I had been meaning to catch that program, and just happened up on it last night. Looks like a heck of a bunch of fun to me, and I enjoyed watching the dogs work. My question is, why are they capturing the hogs alive? Why not kill them? I understand that it would be a little tricky shooting amongst that swarm of dogs, but I just wonder what they are actually doing with the hogs when they haul them off.

Had a friend that had a truck from Arkansas come to his place a few times a year to buy all the wild hogs he trapped. They were sold to an exotic game operation for Yankees to shoot.

I know he sold in excess of 300 hogs one year to them.

There's folks around here that live capture and then sell them to the big ranches for paying customers to come hunt.

Prices vary depending on size, sex, and coloration.

Ed

Beat ya..........

I'm just a dumb old hilljack, but I figured there had to be more money in that operation than just a bounty or removal fee.

In TX there state certified packers that buy live for slaughter; just like any packer they can't process DOA animals for resale.

My wife used to by various cuts of pork from a company over in east Texas. Taste varied from fair to awful so I had her quit buying. Those hogs aren't being feed out.

I don't know anything about feral hogs, but what do you guys think of these shot in Ohio. They say our population is on some sort of verge. I don't know what that means, like some population point after which they explode out of control I guess.

These look good size and well fed to me.

They are fun. I watched that show one time, so my knowledge of the show is limited, but the Florida guys were the only real hunters on that show. Plus, they were obviously killing the hogs of camera.

Some hogs are sold to game ranches and some are also sold live weight to slaughter houses. Most hogs sold have to be at least 100 lbs live weight and there is a big demand overseas. I don't like messing with live hogs and have been practicing the "shoot and release" method for about 15 years. Tom

Pretty sure that it is illegal to transport a live hog in Texas now.

I don't think so. I know a guy up in Lampasas that traps live hogs and either feeds them out of sells them for the "Wild Bore" that restaurants sell these days. He was doing pretty good last I heard.

you can't transport them then release them somewhere else, is how the law is worded i believe.

I'm fixin' to retire and come to Texas where I'd have plenty of Hogs to shoot.

Correct but it's like saying you can drive faster than 70mph on the interstate either.

Everyday in East Texas you see guys with them in trailers taking them to someplace else for release. Was really popular in the mid 90's when hogs were rare in East Texas. Looking back maybe I should have just shot the pigs in the trailers as they were pulling them down the road.

I thought it was a dumb idea then but nobody doing it could see the downside to it.

I like my bacon with less squeel, please

Down here anything with an inch and a half of teeth showing counts as a 'trophy boar' and will fetch anywhere from $80 to $175. Meat hogs usually around $40 or $50. They're worth nothing dead.....

The thing I can't figure out down there is all these ranches on these shows say that the hogs are a nuisance and they want rid of them at all cost. The ranchers claim that these hogs may force them out of business but then want to charge you big money to come hunt them. I have checked out several inexpensive hunts for hogs down there through the years but they always place a bag limit on the number that they will allow you to kill. Doesn't really sound like they truely want to get rid of them to me. Give me a green light to kill all I want and a way to get rid of them and I will wear them out for free.

The ones hunting for free and getting to kill all they want are going through the good ol boy network. Ranchers have learned to exploit the hog populations in their favor. Its gonna cost you to hunt anything on private land in Florida.

In KS, the Fish and Game does not handle hogs. That task was assigned to the Dept Of Agriculture beacuse feral hogs are domestic. I guess that some think that there were always pheasants here. To hunt feral hogs, one must send to the state and get a form that is then filled out with the landowner name, the 1/4/x/1/4 sec where hunting, and who is hunting. This is returned to the state and a permit is issued.

The are paying helicopters to shoot hogs 30mi from my farm. I am sure that Gunny would call this a cluster f*ck.

In the deer regulations in MO, the Fish & Game takes a whole page to ask folks to shoot all feral hogs.

I've seen two dozen in the past two days within 3 miles of my home. Thanks to the Yankees making a subdivision we can no longer hunt them where we once did. The silly added fuss about yard damage but refuse to let us deal with the hogs on their land.

Yankees?
Who sold 'em the land?

Oh it was definitely sold to them by locals, no doubt about that. Im just testy about the snowbirds ongoing attempt to change the way of life down here.

Location, location, location

Pick your area well, long drive otherwise.

As far as the OP goes, I guess this is the Campbell's your talking about. He was spotted in Brownwood the other day with a T shirt saying No Autographs signed.

Crazy guy, bad knees, bad back and looks to be diabetic.

A good Texan

he could buy a house on the south side of town here(which borders the King ranch)set a feeder up in his back yard,and shoot all he wants, with the occasional exotic thrown in. oh and deer.

And then invite us all down for a shooting party?

there was a story on the news a couple yrs back, about a gal finding a Nilgi in her garage.

Exactly my point...and exactly why I don't buy into the poor rancher losing his ranch to hog infestation. More tv BS imo! Farmers and ranchers are the whiniest bunch of millionaires I have ever met.

Im 'good ol boyed' in at a few places but it hasn't stopped money from pushing me out time and again.....

You would think that folks move to an area for a reason. Same as moving from an area. THere is a reason.

Yet they too often establish there in the new area and then beg and plead and demand it be changed to the way they were used to.

Definitely shows ignorance.

But yeah, some greedy SOB sold the land to em too...

Contrary to popular opinion all (not even most) farmers and ranchers are not millionaires. Handling larger sums of money doesn't mean you are making large sums of money. As for whining the occasional farmer will but not so much for ranchers...

Old man Campbell owes a friend of mine $400 from doing some work for him a while back. Said he had the money when he started the job then told him he only had $50 to his name when he went to get paid.

Also maybe its me, but somethings wrong when you need subtitles to understand their english.

My comment about the millionaire thing was mostly tongue-in-cheek. But the land alone that most of them own or sit on makes them millionaires several times over.

As for the damage hogs can do one roving group can cause an incredible amount of damage IN JUST ONE NIGHT..Damage such as that is the equivalent of you getting your paycheck docked for a whole growing season. In most cases that means a year. If you got your pay docked for a year would YOU whine or just bite your tongue?

I would allow people to come kill them for free...all they wanted and with any means. Not charge for it and set limits on how many you can kill.

One reason could be you're a liability (any unknown hunter). Ranchers and farmers want to continue to own the land, so they have to carry insurance (plus the taxes) just for the unknown. Lucky you (any hunter) gets to help pay for it.