Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Texas Losing the War Against Feral Hogs

There's no doubt that, but they don't go far. I don't think hogs are hard on deer. They're hard on people. There are only three things that are really bad for deer. Dogs, drought and the rut.

Not saying they don't chow down at them. I'm saying the root cause is not that.

There was a very strong growing population in recent years in the Sacramento Mountains in NM, where I was stationed as a Wildlife Specialist dealing with the issue.

The hogs have ZERO deer feeders there. None for a couple hundred miles or more in any direction.

Yet they thrive.

Hog populations are thriving in environments suitable to them thriving.

Where is Jerry "American Hoggers" Campbell and his dysfunctional family who were catching hog on TV a couple of years ago?

And I continue to kill deer regardless if dogs are around, but I don't doubt they kill a lot of deer and young deer... yotes get the rap, dogs do the killing, speaking of wild dogs...

The hogs sure move the deer off known food sources, plots, feeders, protein feeders etc....

You don't have to go that far to find em back though typically, they just don't want to be all that close to pigs.

A strong and growing population is one thing. Swarms of them are another altogether.

A strong and growing population soon becomes a swarm in 6-9 months. Tom

JPro ,

About the same here come hunting season -no hogs - in other words if the weather is cool enough to feel like hunting and skinning -no hogs- . Plus as stated earlier when deer hunters fill feeders for deer season hogs eat a lot of it at night and are gone when deer hunters are hunting.

I put out 600lbs. of corn yesterday -our lease has an unspoken thing called CORN-WARS - I plan on heading out to hunt my spot tomorrow.
Think of how many hogs 600lbs. of corn feed .
Our members would rather hunt hogs than deer -coyotes/bears/gators/eagles have killed most of the deer so people hunt what there is to hunt.
2,000 acre lease and only 2-3 deer killed per year.
Myself I don't bother with deer -wouldn't shoot one -there just aren't enough to justify it for me.

Like Eddybo the board member who passed away a couple years ago said -hogs will grow in numbers until the next great depression .

Memory sucks... lincoln area? Maybe?

I remember hunting there in the early 2000s... MZ. Had not been there in 10 years... we are up on top trying to find back a 25 inch buck that an elk hunter blew out along wiht elk by stupidly wandering around in fog you couldn't see 50 feet in... but I digress...

So up on top, glassing and hear grunting.. buddy says pigs... I say nope, ain't none of them SOBs here...gotta be a bear... we keep watching, across low oak scrub comes more noise... and then finally somehting like 8-12 hogs. Not pigs. Hogs... I doubt there was a single one under 300. I didn't want to shoot and spook the possible buck...I'd have never drug em down either...

But I was flat amazed.. that was somehting like 2003 IIRC.

We had bowhunted in the area, I can't recall the name, it was between blue canyon and buck canyon though(last one was wildly aptly named over years of archery) Mayhill maybe.

Yet there are no deer feeders here...



You get swarms as time goes on. Some areas in NM have very dense populations and just as much damage from hogs as in Texas.

Yeah, Mayhill and the Lincoln Natl. Forest are the most impacted area I have seen.

Multiplying regularly.

I guess it's the pinon nuts...

I was FLAT amazed. Never expected to see them there...

Yep.

For sure. I've seen it myself.

We were noticing how quickly hogs, deer and coyote carcassas were devoured over night at our camp gut pile. We assumed it was coyotes, but put out a trail camera. To our surprise, it was a bunch of hogs that came in at night, cleaned the carcasses down to the bones on all comers, including hogs.

Hogs are equal opportunity scavengers and will eat just about anything, including their own kin...

Disgusting critters.

DF

I've had hogs root up pasture and knock over feeders that weren't staked down but i've never had them leave gates open so cows could get out, leave beer cans and trash everywhere or think that a one time invitation is a lifetime pass to bring everyone they want out. But i have had guests do all of these things. Between opening up the place to anyone and everyone and putting up with hogs I'll take the hogs. I would probably feel different if I planted row crops or something similar but using the land for hunting and a few cows the hogs are minor nuisance that are offset by having something fun to hunt. I think that's probably how most landowners in my area view them as well.

Texas does have a statute providing that landowners who open up their land for recreational purposes free of charge are immune from suit unless they willfully injure the person. But that's not something that is going to prevent a lawsuit, rather its something that will get the lawsuit dismissed after the landowner's spent several thousand dollars getting the suite answered and motion to dismiss filed.

Bowhunting years ago a buddy gut shot a doe in Llano... rule is you don't follow gut hits for 8 hours and they will be in the first bed dead within 100 yards. Pretty simple. Daytime anyway. Although this is the only one in 20 years we lost at night.

Found the bed the next morning. Found some hair not a lot. Never found any bones or anything, other than a few jaw fragments of the doe. NOTHING else at all.

Certainly an interesting "discussion" you've gotten started here mudhen. One thing is for sure, whether it's landowners or Fish and Wildlife departments, there's a supply of money to be had apparently, for the "privilege" of reducing numbers of a non-native pest species. At least in some states.

Years ago the same issue cropped up in California. "landowners' wanted the numbers reduced, there were tags available for $5 a piece in a book of five, and that book could be replaced when filled. As I recall, and I may be mistaken in some areas, access was usually easy to obtain and either free or for a reasonable fee. Landowners wanted the dang things gone. When it became known that folks were willing to shell out money, and probably for "inflation" of management costs, prices went up, substantially in my opinion.

From the CDFW website
Non-res license: $163.65 Res: $47.01

Non-res pig tag: $77.34 each (not five as before) Res: $22.41

Pigs harvested (reported) in '14-'15: only 1605 total.

https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=115776&inline


Now, I wonder if harvest go up if fees were dropped?

Seeing as how a good percentage of the hogs are taken n private land, usually a guide is needed. Here's a couple of examples:

Tejon Ranch (largest private one in CA):
Guided: weekday, $1200 each, $1800 single hunter 3 d. hunts
weekend: $1400/$1800 as above
Or there's a group hunt for ONLY $6000 for up to 8 hunters.

sacriverguide: $350/day guide fee + $400 kill fee

There's more info out there for those interested in checking prices for a hog hunt.

These are not fees that a fella of low-moderate means can afford to hunt a pest species. At least not the fellas I know.

Now here's one that gets me, in a wine region where the hogs are mostly not welcome:

Northern California hog hunting on 7,500+ acres of private land. The Outfitter takes pride in his Quality Management Program and will only harvest boars. (my emphasis) I couldn't find a price, but this is what pig managers are up against.

There's enough money to be made that there is a "reverse" incentive to getting rid of them. Another poster rightly pointed out that the excess production from nearby sounders will soon invade neighboring properties. I have to wonder if the 7500 + acres mentioned above is unsuitable for crop production so they let the sows ride free, to the detriment of the neighboring Ag areas?

Someone suggested finding a pathogen/parasite to deal with them. Scary stuff there, I bet our southern friends down Australia way would like to go back in time and redo cane toad and fox introductions that were used in an attempt to control invasives.

If possible, maybe some of our WY/MT and that area guys could chip in with what landowners up there think/charge/don't charge for "pest" (gophers. prairie dogs) removal by willing hunters.

I'm one who has a hard time spending good money for access to remove a pest species from someone's land. I'd also consider it "complaining" if a landowner asks for depredation permits to remove the state's animals from the property. If not a problem (complaint) then why apply for a permit. Note , this may not apply to TX as I'm not familiar with their regs for "pests" on private property, whether the pests belong to the people of the State or not. If a landowner doesn't want the animals on their property, fence them out. ( just like if you don't want the hawks to get your chickens, you better put up the bird mesh overhead, same goes for deer in the orchard)

Geno

PS, how's this for a solution, sure to bug the H out of the Texans. Take all that land in TX and have the State buy it up for Public Land, charge grazing fees, lease out hayfields, and open it up to Public Hunting! (sarcasm font off now)

They will not eat dead javelina, though mountain lions will....

Now that's interesting, they won't eat a javelina.

I had thought of including introducing/re-introducing mt. lions to parts of TX as a solution to the pig problem, and they'd more than likely help out with the javelina on those places that don't like having so many. Pretty sure they are the major predator of javelina in AZ.

Geno

PS, rost, stay safe on your call-outs. one can never be too careful there.

Nuts here lately, though I"m almost at 48 hours without a page right now which is NICE... It was probably Christmas time starting that we had not gone a single day without at least one call...

I don't know about mountain lions and live pigs and live javelina, I know they eat/bury dead javelina and pigs both.

But feral pigs have never touched a javelina when I've been around.

I'm thinking his health is pretty bad. As I have said before I nearly ran over his ass in his ratty old Jeep as he was trying to cross over the hwy from one pasture to another. Big Ford diesel was waiting behind him. He and his family lost their jobs in the excitement of the filming of that show. Only a little industry in Brownwood. This was about 4 miles from the farm when I had left and going back to DFW.
He needs to be kept off the roads for sure.

Not many hogs on my place, one pic. in 5 years. 2:00am

Here's a question-what does hog chit look like. Who has a pic.?

I see weird scat , not sure if it's a hog or what.