Tx Feral Pig Population To Double

With the size of the litters and the fecundity of sows, I'm surprised the population isn't tripling every year.

it wouldnt be so bad but talking to some ranchers, they want to rid themselves of the hogs.
But they want to charge us 50-100$ a hunt

kyletx1911 said:

it wouldnt be so bad but talking to some ranchers, they want to rid themselves of the hogs.
But they want to charge us 50-100$ a hunt

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Many landowners prefer to trap hogs as unlike dead meat which is considered wild game, live hogs can be sold for slaughter whether raised in a pin or trapped and sold as free range. For those who don't want to do the trapping themselves, there are trappers who will do the trapping and either share the profits with the the owner or pay for trapping rights. Money is money, and it doesn't always make sense to allow free hunting.

^^^^point

Many landowners prefer to trap hogs as unlike dead meat which is considered wold game, live hogs can be sold for slaughter whether raised in a pin or trapped and sold as free range. For those who don't want to do the trapping themselves, there are trappers who will do the trapping and either share the profits with the the owner or pay for trapping rights. Money is money, and it doesn't always make sense to allow free hunting.
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Not aimed at one particular person in mind, just thoughts.

I know my trapper, he is my neighbor, he closes my gates, watches my cows and calls me if needed. I do not know you or anyone wanting to hunt. Why let you come onto my property? Do you have insurance so I am not sued by you or your friends?

I am there year round and know where the hogs could be. Do you? Hogs move a lot and are easily run off.

You want to show up on Friday and leave on Sunday, ride your 4-wheeler and make lots of noise while you run the hogs off my property. What did I gain?

I spent the better part of a Saturday picking up beer cans from the public road in from of my place, all thrown out since the start of deer season.

The local land owners see hunters in the feed store, grocery store, gas station and we see and listen, for the most part, folks who want to hunt turn off land owners by your actions in town.

I could lease, but in reality, it's more problems than it's worth.

for myself, and the guys i hunt with keep our hunt clean, we shoot, clean and bury.
my point was that the ranchers are asking for help.

Your group is rare.

I have folks pull up dressed in full camo and for the most part, look like and act like Larry the Cable Guy and ask can we hunt?

If I was going to lease it would be to a man, with a wife and a child and no guests.

Nope to all others.

Ranchers need help, problem is we are on the land all the time and know what is there and then hunters want to arrive and proceed to tell us how they are going to rid us of our problem.

I hunted one hog for a month, I had him on camera, he arrived each night 30 minutes after dark.

It finally started raining hard about an hour before dark and rained all night. I knew I had him at that point, next morning he showed up after the rain stopped. We used the front end loader to pick him up.

Part time hunters could not have killed the hog. He was trap shy and would not enter a trap near by.

I think you spelled ovulation wrong.

They are everywhere. I was riding on a mountain bike trail (L.B. Houston) in Dallas last friday. About a mile in I started to notice small tracks that I thought were deer, but then saw the adult hog tracks, and the ground around the oak trees was rooted. This was on the east side of the Trinity river, abour a quarter mile east of Williams Square (the blgs with the mustang sculptues), in the heart of Las Colinas.

I first read the title as "TX Feral Pig Copulation to Double"; then I realized he meant "Population"; then I realized it's more or less the same thing either way...

Teh interwebs, they has ruined me. :banghead:

Anyone near Kerr/ Bandera/ Comal wanna host a hog hunt? I'll be there!

i sincerely doubt the hogs in drought stricken areas of TX will double in population so long as this drought continues. In 2011 and 1012 i saw dozens of small pigs that had starved to death on both sides of the Red River in TX and OK.

No farmer/rancher here: Mine is all hunting property. Strange thing, the farmers and ranchers near our properties can't understand why i refuse to allow wheat or cattle on the place.

Strange thing, the farmers and ranchers near our properties can't understand why i refuse to allow wheat or cattle on the place.

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You might tell them that cattle are just too easy to shoot and hunting them is no fun.

I am an avid hog hunter and hunt a handful of outfitters that charge $100-$150 very often.
I have seen one outfitter trap hogs on other properties and move them to his lease. If he can run 10 hunters per week at $150 per head he is doing all he can to keep the hog population growing. He is not alone. If hunters didnt pay the "problem" wouldnt exist. Texas is a huge hunting state and Texas Parks and Wildlife knows what is going on but their charter is to cater to hunters. I run a corn feeder all year and so does a good percentage of the population down here. It concentrates the hogs and encourages the breeding not to mention they probably quadruple the per acre carrying capacity.

If hunters didnt pay the "problem" wouldnt exist.

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Bingo!!
Trapping and selling wild hogs to "hunting ranches" is big business in TX and OK. The only thing that could stop the sale of feral hogs is an outbreak of hoof and mouth disease. Here in OK the owners of the "hunting ranches" buy hogs at the livestock auction. Some of the hogs i trap and kill look like show pigs.

All of the hogs i catch die right in the traps. Because of our trapping hogs are getting scarce at one of our properties and dwindling at another one.

We run deer feeders much of the year. Yesterday i put an 18" high hog fence around one of those feeders. Some friends did that at their lease. They no longer have a problem with hogs at their deer feeders.

Anybody in Texas want me to come down and help shoot pigs this year? I be more than willing.

The trouble is regardless of the pig population explosion, farmers have learned the hard way that hunting permission gets abused.
Allow a hunter on your land once and they take it as a green light to invite every yokel they know along as well.
They leave garbage and broken bottles everywhere, cut fences, shoot livestock because they are too drunk to tell the difference.

They've ruined the good will and trust that decent hunters have tried to build.

It's a shame.

And then those of us who are responsible get the cold shoulder. Perfectly understandable. Too many selfish yahoos ruining it for everyone. Including themselves.

I do not blame land owners one bit for their stance of not allowing unknown persons on their land to hunt.

A lot of us are ready and willing to help with that Texas Rat problem, but y'all make it too difficult.

Article in OP said:

A small army of state and federal employees has been trained to stalk, trap and kill feral pigs. . .

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How do you get that job? And they train you too?

We've got a problem with English Ivy up here. Come on up and knock yourself out pulling it out. If you bonk your head, you're on your own and if you litter etc, you might get bonked on the head.

Anyone want s to kill hogs in Texas , contact the TPW. They may need shooters to cull them hogs . You get access to plenty of state owned lands and gets paid doing it.

I wonder if baiting deer has anything to do with it...

HB

I wonder if baiting deer has anything to do with it...

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From personal experience: Baiting deer has contributed greatly to the hog population explosion. Theres been a small population of wild hogs in the area of one property for decades. Never saw a hog there until we started running deer feeders.