I hunted hogs in California last fall. They provided an information booklet at the license office In that booklet it said that 40 plus states have wild hogs and in the next 20 years all of 50 will. They seem to think it is a very fast growing population of animals that will become a problem if not controlled.

I have seen token animals in a few states like Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Nothing to call huntable, or a problem. I do know they can survive almost any environment, as long as there is water. Water seems to be the biggest limitation to the wild hog survival, they can eat and grow on just about anything. So those PNW states I've mentioned Should be loaded with hogs if there is really a problem with them. There is plenty of water, and an endless supply of food for them.

In California I've seen lots of hogs on private ranches, but hunting on Public land has such low success that it's not really a practical way to spend your time. California has some of the best habitat on earth for wild hogs to thrive. So does Texas, but again mostly private land.

How strong is the wild hog population in America? Is this Brochure from California accurate in that wild hogs will be huntable in all 50 states in the next 20 or so years?

We've got them here in TN. They've been in the eastern part of the state forever, but haven't seemed to spread as far as I know. I'm not sure what the limiting factor on their expansion is, as I would have expected them to spread.

Rednecks with spotlights

LMAO!

P.S. And the proliferaton of BBQ shows on "The Food Network" ...

Rednecks with spotlights indeed! America's deadliest predator!

How well do hogs do in the cold of the northern states? I imagine some can survive, but will they flourish? Am thinking that long cold winters and deep snow could be problems for them.

Another limiting factor could be predators. Washington has a large population of black bear. Wolf numbers are growing throughout the west. Cougar are common. Heck, even our coyotes are pretty darned impressive, I've got one hide that measures 5' from nose to tip of the tail. Am certain our 'yotes take a toll on the deer population. A wild boar can be a tough critter, but there are a fair number of big predators up in the northern states that might take a liking to pork!

I haven't hunted hogs in a long time. It sure was fun though!

They have been in southern New Mexico since the homesteading days. There are still folks who trap feral hogs and ear-mark them and then turn them loose to forage for themselves until fall mast crops fatten them up. However, in my experience, they are not common anywhere on public land. Most of the live water and riparian habitat in New Mexico is private--except for the high mountain ranges, most public land is arid and poorly watered, compared to the private land.

I managed a large ranch in southern New Mexico that had abundant feral hogs, especially during the years when our El Nino winters boosted our annual rainfall totals. I used to get requests for access from as far away as southern Colorado and the urban areas of Phoenix and especially Tucson.

Initially, I looked on it as a good way to thin their numbers a bit, but it turned out that most of the "hunters" wanted to drive their jeeps and ATVs around the ranch for a few days, and maybe shoot a hog on their way out. I would direct folks to areas where the hogs were causing problems with their rooting, but the only hogs that would get taken were pretty much shot from a vehicle or an ATV in chance encounters.

I ended up limiting the hog hunting to a few ranch families in the area that would take a few hogs to supplement beef and venison in their larders. Even though I have been gone from the ranch for over two years, I still get calls and e-mails from folks who want to hunt hogs...

I do a lot of boar/hog hunting. Note your post referencing "WILD" hogs. Many states have hogs penned/preserved which is quite different from truly free roaming hogs. Virtually the entire south from South Carolina to Florida to Texas & of course California has hogs. Then the NW that was mentioned. Most land owners wish they didn't have them. I have shot about 125 mostly in Florida but some is Texas,SC, & Georgia. Lots of sport.

Shhh. Quit giving away our secrets.

Missouri has a scattered population. Our Conservation Department is attempting to get a handle on numbers, expansion, and control the things. The MDC estimates we may have somewhere between 5,000 - 10,000 scattered across the southern Ozarks. The MDC has trapped them, and, is now going to gun them from a helicoptor this winter. Hogs are scattered around in many of the areas I hunt and I have seen a few of them, plus lots of sign. I have some friends who have killed a few. One of my friends tracked one in the snow and jumped it from a clearcut, killing a 275 pound razorback. Hard looking critter for sure... Big hogs occasionally make some of the rural papers. A couple of years ago a squirrel hunter had a pair of big boars come by and he misplaced a head shot on one of them. The wounded boar treed the guy and kept him up in the tree until his hunting buddy came looking for him around lunch time. The bud killed the hog which was still hanging around and after getting some help they weighed the hog in a local butcher shop. 400 pounder with 4" or 5" tusk IIRC from the newspaper account. I jumped a huge old boar about like that out of a clearcut while scouting for bobcat sign one winter day. Walked right up on it as it slept at the base of a huge white oak tree. Startled the crap out of me as it rolled to its feet about ten yards away and busted through the brush down the ridge.

JJ, where in Idaho have you seen wild free ranging hogs? I'm just curious, because I've lived in North Central Idaho all my life and have never heard of any wild free roaming hogs. This part of the state with relatively mild winters, agriculture, and brushy canyons with water might be the best place for them to have a chance.

Back to the origianl question. Unless on private land where access and hunting is limited I really can't imagine hogs getting established here where most people carry a rifle when out and about. A few years ago, a couple dozen escaped from a guy who was raising some of the feral looking hogs(not the domestic variety). The F&G informed the public to shoot on sight if encountering the hogs. It didn't take long and the hog escape scare was over.

In Wisconsin, we have hogs in pockets all over the state. Year round season, 24/7, and no bag limits.






Knowing the rate in which these hogs can breed, I do indeed believe that.

North Carolina has both feral hogs and Russian Boars. The boars have a normal hunting season while the hogs, I believe, are yar round.

West Virginia has had Russian Boars for a few decades now. But it issues 'resident only' permits. Not legal for out of staters to hunt.

Will

How under hunting conditions do you distinguish between a feral hog and a so called "Russian boar"

I suspect the origin of most hogs in the USA is not "russian boar" but rather some European country. I think that the term "Russian is suppose to make them seem somehow superior or bigger?

A quick check in SCI shows there is not even a boar from Russia in the top 100 listed! All the biggest hogs are from Iran and Turkey. With most of the remaining from Germany Austria, Poland, spain, etc. Even India and Pakastan have hogs listed ahead of Russia.

I've always been curious about this "Russian hog" term. As if that is some kind of super hog? In California and Texas you can see hogs running in groups which have long thick black hair and a long flat snout. Next to them are white and black spotted hogs, and red and black hogs and hogs of every color and shape. All very likely related in some way over generations of breeding. They are just different looking. It would be impossible to say which is feral and which is "european, Asain, or "Russian" for that matter. I very much doubt there is a single free ranging born in the wild hog in the USA today that is a pure European strain of wild boar. What would be the odds of this pure strain after all this time still breeding with only other pure strain Eurpoean hogs?

im guessing by Russia they are just talking the old eastern Europe before it fragmented......Russia is a simpler word, besides who wants to hunt something called a Polish pig

Good point rattler. Although maybe polish pigs make better polish sausage. I don't know.

JJHack, it would be hard for me to make the call as I am not at all familiar with what a whole lot of the hogs of other areas look like. But I can describe the West Virginia ones pretty well having seen them up close many times and even helping to cook a couple. They are a pretty large hog, all black with long black hair and usually have long tusks. These descend from imported stock, that much I do remember, but I don't know exactly where the stock was originally from. I have never seen a feral hog in West Virginia. Not to say they don't exist, but any free ranging hog would be living on borrowed time there. Too many people with rifles and a liking of free meat.

In North Carolina, where I live now, I am less knowledgable. But I have read that the Russians here are from a farm on the western side of the state. They were raised there and eventually got lose and just started doing what hogs do. There is some level of interbreeding according to the fish and game department. From what they have told me, the appearance of the hogs here ranges from the description I gave above for WVs Russians to regular old barnyard hogs which can be red, white, brown, black or spotted.

Will

Lonny, although your question wasn't directed to me. I am aware there WAS a population of free ranging hogs in the Brownlee area something like 20 years ago. I hunted them once but found absolutely not sign. And like you pointed out, it didn't take long to erraticate them. I know of no other hog popuations in Idaho, my experience is with the southwestern, south central, and central Idaho.

Here in Kansas there are wild hogs to be sure, but, the state of Kansas made it illegal to hunt or shoot them. Instead, the Department of Agriculture uses choppers find and shoot wild hogs, at least around Clinton Lake they do. Clinton Lake is just outside of Lawrence. Other than that, Kansas denies any other wild hogs. Evidently, hogs from neighboring Missouri and hog rich Oklahoma do not cross state lines as they apparently know that there are no other hogs in Kansas. I think with the vast majority of land in this state under private ownership and in agricultural use the state is worried out of its mind about hogs setting up shop. The hunting ban, though, defies logic. I think the ban was put into place to keep enterprizing farmers from bringing in wild hogs and turning them out on their land for paid hunting purposes. Tom Purdom

JJACK -
I can understand your skepticism about there being a difference of wild hogs vs feral hogs in North America, but there is.

The original wild boar stock from Germany and the Russian Caucasius were stocked into a high fenced preserve of 19,000 acres in NC in the 1890s, outside Asheville. After the owner aged and he and his friends stopped hunting the game (Red deer, boar, and other European game), he left the estate to his gamekeeper, who was egged on by local friends to let them hunt it. The yokels chased the game into the fence and the hogs tore it down and escaped, populating the western mountains of NC, SC, and Tennessee. TN has a mix of some feral hogs interbreeding with these hogs. NC and SC have a pretty pure stock in the mountains, with more feral hog interbreeding as the hogs migrate down the rivers into the Central Piedmont and midlands along the Savannah, Saluda and Broad rivers.

I can send you some extensive studies by biologists. Now, with DNA processing, it is possible for new studies to match them up to the strains of European stock, if someone wants a PhD thesis topic.

JJ,

You are spot on in your assessment of the origins of most hogs in the US. I've had several long talks with the F&G Biologist in this area, and he tells me that even domestic hogs will start to look like "Russian" boars after only three generations in the wild.

The way hogs breed, I'd be shocked if there were ANY pure wild strains left anywhere in the US.

Interesting stuff Boise.

Maybe I'm underestimating the feral hog and overestimating the hunters here in ID, but I just can't see wild free ranging hogs getting much of a foothold here unless they have some sort of sanctuary to build numbers and to escape trigger happy hunters. I have no doubt with some protection wild hogs could survive here.

With the shoot onsight recommendation by the F&G concerning the escaped hogs several years ago, hunters flooded the local F&G office with calls about where the pigs might be found and shot. By the time the word got out about the escaped hogs, they were dead.

Some pure strain European wild boar were imported and released about 1910 in California's Carmel Valley near where I grew up. Those pigs are very obvious when you see one: I saw a pair in a field at sunrise this month.

Much of the early stock were pigs brought in by the Spaniards for rations. Obviously all these strains can interbreed, and they do. Pigs can have litters year around, and they have many piglets per litter.

I know they are being farmed in Quebec, so I think they can handle a pretty cold winter.

I haven't heard of any huntable populations in Alaska yet.

The California DFG had the Legislature enable pig licenses a few years back to improve the hunting. You could buy a book of tags for $5, formerly they used to be a free hunt and you could hunt them year around. The pig tags allowed DFG to check returns to learn that 93% of pigs are killed on private land. We still have the pig tags, but DFG fired the pig staff and the $ go into their general fund now.

jim

We have them in places here in Texas. If there are any, there are a lot, and they are worse than pests. They are not everywhere yet, but they are expanding their range. If you drive West on 380 you better keep your eyes open after dark. A big hog will mess up a car.

I was thinking about hog hunting this weekend and I found this map from 2004. If you click on the upper map it shows the progression from 1988. The lower 2004 map looks impressive but it's highlighting entire counties instead of hog population pockets.

It looks like there are some in the canyons of the John Day and possibly the Deschutes. JJHACK please give me a report if you see any there.

http://www.uga.edu/scwds/dist_maps/swine04.html

That is my firm belief as well, after researching feral hogs, to no end. I had a Wisconsin state biologist tell me to my face, that they are all geneticaly the same. I've no reason to doubt that. Reminds me of Alaskan griz, brown, and Kodiak bears - all geneticaly the same.

Different states have taken on different methods to rid themselves of the hogs. Kansas and Nebraska (Missouri may follow)are two that come to mind where they do not allow hunting. USDA-Wildlife Services has taken charge of that management issue. Sounds crazy to me not to let hunters in on the killing. My only guess is that those states are trying to stop any sport hunting interest before it starts. Here in Wisconsin, the DNR, after holding public meetings, has adopted the position that feral pigs are exotic, non-native wild animals that pose significant threats to both the environment and to agricultural operations. I say that is a good move, as it now affords us hunters another game animal to pursue, year round.

Good, bad, or indifferent, the feral hogs are here to stay.

Here is what they look like in Wisconsin. I killed this boar back in May. And yes, here in Wis they are 100% freerange (Fenced operations for wild hogs are illegal)

He looks as wild appearing as they get.

While we may get feral hogs in all 50 states, I don't think that they will ever be very prolific in the northern states. While they're fully capable of surviving the temperatures, it takes them a lot of energy to do so. Foraging in the winter is slim pickings in the north. Farmers, ranchers, etc won't want them around, and it will be easier for them to keep them under control than it is in the south.

Great Map!!

Who is telling a tall tale here though? How do the hogs know there not suppose to be in Oregon? The Oregon DFW is ignoring the truth or California is overstating the distribution.

It seems odd to me that they only go north to the exact line of the border of the state?? I've shot two in the area shown near John Day. One about 500 lbs looking just like a giant farm pig, and the other much more wild looking like a true wild boar. We were actually near Ashwood and Prineville. I shot both on a private ranch which the land owner gave me permission to hunt Elk. He told me to shoot every pig I saw, and I could just leave them lay dead if I wanted to. He also had feral goats and sheep which he told me to shoot everyone of those I see as well. I shot about 5-6 in a couple years of hunting there. Nobody seems to know how these feral hogs and other animals arrived there. There seemed to be hundreds of sheep and goats, we saw them frequently. The hogs we saw were in groups of 4-10 or so and were always on the move. We did see them rooting across a canyon one afternoon. We watched them for while, but there was no way we were gonna waste any time to shoot them with limited time for elk hunting.

I think today I would just as well hunt the hogs rather then the Elk!

I dunno buck. There is a cell here in extreeme northern Wisconsin that have established themselves quite well, near Superior. The winter climate is almost as brutal as it gets in the 48. Maybe not quite International Falls brutal, but close.

These things live in as cold weather as any deer will and have greater survival skills then Deer. I shot one with my Bow in Northern Alberta a few years ago. Everything was frozen solid and the warm temps during the day were only 7 deg F! at night it was way below Zero.

In All of northern Europe the weather is easily as cold as it is in the USA, maybe colder. Yet the hogs thrive and grow. They also live in the tropical heat of Asia and the jungles all around the world.

This is probably one of the most resiliant and weather proof big game animals in the whole world. The Giant forest hog is the biggest species which live in the thickest jungles on earth with the highest rainfall on earth. The world record hogs all come from Iran, one of the driest locations on earth.

I think if they have some escape routes into wilderness or private unhunted areas they will dig in and be difficult to remove!

The European or Russian hogs were imported to their Western NC hunting preserve (Near present day Asheville) by George Vanderbilt and his cronies in the late 19th century. Sometime in the early 20th century (1910-1912 ?) these critters escaped and flourished in the mountains.

HBB

JJHACK look at my post again. I found some more information on the original site so I linked to it instead.

It's quite possible that hogs actually predate even the "Indians" (missnamed by Europeans)in the Americas. I saw a TV program a year or so ago and have done some reading about it since, evidently the Polynesians were here 5-10 centeries before the natives of Siberia crossed over into North America. They colonised the South American coast and parts of the Amazon but were pushed south by the more numerous newer immigrants to the far south tip of South America, Tierra del Fuego. They found remnent populations there and traced thier language, stories and DNA to Polynesians, futher back to the aboriginal Austrailins, and then furthur back to Africa. It's not too surprising really when you remember that Easter Island is only 800 miles away from Equador.

I found this humorous for two reasons.

First, apparently blacks were here first. I mean seriously those guys crossed the Pacific Ocean in little canoes. Not only that, they traveled between little islands, which they could FIND in the vast ocean, with thier families along, and pigs, in 2000 BC. Amazing talent.

Second, being half Native American myself I think it's hilarious that at one time someone said to my ancestors 'Hey Indians, we were here first, go back where you came from'.

East Texas has right at a million hogs....they breed at 6 months and can/will have 2 litters per year. From the age of 2 months to 6 months they gain almost a pound a day. Once established they cannot be eliminated by trapping, hunting, or poisoning.

I love hunting 'em. Great eating, but they are a problem.

No limit, no season and we can't stay on top of 'em.

Edit to clarify: staying on top in a 'controlling the numbers' way......not in any way an Alaskan may think.

Here's a 175#

This thread is a good read for someone like myself who has never seen a feral hog/boar stateside. Seen plenty in Europe though. Wonder why they are not in Northern reigons such as New England anyways. As mentioned before, winters in their European range are just as, if not more severe than here.

In NC, SC and TN they have the sanctuaries of the National Parks in very rugged mountains. After Jimmy Carter hoodooed the people into confiscating the Biedler timber farm as a "virgin uncut forest", it hunting ended, which had been controlling the hogs which migrated down the Saluda from the mountains.

The Congaree National Forest, later Monument, now Park, is bordered on one side by a farm which grows hybrid seed corn. The hogs went after that and flourished. The only controlling force is flooding which traps and drowns them.

There are also some pure stock European wild boar in Ontario, for those of you you like hunting in snow and really cold weather.

Yes, domestic hogs gone wild will look more and more wild with each generation, even without breeding with wild pigs. Dogs will do the same. I have shot wild dogs that were killing my cattle which looked like they were from Africa.

You cannot stop the migration of pigs. That was proved in Australia. Even when a scientific study was commissioned in the 1970's whereby, an area was divided by fence and all the pigs shot out on one side, the buffalo thrived where the pigs were removed and caused to buffalo to migrate where they were left.

The only way currently to control pigs is with the bullet. That was a major influence on the government in NSW, an eastern state in Auatralia, to validate the formation of a proposed Game Council run by hunters to permit the culling of feral animals in national parks, something that never occured in Australia's history.

Public land was always forbidden to hunters which is the complete opposite of what happnes here in the US.

Pigs will spread and they can only be controlled at this stage, by the bullet. Aussie hunters killing a couple of hundred over a good weekend or a week is not rare.

AGW

Lee, you lost me on this. You shot dogs that returned back to the wild and somehow had enough time in generations (many many years) of having undisturbed wild breeding to generate the original visual look back to an African cape hunting dog or "wild dog" .............not a natural occuring wolf or coyote, but a Wild dog from Africa which has never lived here in North America.

I find this an absloutley stunning observation! That some farm dogs, or orthewise free ranging dogs could run loose joing up, organise a pack or 50. Then live long enough on their own continuing to breed schnauzer to beagle to pointer to lab, to what ever mixed breed and then after (how many years and generations 100-1000 ?) Will all blend together and re-create an animal that looks like something that never lived here to begin with.

Please start a new thread on this don't further screw with this serious thread.

That's intresting JJ. The story here is that the hog's origionated at Ashwood on a private reserve, so did the goats which are actually supposed to be Ibex. I used to have a lot of photo's of the Ibex on a local ranch here but they are now all but gone. There were six as I recall, all nanny's and the guy from Ashwood was going to give the ranch owner a billy to go with them but they never got it. They think old age and our booming cougar's got them.

The hog's were awfully thick on private land between Antelope and Ashwood but according to the rancher's, the government trapper has flown and shot them off from a plane. I have heard of some out around Donnybrook, near Ashwood, and out in Grizzly but I've never seen one. I also hear of them on the old Smith Ranch in Antelope but the new owner's don't let anyone hunt there. One other pocket here is in what's called Sand Canyon, owned mostly by the Borthwick Ranch, all leased hunting. A friend with a small place bordering the Borthwick ranch see's them occassionally.

I have seen the dead bodies of some between Antelope and Ashwood, shot by ranchers. In fact out in an old pickup is the remains of one my ex dragged home years ago. everyone I've seen has been black and fit's the discription of the hog called Russian Boar, probably Eourpean Boar is a better discription.

I have people ask about the hog hunting here from time to time but have nothing good to tell them. Problem is what there are, if there are still any, all seem to be on private property. Lot of that around here. The guy that bought the Smith Ranch say's they are up in the sagebrush now. I doubt that as there's no water up there. There is another place on the ranch that has a lot of water and feeds over into the John Day River.

JJACK -
I cannot tell you how many generations wild some of these wild dogs were. When I was about 16, we had a real problem with several packs of them. The mix consisted of all kinds of dogs, large and small, some of which had probably been dropped off by city people. The leader of one pack was, as I described, as wild looking as anything I have ever seen, in hair, spotted markings, large ears, etc. It had a bit of German Shepherd in it. We had killed a bunch of them by calling them into an ambush at buckshot range, but the survivors never fell for the same trick twice. Getting the leader required moving up to a .30-06 and a 350-yard shot (with open sights, all I had).

I have seen feral pigs killed that had all the markings of domestic breeds, but in one generation or two they had developed coarser hair, longer snouts, larger tusks. Maybe only the ones with recessive traits (or dominant traits) survive, and the pretty ones don't make it.

JJACK -
I cannot tell you how many generations wild some of these wild dogs were. When I was about 16, we had a real problem with several packs of them. The mix consisted of all kinds of dogs, large and small, some of which had probably been dropped off by city people. The leader of one pack was, as I described, as wild looking as anything I have ever seen, in hair, spotted markings, large ears, etc. It had a bit of German Shepherd in it. We had killed a bunch of them by calling them into an ambush at buckshot range, but the survivors never fell for the same trick twice. Getting the leader required moving up to a .30-06 and a 350-yard shot (with open sights, all I had).

I have seen feral pigs killed that had all the markings of domestic breeds, but in one generation or two they had developed coarser hair, longer snouts, larger tusks. Maybe only the ones with recessive traits (or dominant traits) survive, and the pretty ones don't make it.

We'll have them, the question is how many and how widespread. I'm guessing that there will be pockets here and there where they can find enough food year round, but they won't have the high population density all over the upper midwest like whitetails do.

Even the biologist won't/can't answer that question, but the safe money says there will be far more feral hogs decades down the road, then there are now. They are unstopable.

Wisconsin has a million and a half whitetails going into any given fall, so I highly doubt the hog numbers will be anywhere near that in our lifetime (in the midwest). But they will grow in population.

Food/forage will never be an issue with hogs, anywhere. They will and do eat ANYTHING.

I've been hearing about them over in Sconnie for a few years now, but I didn't know that they are that far north. I haven't heard of any in Minnesota yet, but I'm thinking that there has to be a population somewhere. They'll be a hell of a lot easier to control here than they are in Texas.

Good luck on that notion.

Not disagreeing, you may be right. Just wondering what your rationale is.

I just don't think that there is enough winter forage for them in the winter to support the population densities that Texas has. I don't think that more than one litter/year will be big enough to make the winter (granted, 9 pigs/year could still get away from you pretty fast).

Peterbuilt, if you ever find yourself over run with them, shoot me an email. Have gun; will travel.

we got em here

Jim,
"I haven't heard of any huntable populations in Alaska yet."

Back in the 70s an enterprising soul decided to release hogs on an island off Kodiak. His motive was logging hog-girdled trees...

They are still there and huntable. Problem is access. The island has a Steller sea lion pull-out that is off-limits to boats and such for several miles offshore. On the inside the edges of the exclusion zone nearly meet at one small byte. That access point is the only way to get at them legally.

For years I have wanted to go out there and do a hog hunt...
art

....Georgia has plenty,and some real giants too.

The soon to be question will be what states don't have feral hogs.
Bill

Oklahoma certainly has a huntable population. My bud stationed at Ft Sill takes slugs with him to take them while squirrel hunting.

Expat

Looking at the distribution map they say we have hogs in S.Az. I know that the Peloncillos in the SE corner have them. Read articles about the Gray's ranch in SW NM having them and a few lucky guys could find them on the public lands on in both states.

Many years ago I heard the Buenos Aires Ranch run the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had them. Buenas Aires is near the border east of Sasabe. Steve Debrott was the manager and I was told if I saw them to shoot a few. I found where they had been rooting but never found any. That was 15 yrs ago.

The map must be highlighting an entire county if any are within.
Much of the green zone in the SW is within the Tohono O'odham resservation.

I will ask G and F what they know this week.

Ya'll will know for sure you got a "Good" population when the local testosterone heavy adventure seekers start offering the "ultimate hunting experience". A buddy used to take his young buck customers on these trips upstream from me around Vernon Texas in the Red River bottoms where they would put some hounds down to find'em and bay'em up after seing hog tracks cutting a "road", then the catch dogs were put down and you tried to stay up with them, then the idea was when the catch dogs had the hog sufficiently "secured" the hog - usually one or more on each hind leg & jones, couple on the hogs nose & ears and so one and still alive...and then you are ...if YOU got the Jones ...supposed to crawl into this wild four footed maelstrom showdown ...over the hogs back and either slit his throat or make sushi of his innards with a pig sticker length Bowie knife...and meantime pray the dogs don't let go or mistake your hand or leg for hog fur. Supposed to be a LOT of fun but my buddy sez he cheats and uses a 44Mag and tickles the hogs ear hole with it. We got so many hogs you got to do something to keep it exciting I guess.
Ron

Not my kind of sport....I much prefer stand hunting 'em. I don't do ticks, stickers, or snakes.

Any wild hogs in eastern North Carolina?

A few (thousand).

How is that feeder working without the spinner?

Good eye Hack! I put out a deer block (to attract deer). I left the feeder out there empty so critters would get accustomed to it. The motors are still in my garage. I even have the hole taped up to keep wasps out.

Here is a picture of a hogs ass with mud dripping off it and a picture of one of the deer blocks (not necessarily in that order) .

I was worried about 200lbs of feed( 4 sacks) in mine, seemed just a bit wobbley. However the more feed the more steady it is, by a whole lot. The legs will sink quite a bit in dry dirt, consider some of the footing issues you may have before the whole works goes over on you. It's also easy to fill standing on the back rack of my Yamaha 450 ATV.

I would like it to sling the corn a bit further, but it's probably okay. I was hoping for about 20-25foot diameter, I'm getting about 14-16 foot on the outside edge. Most of it is about 10foot or less. I did not want any game bumping into those legs by spending too much time under it.

Other then that, those Feeders are as good as I have used. If you hear about a different paddle or spinner setup that will sling the corn about twice the distance be sure to let me know.