Pigs are proliferous........

[Keg]

Mainly nocturnal and breed like rabbits....When they grow up..they turn into bulldozers.....

[horatioo]

what state is that in? Also are that quantity of pigs a really bad thing, a bad thing or a good thing? I would think it kind of cool to be able to have pork for free all the time. Do they tear up more then they are worth?

Also is living around all those pigs dangerous? There are no pigs where I live. Sometimes I like to go outside in the middle of the night and walk around, a little bit drunk. Could you do that around pigs?

I am kind of interested in pigs. Sorry for all the questions.

Steve

[Keg]

Well Steve..This is Texas..there are more feral pigs here than any other state....They are very destructive....They cause millions of dollars of damage to pastures and crops every year....
I have killed lots of pigs....The only time I felt threatened was by a big boar..and I had startled him(startled me too)....He was layin in a wallow and I surprised him (less than 10 yds)....I had just got off the stand....It was late....I stepped down in a slew and accidentally blocked his escape....He was ticked off til I put a 308 round in his gut....He ran thru a creek and was gone....I found him less than 100 yds away the next day....For me..they always wanna get away no matter how bad they are....I uploaded a pic of him....

[hoghunting]

Hunted in Leon county about 10 miles SE of Buffalo and saw hogs just like yours. After deer season, it was spotlight time for hogs. The hogs would tear up 40 - 60 acres of pasture each night, the rancher wasn't too happy with them.

[horatioo]

thanks for the answers keg

[stephen426]

Come on Keg... I thought Texas was BBQ country! Besides, I also heard Texas has more guns than the US Army! You guys should be having baby back ribs, bacon, and pork cops for free every meal!

[Keg]

Hunted in Leon county about 10 miles SE of Buffalo and saw hogs just like yours. After deer season, it was spotlight time for hogs. The hogs would tear up 40 - 60 acres of pasture each night, the rancher wasn't too happy with them.

Hoghuntin...I know that's right...By the way..the pics with all the pigs were taken in my hay meadow....

thanks for the answers keg

Just my experience....

Come on Keg... I thought Texas was BBQ country! Besides, I also heard Texas has more guns than the US Army! You guys should be having baby back ribs, bacon, and pork cops for free every meal!

BBQ? BEEF.........hahaaa.......naw we bbq pork too......I love smoked pig.....
I could put out traps and do good..but I hate to fool with it....

[rickyrick]

Sadly, there are more pigs to kill than people are willing to eat. In the past I've had to pile them up. I could estimate that I have been able to find recipients for about 25% percent of the pigs killed.

With reports like kegs, I have a feeling that I'm fixing to get real busy.

[Art Eatman]

horatioo, property damage--mostly crops--from feral hogs in Texas has been estimated at some $40 million per year. The problem is severe enough that the legislature made it legal to shoot them from helicopters.

Golfers don't like them, either.

Danger? Just walking around on open ground at night is very much likely to be quite safe. More hazard at night in summer to get too close to an unseen rattlesnake or copperhead while wearing flip-flops.

[Tucker 1371]

Dangit I wanna go to TX, TN's hog hunting regulations are ridiculous. My M1A Scout with EOTech is just begging me take it hog hunting!

[603Country]

horatioo, you can walk around in my back pasture while lightly drunk, but don't fall down and go to sleep. See my thread on what ate my pig. I'd hate to see you down to just a small pile of leg bones.

[DiffyDoc]

Does the State help you guys in Texas with game damage? Here in Colorado if the game destroy fences or hay stacks the DOW will reimburse us.....after the fact. They do it several ways like buying the fence materials and other things. I have seen lots of ads on the net for hog hunting in TX. All I've seen want money to hunt them. Heck if I could, I would let hunters onto my property to shoot elk.....just to keep them from eating my winter pasture. DOW here says that ain't the way to manage wildlife. So I build fences and sent DOW the bill.

[Wyosmith]

Yes I have seen that too. LOTS of Texas farmers and ranchers have pig problems. They seem to be begging for help. But when you contact them, they want to charge YOU to come help THEM!

If I came upon a stranded man on a back road and he had 2 flat tires, and I offered to help him, but he demanded I pay him to help him, I am sure I'd just drive away and leave him there.

Any Texan that foolish, or that greedy, should be left to the hogs and let him loose his crops and have his land damaged so badly that he can’t make a living on it.

Now if they want to give up the ranching and the farming and become a “Hog Outfitter” then by all means they should do it, and I might even consider using their services, but stop with the dishonesty and the “calls for help” only to bait and switch at the point of contact. Then if they can’t make a living with the new business there can be some honest competition and the system will seek it’s own level.
If they can earn a living selling hog hunts, then good for them. I do not object to the practice of selling the hunts. I DO object to the dishonest practice of “Calling for help”.

[Keg]

I DO object to the dishonest practice of “Calling for help”.

Wyosmith..I have never heard of this....
This is farm and ranch country here....Folks are hesitant about letting strangers on their property....Now yes..property is for lease..but mainly for deer hunting..the hogs are an added bonus to them....I lease the property to deer hunters..right across the county road from where the pics were taken....So they have the hunting rights....I encourage them to shoot all the pigs they see..but it's a hopeless task....The fact is..they just don't see em....They are out at night....U see the damage..the next mornin........They head to the thickest..most inaccessible place they can find during the day....

[rickyrick]

Yep, the deer hunters won't waste a chance at a deer by taking a shot at a hog in the off chance that they see some in the daylight.

To let a complete stranger on private land to hunt probably won't happen. A friend let two guys hunt, as soon as he left 15 of their buddies showed up and trashed the place.
Hogs frequent places inhabited by livestock. There's stuff to eat and good rooting around cow poop. So it takes a lot of trust to let someone shoot around domesticated animals. I take them from between cows on a regular basis. I am careful with my shots and what lays beyond. I will pass if I have to.

Diffy, the pigs are not game animals in Texas, so I see no help from the state. Some counties offer small bounties on tails.
They can be sold on the hoof, but it is a hassle and if they kill one another on the trip, an animal cruelty charge is possible. There have been a couple of cases of this so far.

[Rmart30]

Yep, the deer hunters won't waste a chance at a deer by taking a shot at a hog in the off chance that they see some in the daylight.

letting a hog walk to me is almost as bad as a deer hunter letting a coyote walk.
Hogs will eat every acorn they can find and clean out under a oak tree until everything is gone leaving nothing for a deer ... Ever heard the phrase "eatin like a pig" ?
Coyotes eat the deer and fawns... How many fawns or deer ya think a coyote can eat in a year?

If you see a sow pig and let it walk by the same time next year she has dropped 5 -10 more.

Kill em all.

[hooligan1]

I'd relish the chance to add a wild hog to my deer carcass for rendering to sausage. We did it on the hog farm every year when my pappy was still alive.
We'd take our deer to the hog house and show him, then he'd mention a pig that we could take with the deer, and off we'd go!
I'm with Wyosmith it one thing to need help, and another to take it for granted!

[Doyle]

Does the State help you guys in Texas with game damage? Here in Colorado if the game destroy fences or hay stacks the DOW will reimburse us.....after the fact.

DiffyDoc, pretty much the only state that considers a hog to be a game animal is California. Everywhere else, they are considered to be in the same class as domestic livestock - i.e. the property of the land they happen to be on at the time.

[Rondog]

I would dearly love to kill as many pigs as a land owner would let me. I'm responsible, and solo. No wild shooting, and livestock are safe. No "redneck buddies". However, I have zero desire to eat them, as God only knows what diseases they may carry. I just want to pop 'em and drop 'em, and leave the carcasses for the rest of them to eat.

[reloader28]

I'm with Wyosmith.
I dont feel a bit sorry for Texans. Screaming about the pig damage and charge you help them out. If the pigs were such a problem they wouldnt charge to hunt them. I'll be damed if I'm going to pay someone to help them fix a problem.

Night scopes and brush hunting aint no problem. Its finding a chunk of property that somebody actually wants the pigs thinned out on. I figure Texans dont really want them thinned out or else it wouldnt be so hard to find a place to hunt.

[thallub]

Deer hunters should wake up and realize that wild hogs are detrimental to the deer population. i've seen wild hogs chase deer away from the water holes and ponds, off the wheatfields and off the game plots.

Two of our properties are over-run with hogs. i allow a few hunters to deer hunt with the understanding they shoot wild hogs. Last November i gave a friend a time out for not shooting wild hogs when he could have done so. i can't get a permit to shoot hogs at night because i'm not a farmer: our property is for hunting.

In this area the coyotes get about one third of the fawns every year. Hogs often get a taste for fawns as well.

[hogdogs]

No "redneck buddies".

I can't imagine a life without my "redneck buddies"...

Even as a true blue redneck, I am leery of who I will invite or not invite to hunt with me...

Some I will not invite are rednecks some are not...

Good and bad in all groups...

But rednecks know how to get into the deepest worst points of a property where hogs spend the day and when you tear up your 4 wheeler trying to haul a shonuff big hog on front rack and another on the back rack while the rider weighs near or north of 300 pounds himself... It is the redneck that can cobble it together to get it to the trailer... sans hogs of course...

Brent

[hogdogs]

rondog, As for the diseases... God may know but he ain't the only one who does... Unless your feral swine population is hitting a local uncontrolled garbage dump, they have the potential to carry the same diseases as domestic swine... but unless they get in contact with infected domestic swine, chances are remote...

They can carry any disease domestic livestock can but deer can too as well as blue tongue and CWD...

I worry more with a hog that I find a nasty infected wound on... they get slid off the tailgate immediately...

Brent

[jimbob86]

Also are that quantity of pigs a really bad thing, a bad thing or a good thing? I would think it kind of cool to be able to have pork for free all the time. Do they tear up more then they are worth?

Depends upon who's stuff they are tearing up.

One hog in my backyard would be a disaster.

In many cases, apparently, 100 hogs on someone's farm in Texas are not a serious enough problem to let folks come and shoot them for free......

[SPEMack618]

I have to deal with them at work all the time.

In our hunting leases it states that any hunter, even turkey/duck hunters must shoot any pigs on sight.

I would hate to think what would happen if Charlie Cub Scout wandered away from his pack and came across a sow and her piglets.