Feral hogs

[ness]

1 hour ago, BilletHead said:

I do know the ones I killed in Texas are very tasty. Texans are proud of the wild swine. From the damage I seen from them we still don't want these. 

When we were in Tuscany back in 2019 wild boar was on many menus and considered to be a delicacy.

Over there, boar hunting is a tradition done by large groups of men in the fall.  We were warned to keep an eye out, especially if we were out at night as the place we stayed was very rural. Driving home from dinner one night a momma and several little ones crossed the road in from of us. I didn't get the sense that they were a problem when we were there, but I just Googled and they are a big problem. Apparently they're known to destroy a chunk of a vineyard in one night, and sometimes invade the towns. 

[BilletHead]

19 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

This whole thing about not shooting them because they want to trap 10 at a time would be ok if they actually were truly and repeatedly successful at it.  

Otherwise, if you kill every one that you see, then it won't be long until you don't see them anymore......and isn't THAT the goal ?

  Well that was why the American bison was once endangered, why whitetail deer about disappeared, why wolf are gone, for crying out loud we had grizzly bear on the edge of where I live. Don't anyone tell me it was habitat loss why these animals are gone. They were eradicated for other reasons. 

[fishinwrench]

I know there's plenty of AR neophytes around here to make any animal extinct.  

[BilletHead]

34 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

I know there's plenty of AR neophytes around here to make any animal extinct.  

For sure. I know for a fact there were areas here in Missouri the MDC did arieal gunning on hogs. I truly hope they can get rid of them the way it's being done. I do think more than spreading the Sounder and educating the swine is how fun it is to hunt them. That's how they got started was guys bringing them in and planted the hogs to hunt. Sort of like a fisherman bucket biologist planting invasive fish where they don't need to be.  If hunters like it it truly would be hard to stop. I get it. 

[BilletHead]

1 hour ago, ness said:

When we were in Tuscany back in 2019 wild boar was on many menus and considered to be a delicacy.

Over there, boar hunting is a tradition done by large groups of men in the fall.  We were warned to keep an eye out, especially if we were out at night as the place we stayed was very rural. Driving home from dinner one night a momma and several little ones crossed the road in from of us. I didn't get the sense that they were a problem when we were there, but I just Googled and they are a big problem. Apparently they're known to destroy a chunk of a vineyard in one night, and sometimes invade the towns. 

Exactly. I can hardly believe anything ground nesting or young animal is safe from them. They eat anything they can get including live things and I mean anything. 

[Quillback]

Where's DJ at?  That guy hunts those things at night. @JestersHK

You can hunt them with dogs, I'm way too old to think about doing that, but that would be a fun hunt.  

[Dutch]

We have about 20 game cams scattered around the farm to learn the habits of the resident does and check the migration of bucks.  We have only seen one feral hog.  It was at night.  It appeared to be a large boar.  He looked to me to be in the 3-400 pound range.  We later found a bottom barbed wire broken on a new fence.  It about had to be that hog.

[snagged in outlet 3]

6 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

I know there's plenty of AR neophytes around here to make any animal extinct.  

I’d gladly burn through a couple hundred rounds.   Maybe organize drives  and shoot them like a dove shoot.  Not a dove “hunt”.  A dove “shoot”.  There’s a difference 😁

[jdmidwest]

Feral hogs are different, and our forests and stream beds are alot different than then desert scruff in southern states.  They will move of a night and feed.  They like soft ground and will root up alot of stuff.  They even raze a morel field if they can, like truffels.

Like Dutch, I have only seen a lone boar around deer season pass thru on my cams.  And its a big one.

You really can't hunt them to extinction, they have adapted to the wild.  Back in the day, before the fence laws, pigs were free range and that was how they were raised.  You would go out and track your pigs down and harvest the meat.  Remember the story about Ole Yeller?  The dog?

I remember free range pigs in my life time, few farmers in my area kept them going after the laws took place.  Had a sounder come by while I was turkey hunting near his farm.  They just wandered thru.

The Russian strain that has populated the wild tends to be more agressive and prolific.  They look like they may be here for a while.

[Dutch]

You guys who think you could drive them and shoot a bunch must not have spent much time around hogs and haven’t thought about the terrain in vast areas this state and Arkansas.