Good news for all of you pig hunters (I've done some too). According to a recent report on AOL, There are conservatively over 4,000,000 of these critters running around our country with Texas having the honor of having the most with Florida in second place. Good hunting boys!
Feral Pig Hunters
- Thread starter Water-Man
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Kentuckiana rifleman
Member
I need to find out who has a problem with em' near Austin, Texas.
frankenstein406
Member
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- 816
Gonna try to hunt them in wi soon.
chas08
Member
Your idea of "good news", and my idea of good news. Aint even close...lol..
Now if they had a four month expiration date, that would be "GOOD NEWS"
kyle1974
Member
friggen pigs.....I hate 'em.
xcgates
Member
And to think I saw a news article the other day with some animal rights activist saying that pigs didn't cause anywhere near the damage that was claimed, and there really wasn't any reason to hurt them.
Made me think they had never seen so much as a cute domesticated pig in real life.
Made me think they had never seen so much as a cute domesticated pig in real life.
W.E.G.
Member
kyle1974
Member
that's about the best way to kill a large number of them. hunting from a stand won't even put a dent in their population. you either have to trap them, or hunt from a helicopter.
Double Naught Spy
Sus Venator
Water-man, I think you have a somewhat perverted view of good news. Being happy that the hog population is growing is a bit out of context. This isn't a population that was in decline and that has been saved by the efforts of folks like Ducks Unlimited who have bought nature reserve lands for the hogs to make a recovery. These are not some sort of game animal hunters have been waiting on to finally have an established healthy population so that we can start a limited hunting program. The hog population is growing by leaps and bounds, almost totally unmitigated. They are an invasive species with very few predators aside from humans once the hogs become adults. It isn't as if our beloved hog population has been dessimated by wolves, bears, mountain lions, etc. We don't have a standing wolf population and bears and mountain lions are few in number and mostly geographically limited. More hogs are probably taken by vehicle (hog-vehicle collision) than by these predators.
I am not sure that having a population explosion is a good thing for hunters, unless you are like me and only hunt hogs. Even so, I realize their presence isn't actually beneficial to the environment. They will and do readily gobble up any eggs of ground nesting birds, taking a heavy toll in some areas on quail, prairie chicken, turkey, etc. They will also attack and consume fawns and other newborn critters. Having a population of hogs on your deer lease is not making your lease better for hunting deer. It is hurting it.
At over 2 million hogs doing in excess of $50 million in damages each year (quantifiable $ loss and not native wildlife losses) means that on average, every hog is doing $25 damage per year. Of course a lot of them don't grow up and so you have some hogs that individually do thousands of dollars in damages every year. Not only that, but Texans spend another $7 million on trying to stop them.
Granted, that only come out to being a passed on cost of only $2 per year for every man, woman, and child in Texas (human population >24 million) and so maybe it doesn't sound like much, but that expense will be growing each year.
http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?s=44937
http://www.hpj.com/archives/2009/jan09/jan26/FeralhogpopulationinTexascl.cfm
Depending on who you read and what data they use to base their estimates, even with the current measures in place, the hog population in Texas could exceed that of the human population of Texas in the next 50 years. Imagine Texas with nearly 50-60 million people in 2060 and a comparable population of hogs.
This is a neat read...http://wfsc.tamu.edu/jpackard/share/mypubs/Week&Packard09.pdf
And folks like Kentuckiana rifleman would like places to hunt them to help out the poor landowners suffering at the hands of hogs. Most landowners aren't too thrilled with the notion of allowing random armed Joe Bubba and his buddies shooting up his land in the middle of the night. In fact, from self defense and liability perspectives, granting land access to armed strangers is a very poor idea. Even grantng access to people you know carries some very real liability concerns. The damage done by hogs could pale in comparison to the losses you would suffer if a hunter to whom you granted access to your land ends up actually shooting your neighbor who was on his own property.
I am not sure that having a population explosion is a good thing for hunters, unless you are like me and only hunt hogs. Even so, I realize their presence isn't actually beneficial to the environment. They will and do readily gobble up any eggs of ground nesting birds, taking a heavy toll in some areas on quail, prairie chicken, turkey, etc. They will also attack and consume fawns and other newborn critters. Having a population of hogs on your deer lease is not making your lease better for hunting deer. It is hurting it.
At over 2 million hogs doing in excess of $50 million in damages each year (quantifiable $ loss and not native wildlife losses) means that on average, every hog is doing $25 damage per year. Of course a lot of them don't grow up and so you have some hogs that individually do thousands of dollars in damages every year. Not only that, but Texans spend another $7 million on trying to stop them.
Granted, that only come out to being a passed on cost of only $2 per year for every man, woman, and child in Texas (human population >24 million) and so maybe it doesn't sound like much, but that expense will be growing each year.
http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?s=44937
http://www.hpj.com/archives/2009/jan09/jan26/FeralhogpopulationinTexascl.cfm
Depending on who you read and what data they use to base their estimates, even with the current measures in place, the hog population in Texas could exceed that of the human population of Texas in the next 50 years. Imagine Texas with nearly 50-60 million people in 2060 and a comparable population of hogs.
This is a neat read...http://wfsc.tamu.edu/jpackard/share/mypubs/Week&Packard09.pdf
And folks like Kentuckiana rifleman would like places to hunt them to help out the poor landowners suffering at the hands of hogs. Most landowners aren't too thrilled with the notion of allowing random armed Joe Bubba and his buddies shooting up his land in the middle of the night. In fact, from self defense and liability perspectives, granting land access to armed strangers is a very poor idea. Even grantng access to people you know carries some very real liability concerns. The damage done by hogs could pale in comparison to the losses you would suffer if a hunter to whom you granted access to your land ends up actually shooting your neighbor who was on his own property.
Freedom_fighter_in_IL
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- Aug 30, 2010
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DNS, I truly believe he was being sarcastic in his post and not actually happy there bud.
Anyone know how I could find a place to "do my part" near kansas city? I wanna kill some of these little vermin so bad. I spent one whole winter staying about 10 hours behind a huge heard of these things. never could take one though. the only ones I've seen were way too far away and I was armed with duck loads. after some flooding the signs of them have gone away. I think it has pushed the heard out of the area
USAF_Vet
Member
Someone said Michigan! Point me in the right direction please. I haven't had a good boar hunt since I was stationed in Germany. Come to think of it, that one wasn't what I'd consider a good hunt either, since it was stocked and guided.
I work in the Grand Rapids area, so does anyone have a link or knowledge of where them widdle piddies are hiding on the western half of the state?
I think 203 grain soft points fired from my M44 should do the trick quite nicely.
I work in the Grand Rapids area, so does anyone have a link or knowledge of where them widdle piddies are hiding on the western half of the state?
I think 203 grain soft points fired from my M44 should do the trick quite nicely.
FLAvalanche
Member
I have a challenge for those animal rights activists who say hogs aren't doing the amount of damage everyone says.
First you get to run from one end of my orange grove to the other. You have to run full speed. At night. No flashlight. If you can make it to the other end without a sprained ankle, I'll stop hunting hogs.
If you're still not convinced you get to lay in new irrigation lines. And we'll see how long it takes before you go ape**** because before you're even finished the hogs have destroyed what you already started. If you don't pull your hair out within 3 days, I'll quit hunting hogs.
And if that still isn't enough, you get to spend a night in a hog trap with one of my favorites. I'll even muzzle him and put boots on him so he doesn't hurt your pasty skin. If you can make it a night in the trap with him before you scratch off all your skin from the ticks and fleas, I'll quit hog hunting.
First you get to run from one end of my orange grove to the other. You have to run full speed. At night. No flashlight. If you can make it to the other end without a sprained ankle, I'll stop hunting hogs.
If you're still not convinced you get to lay in new irrigation lines. And we'll see how long it takes before you go ape**** because before you're even finished the hogs have destroyed what you already started. If you don't pull your hair out within 3 days, I'll quit hunting hogs.
And if that still isn't enough, you get to spend a night in a hog trap with one of my favorites. I'll even muzzle him and put boots on him so he doesn't hurt your pasty skin. If you can make it a night in the trap with him before you scratch off all your skin from the ticks and fleas, I'll quit hog hunting.
Double Naught Spy
Sus Venator
Somehow, announcing a challenge to animals rights activists in a pro-hunting gun forum using vague evaluative criteria seems awfully pointless.
LordDunsany
Member
Truly, these are destructive pests to the farming communities. However, they are fun to hunt and the smaller ones are mighty tasty.... but this is poor compensation for the cash crops they eat up.
I have seen the damage these critters can do to a crop. Proper eradication will have to use helicopters and traps. These animals are so prolific that we hunters haven't made a dent in their populations here in North Texas.
Ron in Texas
I have seen the damage these critters can do to a crop. Proper eradication will have to use helicopters and traps. These animals are so prolific that we hunters haven't made a dent in their populations here in North Texas.
Ron in Texas
788Ham
Member
Well then, some of these farmers complaining about the hogs, had better let some of the guys in to hunt! Don't complain about how bad things are, if you don't want help with the eradication. If a farmer let 4 guys in to hunt, say 3 of them get two apiece, and the one guy gets one, thats 7 less the farmer has to worry about. Now, if 5 farmers in the immediate area let some hunters in, looks to me like there'll be a few less hogs to clamor about! I do understand about some clods coming in and not paying attention to where they're shooting, but for the most part, the squealin' is from the owners house, not the stye!
xcgates
Member
Liability in our overly litigious can be quite a driving factor.
Can you blame people for not letting people they don't know onto their property for hunting?
Can you blame people for not letting people they don't know onto their property for hunting?
winchester1886
Member
Hog Medicine 1895 Marlin Cowboy with a 400gr.Soft point pushed at approx 2,000 fps.
what is a good pig rifle ?
Double Naught Spy
Sus Venator
You are obviously not a land owner and familiar with liability laws. You may also not be familiar with the notions of making unwise decisions of allowing allowing armed strangers to have free run of your property.
In every state I have checked so far, if you have a hunter on your property who is there by invitation or pay (so not a trespasser, basically) and that hunter shoots somebody from your property unintentionally, you can still be held liable for the hunter's actions. Hogs cost landowners some money. A wrongful death lawsuit could flat wipe out the landowner.
While the landowner can have the hunter sign some for of waiver where the hunter won't hold the landowner responsible if the hunter is injured on the landowner's property, the waiver does not protect anybody else.
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