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wild hog problems

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peterranch

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We are in South Texas. BIG problem with wild hogs. Our ranch is game preserve as well as cow/calf operation. We stopped feeding deer. Traps everywhere. Can't keep ahead of them. They come over from neighboring ranches. Can't use helicopters like others do because of our
calf operation. Any ideas? Had good luck soaking our bait corn in cheap Sangria, pulls them right in. But these guys are smart, adapt quickly.
(Also have a hoot watching the racoons who show up early to get wasted. Proves all drunks are the same!)
 
I'm goin to tell u this and I generly don't let this out but I feal like u can keep a secret. Get u a box of clay pidgens. Put them in a bucket and drop a pipe down on them to break them up in small peaces about like corn or a little biger. Mix that with soured corn and put that out. It will sure kill them. And u don't have to waste wine. Just sour it with water. Deer won't eat soured corn. Wild hogs reck more pasture and crops and its gettin worst every year. We sure love to hunt them though.
 
We are located in East Texas and wild hogs are the biggest pain you can have. Our hays looks like hog pen after all the rain we got this past winter. We just got done dragging them all out and they came back in over the weekend and rooted up about 30 ac. of them. The best thing we have found is a 270 shot in for about 300 yards and some good hog dogs. I saw about 40 today fixing fence. If the State of Texas doesn't do something about them I will haul a load to the capital and let them fight them. Last year we trapped over 300 hogs off our place two years ago we only trapped 130.

Wait until they work their way up into the grain belt of the U.S.
 
I saw about 40 today fixing fence.


Wow they sound useful. :shock: :) :wink: :roll:
 
per said:
I saw about 40 today fixing fence.


Wow they sound useful. :shock: :) :wink: :roll:
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Well if I would have had a gun and not wire, hammer, and a fence stetcher they wouldn't had been 40 going across the pasture. :roll: But you can't always have the right tool for everything. They have been a problem around this part of the state for years. Now the state animal health commission said they can have swine brucellosis that cattle can get also.

Here a little info from the State of Texas that might help you unstand the problem we have with them.

Texas feral hog population outnumbers people in most cities
Hog Wild in Texas

With an estimated 1.5 million in Texas alone, feral hogs surpass all Texas city populations, except Houston, for state bragging rights, said wildlife and fisheries specialist Dr. Billy Higginbotham at a Texas A&M University extension center in Overton.
But don't think of Babe, the pink farm pig who talked his way through two feature films. These dark and furry hogs are known to nearly every Texas county, except the extreme western portions of the state, and are notorious for tearing up land, destroying crops and causing land erosion.

"They're kind of a pest," said Drew Ryser, a hunter. "They tear up the ground; the underbrush is torn up and they breed like crazy."

Nationwide, Higginbotham estimates the feral hog population at more than 2 million, but said the exact population is impossible to track.

"We simply do not have an accurate means to count them and therefore these estimates are just that--estimates," he said.
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Known to trample anything and everything in their way, a WFSD survey of more than 775 landowners reported average property damage of $7,515 incurred since hogs first appeared on their property, said Wilkins.
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http://www.window.state.tx.us/comptrol/fnotes/fn0407/hog.html


One day Jiggs said he will come down here to kill a few if the hog don't run us off first. The winter of 2009 was the worst damage they have ever done on our place.
 
DustDevil said:
Seems like I recall reading something about clay pigeons being toxic to swine on the case :wink: ; good idea.
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They can be a problems for cows and horses to. So if you use them make sure the hogs can't get them out to where you livestock can get them.
 
You can trap them and shoot them and control them somewhat, but you will never eliminate them entirely by lawful means.

Don't get caught.
 
I shoot every one I see. First thing I do every Saturday when I show up to work at the ranch is hop on the gator, grab a 270, a shotgun, and a pistol, and my friend does the same while riding along with me....

We drive the fences/cross fences over 800 acres and check for holes in the fence and pigs. We usually kill 2-6 in the hour it takes to drive the fences. We use the 270 for the long shots, and when we see a big group, we run buckshot in the shotguns and try to get in close....knock down as many as possible, then come back for the kill.

Last weekend we dropped a 400+lb sow with about 12 piglets on her. We got 4 piglets with the sow that went the wrong direction....the other 8 got away...along with the boar. Without their momma, the coyotes will make quick work of the piglets. We always aim for the sow over the boar.

We take the carcasses and drag them down to where the alligators are grouped up on the shoreline, and toss em over to the gators. 4 hours later there isnt a body to be seen, but there are alot of happy gators.

I shoot group after group after group, and it does not impact anything. The next weekend another group replaces the one I obliterated the weekend before. All you can do is keep on killing em. I keep a feeder full of corn just to make picking them off easier for us. We keep the area around the feeder mowed down for about 300 yards in every direction. Makes for easy targets.
 
Mike said:
You can trap them and shoot them and control them somewhat, but you will never eliminate them entirely by lawful means.

Don't get caught.
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I was not aware of any illegal method of taking a pig. In Texas you can do anything you want to kill them as long as you possess a hunting license.
 
There use to be a bunch in texas called intergame. They bought wild hogs here in fla. They started out payin good money for them. But it got cheeper every year till people includein myself quit dealin with them. I nwver figered they wood need to leave texas to get hogs but we later heard about some bad checks. They had a slaughter house somewhere in texas and sold that wild pork in europe. They wonted nothin but boars and sows. No bars. I know them boys that fed the clay pidgens sure killed a lot of hogs but I don't know if a cow will eat that sour corn. It wouldn't take but a little wire and 3 trees or post to keep the cows out of it.
 
cowhunter said:
There use to be a bunch in texas called intergame. They bought wild hogs here in fla. They started out payin good money for them. But it got cheeper every year till people includein myself quit dealin with them. I nwver figered they wood need to leave texas to get hogs but we later heard about some bad checks. They had a slaughter house somewhere in texas and sold that wild pork in europe. They wonted nothin but boars and sows. No bars. I know them boys that fed the clay pidgens sure killed a lot of hogs but I don't know if a cow will eat that sour corn. It wouldn't take but a little wire and 3 trees or post to keep the cows out of it.
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The slaughter house is in Ft. Worth. We have a guy that pays pretty good money for them and sends them up there. I just wish we didn't have hogs.
 
We make special trips out at night with the spotlight and kill em. Haven't had a problem lately......but beins I typed that sentence....they will be back probably tonight LOL
 
It's illegal to hunt deer and stuff that has a season, with a light at night in Texas. But hogs are a critter that's not native...and it's legal to hunt them anytime of the year...any time of the day or night. We've gone out and seen them in what we call herds of 50 plus hogs....all sizes.
 

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