Feral Hog Hunting? Trophy Hunt or Pest Elimination!

Feral Hogs?

  • Pest to eliminate

    Votes: 14 87.5%
  • Fun trophy to hunt

    Votes: 2 12.5%

  • Total voters
    16
Status
Not open for further replies.

WisBorn

Contributing Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2020
Messages
3,680
Location
Wisconsin Again
With the ongoing population growth of feral pigs/hogs should we all work hard on eliminating them or is there trophy value in the species/animal?
 
Then why hunt you don't it.
That's one thing i just don't do.

Because they're an invasive species...given free reign they'll do a tremendous amount of damage.

The state of KS handles the feral hog issue pretty well:

No sport hunting, landowners can kill hogs on their own land. So no "benefit" to wild hogs apparently helps curtail their spread. IF you're interested there's a really good presentation with pics of damage here:

https://agriculture.ks.gov/docs/def...presentation-12-1-2020.pdf?sfvrsn=52fb93c1_12

Interesting quote from one slide:

What’s the biggest factor driving the importation and spread of current populations?
Hunting:
Pigs are being released for hunting interests.
Current populations are being hunted with little success and may spread to new areas due to hunting pressure.
 
An almost useless thing I see hunters doing that are "helping control the hog population" is hunting "trophy boars." Shooting boars does very little to reduce the population. Case and point with a little rancher math...If you have 10 boars and one sow, you will have only one litter with the next generation. If you have 10 sows and 1 boar, chances are you will have 10 litters for the next generation. If you come across a lone boar, sure, kill it. If you come across a sounder, try to kill the sows (or any females).

Then why hunt you don't it.
That's one thing i just don't do.

Then don't call it hunting. Call it dynamic target practice.
 
Hahaha great idea, I just don't like to hunt and not eat it, I guess it something i picked up from my father.

Many here sympathize with this. You really have to witness the uselessness and destructiveness of feral hogs for the “eat what you kill” ethic to be broken down. I butcher a few hogs a year to fill in the gaps between my other wild game but if I run into a “stinker”, I let it lie.

Coyotes will get it……which leads us to another pest problem.
 
Many here sympathize with this. You really have to witness the uselessness and destructiveness of feral hogs for the “eat what you kill” ethic to be broken down. I butcher a few hogs a year to fill in the gaps between my other wild game but if I run into a “stinker”, I let it lie.

Coyotes will get it……which leads us to another pest problem.
I look at the number of coyotes differently than the feral pigs. Coyotes are native animals, where pigs are not and are more destructive to habitat. Both need to be controlled.
 
Destructive and invasive so take as many as one can. They breed as fast as rabbits. I use to let the locals know when I got some and they would take them. They don't even want them anymore so I leave them for the critters. They have to eat to...
 
They breed as fast as rabbits.

Not exactly. Cottontails breed more and produce more offspring per year than hogs...if they survive. Cottontails can start breeding at about 3 months and produce litters of 3-5 every 30-40 days during warm weather. Cottontails are food for many many animals. As noted above, hogs can reproduce at about 5 months of age and have a 114 day gestation, but they tend to only produce about 3-4 litters every 2 years in the wild of 4-8 offspring. The difference is survivorship. Whereas 80-90% of cottonttails are dead by the end of their first year by natural predators, probably 80-90% of hogs will survive into adulthood here in the US if not for control efforts. We have killed off the vast majority of predators that would otherwise have kept the hog population in check.
 
Not exactly. Cottontails breed more and produce more offspring per year than hogs...if they survive. Cottontails can start breeding at about 3 months and produce litters of 3-5 every 30-40 days during warm weather. Cottontails are food for many many animals. As noted above, hogs can reproduce at about 5 months of age and have a 114 day gestation, but they tend to only produce about 3-4 litters every 2 years in the wild of 4-8 offspring. The difference is survivorship. Whereas 80-90% of cottonttails are dead by the end of their first year by natural predators, probably 80-90% of hogs will survive into adulthood here in the US if not for control efforts. We have killed off the vast majority of predators that would otherwise have kept the hog population in check.

So you’re saying we should release Siberian Tigers in Texas? ;)

(That’s a joke…)
 
Last edited:
Obviously a joke, it is too hot in Texas for a Siberian tiger.
You need the regular Bengal tiger or some of the Indonesian varieties.

Trivia: A number of post apocalyptic adventures have tigers and other Asian and African beasts fitting into North American ecology after release by compassionate zookeepers as technic civilization fails.
 
Last edited:
If you let them get big, you just make the problem worse.

i massacre little pigs before they become hogs. My record is nine pigs with one 12 gauge load of #4 buckshot. i decimated this group.

MsNANqHm.jpg

Killing big boars is neat; but it does little for population control. Several years ago at our lease i waded the creek to the "island". In a couple hours i killed three boars that weighed over 300 pounds each.

Compared to domestic hogs, feral hogs have a hard scrabble life. In years when there are bumper crops of acorns and/or pecans wild sows may have two litters. The same is true of sows grazing on wheat fields. We've trapped many hundreds of hogs at our lease, about one third of trapped mature sows have never borne a litter.
 
If I were a farmer I would rightly say pigs are pests. I love hunting and eating them, pigs not farmers.
Wild pigs have been part of the landscape my entire life. The selfish part of me doesn’t want them to be eradicated.
 
An almost useless thing I see hunters doing that are "helping control the hog population" is hunting "trophy boars." Shooting boars does very little to reduce the population. Case and point with a little rancher math...If you have 10 boars and one sow, you will have only one litter with the next generation. If you have 10 sows and 1 boar, chances are you will have 10 litters for the next generation. If you come across a lone boar, sure, kill it. If you come across a sounder, try to kill the sows (or any females).



Then don't call it hunting. Call it dynamic target practice.

The folly in this example is that it is strictly controlled. NEVER in the wild is there 10 boars and ONE sow. Litters of feral hogs typically end 'about' 50/50 males to females. How many of either survive is up to chance of course.

But the females form sounders lead by an alpha 'Sow' and most do pretty well at keeping it all safe (if current numbers are any indication).

Mature boars are for the most part solitary and can (and will) breed multiple sows (when they are receptive). It's the reason you only need one herd bull (for a certain amount of cattle).And I can tell you that ranchers understand the value of the single bull for just that reason.

So using your same argument if you kill the ONE bull/boar (and no sows are currently pregnant) you likewise have no offspring. Of course that isn't happening either. IMO, boars are equally high value targets as are sows. There really isn't any reason to make argument for either. Kill them ALL....!

Frankly, the BEST pigs to kill are the youngest ones you can target (regardless of sex). Since they haven't yet had time to destroy everything they come across.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top