ok...its tv but why is there a hog problem!

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A revolver that says "magnum". .357 minimum and with a heavy bullet hot load. Everyone has their faves. The only handguns I've taken hogs with are .357 magnum in a Ruger 6.5" Blackhawk (165 grain SWC and 180 XTP handloads), .357 in a Taurus 3" 66 (140 Speer JHP to the head, my carry that day, was just walking a trail), and .30-30 with 150 grain Nosler BT handload (Thompson Center contender 12" hunter barrel with 2x optic). Use of heavy bullets in the caliber helps with penetration on larger hogs through the shoulder.
 
I didn't read most of the thread, but I do recognize why there is a problem.

In Texas for example there is almost no public lands.
Almost all land is privately owned.

This means rather than heading out into the public forest as would be done in some parts of the United States, you must hunt from private land.

A lot of this private land has fences, borders, and does not allow trespassing.
One must get permission to hunt on it ahead of time.


That is what lets it remain a problem. Even if you clean up the problem on your own land, you have no control over the pig problem on nearby neighbors' land.
This means all the hogs have to do is cross private property lines to reach safety, and all the traps and hunters on the other side are useless until the pigs come back later.
You can eliminate the problem on your property, but they just breed nearby on property you have no access to, and which does not care or wish to eliminate them.
They then cross back onto your problem in the future and continue the rampage.


Some of the biggest problems are on the very large ranches, or crop fields. Crops that are hundreds or even thousands of acres.
Some of these people kill the animals actively, or have others do it, but some do not.
Those that do not are ripe breeding and safety locations, and that makes it impossible to actually stop the problem.



So the problem is not because hogs are that hard to control, they are not. Human beings have the capacity to readily wipe out any species they want fairly quickly, as has been demonstrated many times.
The hog problem could be eliminated in a season long campaign, if it was so desired.
The problem is the legal situation with so many large pieces of private land that one cannot cross. It is a man made legal issue, not a animal out of control issue.
 
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zoogster, I think you have made one of the most intellegent replies I have ever read. It is very well thought out and written. I live on the edge of a large national forest. The public land has few pigs but the private lands are lousy with them. Maybe large land owners could open their land for pigs only to the public when other seasons are closed?
 
So the problem is not because hogs are that hard to control, they are not. Human beings have the capacity to readily wipe out any species they want fairly quickly, as has been demonstrated many times.
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Exactly.

Humans aren't particularly well known for restraint when it comes to killing things that have things that we want. Even to the point of extinction. Poor Dodo.

What we need to do is find something, ANYTHING that hogs have some general commercial appeal for....and this "sitchiation" will fix itself.
 
Maybe large land owners could open their land for pigs only to the public when other seasons are closed?
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I doubt that that will happen. It is a large liability to allow people on your land, sometimes even if they are trespassing. Also some people will not respect your land and destroy your personal property. We are always finding where people have stolen stuff from our land or destroying it. I would not want strangers on my land unattended and I don't think many other people would either.

I know that most people would not cause any problems, but there are a few people that ruin it for everyone.
 
More and more, youngsters especially lack any reverence for the land or the land owner. It's the entitlement mentality, the old song "Sign, Sign, everywhere a Sign" leftist commie mentality. God put it there, therefore it's theirs. :rolleyes: Well, THEY ain't paying the taxes and didn't spend their money for ir or the improvements or the stock that's on it or whatever. It's a lot about class envy. I suppose we could go to a pure socialist system where the government owns everything and farmers just work it for the government, but then, you'd probably lose all your firearms in such a system because you'd be a threat to the government.

But, that's a political statement in the context of the discussion, sorry. Just to say that our educational system seems to be turning out little Karl Marxes now days. :rolleyes:
 
Exactly.

Humans aren't particularly well known for restraint when it comes to killing things that have things that we want. Even to the point of extinction.
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The lack of restraint is what comes to mind about folks shooting the wrong animals, shooting at trees out of boredom, leaving behind trash, leaving gates open, etc. Most of the animals that have gone extinct due to humans are not intentional.

More and more, youngsters especially lack any reverence for the land or the land owner. It's the entitlement mentality, the old song "Sign, Sign, everywhere a Sign" leftist commie mentality. God put it there, therefore it's theirs. Well, THEY ain't paying the taxes and didn't spend their money for ir or the improvements or the stock that's on it or whatever.
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Yeah, and I can't figure out the mentality that I don't have a right to complain about hogs tearing up my property if I don't let people hunt on my property for free attitude. I have seen it posted on several forums. Funny such folks are fine with me complaining about briar and poison ivy. They don't talk about me not having a right to complain about it unless I let them come in to cut it, pull it, or otherwise get rid of it. I wonder why that is?
 
The reason we have so many hogs can not be defined in one tidy answer "lack of access", it is much more complex than that...but that IS certainly a key component.

There needs to be an "incentive" to kill them (as mentioned). Something many folks conveniently forget...is that there is a COST to killing pigs.

One thing that might help is:

A $20.00 bounty for any hog over 25 lbs. ($10.00 each for anything under).

That would result in a huge (but temporary) reduction in their numbers.

Short of that...I can think of nothing that will prevent them from increasing their numbers and distribution at a pandemic rate.
 
A $20.00 bounty for any hog over 25 lbs. ($10.00 each for anything under).

That would result in a huge (but temporary) reduction in their numbers.
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Flint, the only problem I see with that is, where would the money come from? Most every state's DNR is strapped for cash. They can barely pay for what they do now as it is. You start putting bounties on hogs and they will have to allot a pretty hefty sum of money very quickly. To front up that sum of money would put a pretty large dent in other necessary programs such as Hunters Safety courses, patrol, and many others. I remember when they had $25 bounties on Coyotes, which is much harder to get big numbers of kills on than hogs, and it caused a pretty large hole in other programs.

I see where you are going and I would completely agree if it were not for that. The meat incentive is pretty much the only thing that there is that is cost effective. But as most of us know, a wild hog over 200 pounds is about the rankest meat out there. So that incentive is a non starter since the larger more dominant females and males are going to be the biggest reproducers.

It's really a catch 22 proposition no matter how you look at it. Let strangers on your land and you get opened up to things stolen, trash, gates left open, livestock shot, sued because some moron can't walk. Don't open your land up to hunters and you get hogs and all the lovely things they do! Put bounties on hogs and you will get a temporary reduction of the population but you will have to close down other operations because you paid out 2 million in bounties that would have paid for it.

There really is no good solution without some heavy sacrifices from both the hunter community AND the landowners.
 
If they had a hog problum a couple people and a day or two wont fix it, yes if you mess with them they will leave but will be back, as my uncle ray used to say(hell its just a tv show!)
 
Hog problems... why?
They reproduce like rabbits.
They are smart and very adaptable.
They eat most anything.
They eat the available food for more preferred game animals.
They can be a mite mean.
Hunting is becoming a businses and landowners do not want hunters on it without paying. And it's not like you can just drive along the highway and actually figure out who owns what.
 
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Freedom_fighter_in_IL said:
...But as most of us know, a wild hog over 200 pounds is about the rankest meat out there...
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People keep saying that but I read posts from hunters all the time stating their harvested hogs were fine, didn't taste rank [usually] dependent upon how quickly it's butchered, what it's raised on, or time of day or year. The same thing is said about farmed boars and i've read blogs from different farmers that they have no rankness in their meat either though most of the farmers I follow are raising heirloom porkers like mulefoots.
 
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The diets of the farm raised hogs are much different than in the wild of course. The old saying "you are what you eat" comes to mind here. Hogs in the wild are natures "garbage disposals" and will literally eat anything. One I have never had the pleasure of trying is a Hog thats been feeding on oranges a lot! I hear it is very hard to beat. You get down in central and south texas, lord only knows what they are eating. Saakee, you are welcome to try any hog over 200 pounds you want to. It's been my experience over hundreds of hogs that those are the bad ones as far as flavor. I've killed a few that wouldn't even make good sausage! My cutoff weight for Boar is 150 pounds and Sows are 200. Anything bigger than that is bait for yotes or other hogs for me. YMMV.
 
I agree with the majority of you. If money was no problem for me I'd gladly try my part to rid you of at least some of the knarly pests that seem to be spreading. We even get them out here in California,(Northern).
 
Freedom_fighter_in_IL wrote:

Flint, the only problem I see with that is, where would the money come from? Most every state's DNR is strapped for cash. They can barely pay for what they do now as it is. You start putting bounties on hogs and they will have to allot a pretty hefty sum of money very quickly.
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Yes, it would result in a substantial sum of money quickly, I agree.

In the current economic climate…it is unthinkable that ANY State would enact such a program…so I am NOT promoting the “financial” feasibility of it, just saying that a bounty is what it’s going to take to cut their numbers down.


Even if a bounty were enacted…that comes with its own set of problems.

1. Poaching of animals where there was little or none before.

2. Increase in trespass violations.

3. Increase in man hours for Wardens to keep items 1 & 2 in check.

4. Possible increase in man hours (or personnel) at the county level (over 200 counties with hog problems) to process claims/payouts.

5. Reports from counties to the State, reports from the State to the Feds (if any Federal funding was used).

Then there’s always the PETA folks to deal with and other bleeding hearts who have watched “Charlotte's Web” one too many times. :rolleyes:

So…yeah, I suppose pigs are here to stay. :(
 
[I know a whole lot of people who wish the same thing for AZ, and I'm just one of em].

Good, you just keep them out there. We have them in the mountains in North Carolina but they haven't become a problem yet here, like they have in South Carolina.

I see them I will kill them on site, I don't care how cute their piglets are. I will kill them to.
They are the worst pestilence a state could have. I'd sooner have wolverines than ferrel hogs.
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^^^^^^^^^^^
Hmmmmm.......

Lets see....cross a Wolverine with a Feral Hog......and...... :D


A "Hogger-ine" I guess, or something like that. Hate to even think of it...really.

Breed too fast to even think about controlling their numbers.

Too mean to kill.

Thrive in cold weather.

Only thing worse would be a Sabre Toothed version. :eek:
 
Flintknapper said:
^^^^^^^^^^^
Hmmmmm.......

Lets see....cross a Wolverine with a Feral Hog......and...... :D


A "Hogger-ine" I guess, or something like that. Hate to even think of it...really.

Breed too fast to even think about controlling their numbers.

Too mean to kill.

Thrive in cold weather.

Only thing worse would be a Sabre Toothed version. :eek:
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Pretty sure marvel actually did a What If...? about that before. And worst would be if they were all bonded to the Symbiote.
 
Maybe large land owners could open their land for pigs only to the public when other seasons are closed?
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Unfortunately our litigious society has made most land owners not want hunters on their property...
 
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