Feral Hogs = Good News, Bad News

[markc]

Ironwood,  where in the piney woods are you hunting?  I have a lease in Waller county an it has plenty of feral hogs too.   IN the past 10 years no one besides myself and my wife have really killed any hogs, until last season when one other hunter shot 2 of them.  It's hard to do any damage to their numbers when no one is shooting them.

[alsaqr]

Someone on the board mentioned that the fish and wildlife folks try to manage hogs like they do deer and this is very true:  Managing hogs like deer absolutely does not work.  Here in this part of OK the hogs are multiplying like rats to the detriment of the deer population.  The OK Wildlife folks have not yet woke up to this fact.  Instead of encouraging hunters to hunt hogs exclusively all year long they restrict it.   FI:  You cannot hunt hogs on public land during deer season without a deer stamp.   

In one of the Oklahoma Wild Life Management areas they shot hogs from helicopters to reduce their population rather than allow unrestricted hunting of hogs.   There is a pretty good crop of acorns this fall here.  Next year the hog population in south western OK will triple or quadruple.   Farmers will gripe about the hogs tearing up their wheat and milo and will not allow hog hunting on their places.

I am very afraid of an outbreak of hoof and mouth disease in TX and OK that will spread like wildfire due to the wild hogs.   

[markc]

Ditto the acorn crop here.  I had not really considered how that would effect the hog population.  In Tx, on private land now, you can shoot hogs with no permit or license.  They understand how bad the situation is, but what is wierd to me is how alot of land owners are capitalizing on the bad situation by selling hog hunts at high costs.  And what is even more interesting is the clamor by hunters in states without hog populations (yet) for those pricey hunts on these feral pests.   When deer season ends, I will be inviting alot of folks to come out and try to shoot a hog on my local lease, for free...

[S_J_KENNELS]

MarkC have you considered the use of dogs? They will not harm nor chase the deer if they are properly trained, and on top of that with the use of well trained dogs you could get more then one or two like you would through the use of most traps or shooting them.

[markc]

Yes sir I sure have considered dogs.   Here's the catch.  The local lease I am on is surrounded by over 6K acres, 5500 owned by Rice University, 1000+ owned by I don't know who, and we are on 183 swampy, hog infested acres in the middle of that.   My concern would be the other folks feelings once the dogs cross the fence.  If I had a way to contact owners and ask permission I think it would be good.   The times I've gone hunting hogs with dogs, I see that the dogs as good as they are, can not read english "NO TRESPASSING" signs.   LOL

So, as much as I would enjoy the hunt I do not know exactly how to gain permission to the other lands.. 

Now my traps catch more than one or two at a time.  My personal best was 22 at one catch, with a few large sows and many small pigs.   I have sold a few pigs in the past that way, but have not trapped in a year.  I ran out of people wanting fresh pork, so I stopped trapping.  If I had a good buyer, I would start traping again as soon as this deer season ends....

[S_J_KENNELS]

MarkC I sent you a PM give me a call I think I might be able to help you with some of your issues. If not at least we have talked lol.

[markc]

Got  your PM and sent a reply.   Will try to reach you after work today. 

[flyboy]

I got his evil twin, haha.

Boy, those are a couple of awesome looking piggies!  If the three little pigs had looked like that in the teeth department, the story would never have been written!     I wish we had huntable populations of those around here.

[drj3828]

Here in Texas I have work for several ranches fixing tractors and equipment, while on the places I have hunted hogs for the land owners. They like for folks to hunt them and kill them because of the damage they do to the land. These ruts they root up can cause some real bad damage to equipment and livestock. The problem they have with outside hunters is that some times the hunters shoot the calves and yearlinings. I have seen this more than once, I know that not all hunters can tell the difference between a hog and a calf. But when a rancher looses a 300 to 500lbs calf that is money lost. And at todays cattle prices that can hurt a rancher.
I am not trying to bad mouth all hunters but like they say a few bad apples can ruin the whole bunch.
I tried to get one land owner to have hunts to control the feral hogs, but he would not go for it because at one time he let people hunt the hogs and theyshot the crap out of the place. So I can't blame him for his response.
DRJ

[DavOh]

Have gun(and bow), hate hogs, will travel....

me and my dad both...

PM if you want some help disposing them hogs come the end of Deer Season....



My cousin has been killing 300+ hogs a year for several years on 1700 acres in central texas, and just cant get rid of them...

[CyberSniper]

I know two guys that killed three sows.
One sow had 8 new ones in it, the other two seven each.
So, three sows yielded a total of 25 pigs stopped. ( Counting those 3 also of course. )
And consider, that's not counting future generations that would have resulted......

[DavOh]

Hogs are tough critters.... killing the momma doesnt necessarily always translate to killing the young'uns   Like someone else said, if you kill a piglets mother, a different sow will let them suckle as long as it has milk....

[flyboy]

My cousin has been killing 300+ hogs a year for several years on 1700 acres in central texas, and just cant get rid of them...

Dadgum, would I love to live where that was a problem! Being civic-minded and all, I would do my very best to assist with the situation.

[papitt]

I've killed a mountain of hogs on our old lease ...Problems I see is the guys on the next least I believe are buying hogs to turn loose to run with dogs ...One year running buddy and I shot about 50 hogs I wonder how many they turned loose ....and those multiply ...That years I think I only saw 2 or 3 deer all year course if you start shooting hogs at 4:30 you don't see many deer ...
But for most of us pulling the triger  has too much pull.........
    What makes me mad is hunt people sell for hogs at hunting shows ..to me if you get into the hogs you don't stop shoting until your out of lead.......When I shot hogs and their in a bunch I look at their bellys 1st find the sows then I shot every sow I can but I don't pause long on a boar before lead is in his direction also ....Most I've shot at once is 13 3 sows and 10 pigs....

[wipartimer]

I sure would like the chance at some of those hogs. I've been buying hunts in South Texas since 2002 at different places with groups of 3 to 6 buddies. The best we've ever brought back (yes we eat them all) is 11 hogs.  Last week was our worst hunt ever, 4 of us killed 2 hogs. we typically see 30+ deer for every hog we see so I've always wondered if hog numbers are overestimated or what. Anyway I know of a group of hunters from Wisconsin that would love to actually fill the freezer we haul down every year so if anyone knows of a place that actually has high numbers instead of just advertising them, we sure love to try and kill a bunch. Thanks

[CyberSniper]

East Texas has the highest concentration of hogs in the state I think.
More rain, heavy cover...