Feral Hogs

[Pat]

Seems there is more to our feral hog situation here abouts than a couple "escapees" reproducing in the wild and these offspring making a nuisence of themselves...

I attended a seminar yesterday down on the banks of the Red River near the town of Leon, OK. One of the side topics was a demonstration of a few examples of feral hog traps along with a talk by one of the Gov gents involved from the Gov side. Seems the Gov chipped in along with 5 land owners and they rented some helicopter hours ($580/hr) and the Gov dude shot and killed 160 hogs in a day on those 5 land holdings.

They have been trapping dozens of hogs, shooting them and dropping them off in gullies (the coyotes and buzzards are eating, dare I say it?, HIGH ON THE HOG!)

Before anyone gets upset at the waste of meat... roughly 1/2 or more of these animals tested positive for swine brucelosis. Although the meat can be safely consumed by humans if cooked properly, none of the packers will take the feral hogs anymore out of concern for liability should anyone manage by any means to get sick. The pork, like venison used to be donated charitably.

It seems that one of the reasons the feral hog problem is spreading so fast is that there are folks who like to hunt "wild" hogs so they release porkers in areas they want to hunt and let nature take its course (albeit with more than a gentle nudge.)

Oklahoma is either 4th or 5th in beef production and swine brucelosis will jump from pig to beef. Oklahoma is #5 in pecan production and pigs (as well as crows) have a devastating economical impact on pecans corn, peanuts, etc. The hogs ruin well tended land with their rooting and are dangerous to people.

My neighbors have all begun to spot signs of rooting and wallowing so it looks like I'll end up in the feral hog game. I had hoped the numbers woiuld be such that we cold shoot the occasional hog but they are prolific breeders and traps seem to be the intelligent approach. I still want to get a few in my crosshairs but they are mostly nocturnal and you have to have a letter in your pocket authorizing you to shoot hogs at night to be out at night with a rifle and be able to fend off charges of poaching.

What next, some frustrated big game hunter will release leopards and Cape Buffalo?

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Bird]

Pat, a few years ago the Corps of Engineers hired a company from Ft. Worth to fly around Navarro Mills Lake for 3 days and shoot the feral hogs from a helicopter. They had a meeting beforehand and invited surrounding landowners to ask if they wanted hog shot on their land, too.

Now people hunt those hogs all the time to eat, but the newspaper said the hogs were to left where they fell, and had the dire warnings about swine brucelosis and at least two other terrible diseases.

Since I lived across the road from lake property, I saw the helicopter a couple of days and I've forgotten exactly how many the newspaper said they shot; about 125 if I remember right. Most of my neighbors said that was a waste of money and wouldn't even make a dent in the population.

[Pat]

Bird, I think flying around in a chopper shooting hogs WILL made a dent in the population, maybe way more than a dent B U T given their fecundity it IS NOT a long term solution. It is like spraying your yard for mosquitos, helps right now but they'll be back!

The Gov dudes had 3-4 different pig traps on display and demonstrated a couple. These, used properly, by a land owner will help keep the population down. I don't expect to be hiring a chopper but I can see building one of the traps. Their most complex and largest trap is two 10x10 ft traps with a 4x10 trap sandwiched between. It knocks down to flat panels and T-posts. The tops are 5x10 hog panels folded to "corrugate" them for strength so they dont sag a lot.

They say they bait hogs to get in the center trap and then shoot all the hogs but a sow and leave her in the little trap like a cage, providing her water and feed. They have then cought over 20 hogs overnight on a subsequent night. The trap shy hogs, especially boars tend to come on up to the trap with the female there.

There had three different styles of doors on their traps, all of which any of us with a welder can easily make (you could substitute a drill and bolts for the welder.). One of the 3 is a Guilotine type and once tripped does not permit entry by more hogs but the other two types will let more in.

The Gov dude said at first they always changed locations, due to blood, and worried about cleaning blood away so as to not spook the hogs but learned that they could shoot 20 hogs in the trap, pull them out, rebait, and catch more the next night. Someone asked but the Gov guys hadn't tried baiting for hogs with hog parts.

They didn't mention other pig diseases, just swine brucelosis and how it will get to cattle and people. They recommend rubber gloves and caution with knives if anyone field dresses a feral pig.

Since hog sign is showing up all around me, I'm sure I'll be seeing some soon. I'll probably have to build a trap as I can't be spending too many nights creeping around the place with a rifle.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Bird]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
Since hog sign is showing up all around me, I'm sure I'll be seeing some soon

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe; maybe not. You know I lived across the road from Navarro Mills Lake for almost 8 years. I frequently walked into Corps property to go fishing, I drove, both on tractors and on a Kawaski Mule, all over the 1100 acres my neighbor had leased for 4 years. We cut and baled hay on Corps property, and I saw lots of hog sign, rooted up areas, etc., but the only hogs I saw were after someone trapped them or shot them.

A lot of people were afraid to go onto Corps property and some even on their own land without a gun because they were afraid of the hogs. The Corps property was posted as a hunting area, but no pistols or rifles allowed; shotguns or bows only. It was a very popular area with duck and dove hunters at certain times of the year. However, I knew a couple of guys who hunted the hogs with dogs and they carried a .22 pistol to dispatch the hogs. Another neighbor hunted squirrel regularly with a .22 rifle. And I think the Park Rangers just kinda looked the other way. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Bird, When I said, " Since hog sign is showing up all around me, I'm sure I'll be seeing some soon." I meant sign, not hogs. They are mostly nocturnal but where relatively undisturbed will and do come out in daylight.

If I see them at night it will most likely be with a letter of permission in my pocket and an illuminated reticle scope and "jack light" for viewing aids. There are some pretty cheap night vision rifle scopes out there that will image a large target like a few hundred pounds of pork good enough for center of mass aiming that I might consider if the frequency of use would warrant that (it probably won't.)

My wife carries her .357 when she goes out about on the property on foot now after her close sighting of a cougar so I guess she is about as "hog ready" as she will likely get. I think it unlikely she will ever shoot at either a hog or a cougar but better safe than lunch.

Trapping is a better deal than creeping around the woods, especially at night. Of course, if the hogs could be baited to within a few hundred yds of the south side of the house (in plain sight) with enough light to target them with conventional scopes then I could shoot them from the house. That might be acceptably entertaining.

Today my wife was complaining that the crows that have been frequenting the back yard have been absent for days... implying that they might have met with foul play as rifle targets for me or some such fate when she wasn't home. Great idea but 'twern't me, yet.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[EddieWalker]

Pat,

If you get a chance, watch for a program on the National Geographic Channel about Hogzilla. It's a very large hog killed in North Carolina that got allot of internet publicity, so the scientist go there and dig it up. The show also gives allot of really good information about wild hogs and where they came from.

Your mistaken in thinking you won't see them during the day, but it is rare. They don't like the heat and rarely come out when it's hot. During the cool months, they are very active day and night.

To bring them in closer, try getting a deer feeder and putting corn in it. To spice it up, add some diesel fuel to the corn when it's on the ground. I've also heard that you can dig a hole, fill it with deer corn and pour a beer over it. Bury it and let it ferment. Hogs will go crazy over it.

If you decide to trap, red coolaid is very popular, but corn and diesel works real good too.

Trapping is an alright method to get an occasional animals, but totally worthless for controlling the populations. My experience with them is to shoot them every time you see them and discourage them from comeing to your land. They are very smart and learn real quick where it's safe or not.

This morning we found a single set of tracks in our front yard. It came as close as 25 feet to our front door!!!

The biggest herd we've seen was 27 at our feeder. My fiance shot her first one from that group. A month later she shot a really nice one in where our lake is going in at. All the new grass shoots have been bringing in the deer and while watching four of them one afternoon, the hog came out too.

I use a rifle most of the time to shoot hogs. I tried to kill one years ago with a .357 at ten yards and failed miserably. 4 out of six shots were win the head and he just kept going. I had my 30-06 with me, but thought the pistol would do the job that close. One shot with the rifle finished him off. I've also killed a few with my .44 magnum pistol. It's a single action Ruger Super Blackhawk with a 12 inch barrel. On big hogs, I'd still be hesitant with the pistol, but it's ok for hogs under a hundred pounds.

Eddie

[bevans5152]

When I was growing up in South Arkansas, feral hogs became a problem for landowners *after* "stock laws" were passed which eliminated open range for livestock. What we fenced we had to take care of, especially protecting against hogs -- because the areas they rooted would not grow grass again for two seasons, and we were beef cattle growers needing the grazing capacity of our land.

Our solution eventually was a small pack of "hog dogs" -- not the famed "Catahoula hog dogs" but a pair of feists with a somewhat bigger and tougher buddy that was probably half English bulldog and half Chow. The feists, both female, would nag a hog to exhaustion and sometimes allow Trigger, the bully, to attack and even kill the hog. Usually though one of the family (the dogs only hunted with us, and not alone, though they were totally gentle "yard dogs" when not hunting hogs) would get to the area where the hog was bayed and dispatch it with a trusty Winchester .22 semi-auto. In the five years 1957-62 we figured that we probably killed more than 2000 hogs on our 200-acre farm.

The placement of a subsonic .22 bullet just in front of or just behind the ear of a hog of any size normally paralyzed and dropped it in its tracks... I never had a close call. One of my uncles wanted to hunt the hogs for sport with his new .243. He chased and cornered one and shot it four times finally goading it to charge. It would have done him serious damage with its 3-inch tusks if I hadn't dropped it with a lucky shot with my ... .22! Something about fast bullets and hogs' heads that just don't mix.

[EddieWalker]

I tried to add a picture to my previous post about the hogs, but it didn't work. Maybe this will.



http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f4...April26033.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f4...o/May06003.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f4...o/May06004.jpg

Eddie

[Pat]

Eddie, The seminar I attended last week gave me the chance to meet the Gov guy in that area who is in charge of feral hog control. You two are mostly in agreement but he didn't mentiion diesel or Koolaid. The traps they use are portable knockdown traps that can catch over 20 hogs at a time and are real simple construction, easy to duplicate.

They did have samples of smaller traps that could easily be hauled in a pickup and hold 5 or so hogs easily. When they aren't on a "HIGH DOLLAR" helicopter based search and destroy to quickly lower a population they use traps. They recommend traps as MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE than running around with a gun hunting hogs. Where on foot you might shoot a couple the traps can catch several (dozen or two) which you then dispatch with ease.

I too have a Ruger Super Blackhawk but the barel is slightly shorter than the standard 7 1/2, a factory mistake. Hogs have hard heads and you can easily bounce one off if it doesn't hit right. One of my .44 jacketed hollow point handloads fired center of boddy mass will take most of the steam out of the largest hog. A shoulder shot will drop one and prevent it from charging you and slow it down considerably so you can take your time with a follow up kill shot.

I have been thinking that I might try my luck with my M1 carbine, a fine close range "brush" gun. Soft point expanding rounds instead of millitary ammo makes a considerable diffenence in stopping power. Still, a trap never sleeps. A deer feeder dropping corn would sure train them to come at "feeding" time. The Gov guys just put out corn and whatever else is handy in the traps.

Funny thing, they say that after several hogs get in the trap, other hogs will still go in to get some of whatever the others must be getting to stay there. They also say that once trapped or nearly so that you will never get a hog in a trap again so you need to shoot them in the trap and not give a chance of escape.

To overcome trap "shyness" they kept a sow in a small section of trap between two larger sections and the trap warry boars went right in.

Good pix of the pigs. Fiancee is nice too AND she shoots... what a deal.

Thanks for sharing your experience. As your bio is just a tad skimpy... maybe you could mentiion what part of the planet you are on.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Pat]

bevans, Your bio is a tad skimpy too. How about giving us at least a rough idea what part of the planet you are on?

Thanks for sharing your story with us. People that haven't been around hogs sometimes just aren't aware of the danger that can precipitate in a hurry. A few hundred pounds of attacking pork can constitute a deadly risk. "Wild" or feral boars can mess you up pretty bad pretty quick with those tusks. I had heard but you just have to see it to appreciate how a wounded hog, even with one or both front legs shot out will still be churning the dirt with his hind feet trying to get to you, even plowing a furrow with their snout.

South Arkansas? Gee that is nearly in coon a-- territory.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]