the pig apocolypse is drawing near.

[FTG-05]

mark, poke around to your heart's content: http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/

From memory: 3-5 day out of state hunting license is like $50, which you'll need to hunt hogs in TX, for sport or meat. If you're just a guest of a rancher and he just wants them killed, then no license required since it predation - not recommended - $50 isn't much, buy it and then you can take all the meat you want.

Check all the above statements on the TX Wildlife site. It might take some digging, like I did a couple months ago, but you'll find it.

[603Country]

Markj,

I don't know anyone that has happily eaten javalina, though I'm sure somebody has. I have a good buddy from South Louisiana and he can cook absolutely anything - but not javalina.

And as for the pigs overrunning all of us, they are making a mess of my place. The big hog was back in my front yard/pasture last night and dug a few huge holes that you'd have to see to believe. I've never seen anything like it. But tonight I have the traps baited with truly smelly rotten corn, and a snare set in the 18 inch wide gap he has to use to get to my front pasture. Maybe tomorrow Mr Hog and I can have our final discussion. I sure hope so.

[M.O.A.]

get him 603 and dont forget the BBQ

[Yellowfin]

I may have to make a trip out there with some coolers and a UPS shipping label or two.

[603Country]

MOA,

I got him last night. Went out about 10 pm with the Primos gun light and he was 40 yards from me in the front of the house. I had the white light on (had taken the red lens off), and he didn't even notice the light - he was so intent on the acorns. I got him with the 223 and a Nosler 60 gr Partition. He wasn't as big as I had thought. I hope he was the one that dug the giant holes. If not, this isn't over...but I have plenty of bullets...

[kenno]

But no pigs
so last month I flew down to TX, A guide took me out on a 300 acre parcle, he had touted his feeders and blinds etc.
I paid $50 for a 5 day license.
I paid $200 to rent his wife's rifle and told him I expected to be able to test fire at a target to check accuarcy. Nope, no target no safe place to shoot!
So I walk the property, there is a housing development a few hundred yards from the property line.
The feeders have been turned off for over a month.
I am sitting in a Blind that is nearly impossible to enter/exit with terrible fields of fire.
No moon but I can see the ground due to the frost reflecting star light.
Around 9pm the guide says he has to leave, (it's +18 degrees and he's cold).
We make one more walk around the property and finially a small pig breaks cover, I throw-up the rifle and the scope lens has ice on it!
The pig is running full tilt towards me so I fire off a shot and he disappears
unharmed. I spent the night sleeping in a horse stall.
What a rip-off.
If TX wants to control the population they should pay hunters to hunt.
It's not worth the cost to go down there, for the cost I could have bred my own herd of feral pigs.

[603Country]

Heck, if I thought it'd get rid of most of the hogs, I'd pay somebody to shoot them. But shooting them is a slow process. I shot one last night. Big whoop...I only have a bazillion left to shoot. I usually do better trapping them. A couple of times I've had 12 or 15 in my big trap. But lately I've come up empty time and again. They're out there, and they're breeding like crazy, and maybe I need a better bait.

And I should mention that the reason I don't have folks over to hunt too often is strictly legal - Insurance reasons. What if someone gets hurt. I've decided that it's just too risky.

[rickyrick]

i have got one pokey dotted monster i had my sights on for two weeks.....i missed the shot then, been looking for it since....I call it 'pig laden'(pun intended)....I like the pokey dotted ones, easy too see...easy to identify as a pig........I have shot several others since but...I want Pig Laden...

[markj]

Insurance reasons. What if someone gets hurt

In the few cases here in Iowa the person got hurt isnt able to sue the landowner. Maybe your state law is similiar? Had a few last season too.

I think the guys that shoot everything in sight like tractors old machinery etc make it very hard for the responsible hunter to get access. I came off a deer hunt to find my radiator was shot.

[robhof]

Pigs are smarter than dogs and after being trapped a few times others will avoid the traps. Florida trappers I know repaint or change camo on their traps after a few catches, as well as relocating them. After a few are taken with rifles in certain fields, they'll (the pigs)send out guard pigs to sniff the perimiter of a field before feeding and they'll take turns with others watching and sniffing the surroundings. I used to hunt them with a crossbow in Central Fl. in new; being built subdivisions, at the request of the developers, as the pigs would destrou several thousands of dollars of landscaping in a night. I miss it; we don't have a pig problem in Ky yet.

[603Country]

I had heard that if you trapped a hog and he/she got away, they'd never go in the trap again. That may be true to some degree, but I had a polka dotted sow that I caught once, and she got away. That was when she was small and sneaked through a hole in the fence. But I did catch her again, and for the last time, about 4 months ago. As for other things to consider, I have a small portable trap on the back of my place and couldn't catch a thing in it until I took a shovel and put a lot of fresh dirt in the bottom of it. For some reason, and I think it's that the dirt covered the hard metal wire on the bottom of the trap, I started catching them again. But...now I'm in a lull again, but so are all the guys around me. Now that it's Spring, maybe the hogs won't leave their traditional food for corn, even smelly stinky corn. And I sure agree with you that they are smart. I put a game camera on the entrance to one of my traps to see what was happening. Corn outside was gone. Corn inside was untouched. What I found was that a big male would eat all the corn outside the trap, and he'd even stick his head in the entrance, but he would not go inside. Very interesting. I never did catch him.

[ripnbst]

AR type rifles are king on hogs. Empty mags into the herds.

[rickyrick]

The problem is....one shot, followed by total mayhem for a minute...

My pigs hide amongst the bedded down cows....so its takes about a minute after the gun light comes on to make sure the shot is clear. But, amazingly they keep coming back, they shift show-time somewhat.

[603Country]

I'm with Rickyrick...shoot the first hog and things get crazy for a while. I can't remember a time that a semi-auto (or even a full auto) would have gotten me more pigs than that one bolt action shot, unless you got lucky with spraying ammo. And yes, they do come back again. Supposed to be so smart, but sometimes they do come back into the beaten zone again, if you wait long enough. What I need is a claymore, if I can just remember which direction to point it....I think the directional arrows are on the mine, aren't they? Gotta go to the ArmyNavy surplus store.

[M.O.A.]

hogs are smart but the want of easy food is stronger than the fear of the big bang loud noise that they heard when they lost there last member of there pack

[Double Naught Spy]

The first two boars I killed were a pair that showed up together on the game cams. Killed the first one and two weeks later killed the second one at the same feeder.

In the few cases here in Iowa the person got hurt isnt able to sue the landowner. Maybe your state law is similiar? Had a few last season too.

This isn't exactly correct, markj. Iowa may provide limited protections, but the landowner certainly may be encumbered with liability and it may be of the type that could wipe out the landowner...

Iowa statute section 461C.1 encourages private landowners in Iowa to make their land and water available to the public for recreation. The law also controls urban deer populations by providing liability limitation for persons who agree to let members of the public onto their land for this purpose. Controlled deer hunts are a typical means of urban deer control, and this statute provides private landowners a legal safety net, protecting them from being sued for accidental injuries that might occur on their land when open to these types of public uses. The statute does not protect landowners for "willful or malicious failure to guard or warn against a dangerous condition, use, structure, or activity," or if the landowner charges members of the public for access to his land.

Read more: Statutes Regarding Land Use in Iowa | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/list_7378053_sta...#ixzz1HmlFmj7h

So a hunter falls in an unmarked ravine and is injured. If he was not warned of the dangerous condition, guess who can be liable?

Notice that the coverage only includes incidents on the landowner's land and doesn't protect them from several things on their land. Moreover, if one of those participants shoots somebody on a neighboring property, the landowner isn't protected.

After my first attempt at a hog, I prefer to take them from angles and directions where I have known backstops, especially down in ravines or at my water hole. Pulled this off the cam last night...