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

...and east of Houston, everything is "brushy"...or swamp...or marsh.

TFF you obviouly have never been to TX

I've NEVER seen Mikewriter complain about hogs. I never have because I"m lucky not to have them.

If you had to hunt them the way I have to for a friend, free and all... you wouldn't hunt them very long... nocturnal. No clue or timing when they come... I"ve invested some cash in a detector and some cameras, and a good mat and sleeping bag... and I sleep nights out, ONLY when the wind is one direction if not tehy will smell you, IMHO their noses are about 1000 times better than a deers nose... And I've had alerts on my detector at 2am, me sleeping behind some stuff and 75 yards from them, make too much noise sliding out of a sleeping bag and spook them... before I could grab the rifle and get a shot... but when its deer or coons or such I"ve never had them know I was there...

30 years ago, before lawyers sued for anything, you could get permission for about anything, 50 years ago for sure.

We even pay to hunt hogs and such at reasonable rates around 75 a day, just for fun and to get away.

I won't pay much more though personally.

And I have seen the expensive hunts. Can't fault a person for trying to make some money off their property really.

And the lady I hunt for, she is really risking a lot of liability, but knows me personally so its not a big thing.

There is no easy solution for sure. I sure see all the sides of this puzzle.

The one thing I can say, shooting will not get rid of htem all, especially if you can't hunt EVERYWHERE. If they have sanctuary, they will continue to thrive.

I agree that a few folks here would make good safe hunters.

The problem is removing a few isn't going to help.

It would be FUN though, thats for sure, but it won't help a thing.

Kill 10 pigs, and thats a stretch for a couple of days hunting, and one sow drops a litter of 15.... you are already loosing again...

I"m not a bad shot.... The most I've ever killed at a single time was 7 with buckshot. 5 with a rifle. As noted when do you see them the next time? 2-3 litters later?

At the end of the deer skin trade (late 18th century) there were Creeks from central Alabama, Coosa/Talapoosa River area, who were venturing as far west as east Texas in search of deer. They had become extinct for all practical purposes in the SE!
At the Poste des Nachitos in the mid 18th century, Louisiana, the deer carcasses rotted outside the post while the Habitants dined on pork, deer hair scraped from the bids was used as temper in the bousiage (mortar) n all the buildings. It was easier to use that the usual Spanish moss. The moss had to be cooked in order to kill it! To keep it from growing in the wall of a structure!

One French officer at the Post des Alibamons (1740's) stated one Creek hunter took 366 deer in one year with bow and arrow!

Interestingly, by 1790, Methodist minister among the Choctaw in Mississippi stated he had never seen a Choctaw male use a bow and arrow! They all had firearms.

Thank you RBB.

We live in the golden age of deer hunting thanks to this effort.





The properties I have hunted all have a standing rule that any hog seen must be shot on sight. Not wanting to mess up a hunt for Mr. Big Horns is not an excuse. Failure to do so is cause to be asked to leave and never return.

Here are a few photos to give a feel for South Texas. This is from the western side of South Texas, aka "The Golden Triangle."

The area is harsh, and most every plant in these photos have thorns, but the country is beautiful in its own way and a place I love.

The first photo shows electric poles for reference; note most the of the brush is about 1/2 the height of the pole.

Skinning deer will have prickly pear thorns in the front legs and chest. It always makes me wonder what they feel living every minute of every day with the cactus thorns in them.

To Miles, no one has ever heard me "whine" about hogs on my place! I have a small piece of land, and the feral hogs that cross it (and stay for awhile) Are both a crop and sport for me - but my place is mostly "jungle", not much they can do to cause damage.

I grew up with feral hogs in East Texas. Hogs here were not introduced or spread by hunters, but by hog owners. A lot of East Texas has pretty much always been paper/timber company land, and hogs were just free-roaming livestock. When I was in high school(1960's) Newton County, on the Louisiana border, still did not have a "stock law", so anyone could register an earmark at the county courthouse and turn their hogs loose to fend pretty much for themselves. They were "rounded up" with dogs and traps. The big boom came when prices of feral hogs went to nearly nothing, and the owners just stopped messing with them. As I've mentioned here before, I killed a lot of hogs as a teenager, but it was not strictly legal.

Feral hogs are considered an "invasive species" in Texas now, with no seasons or bag limits, and very few - if any - restrictions on hunting/harvesting them. Private property still must be respected, and access to state owned or controlled land is limited. A Valid Texas hunting license is required to hunt ANYTHING in Texas, although land owners can obtain permits to kill destructive hogs that will cover anyone they designate and over ride the need for a state license, I think.

As most know, hunting has become a big business in Texas, with exotics and hogs playing a large part in that. Because there are no restrictions on the species, they can extend a "hunting year" considerably, which is good for the landowner and hunters. Hunting will NOT eliminate hogs - they are too smart and too adaptable and too prolific. Helicopter hunts don't work too well in which brush, and the hogs quickly learn what the sound of a "chopper" means. If a landowner is suffering damage from hogs, turning the tables on them and using hunters to make them a "cash crop" is only an intelligent response. The world is a different place now than when I was in high school. Back then we could hunt on most paper company land without "permission", and I had several sections of wooded property that belonged to neighbors I did have permission t hunt on. Liabilities and the behavior of some people have just about ended those days, and the economy has largely taken away free hunting. Most landowners don't allow unlimited access to cut trees, either.

As to "driving" hogs with dogs, you don't really do that. Hogs don't like dogs, and pressuring them with dog hunting will often move them off a property for a time - but they aren't that much afraid of dogs, and will usually stop and fight, rather than run ahead of them. This means the hunter has to go in the thickets with the dogs, as has already been mentioned, when the hogs are bayed. Depending on both the dog and the hog, it may them be difficult to get a clear shot, which is one of the reasons some dog hunters use knives to kill their hogs. This is not a non-contact sport!

Somebody asked me awhile back if I still had a hog problem on my place? I told him, no, that they seemed to have moved off for a bit, but were back regularly now. He thought a bit and then said you obviously don't consider them a problem? Personally, I don't. I usually get a deer every year off my property, but I can shoot hogs all year, day and night - trap them if I want. They keep me busy in my old age, and can provide my family with more meat than I could "raise" on my small property by conventional livestock farming.

So, no, I don't complain about the hogs, and because I do have a small property, I don't need help from the general public to "control" them. Your results may vary, of course.

You can have Texas and everything in it. Give me mountains to run, rain, visibility, canyons, lush creeks, hanging moss, blacktail deer and black bears. I love the desert west, but don't think Texas would be all that much fun to hunt.

Hunt a family place in Deep South Texas. Loaded with hogs. Same rule for hogs; see it, shoot it! The place is also FULL Of turkey, deer, and quail. Matter of fact it is loaded with all manner of fauna! I've literally had to drive the turkey out of my way walking back to ranch house! Sometimes 100's. Occasionally un-invited bipeds show too! All surrounding ranches same way! Loaded! But as I stated in earlier post. Hogs can be more of a nuisance that a pest to us! I've seen bucks run hogs off! And I've seen javelina run deer off.

Thanks to Jeffbird for those beautiful pictures! Folks do need to remember, though, that Texas has a wide and varied geography , with various vegetation. On my part of the Texas coast, we have tall oak and pecan trees, and palmettos instead of prickly pears. Our brush is as thick as South Texas in many places, just not quite as thorny! Oh, and it's WET here! Hogs love it.

I had a plantar wart on my foot. It was painful. When I approached the Doctor about paying me to let him remove it, he laughed.

So what the [bleep] do you have a problem with there? When I was a kid, every redneck I knew who hunted deer had a pen full of blue ticks and walkers. Now, only a few of the diehards and the old men do. Dogs are expensive to keep and they take a lot of time and work. Agricultural jobs gave you the time to do that. Jobs like we have today pretty much don't. And most people don't bother because deer are easier to kill without dogs than they are with them. And around here, nobody cares enough about hogs to keep too many big dogs.

As for how it used to be done. In my town, every year after the first frost, the town got together and put the dogs in the bottoms. They would round up the hogs with the dogs and shoot as many as they neede and divide them out. My one armed great grandfather would shoot them behind the ear with a 25-20 that I wished we still had.

Easy to understand the sentiment, but of all of the places I have hunted, South Texas is my favorite by far.

Guess it all depends on what we experience growing up. Cold and wet is a nice break for us for a vacation in August, but drier and warmer is more enjoyable to me for hunting. Here is some pig hunting in November, note the cold weather clothing.

In Texas, landowners have very limited exposure to liability for hunting related activities.

Here is a link to the Texas Recreational Use Statute for reference for any landowners that might read this thread.

http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/CP/htm/CP.75.htm
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As to a payout yes that's true and Texas Law. As has been talked about above, you still have to get a $500 hour lawyer to defend yourself again said lawsuit, right or wrong. Then you have to file a lawsuit to maybe get your money back, which cost more. Not worth the trouble.

As to a payout yes that's true and Texas Law. As has been talked about above, you still have to get a $500 hour lawyer to defend yourself again said lawsuit, right or wrong. Then you have to file a lawsuit to maybe get your money back, which cost more. Not worth the trouble.
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No, even anyone bringing a case is incredibly rare. If one was brought insurance pays for the cost of defense, same as for a car wreck. Honestly, do you know of a suit against a landowner in Texas in the last ten years since the Recreational Use Statute has been in effect?

This was discussed on the Texas Hunting Forum, and not one single person could point to a single suit against a landowner arising from hunting.

I love lots of territory, thankfully I'm not to blinded to be arrogant enough to say I want mine and you can shove yours..

FWIW we have a few mountains, rain, canyons, lush creeks, moss out the wazoo, enough so that it kills trees, and black bears. And we have a bit of West TX that is like desert too...

And we have LOTs of other things..

We don't have blacktails, though we have whitetails, carmens IIRC, and mule deer. I like sitka blacktails... sure wouldn't tell someone to keep them either.

But then again for some reason I expect this type of post from some folks. Those folks likely are better off just staying in their little world rather than expanding their horizons.

Hey we even have public land you can hunt here for free too! And I"ve killed more than just a couple deer/pigs off it... ducks, geese, rabbits, squirrels and so on... amazing what folks have no clue about.

As to comments on thickets... Jeffbirds pics show it to some extent but lets just say I"ve trailed pigs (blood trail) in stuff where the ONLY way to follow and find the pig is literally crawling in tunnels in the brush...and as noted, there isn't much that doesn't have thorns, thank God for whitebrush and bufflegrass....

Good work! I hate our heat. Really HATE it. I quit saltwater fishing in the spring when its to warm to wear a hooded sweatshirt for the most part.

I'd rather put clothes on than take it off.. LOL.

Thankfully I will be mostly solving that heat issue in about 5 years.

Only place I've hunted ducks where I have to keep a can of OFF in my backpack... phug that. Sweat in a deer blind. Sweat walking to the stand.

Its likely one reason I mostly stopped bowhunting, it was impossible not to sweat and stink and deer ain't so dumb that they ignore wind direction most of the time. LOL And pigs NEVER ignore wind direction coming to a stand.

But I digress.

Me telling someone how to manage wolves would be like wolf managers telling you how to manage pigs.

Some probably think if we wanted to, we could kill all crows too.... LOL, ya know they are so dumb too.

During WW2, the government physicians tried to develop a scientific method to figure out physical traits to screen inductees on whether they would function better in cold or hot AO's. Finally, someone decided to just ask the person if they preferred hot or cold weather.

No, even anyone bringing a case is incredibly rare. If one was brought insurance pays for the cost of defense, same as for a car wreck. Honestly, do you know of a suit against a landowner in Texas in the last ten years since the Recreational Use Statute has been in effect?

This was discussed on the Texas Hunting Forum, and not one single person could point to a single suit against a landowner arising from hunting.

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Well not a lawyer here, so don't get in the civil area of law at all.
Got to be some lawsuits, but a civil lawyer I'm sure could look up some cases for you. With his fee of course.

If you really want to find out if any farmers/ranchers have been sued for letting others hunt their land, somebodies bound to know how to look that up. Rost (jeff) has said he knows of such a deal up above somewhere.
On Farm, auto, home, liability insurance would use as a last choice. Use it your going to lose it type deal or the cost will go up.
Pay for things if I can.

As far as killing all the hogs in Texas goes. Going to do my best in March of this year for 3 whole days. That should take care of them.
Ahhh well one would make me happy.