps that have snakes and alligators and the guide will not go after them. A shoulder shot on a deer will anchor it but on a hog you may or may not have it drop. You have to anchor a hog with a head shot and that requires waiting for the hog you have selected to stop moving, go stiff legged, and stick their head out to sniff the air which will present a standing steady head or neck shot. That will stop any hog of any size but it takes patience to do this and you have to have the experience, confidence and practice to wait for that perfect shot.
I take two rifles to camp and used both on this last hunt. I shot one buck and one hog with a Remington 700 BDL in .308 using Federal Premium 180gr. Nosler Partitions. The other buck and hog were shot with a Sako 7mag matched with a 4x14 Leupold scope and using Federal Premium 150gr. in a Trophy Bonded bullet. I was hunting a huge 200 acre piece that had been logged of pines about two years earlier and I was told by the guide there was a rut line on the edge of the field on my side of that field but my stand had another field in between and over 200 yards to the rut line from my blind. So I had to be able to really reach out and I went with the flatter shooting gun, a more powerful scope, a lighter bullet with still plenty of energy from the 7mag, and I made that shot at 195 paces from the stand. Both deer were perfect shoulder shots taking some lung out plus some of the nervous system and dropped in place. Both hogs were head shots and were dead before they hit the ground. Patience is the best weapon you have. I watched all four animals for a few minutes each before I had the perfect shot but for hogs it is absolutely key.
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First, I absolutely love this post!
Can you expand a little more about the reason for not using the .308 at 200 yards? I am just thinking either of those rifles would be plenty accurate from that distance .... did the 7mag give you a tighter accuracy at 200?
Mike, you missed my first post in the thread where I endorsed beans in a good chili recipe. I love chili and beans need to be in it. I also use venison and wild hog and it goes well with chili too. Venison goes well with tacos also. Anyway, I was bored today because my trip to Florida for the winter was delayed by the snow storm in the Carolinas and all of the posts about guns got me excited.
Mark, either of those rifles are accurate at that distance. The .308 as a caliber has been favored by military snipers for decades. I was a platoon leader in Vietnam in Heavy Automatic Weapons referred to as Dusters which was not my MOS but I did four months in one of these units due to a shortage of junior officers and we had an old M14 which we used on anything that would give us fresh meat including feral hogs. You could load that rifle with literally any kind of .308 ammo in any kind of bullet weight and it will be in the kill zone. The Remington 700 shoots the same way, no matter what you shoot it is always on target with a tight group.
The 7mag is more temperamental. Each manufacturer's ammo and loads needs to be sighted in specifically for its use. Some ammo will not group at all. I have found that Federal Premium is the best for this gun. The deciding factor was the 7mag has a Leupold 4x14 scope and the .308 has a Nikon 3x9. Either should be deadly at 200 yards but this field was large enough to possibly offer a 400+ yard shot and I am more confident at that range with the 7mag. My longest shot ever was 290 yards verified by my guide with a range finder in Newfoundland on a bull moose. There is not much drop at that range with a 7mag using 160gr. Trophy Bonded bullet. Put the cross hairs on the shoulder and it dropped right in place.
Mark, either of those rifles are accurate at that distance. The .308 as a caliber has been favored by military snipers for decades. I was a platoon leader in Vietnam in Heavy Automatic Weapons referred to as Dusters which was not my MOS but I did four months in one of these units due to a shortage of junior officers and we had an old M14 which we used on anything that would give us fresh meat including feral hogs. You could load that rifle with literally any kind of .308 ammo in any kind of bullet weight and it will be in the kill zone. The Remington 700 shoots the same way, no matter what you shoot it is always on target with a tight group.
The 7mag is more temperamental. Each manufacturer's ammo and loads needs to be sighted in specifically for its use. Some ammo will not group at all. I have found that Federal Premium is the best for this gun. The deciding factor was the 7mag has a Leupold 4x14 scope and the .308 has a Nikon 3x9. Either should be deadly at 200 yards but this field was large enough to possibly offer a 400+ yard shot and I am more confident at that range with the 7mag. My longest shot ever was 290 yards verified by my guide with a range finder in Newfoundland on a bull moose. There is not much drop at that range with a 7mag using 160gr. Trophy Bonded bullet. Put the cross hairs on the shoulder and it dropped right in place.
Canellini beans and pinto beans for our red chili along with Hatch green chilies, Rotella tomatoes and chilies, chili powder, ground beef.
White chicken chili is the bomb, IMO, and super easy to whip up. Onions, garlic, low sodium chicken stock, green chilies, cannellini beans, Neufchâtel cheese, shredded roast chicken from Wegmans, and super secret ingredient, a can of white hominy. Pair that with some home made cornbread, good eatin’!
White chicken chili is the bomb, IMO, and super easy to whip up. Onions, garlic, low sodium chicken stock, green chilies, cannellini beans, Neufchâtel cheese, shredded roast chicken from Wegmans, and super secret ingredient, a can of white hominy. Pair that with some home made cornbread, good eatin’!
I did have the rattlesnake chili and rattlesnake on the grill. Hard to live in rural part of Texas without trying it at least once
I buy cheap stew meat and chop it up a bit in the food processor till it's almost like super coarse ground beef, then sous vide it at about 127 degrees for a few hours. Cook the onions, jalapenos, serranos, green peppers, etc. with some salt, pepper, chili powder and garlic powder, and add the cooked beef til it's browned. Toss in the crock pot.
I like chopping veggies fine so they get spread out through every bowl. I don't need to eat some 3/4" piece of green pepper or onion that's been cooking all day. I just want the taste.
Add chili powder (lots), pre-roasted garlic cloves w/ oil, cumin, sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, cayenne or another hot powder (lots), tomato sauce, tomato paste, beef broth and set on low on a manual crock pot (I have an inkbird temperature controller so I can run the crock as low a temp as I want it). No rush.
Let it cook for hours as long as you're stirring it occasionally. Eventually when it's just starting to thicken (add a cornstarch slurry if you have to), add 2 cans of Bush's chili beans (not drained). Cook for another hour and get some shredded cheddar and Saltines ready.
I like chopping veggies fine so they get spread out through every bowl. I don't need to eat some 3/4" piece of green pepper or onion that's been cooking all day. I just want the taste.
Add chili powder (lots), pre-roasted garlic cloves w/ oil, cumin, sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, cayenne or another hot powder (lots), tomato sauce, tomato paste, beef broth and set on low on a manual crock pot (I have an inkbird temperature controller so I can run the crock as low a temp as I want it). No rush.
Let it cook for hours as long as you're stirring it occasionally. Eventually when it's just starting to thicken (add a cornstarch slurry if you have to), add 2 cans of Bush's chili beans (not drained). Cook for another hour and get some shredded cheddar and Saltines ready.
I've had it - deep fried. Tastes like gator, which tastes like...
Octopus all different. Slimy, tasteless texture that not even hot oil can improve.
I’ve had octopus once and will not order again. It was in Lisbon and was fantastic but octopus are too evolved for me to eat, that’s just me. I’ll eat meat or fish but only from stupid creatures.
Big fan of hominy but I never tried it in Chili.
I make Pazole and use Mexican Hominy. It's a little more al dente and holds up better. It freezes really well.
Old tortilla chips or hard taco shells put in a food processor make a wonderful thickening agent for chili.
Weeellll not the Pozole I make or have seen here. Pazole is traditionally made with Dried Red Chiles blended into a red sauce. Yes Hominy is used but its base is red chile, at least here in Las Cruces. Now it is very close to Green Chile Stew so maybe thats what you are thinking of.
I use traditional Masa flour but yep. Necessity can be the mother of invention.
why bother with the SV when you are browning then slow cooking for hours later?
I'm sure it tastes good though
Good question. I did it once b/c the meat was Publix meat, but cut sort of big. I wanted to make sure it was tender so I SV'ed it, browned it, and crocked it and really liked it. I've done it that way since. I think 2 hrs of the SV is a way to get the meat out of your mind b/c it's being taken care of - and concentrate on how not to make tomato soup with meat in it.
Also I have the crock pot at barely over 100 degrees sometimes. Warming, not continuously cooking.
I think the beef broth helps keep it alive for being cooked all day long. I think the more beef tallow, broth, whatever you can get into the chili and still make it thick, the better. The chili is gonna be red. It shouldn't taste like chocolate, cinnamon, or Chicken Parm though.
Personally I think it should taste like meat and hot peppers and my best evers were ones that really stung - back when I was growing peppers like reapers and serranos.
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End of this month is the wild hog Barbeque festival loop road in Ochopee Fl, it's a blast. Been going there for many years.
Serious conflict for me too. Cool as hell animal, but grilled to a light char with Greek spices or Za’atar and olive oil is soooooo good.
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1” cubes of sourdough tossed with EVOO, garlic powder and Parmesan toasted w/ convection @375 for 5 minutes >>>>> saltines.
I had it grilled in Amalfi--and it was quite good. Mrs KG didn't like it as much.