Wild hogs

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D.R. Cattle

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Does anyone in these boards take part in hog hunting with dogs? Gazillions of those things down here in Florida. I have to say that I find it more fun than hunting deer with a rifle. The little bast**** wreak havoc on pastures. In my area the developing is moving so fast that hogs are being displaced at a quick rate. We find them in some pretty surprising places. Seen a few dogs get killed, but for the most part, they have more fun than we do. I think you Texas guys have a lot of them don't you?
 
not alot of wild hogs in my area, but the coyote population is getting worse each yr, as the new construction keeps driving them closer and closer to what little acreage is left around us. I have a couple of neighbors who have lost cats and ducks in the past few months.
 
I hunted them with hounds in CA. It was a blast, but on foot it will almost kill you trying to catch up before the pig gets to the dogs.
Supposedly they are around here too, but I've never found anyone that has seen sign of them.
I agree, they are blast, and good eating to.

dun
 
we used to do alot of coon hunting with the dogs, it was a blast also. Seen many a dog come out of a fight all scratched up, but he kept going back for more! Would hate to see a dog and a hog get into it!
 
We use curr to bay them, pit to catch them. I put 40 staples in one of my catch dogs a few years back. She forgot it a few weeks later and was catching with a vengance. It's definitely a natural high. Most of the wild hogs don't seem too good to eat, but I've penned a few sows and bred them with domestic boars. The meat from those pigs was pretty good. Most of the time we just catch them and turn them loose somewhere else so we can hunt them again. Unless it's a trophy boar, then big game guides like to buy them for a fair fee.
 
They are alive and well in DeWitt county, Texas. They are hunted by several means. Trapping live hogs and selling them to buyers is an active business. They root up our pastures, tear up fencing and make a real mess of my friend's corn crop. About the only good thing I can say about them is they are great on the Bar-B-Que pit.
 
In places they are pretty thick. I live just a few miles form the Trinity river bottom and they are all over there. They sure can make quick work of a hay meadow. Almost like it was disked up over night.
 
Yeah, they're a terrible problem in many parts of Texas. The saying is "It's not IF you have a hog problem, it's WHEN." They are spreading steadily along the rivers and creeks and everywhere else there's water and cover.

Craig-TX
 
we have wild hogs in our area too. they can really tear up a hay field in no time at all. we keep traps set and occasionally have someone w/dogs come in to hunt when we notice fresh tracks & rootings.
 
skip":1lpct18c said:
They are alive and well in DeWitt county, Texas. They are hunted by several means. Trapping live hogs and selling them to buyers is an active business. They root up our pastures, tear up fencing and make a real mess of my friend's corn crop. About the only good thing I can say about them is they are great on the Bar-B-Que pit.

Where are you at in DeWitt County? The annual DeWitt County live hog hunting contest is coming up.
 
Anonymous":3941o0mt said:
Where are you at in DeWitt County? The annual DeWitt County live hog hunting contest is coming up.

oops make that wild hog hunting contest. they don't all have to be taken alive.
 
Down here they are considered a nuisance pest. Some ranchers have gone as far as shootin em and lettin em lay because they tore so much up. I hate to hear about that. There should be a law against that. Hungry people all over and hogs killed to rot. Anyway, we have no season, bag limits, size requirements, anything because there are so many and they are so destructive.
 
D.R. Cattle":35a3jpq6 said:
Down here they are considered a nuisance pest. Some ranchers have gone as far as shootin em and lettin em lay because they tore so much up. I hate to hear about that. There should be a law against that. Hungry people all over and hogs killed to rot. Anyway, we have no season, bag limits, size requirements, anything because there are so many and they are so destructive.

no season, bag limits, size requirements or anything here, either. lots of them are shot & left around here as well. they're also sometimes shot & thrown in the ditch on the way home which i think is even worse. as for the meat & hungry people, many people won't eat wild hog for various reasons. either don't like "wild" meat, don't like wild hog (or think they don't), think the hogs carry diseases or are unclean. the same goes for other species where there are limits.....plenty of deer meat not eaten as well.
 
we have a lot of them, i have 3 in a pen now i'm feeding that we trapped. we keep a trap set on a hay meadow year round. sell some we trap to, some of the ranches in west texas buy them to charge hunters to come hunt them
 
Haven't ever hunted them with dogs, but I imagine that would be a good bit of fun on larger ranches. In Texas, generally speaking, it would need to be on a large place since most Texas landowners take a VERY dim view of folks trespassing on their property, even if in pursuit of hogs, deer, etc.

But we do kill a lot of them during deer season and at other times when the weather is fairly cool. Some of the guys on my deer lease just grind them in with their venison for sausage, instead of letting the custom processor charge an arm and a leg for "pork" that has excessive amounts of fat in it. I've ground them into sausage as well as butchered them myself for the freezer. Small ones are barbecued whole. I can't abide the "shoot 'em and leave 'em lay" mentality.

The landowner on our deer lease also runs 3 or 4 traps at various times during the year IF the price of the live hogs suits him. He has a buyer that sells the really large hogs to the oriental market and also one buyer that claims that what he traps on Texas ranches ends up as "wild boar" in New York restaraunts.

Despite all that, each year there seem to be more and more of them. They indeed are destructive of fences, hay meadows, corn crops, etc. I believe a female hog can breed at six months and they can raise two litters per year. And they are hell on wild turkey eggs and possibly poults, plus they will drive deer away from feeders. Shoot the hell out of them, DR! Regards, Arnold Ziffle
 
We have more than our fair share of them mean suckers down here on the Sabine river bottoms... can't say they are much for eating, i don't care for their taste, unless its a young boar or guilt. we hunt them all the time around here, there is no shortage of them, and they can flat tear up some good hay meadows. seen some older boars that will put you up a tree they are so mean. .. all i have to say about them is kill em' or trap them.. otherwise they'll multiply like rabbits and tear up everything

JP :cboy:
 
Around here they have people who will actually buy them live from trappers. I have considered putting out traps but those same traps can also catch calves.
 
JPO --- the way most hog traps are designed, I think a calf would have to be a bit "out of the ordinary" to be attracted to the bait and push the swinging door in to gain entry. The rancher that owns my deer lease property hasn't caught any calves in his hog traps and he runs quite a few animal units on that particular 2,800 acre tract. And even if a calf were to gain entry, IF you are able to check the trap every day or so there would probably be no real harm come to the calf.

Incidently, a friend of mine has about a 1,600 acre Coastal pasture lease between Madisonville and Centerville. A few years ago he drilled 400 acres of oats for winter grazing of his calf crop. The pigs really worked over the oat patch so he started trapping. One of his first catches was a sow with 8 piglets. He ate the sow and sold the piglets in town for $10 each. You may want to give it a try. Arnold Ziffle
 

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