Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Hog problem...

This from the local paper:
(Texas) "Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs said Texas has the dubious distinction of the the feral hog capital of the United State, with up to 2 million wild porkers running loose."
"Combs' agency has awarded half a million dollars in grants to Texas A&M and Texas Tech University to research the problem and suggest solutions."

Humm, for half a big one, I can think of a number of solutions....

For that kinda money I'll be a pig shootin' fool!!! Or just a fool, depending on whom you ask.
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

For 500K all I can say is Have gun will travel... and shoot pigs too <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

HBB

Guys, guns and hunting will not solve the pig problem. I hunt everyday in the middle of them and they are too smart. Out of a group of thirty or so if you are sharp you can kill one. If you are double sharp and can shoot on the run you can kill two. Then you won't see them for two or three weeks. At three litters a year and 7 or 8 piglets per litter you just can't keep up.

We would poison them if we could. A bright guy with a solution could make money..

SS

Heck I live in the state and they can keep there money just point me the right direction. One or two 80-100 pounders makes for a good BBQ. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

I know of a retired phoneman that trapps wild hogs,
feeds them out and sells them at a couple of different
sale barns.All that he is out is diesel fuel and feed.
I hear he ain't doing too bad.

I understand that if you trap them in a pen there are folks who will pay to pick them up. Lotsa more pentype traps would help I think... & hunt the suckers at night, they get a little braver when it's dark. The ranchers who try to make money off of hog hunters deserve the damage to their land. A 50 or 100 dollar per weekend for a no limit hog hunt would draw a LOT of hunters. These 150.00 per day and pay per pound places deserve all of the destruction the oinkers can provide....

The kind of " hunters " you would get in a fifty dollar, no limit hunt would do more damage than the hogs !

Wild hog is the BEST meat...and there are a TON of them in TX....and they are soooo distructive! I always love to read the stories about hog hunting with dogs....always great pics!

HoundGirl

Well, I guess RAISING the price will do wonders then... Here's to more hogs and higher taxes to eradicate them.

Ten step program to pig problem solution:

1: contract from TX to take out X (large) number of pigs.
2: contract from buyer to take x (large) number of dead pigs.
3: Feeders, and lots of them.
4: Class III license for a suppressor.
5: Suppress one .308 caliber bolt-action rifle.
6: Night vision optics.
7: Two or three strong friends/employees with big trucks.
8: PLENTY of shells.
9: PLENTY of fuel.
10: LARGE bank account.

I'm willing to try!

Thats too close to the truth...Sad...
Bart

Here Piggy Piggy......come to momma

Don't need no half million dollar grant to fix the problem. Don't need a college degree either. I can fix it if I can find the stuff to do it with. I guaran-damn-tee you I can because we did it back in the early 50's when we had the first wild hog outbreak here. Didn't see them again until about ten-twelve years ago when they came back.

Worked this way.

In the old days the hog colera vaccine came as a two part dose. First you gave your hogs a live virus dose then three (exactly) days later you gave them the anti-virus which cured them of the case of (developing) hog colera they had from the first dose.

All in the world you did was trap a wild hog or three, give him that live colera virus and turn the sob loose. He has hog colera and never gets the second dose. He gives it to any other hog he comes in contact with. I say he but sows are better because boars are mostly solitary when they are grown.

In about a month you can ride through the woods and see buzzards fly up and find ten or fifteen hogs dead in a pile. We did.

Anybody can get ahold of live hog colera virus let me know and how much you want for it. I hate the things with a passion.

BCR

Introduce the color yellow to their field of view...turns 'em into complete democrats, er...idiots. Yeah, that's it, idiots.

Everytime I've bumped into a group of 20-30 of them I've come away with 5-7 every time. But then again, I'm not a fool. Rifles don't do it, but buckshot in my 590 has them flopped all over the place.

And with a rifle and if you are any good in a large group, if you can't take out 2-3 with the first shot, you have a lot of education to go. The 2nd and 3rd shots are much tougher I'll grant that.

Jeff

This year,on our lease, we killed 7 hogs. They ranged in size from about 350# to about 25#. All were shot the first few days of the the season, after that, nobody saw any more hogs-although there were some sign around. I got game cam shots of them around one of my feeders-but didn't see any during "hunting hours".
For eradication, some form of trapping has to be the answer. They are just too smart to hunt successfully, long enough, to do any good.

Boggy;

That would work. Mean as heck, wasteful, but effective. Nothing, and I mean nothing, like a nasty disease to knock a population of anything down cold.