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

#537 Whiz....Bang

Just for something different, I hauled out a .62 smoothbore I have and managed to put a sneak on a little guy this morning. He sure jumped in the air a couple times after meeting up with the round ball. I was trying for his shoulders, but got him a little far back. I'm just not that accurate with my little smoothbore.
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Stony, do you clean all of the hogs you shoot?? I mean 537 pigs is a LOT....you must have a mountain of pigs in various stages of decomp lol.
 
Actually the hog remains disappear about as fast as I leave them. I can take the hind legs off of a 200 pounder and there will be nothing left of it the following morning. Between the buzzards and coyotes, they clean it up as fast as I can dump it. I take the hind legs only normally, and the backstraps off if I get a good fat larger one. I just skin em' out, wash em' up and into a zip lock and the freezer. I never have any problems giving them away.
If I were to completely process all the hogs I take, it would overwhelm me....so I just sort of compromise in how I handle them.
 
I've seen that just taking the hind quarters is pretty common. No gutting or complicated skinning. Still jealous you're able to get on them so often lol


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I shot a buck once with that same smoothbore and it dropped him pretty quick with a complete pass through the lungs. I just grab whatever seems to catch my attention when I go out, but not so much muzzleloaders. I'm shooting in a match tomorrow with another .62 of mine, but it's rifled. It understandably shoots a little more accurately.
 
#538 Bites the dust..

Had this gentleman in a trap this morning. He just needed a little subsonic .22 to alter his disposition. It's hard to actually show size, but he would go well over 250 lbs.....lots of coyote and buzzard food. Sure a pain to drag one this size around on the ground.
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Stony, Tie a big one to a tree and i will be out to check out the nifty little Ruger American Ranch 300 Blackout i picked up today. :D Tomorrow i will find out if it shoots as well as it looks. Love the 300 Blackout cartridge in supersonic speed, plenty of pep for the biggest hogs.
 
I might need a little notice to get one tied to a tree for you, but I'm sure when you get here next time we can get some holes poked in them with your Blackout. I hope it shoots as well as the one I've been playing with in 6.5 Creedmore.
 
#540..It's what's for dinner

Yup another one on the tailgate....This little lady was waiting for me in a trap this morning. It's been really hot around here lately and I think the hogs have been keeping to the cooler spots like the river bottoms and places like that near water, so not a lot of movement. I just moved and revamped a new trap that I set up with cattle panels, so I'm hoping they will get moving again.
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Congrats Stony! More blood for the tailgate!

My normal hog spot had a big burn last year. And massive flooding this Christmas. The river bottom is full of sticks, twigs, and driftwood. And the top land is 6'-8' weeds and thorns so thick I bet a D8 dozer couldn't clear it. Hogs have more places to hide than ever before. I have a couple bait sites set up semi close to a tall pond dam. But it's 2+ miles in. And public land. No one goes back there but I can't drag a brush mower that far back. And I don't think I can legally alter the land (mow) it even if I wanted to. So these hogs have been untouched since early December. Might have a bumper crop of piggies this fall.
 
Big Bore....This last winter and spring has really altered the playing field for a lot of us. Hogs just adapt and I guess we have to also if we want to keep ourselves in the game. We are hovering right around 100 degrees right now and any groups of hogs have been really scarce again. They can always find places to hide and wait out weather changes and adapt to changes in their habitat.
I am stuck at a swap meet for 4 days now and had to shut down traps and basically ignore my hog hunting in the meantime. Something just doesn't seem right about not getting up in the morning and heading for the woods.
 
Those hogs will take advantage of your absence and multiply.

But if it makes you feel any better, predators are gaining in the DFW area. I've seen more bobcats and coyotes in urban areas than I'd ever imagined possible.
 
Bogie....Yup, stuck at First Monday this weekend. I did manage to get out and spread some corn late yesterday, but it's too darned hot for the hogs to be interested anyway I think. Come Monday morning I'll be back at the hog trapping again.
 
BigBore44 said:
Congrats Stony! More blood for the tailgate!

My normal hog spot had a big burn last year. And massive flooding this Christmas. The river bottom is full of sticks, twigs, and driftwood. And the top land is 6'-8' weeds and thorns so thick I bet a D8 dozer couldn't clear it. Hogs have more places to hide than ever before. I have a couple bait sites set up semi close to a tall pond dam. But it's 2+ miles in. And public land. No one goes back there but I can't drag a brush mower that far back. And I don't think I can legally alter the land (mow) it even if I wanted to. So these hogs have been untouched since early December. Might have a bumper crop of piggies this fall.
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Sir, feel free to request my aid if you need some help with helping to control your wild pet population! lol I've been itching to get my first big boar, just unable to find a proper plot of land whose owner will allow me to hunt.
Post up some pictures when you get the chance!
 
My wife and sister went Friday. I had work. I don't think I could walk much of it, still in recovery stage from surgery in February. Hoping to get well enough to hunt this fall. what section do you set up in?
 
Bogey....I set up in the pavilion next to the Dixie house on the far northwest corner of the main grounds. This was the second time I've done that, and hopefully the last. I put out a bunch of knives and a few guns that I don't use anymore and was just basically trying to downsize a bunch of stuff laying around my garage and shop. It was hot and fairly miserable and not a fun activity for me. My wife says we should do it again, but I'm not really in favor of it. I did basically sell all the knives I wanted to part with though, and a couple of the guns.
I find it sort of disconcerting to set there and have all the know everything type of guys come by to educate me about the good and bad points of my guns. I had a Ruger 77 in .350 mag out there that is a great shooter...complete with dies and ammo. I must have had 50 guys or more telling me the good and bad points of the caliber...and very few of them knew what they were talking about. I think I'll just keep it and use it some more.
 
Ibmikey said:
Stony, Tie a big one to a tree and i will be out to check out the nifty little Ruger American Ranch 300 Blackout i picked up today. :D Tomorrow i will find out if it shoots as well as it looks. Love the 300 Blackout cartridge in supersonic speed, plenty of pep for the biggest hogs.
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Hope you're right, my last hog camp the owner said he was very unimpressed with a customer who used a .300 Blackout, said it didn't have much effect on hogs when shot. Don't know what exact round he was using though.
 
Paul7 said:
Hope you're right, my last hog camp the owner said he was very unimpressed with a customer who used a .300 Blackout, said it didn't have much effect on hogs when shot. Don't know what exact round he was using though.
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I acquired a 300 BLK late last year, and haven't used it much so far, so the jury is still out regarding it's usefulness on hogs. I think it's certainly underpowered compared to other cartridges, with the exception of the 5.56/.223. The 300 BLK certainly doesn't compare to my .308.

I suppose it's kind of like the 5.56 in that, if you like it and want to use it, it'll do the job if the shooter controls the circumstances. With my .308, I can shoot a running hog, hit it way too far back, and maybe break the hip joint or leg bone. Not sure the 300 BLK would do so much damage. OTOH, with a NV scope or shooting over bait and a light, I'm thinking the 300 BLK should do okay.

Right now I have only a single data point. I shot a 270# boar last week with it. It was an acute quartering away shot from maybe 75 yards. Not a difficult shot, and that big hog went right down. So, while I don't yet know how well this rifle will work against hogs in the long run, it's off to a good start. I need to collect more data! :)
 
Paul7, Yes I am quite enthralled with the 300 Blackout cartridge and have four AR's and an AR pistol, AAC Handi Rifle and Ruger American Ranch all in 300. bO. I have had quite a bit of success with my hand loads and shot my biggest hog ever with a 125 gr TNT out of the single shot Handi. The hog (over 350 pounds) ran approximately sixty yards and hit the ground dead. It was so big Stony and I could hardly turn it over and drug it off to a coyote eating spot with his pick up.
I do a lot of plinking with the Blackout from one or another of my firearms chambered for it, and actually enjoy shooting it as much as my 5.56 rifles. One must load or the cartridge could put a ding in the budget.
 
Another tailgate party

Yup..another shot of the tailgate. I made the mistake of not walking into the area where these were in a trap this morning, and saw one running off when I drove up to it. Guess I was feeling a little too lazy this morning and should have gotten one more. This makes 543 from this property. The other nearby properties I frequent have been pretty quiet as far as hogs go.
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