Hog Hunter

[Double Naught Spy]

So Alberta, Canada has moved forward with a bounty as of April last year, $75 (Canadian) per hog.
https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/a-threat...boar-1.5849361

Their hog problem is still fairly new, only a few decades old, and they want to nip it in the bud. I mean the hogs are building pig igloos in order to stay warm in the winter. They are very adaptive.

At $75 a head, you would think Canadian hunters should have this just about wrapped up by now. Nope. As of September 2022, Canada had yet to pay out a single bounty.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmon...unty-1.6569802

Of course, a feral hog expert in Canada, Ryan Brook (I am still having trouble with this concept that a Uni. professor in Saskatchewan is a feral hog expert, but apparently this guy has been studying the biology and distribution of feral hogs in Canada for about a decade https://scholar.google.com/scholar?h...ook+hogs&btnG= ) and director of the Canada Wild Pig Research Project, apparently thinks such a bounty will not work because once the pigs are hunted, they will learn quickly and be more difficult to hunt. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmon...erta-1.6410760

This is an operational theory that is considered by some state programs such as Colorado and Missouri, the difference being Colorado only had 2 populations of feral hogs comprising only a few hundred individuals (2001) and it took them years and it wasn't until 2018 that they managed to get them, at least they think. https://www.outtherecolorado.com/new...f9d0b46b4.html So this might be the one "large scale" program to stop feral hogs that has worked, but it is such a unique situation that I don't see how such a program would win in Texas or many other states with a lot of private property. Limiting hunting has been something of a failure in Missouri due to their piecemeal application. They no longer allow hunting on public land, but do on private land. For several years, Missouri proclaimed how will their program was working because they were getting more and more feral hogs each year. Missouri claims they are winning the war, but on the other hand, it just sounds like they are chasing a dragon.

By calendar year, wild pig totals removed through trapping in Missouri are on the rise, and the statistics are touted by MDC as indicative of an increasingly successful eradication program: 5,358 in 2016; 6,567 in 2017; 9,365 in 2018; 10,945 in 2019; and 12,635 in 2020. Yet, with no MDC overall wild pig population estimate as a measuring tape, the trapping statistics lack context. Simply, the trapping numbers can be viewed as proof of effective control, or as evidence of an increase in wild pig presence.

https://www.agweb.com/news/livestock...sumption-guilt

Given that Missouri now estimates more feral hogs in state than when the program started is NOT a good indication that the program is working. The program started in 2016. In 2015, it was estimated that the state had 10k hogs. By 2019, they had killed more hogs that year than were estimated for the state in 2015 and the current tally has the population at somewhere between 20,000 and 100,000 hogs. I am not sure how this is winning the war and based on the numbers, it sounds like a failure. https://www.northamericanwildlifeand...g-density.html
Of course, they are slowing the population growth, but they are still well behind the curve.

How can they be winning the war on hogs if the population keeps increasing? I know they say that they have reduced the numbers of feral hogs in national forests which is outstanding, but then again, I have done this on numerous properties as well with 'hunting' that is supposed to be terrible for dispersing the population. The problem for them and for me is that we don't get to hunt everywhere. Hogs take sanctuary in nearby lands where they are not hunted and repopulate the lands where hogs have been removed. Never mind the people shipping hogs to be released illegally.

So Brook thinks the hogs may outsmart hunters and spread out once the pressure is one from the bounty system. The is the operational theory of failure in Missouri, and they have a whole 38 full time people dedicated to the task for the entire state. Well, Brooks is right and wrong. Apparently, the hogs don't know they are being hunted because not a single person has claimed a bounty. I don't think hogs outsmarted the hunters nearly as much I would believe that the academics have outsmarted themselves. And even at $75 a head, it has not been enough money to really get people out there and killing hogs. It seems that many areas of Canada that do have feral hogs don't have a lot of people. Texas, including cities, has 105 people per square mile. Alberta has just over 17 people per square mile including the cities. On top of that, Canada isn't amiable to semi-autos being used for hunting, at least not with detachable mags. They have a very long list of disallowed firearms. Not a lot of hunters are Franz Albrecht-types who can run a bolt gun nearly as well or better than some people run semis. For those of you who don't know who he is, he is sort of Europe's Jerry Miculek of boar hunting with a bolt gun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPOHDgR_cVo

$75 a head in Texas would definitely spur hunters to hunt more, but who can afford $75 a head? It would be a boon for a lot of trapper as well. AT 35 cents a pound (average), a 100 lb hog only grosses $35 versus $75 for the bounty. So I could see a lot of trappers destroying all their smaller hogs to collect a $75 bounty on each and saving the larger hogs for butcher where 35 cents a pound is worthwhile. There are some size bonuses and such for bigger hogs, but I haven't looked over the specifics of the code in years.

So how many hogs are killed in Texas each year right now? Nobody has a clue. The number has to be in the 10s of thousands. I think if you just surveyed YouTube hunters that you would find several thousand hogs killed each year. This guy buys several hundred trapped hogs each month that end up going to slaughter and he is but one of many licensed feral hog buying stations http://www.ntxe-news.com/artman/publ...e_130793.shtml.

In Texas, I don't think we have to worry about scattering hogs anywhere except to El Paso County. Everywhere else in the state has hogs, LOL.

[603Country]

Lots of good info here from DNS. As for me and my central Texas property, I kill hogs as often as I can find them. After I put pressure on them, they went nocturnal. After that, the hog trap got me more hogs than my various rifles.

And, regarding semi auto calibers, my 223 just wasn’t putting enough of them down. I acquired a 6.5 Grendel and that works much better. I’d just as soon had a 6.8 SPC, but I already had all the reloading bits and pieces, and powders, for the Grendel.

[rickyrick]

Put a trap out, catch a few, the rest will stay away for a while… rinse and repeat.

You’ll only be able to shoot one or two at an outing at most.

[MarkCO]

Originally Posted by rickyrick

You’ll only be able to shoot one or two at an outing at most.

3 of us were shooting 30+ a day for 2 or 3 days in a row. They just kept coming. I shot 6 in 4 seconds.

[Armybrat]

My nephews own several properties in the Texas Hill Country that occasionally get swarmed by feral hogs.
They and their families shoot scores of the vermin every year - and leave the carcasses where they lay.
They primarily use Mini 14s & ARs in 5.56. Daylight hunting is preferred.

[rickyrick]

3 of us were shooting 30+ a day for 2 or 3 days in a row. They just kept coming. I shot 6 in 4 seconds.

My experience is that you shoot one and all the rest scatter with a lot of mayhem. But I did it alone on active ranches at night, so I was conservative with my shots.
I trapped many of them, and the rest would become trap shy. I have shot two on different occasions.
I do know for sure that if the pressure is kept on them, they will avoid the area that you are trying to protect.

[MarkCO]

Agree rickyrick, but the majority of the ones we were shooting were shot at ranges over 300, with suppressors.

[JustJake]

Those Savage HHs are heavy.