Hard times this year, sacrifices to the hunting trips seem to be happening to many people.
I'm specifically targeting back legs and back straps as an efficiency thing because I should be able to remove them faster in the field and get more meat WITHOUT having to actually haul off the animal to clean them. If I drop 3 hogs in the morning and 3 in the evening, the amount of cleaning would be crazy each day! Plus I would be afraid of not being able to clean, cut, and ice the meat fast enough in our not so cool temps in TX.
Doing just back legs and backstraps I'm pretty sure I can remove those fast in the field. I would only need to to then skin the legs (backstrap removed without skin) and I can toss it all into a giant cooler with ice.
It's simply about being most efficient. Maximum meat in fastest amount of time knowing the place is overrun and there are a ton of hogs I should be getting into. If I go for 3 days at a time and take about 9 hogs per trip you can see how I simply cannot manage all the animals and meat while still having an endless job of hog eradication.
That sucks about the loss of all that good meat of yours. Hopefully you can fill the freezer back up with some nice wild game sooner rather than later. Hopefully that friend comes through with plenty of amazing wild pork :)