Not again.......! Feral Hog Control in East Texas

I cant use a tripod feeder. The hogs rub the legs and break the feeder where the legs mount to it

You just are not making them heavy enough, plus, you have to anchor the legs. There are a number of members, who buy those $100 tripod feeders from Walmart, here. The legs are 3 pieces of lightweight junk, and no way to anchor the legs. The hogs fold the legs up and dump over the feeders. I build my own tripods, and the legs are 14ga 1 1/2" square tubing. The bottom of the legs, have feet on them that I drive a 3 foot stake through. I have a winch, that hoists the 55 gallon drum. I have not had any trouble.
 

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I cant use a tripod feeder. The hogs rub the legs and break the feeder where the legs mount to it
You don’t have to. If you have trees around, you can just use a pulley and winch to hoist it off the ground. If you have no trees around but have a truck, you can use a couple railroad ties and set them about 24” deep. Then attach your feeder to those with rope, or cable. The hogs also love to use them as rubbing posts because they are treated with creosote. Tons of options out there. Just be creative.
 
You just are not making them heavy enough, plus, you have to anchor the legs. There are a number of members, who buy those $100 tripod feeders from Walmart, here. The legs are 3 pieces of lightweight junk, and no way to anchor the legs. The hogs fold the legs up and dump over the feeders. I build my own tripods, and the legs are 14ga 1 1/2" square tubing. The bottom of the legs, have feet on them that I drive a 3 foot stake through. I have a winch, that hoists the 55 gallon drum. I have not had any trouble.
Dude! That is a heavy duty feeder!
 
You just are not making them heavy enough, plus, you have to anchor the legs. There are a number of members, who buy those $100 tripod feeders from Walmart, here. The legs are 3 pieces of lightweight junk, and no way to anchor the legs. The hogs fold the legs up and dump over the feeders. I build my own tripods, and the legs are 14ga 1 1/2" square tubing. The bottom of the legs, have feet on them that I drive a 3 foot stake through. I have a winch, that hoists the 55 gallon drum. I have not had any trouble.


Po boy here. I just have one of those cheap hanging feeders, 5 gallon bucket with a timer on the bottom. I hung it from a post oak tree with a pulley system to raise and lower it. It's out of reach of even the cows that get out of the ranch next door from time to time and love to eat my garden.:fire: An electric fencer fixed that. :)

I do have to fill it about every couple of weeks, but it's cheap and replaceable when necessary. I think it cost me 50 bucks about 5 years ago, still going.
 
Cold, windy and rainy here today. Not any outside chores I could do...so I thought this would be a good day to catch up on some laundry. It's Tax Season and my poor wife is working 12-16 hr. days. Got to help out with the housekeeping to take some of the burden off of her.

So...I am walking from the bathroom with an armful of towels that need washing and as I go by the living room windows I could see a bunch of black spots out in the pasture behind the house. Hogs pretty much avoid that spot..but several times a year they show up out there.

I can see that 6-7 are mature hogs and the rest (another 12-15) are small ones (20 lbs at most).

I watched them for just a moment to see if they were traveling...or were going to stay and root around. Well...of course they stayed and starting rooting around. Time to go get a rifle. I thought about grabbing the SOCOM and trying to work my down the tree line in order to get close enough for a good shot. I haven't ever shot it farther than 150 yds. and I am sighted in for 100 yds. with that rifle. Trouble is...the wind was blowing in every direction (swirling) and I'd probably get busted before getting close enough.

So next up is the 7mm-08. Plenty cartridge for hogs and I can shoot from the back porch. Grab the -08 got the rifle rested on the railing and was waiting for a hog to get good and broadside. Then I remembered something...and it wasn't good:

Right after Deer Season I had removed the scope to have a small repair done to it (intermittent lighted reticle), when the scope came back...I just quickly got it on 'paper' at 75 yds and purposed to sight it in better at 100 yds. later. Well....'later' hasn't happened yet.

Rats....! Now I am going to have to go back inside and grab something else. I take one more look out in the pasture and several of the hogs were starting to pace around and had their noses up in the air. I knew what was going to happen next (they were going to leave pretty darn quick).

So...no choice but to 'guess' at the holdover with the -08. Hogs are at about 225 yds. I am roughly sighted in at 75 yds. so I will hold an inch or two down from the line on the back and see what happens. The hogs have decided they'd had enough and are walking straight away from me now. DANG! Waited too long. Then from the tree line out pops a medium sized boar and he IS broadside. Walking....but not too fast.

When he walked into my cross*hairs I touched off the shot and could see that he was running away sort of 'humped up'.

He disappeared into the treeline and I couldn't see him any longer. I was pretty confident I had hit him, but not sure exactly where. They usually don't 'hump up' unless shot in the midsection.

Anyway, I got into the old Bronco (ranch vehicle) and drove down to where I last saw him. Looked through the trees into the other side of the pasture and could see him laying about 40 yds. away. When I got up to him I could see that the shot had been 'good enough'. A bit behind the shoulder (was trying for ON the shoulder), but lethal just the same.

I found it fitting that the hog fell dead with its snout right in an old 'rooting' spot in the dirt.

Now....I need to get this rifle sighted back in correctly.
 

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Reminds me of when we first moved here. I was napping on the couch in the living room, woke up and as I was getting off the couch, I look in the back yard and it's full of piglets with mama. I jumped up and found my .308 and loaded it, ran to the back porch just as they were leaving. I got a shot at mama's butt as they hit the woods. I knew I'd hit her, but it was near dark and I had no appetite for going after a wounded pig in the dark. Next day, the buzzards showed me where she was.

Another one I set up to shoot in the back yard. They'd rooted up half my yard, so I set some corn out and put a motion detector on a tree nearby. About 4AM that thing started going off and woke me up. I grabbed my SKS with green laser. I eased out on the porch in my underwear (not a pretty sight) and rested on a post. At the time, I was suffering BAD with cataracts which I had to wait to have fixed. All I could see in the pitch black was a few outlines of black, but the eyes shined bright. So, I put the crosshairs between a pair of those shiny eyes and loosed a round. I actually heard him flop and kick a couple of times. He was about 100 lbs. I had that pig skinned and on ice as the sun was coming up. :D I'd blown the top of his head off.

See, I have no vistas out the back. Woods start about 50 yards behind the house. So, no need for my 7 mag or anything. :D
 
Cold, windy and rainy here today. Not any outside chores I could do...so I thought this would be a good day to catch up on some laundry. It's Tax Season and my poor wife is working 12-16 hr. days. Got to help out with the housekeeping to take some of the burden off of her.

So...I am walking from the bathroom with an armful of towels that need washing and as I go by the living room windows I could see a bunch of black spots out in the pasture behind the house. Hogs pretty much avoid that spot..but several times a year they show up out there.

I can see that 6-7 are mature hogs and the rest (another 12-15) are small ones (20 lbs at most).

I watched them for just a moment to see if they were traveling...or were going to stay and root around. Well...of course they stayed and starting rooting around. Time to go get a rifle. I thought about grabbing the SOCOM and trying to work my down the tree line in order to get close enough for a good shot. I haven't ever shot it farther than 150 yds. and I am sighted in for 100 yds. with that rifle. Trouble is...the wind was blowing in every direction (swirling) and I'd probably get busted before getting close enough.

So next up is the 7mm-08. Plenty cartridge for hogs and I can shoot from the back porch. Grab the -08 got the rifle rested on the railing and was waiting for a hog to get good and broadside. Then I remembered something...and it wasn't good:

Right after Deer Season I had removed the scope to have a small repair done to it (intermittent lighted reticle), when the scope came back...I just quickly got it on 'paper' at 75 yds and purposed to sight it in better at 100 yds. later. Well....'later' hasn't happened yet.

Rats....! Now I am going to have to go back inside and grab something else. I take one more look out in the pasture and several of the hogs were starting to pace around and had their noses up in the air. I knew what was going to happen next (they were going to leave pretty darn quick).

So...no choice but to 'guess' at the holdover with the -08. Hogs are at about 225 yds. I am roughly sighted in at 75 yds. so I will hold an inch or two down from the line on the back and see what happens. The hogs have decided they'd had enough and are walking straight away from me now. DANG! Waited too long. Then from the tree line out pops a medium sized boar and he IS broadside. Walking....but not too fast.

When he walked into my cross*hairs I touched off the shot and could see that he was running away sort of 'humped up'.

He disappeared into the treeline and I couldn't see him any longer. I was pretty confident I had hit him, but not sure exactly where. They usually don't 'hump up' unless shot in the midsection.

Anyway, I got into the old Bronco (ranch vehicle) and drove down to where I last saw him. Looked through the trees into the other side of the pasture and could see him laying about 40 yds. away. When I got up to him I could see that the shot had been 'good enough'. A bit behind the shoulder (was trying for ON the shoulder), but lethal just the same.

I found it fitting that the hog fell dead with its snout right in an old 'rooting' spot in the dirt.

Now....I need to get this rifle sighted back in correctly.

Another happy ending. I imagine even though you hit him a bit far back a bullet fragment got a piece of the lung?
 
Reminds me of when we first moved here. I was napping on the couch in the living room, woke up and as I was getting off the couch, I look in the back yard and it's full of piglets with mama. I jumped up and found my .308 and loaded it, ran to the back porch just as they were leaving. I got a shot at mama's butt as they hit the woods. I knew I'd hit her, but it was near dark and I had no appetite for going after a wounded pig in the dark. Next day, the buzzards showed me where she was.

Another one I set up to shoot in the back yard. They'd rooted up half my yard, so I set some corn out and put a motion detector on a tree nearby. About 4AM that thing started going off and woke me up. I grabbed my SKS with green laser. I eased out on the porch in my underwear (not a pretty sight) and rested on a post. At the time, I was suffering BAD with cataracts which I had to wait to have fixed. All I could see in the pitch black was a few outlines of black, but the eyes shined bright. So, I put the crosshairs between a pair of those shiny eyes and loosed a round. I actually heard him flop and kick a couple of times. He was about 100 lbs. I had that pig skinned and on ice as the sun was coming up. :D I'd blown the top of his head off.

See, I have no vistas out the back. Woods start about 50 yards behind the house. So, no need for my 7 mag or anything. :D

Gotta love Texas. :)
 
My 2 brothers and I went hog hunting last weekend, got 4 hogs between us, could easily have had more if we had the time.
1 with arrow, the rest with rifles.. Fun to hunt..
 
Cold, windy and rainy here today. Not any outside chores I could do...so I thought this would be a good day to catch up on some laundry. It's Tax Season and my poor wife is working 12-16 hr. days. Got to help out with the housekeeping to take some of the burden off of her.

So...I am walking from the bathroom with an armful of towels that need washing and as I go by the living room windows I could see a bunch of black spots out in the pasture behind the house. Hogs pretty much avoid that spot..but several times a year they show up out there.

I can see that 6-7 are mature hogs and the rest (another 12-15) are small ones (20 lbs at most).

I watched them for just a moment to see if they were traveling...or were going to stay and root around. Well...of course they stayed and starting rooting around. Time to go get a rifle. I thought about grabbing the SOCOM and trying to work my down the tree line in order to get close enough for a good shot. I haven't ever shot it farther than 150 yds. and I am sighted in for 100 yds. with that rifle. Trouble is...the wind was blowing in every direction (swirling) and I'd probably get busted before getting close enough.

So next up is the 7mm-08. Plenty cartridge for hogs and I can shoot from the back porch. Grab the -08 got the rifle rested on the railing and was waiting for a hog to get good and broadside. Then I remembered something...and it wasn't good:

Right after Deer Season I had removed the scope to have a small repair done to it (intermittent lighted reticle), when the scope came back...I just quickly got it on 'paper' at 75 yds and purposed to sight it in better at 100 yds. later. Well....'later' hasn't happened yet.

Rats....! Now I am going to have to go back inside and grab something else. I take one more look out in the pasture and several of the hogs were starting to pace around and had their noses up in the air. I knew what was going to happen next (they were going to leave pretty darn quick).

So...no choice but to 'guess' at the holdover with the -08. Hogs are at about 225 yds. I am roughly sighted in at 75 yds. so I will hold an inch or two down from the line on the back and see what happens. The hogs have decided they'd had enough and are walking straight away from me now. DANG! Waited too long. Then from the tree line out pops a medium sized boar and he IS broadside. Walking....but not too fast.

When he walked into my cross*hairs I touched off the shot and could see that he was running away sort of 'humped up'.

He disappeared into the treeline and I couldn't see him any longer. I was pretty confident I had hit him, but not sure exactly where. They usually don't 'hump up' unless shot in the midsection.

Anyway, I got into the old Bronco (ranch vehicle) and drove down to where I last saw him. Looked through the trees into the other side of the pasture and could see him laying about 40 yds. away. When I got up to him I could see that the shot had been 'good enough'. A bit behind the shoulder (was trying for ON the shoulder), but lethal just the same.

I found it fitting that the hog fell dead with its snout right in an old 'rooting' spot in the dirt.

Now....I need to get this rifle sighted back in correctly.
Id say that’s pretty good shooting for a rifle that isn’t dialed in. Your entrance would is actually where I aim when shooting pigs. Hasn’t failed me yet. One more down. A few million to go.
 
Amazing how quickly the Buzzards can strip down a Hog. I took this photo yesterday when I went to see if there was much left to haul off. The Coyotes haven't eaten too many of the bones yet...so I will leave the carcass where it is for now.

How the buzzards manage to 'skin' the carcass back so well...I'll never know. Heck...that is pretty much how I skin out Elk (skin back one side, lay the meat on it, then roll it over and do the same on the other side). Pretty smart birds.
 

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Leave one to lay and put a game camera on it. Be interesting to see the progression, and the different kind of animals that clean it up.
 
Leave one to lay and put a game camera on it. Be interesting to see the progression, and the different kind of animals that clean it up.

I've actually done that before. Nothing too surprising. In the daytime it was exclusively Turkey Buzzards on the carcass. At night Coyotes (and even one fox) scavenged it. Later as the carcass is reduced and there is less presence of larger scavengers I would get video of Crows and even a possum picking at the scraps on the bones.

It would be interesting to watch a 'time lapse' video of the process. I think folks might be astonished at how quickly a large group of Buzzards can strip down a 200 lb. hog. Smaller hogs 40-60 lbs. can be consumed in a single day.

The Buzzards get the bulk of the carcass initially. Coyotes come in later and get some, but they scavenge differently than Buzzards. The Buzzards..by necessity, stay and feed upon the carcass right where it is and only when they are full or displaced by another bird...do they leave it. Coyotes and Fox try to quickly remove a piece and then retreat a distance to some place safer to eat it, they do not like to stay at the carcass.

We had a calf that was still-born and I dragged it off into woods where the Buzzards would be fewer, giving the Coyotes a better chance at it. I have day and night time Videos of that. I had to tie that carcass off...because the Coyotes will drag it off otherwise. A have about a dozen videos I kept of that.

Calf:




 
Amazing how quickly the Buzzards can strip down a Hog. I took this photo yesterday when I went to see if there was much left to haul off. The Coyotes haven't eaten too many of the bones yet...so I will leave the carcass where it is for now.

How the buzzards manage to 'skin' the carcass back so well...I'll never know. Heck...that is pretty much how I skin out Elk (skin back one side, lay the meat on it, then roll it over and do the same on the other side). Pretty smart birds.

There's a whitetail doe down the road somebody hit, I guess at night. Now, I can't figure THIS one out. There are only three full time residents on my end of the road and two weekenders. I haven't talked to ol' man Coxwell. One of his kids might have hit it. BUT, the road is rough as hell and going over 30 mph is crazy. I prefer 20, myself, maybe 25. I guess the doe could have just jumped out of nowhere when he got up to it. Anyway, the vultures and cara caras have been working it over for 3 days, about got it picked over. They were still working on it when we came back from church tonight, though.

Couple of days ago, 10AM in the morning, we were going to Hallettsville to buy seed and some gardening equipment and eat breakfast. Down the road about a mile, we came upon what HAD to be 50-100 pigs of all sizes in a huge group. I've seen family groups out here before, but nothing like THAT! I've been seeing a lot of pasture damage down there and as close as a quarter mile from my house. I'm hoping THIS pack stays the heck out of my yard at least! I've been setting my trap. We'll see what happens. It's amazing what damage a group that big can do! I do have my garden fenced with an electric fence. It's already kept some loose cows out and my dog tested it out one day. LOL! I'm hoping it'll keep pigs out, don't know. I'm going to be wishing for a bump stock on my AR I'm betting. :D
 
I'm well aware they can 'make' them faster than I can 'smite' them, but they don't have to be so In Your Face about it.

Just plop right down in front of my game camera and nurse the newest crop of Pasture Plows. :(

Guess I need to drag out the SOCOM and get on down there.

 
I'm well aware they can 'make' them faster than I can 'smite' them, but they don't have to be so In Your Face about it.

Just plop right down in front of my game camera and nurse the newest crop of Pasture Plows. :(

Guess I need to drag out the SOCOM and get on down there.



They were lined up good for you.
 
Use to be in Texas you could kill pigs all day and night, free. Then the state got greedy now need hunting licences. Less hunt them.
Then once when I was raising some hogs for food some assclown came and wanted to buy my 27 piglets. I chatted him around till he admitted he wanted to turn them loose on his place so he could charge to hunt them. Anyone that pays even a penny to hunt feral hog is a fool.
 
Use to be in Texas you could kill pigs all day and night, free. Then the state got greedy now need hunting licences. Less hunt them.
Then once when I was raising some hogs for food some assclown came and wanted to buy my 27 piglets. I chatted him around till he admitted he wanted to turn them loose on his place so he could charge to hunt them. Anyone that pays even a penny to hunt feral hog is a fool.

Twisted facts and naive condemnation. Wow.
 
It's stinky around one of our properties. Some carcasses go untouched. The buzzards migrated last fall. Guess they went to Texas.

My small pig assassination score is around 110. Starting using my Browning auto .22 chambered for shorts. There's less noise and the short hollow points are effective on pigs.
 
You just are not making them heavy enough, plus, you have to anchor the legs. There are a number of members, who buy those $100 tripod feeders from Walmart, here. The legs are 3 pieces of lightweight junk, and no way to anchor the legs. The hogs fold the legs up and dump over the feeders. I build my own tripods, and the legs are 14ga 1 1/2" square tubing. The bottom of the legs, have feet on them that I drive a 3 foot stake through. I have a winch, that hoists the 55 gallon drum. I have not had any trouble.
You really have to go to all that trouble to kill an invasive pest species? Texas is #1, where I live, Florida is #2; everyone bitches about the hog infestation and then I see/read about folks feeding them, catching them and then releasing them, and then everyone whining about the damage.

If these were snakes, carpenter bees, roaches or some other invasive pest invading your home, would you feed them?
 
Sure does not look or appear that hunting them leaves a dent in the population, nor does trapping. It seems the only way to eradicate would have to come from Science. Some way to keep them from breeding or some kind of poison to wipe them all out without harming other species. At present I have not seen any credible program or method that works. Are there any programs in the US that have been successful? The devastation that they do to other natural species, both animal and plant may not be fully known for decades. They are more akin to a enormous rat infestation only bigger rats. I also wonder what kind of disease they spread.
 
Sure does not look or appear that hunting them leaves a dent in the population, nor does trapping. It seems the only way to eradicate would have to come from Science. Some way to keep them from breeding or some kind of poison to wipe them all out without harming other species. At present I have not seen any credible program or method that works. Are there any programs in the US that have been successful? The devastation that they do to other natural species, both animal and plant may not be fully known for decades. They are more akin to a enormous rat infestation only bigger rats. I also wonder what kind of disease they spread.

"Science" isn't exactly having any luck either. There is no genetically specific poison. They have attempted species-specific feeders to which to add toxic bait, only to learn that 1) hogs are sloppy and spill poisoned bait on the ground that other animals eat, and 2) other animals (such as raccoons) manage to gain access to the bait stations.

Based on the Australian warfarin tests, Texas would need literally 10s of thousands of bait stations. Each of these bait stations would have to be maintained (functional servicing, bait changing, etc.) and the hogs 'taught' how to use them (requires baiting with non-toxic bait and changing the parameters of access over time in order to teach hogs how to gain access once the actual toxic bait is added). The original plan for Texas required certification in the use of the bait and bait stations. Implementation, to be effective in the eradication would require access to ALL lands as well as an army of bait station technicians. Then their would be the issue of dealing with the millions of suddenly dead hogs. The original warfarin directives for Texas including disposal by burial where no other animals could access the carcasses or by burning the carcasses. This would also entail a huge amount of labor, not to mention the use of earth moving equipment, particularly in areas where burn bans might be in effect.

What diseases do hogs carry? Surprisingly, not much different than what is carried by natural wildlife. People always worry about the disease hogs carry but you never hear about them being worried about all the diseases that deer carry, which includes about 90% or more of overlap and there are a lot more deer than hogs.. Pigs do definitely increases the nastiness of stuff carried in streams, however. This has been demonstrated in several states where increased contamination and sediment load has been correlated with hogs.
 
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