Flintknapper,
I have not read the entirety of this thread. Nowhere close in fact. So forgive me if this is not feasible for one reason or another.
I understand, its a LONG thread.
It seems that the pea patch is a good way to get a lot of pigs together at one time. With some night vision optic and a suppressor on a semi-auto rifle, does it seem likely you could take the majority of a group at one time?
Night Vision optics can be quite useful. Thermal especially....since no artificial light is necessary. However, the prospect of multiple shot opportunities is slim....in the area I am hunting. I have open pastures on my property, but seldom are the pigs out in them. I have dedicated bait sites back in the timber for the express purpose of keeping them out of my pastures. Unfortunately, this means I usually get one (maybe two) shot off before the others disappear in the trees and brush.
Is it possible to work with your neighbors to manage the problem in this manner? It's obviously not a permanent solution, but could an on going collaboration of this nature help mitigate the damage they're causing, by keeping the numbers low in the immediate area?
Yes, and in years past when my neighbors participate we are able to apply enough pressure on the hogs to move them out away from our collective properties. Creating a 'buffer zone' if you will. But it seems my neighbors quickly tire of the work and time necessary to keep the pigs 'beat back' and the pigs return in numbers.
Again, forgive if this has been discussed already. Reading your last post reminded my of a documentary I saw some time ago on the topic, and it seemed night vision scopes and suppressors were used. It sounds pretty awful having to deal with such a destructive pest for so long.
Oh I am sure we have covered the topic somewhere in this thread, but it doesn't hurt to ask. Yes, in wide open fields...the method you suggest can be employed. Unfortunately, it doesn't apply to the structure of my property, so I am relegated to trapping, snaring and shooting at bait sites as my primary means to combat them.
Thank You for your questions.
In an ideal world your idea would probably work....to a degree. The problem is, where Flynt lives, he’s surrounded by great hog habitat. He could kill every hog out of that sounder and in a week or two, he’d have another group show up.Flintknapper,
I have not read the entirety of this thread. Nowhere close in fact. So forgive me if this is not feasible for one reason or another.
It seems that the pea patch is a good way to get a lot of pigs together at one time. With some night vision optic and a suppressor on a semi-auto rifle, does it seem likely you could take the majority of a group at one time? Is it possible to work with your neighbors to manage the problem in this manner? It's obviously not a permanent solution, but could an on going collaboration of this nature help mitigate the damage they're causing, by keeping the numbers low in the immediate area?
Again, forgive if this has been discussed already. Reading your last post reminded my of a documentary I saw some time ago on the topic, and it seemed night vision scopes and suppressors were used. It sounds pretty awful having to deal with such a destructive pest for so long.
If we didn't enjoy being out in nature, we wouldn't do it. Just killing something doesn't happen often enough to keep one's interest.
I have noticed the skeeters have let up a bit. I always take my thermocell, though. I hate skeeters.
How do you keep deer out of those snares? I've never actually snared anything. I've thought about it over the years. I catch deer in the hog trap all the time, don't like to, but they get in there on occasion and I let 'em out.
Question:
If the scavengers can make a carcass all but disappear in 24-48 hours, why do you go through all the effort to haul the carcass to a "bone yard" ? Seems like that would be a heckava lot of work to go through in the wee hours of the morning for something that is just going to almost dissolve in a day or two.
They should look at the use of poison corn by farmer being outlawed several years back. The reason for that was poisoning non target animals in crop fields. Good reason NOT to use poison in any poison in any population control effort.On the news last night- ARKANSAS GAME & FISH wants to poison feral hogs with a poison called KAPUT. Don't know anymore than that, didn't give much detail. Military Base's here have been asking hunters to just shoot them and let em lay for years.
Two main reasons:
1. Locale. Most of these hogs are taken at a chosen bait or trap site. Leaving a carcass there can disrupt visitation of the other hogs I am trying to kill. Coyotes are actually not much of a problem, as they will remove as large a piece of the animal as they can and retire to another location to eat it. They don't sit over the carcass and consume it as the buzzards do. The scavenger birds (primarily buzzards) can number upwards of 50-60 birds, so its quite a gathering.
2. Visibility. By placing the carcass in an open area...the scavenger birds will very quickly locate it. If I were to leave it in the pine forest, then only when the carcass began to decompose (and emit an odor)...would the buzzards be able to locate it. As for Coyotes, they commonly hunt the pastures for field mice and rabbits, so by placing the carcass right in their normal hunting area, it is found more quickly by them as well.
Notes:
Any hog carcass disposed of at night is first 'available' to Coyotes, Fox, Possum and even other hogs. The Coyotes may or may not find it the first night. But they usually get first crack at it. The opposite is true if the carcass is left in the daytime. Then the buzzards usually consume most of it.
Buzzards obviously feed only in the daytime, but once they find the carcass... will strip it to the bone with amazing efficiency. I would say the average 'wake' of buzzards (where I live) is about 50 birds, but can be more than that.
Believe me.....that many large birds create quite a ruckus. You don't want that going on at or near a spot you are trying to hunt, regardless the relatively short duration.
Nonetheless, your question is good one and I suspect in some settings it would work just fine to leave the carcass where it lays.
What a mess You TX guys have with the hogs! As bothersome as our damned Prairie Dogs eating all our hay crops, but fifty times LARGER. We have the same situation...shoot the heck out of them and a week later it's like You weren't even there. All back again. The danged hogs reproduce even faster.
Yes, much the same.
But there is some redemption...in that we can eat the hogs.
Can't imagine a good Prairie Dog recipe.
I suspect they are like squirrel and are a lot of effort for the amount of food provided.
http://hotspotoutdoors.com/forums/topic/117461-prairie-dog-recipes/
Some people really like them.
Hmmm, Prairie Dog Boudin, anyone?My rule of thumb for determining if something is fit to eat....is to look and see if there is a Cajun/Creole recipe for it. If not....then I'm gonna pass for sure. Those folks will eat pretty much anything.
I'd try it once.Hmmm, Prairie Dog Boudin, anyone?