Close encounters of the feral hog kind

[tlynhen]

Just got back from a hair-raising experience with some wild hogs. 22LR is not the desired caliber to encounter a pck of wild hogs in the dark. Especially when all of the hogs are black as coal to start with. Me and the old man are lucky to have all our limbs in tact. We did return fire and blood trailed as best we could, but I think we will wait until morning before we return to those woods.

[Buzzcook]

You were out at night in country where you might find feral pigs.
You were carrying a .22lr.
You did happen on some pigs and fired at them with your .22.
At least one pig was wounded because there was a blood trail.
Because of the danger involved with searching for a wounded pig you decided to wait for day light.

That's what i got from your post.

If that's an accurate reading of your post, I'd like to suggest that you and your father should rethink the situation.

[tlynhen]

Yeah thats why we left instead of trying to track down a wounded hog. Went out for raccoon. Found pigs. We have killed hogs with 22lr before. It's all about shot placement. Except this time there wasn't much time to worry about shot placement. we were in the thick of them before we knew what was going on.

[musicmatty]

Just me personally..and I agree 100% with shot placement, but I would carry a side arm in a larger caliber. If I knew I was going to be in a place that has pigs or bear and I was hunting only small game, I would carry a 44mag on the side for back up.

[tlynhen]

We hadn't seen any hog sign for about a month. We were told that an adjacent land owner had trapped them all out. I had gone out there in the past with the sole purpose of killing a pig, but to no avail. Last night was a pure accident.

[davlandrum]

I wandered into a pack of wild hogs in the dark on Ft. Polk back in the '80s. All I had was my M16 with a 30 rd magazine of blanks. Full-auto burst of blanks scared them off, but I needed to change clothes after that......

[Hog Buster]

I've hunted and trapped wild hogs for all of my 72 years. I've also heard all the stories of wild hog attacks, but I have never witnessed, or been a victim of one. Not that they don't happen, but not very frequently and then mostly because of bad judgment.

A domestic sow with little ones might try to eat you up if she perceives that you are a danger to them. But then domestic pigs are not afraid of humans, they see them everyday. A wild sow and her brood will take off at the first sign of trouble, shoats scattering everywhere. A domestic boar might try to get you in his pen, but a wild one will head for the hills a soon as he spots you. There are some exceptions however.

Caught in a trap, or cornered, all hogs large and small, male and female will attack. Some wounded hogs will attack also, but most just want to get away. In the frenzy created when dogs catch a hog anything can happen. The hog might run over you in an attempt to get away, you may get bit by the hog or even a dog. Bedlam rules in this situation.

Generally speaking wild hogs don't present much of a problem when encountered in the woods, day or night. While it might be a thrill of sorts to find yourself in the middle of a bunch grunters, you aren't in much danger. A good loud spoken "GIT" and they'll take off.

As for trapping hogs out of an area, you can't. The wild hogs we have around here were brought in by Spanish explorers in the 15th century. They have been shot, trapped, caught by dogs, hit by trucks, you name it, for 500 years and we still have plenty of them.

[Grainraiser]

Shooting at hogs with a 22lr is never a good idea. Even if it worked in the past that gun is not the right tool for the job. I would rather have to much gun than not enough gun.

[rodwhaincamo]

That's why I bought my Tracker 44 Mag. I'm afraid I'll find myself in a precarious situation with them tough buggers.

[rcurry]

Hog Buster I immediately thought of my dearly loved, now deceased Dad when I read your post. He would have been about 4 years older than you. I’ve heard him tell about being stationed in Louisiana in the late 50's and being put up a telephone pole by wild hogs (with tusk, if I am remembering his tale right) that were getting ready to eat him alive as a midnight snack. He would have been a young man at that time and perhaps had indulged in a "snort” of whatever the closest cousin there is to our Kentucky Bourbon in your area. Good judgement may or may not have been in use during this particular escapade of his younger years. I do recall him mentioning horrible splinters from shimming up the wooden telephone pole and cursing that he didn’t have a gun with him. (See this was firearm related after all)

It sounds like you have wild hogs in abundance. We have plenty of coyotes around here to shoot but I don’t know anyone that eats :barf: them. Although I love to eat pork, I have never had the opportunity to try “wild”. If “wild” hog is agreeable to eat, it seems like it could be a good income producing hobby. (Maybe there is the resale of wild hog meat but it’s not sold in my area.)

[Scorch]

The wild hogs we have around here were brought in by Spanish explorers in the 15th century. They have been shot, trapped, caught by dogs, hit by trucks, you name it, for 500 years and we still have plenty of them.

Yes, it is almost impossible to trap hogs out of an area, simply because they breed prolifically, and they move around so much that you never know where they will be next. Add to that the fact that people found out that they could charge $300-$500 for a city slicker to shoot a "wild boar", and there will be no end to wild pigs. Unless you put a bounty on them, then they will be hunted to extinction in very little time (think of what we did to the buffalo herds).

FWIW, my dad grew up in Alabama during the Depression (the first one, not the current one), and they used to round up pigs every spring and fall, castrate the young males, sort out the ones big enough for market, and turn the rest loose again. That's just the way you raised pigs back then unless you lived in a densely farmed area where the pigs would damage crops. So it probably has little to do with Spanish explorers (although they undoubtedly did lose animals on their treks), these are just the descendants of animals that were released to range in forested areas.

If “wild” hog is agreeable to eat, it seems like it could be a good income producing hobby. (Maybe there is the resale of wild hog meat but it’s not sold in my area.)

You can't sell wild game animal meat retail.

[hogdogs]

You cannot sell "feral domestic livestock" meat either... You can sell live wild pigs as livestock though. Most areas require a vet visit and inoculation.
Brent

[Hog Buster]

Hogs here are just considered a nuisance. They're crop destroyers and everybody wants to get rid of them. They're not considered a game animal so you can trap or kill them all year during daylight hours. Here they mostly feed on corn and/or sugar cane, doing quite a bit of damage. Because of their diet they're pretty good eating. When I was a kid in Arkansas most of the wild hogs were eating cypress knees and pine trees and weren't very tasty, here it's different. In the fall, when our hog harvest is going strong, one gets barbecued or roasted just about every weekend. The neighbors come by, eat hog , tell lies and drink beer. I never thought about trying to sell them, most are just given to who ever wants one. A few every year get made into sausage. They're like deer, not much fat, so a little fatback or bacon ends needs to be added to the sausage.

Hunting them has paid off for me. I have just about exclusive rights to deer hunt on large tracts of land because the owners know I'll bust any hogs I see.

I have never seen a spotted, white or red hog here in the wild, what we would call feral. Wild hogs here have fairly long hair,3 to 4 inches, black-gray with a tinge of red, long legs, short bodies, narrow butts and large plow shaped heads.

Head shots with any rifle will put them down, but .243 thru 45/70 is probably a better choice for shoulder shots. I find that they are a lot tougher to kill than deer. There's talk here that a bounty may be put on them shortly, $20 to $50. Maybe I can get some coin for hog busting while still keeping my freezer full.