Don't have to know where, just want to know if anyone has seen them. It's eating me up now, I have to go find them.
I haven't read any threads this year about hunters seeing or killing one. My county is now included in the "legal to shoot one" catagory, yet I haven't heard a thing. Man....it's like trying to find Bigfoot!!!
im gonna keep an eye on this thread. not that i live in michigan, but i wish we had hogs up here in Ma. i was told they are in parts of NH. and there is a 100 acre "hunting ranch" about an hour from my house with hogs. ( wouldnt mind takin a pair of snippers to the fence)lol
but i dont think the neihbors would like this to much!!
You would be much better off traveling to hunt hogs. You don't want them where you live and deer hunt.
I personally haven't seen one yet. In know the DNR policy for them is shoot on sight. According to a biologist I was talking to they are in 63 counties but the biggest populations are down south near kalamazoo.
p.s. I feel kind of bad being excited for another big game opportunity in the state. Even if they are suppose to be quite destructive. Maybe I'll change my tune if they start popping up around Newaygo County.
I have never seen one in the wild in Michigan. Of all my "network", only one of us has seen one...he has actually killed two just west of Cadillac.
My buddy says that he sees lots of rooting sign around Midland, but hasn't seen one yet.
QuoteOriginally posted by Apex Predator:
You would be much better off traveling to hunt hogs. You don't want them where you live and deer hunt.
X2! you dont want em around.
I'm with Apex, be careful what you wish for! Hogs although fun to hunt, are a blight on our land and native wildlife. We have trapped and killed 40 on the ranch I hunt, in the last 2 months. And we don't seem to have put a dent in them. Consider a 150 pound sow, she is eating a lot of the same things that deer eat. Effectively taking the place of one mature deer in the habitat. Also consider they are holy heck on ground nesting birdsand mammals. I worry for our turkey and rabbit populations, which I also love to hunt.
CKR
Catch em all and bring over to my place. Dang a turkey or a rabbit. Bring on the hogs!!!!
These pigs in Mich.,are they migrating or did the just get away from a farm some place? I have heard they breed like crazy. So far I don't think that they are in New York, but I don't know that for a fact. We have enough problems here with game managment we really don't need hogs to add to list.
The pigs in michigan are said to have gotten out of game ranches. Because of how rapid they can spread the Michigan DNR has said that if they are seen in the wild they are open game to anybody with a valid hunting license.
I have not seen or seen any sign of them here in Allegan or Ottawa county.
I agreed with them fellers up there. You don't want them. I have 500 acres here in E. Texas and they can absolutely destroy a beautiful hay meadow overnight. They also destroy my cow pastures, since most of my property is virgin hardwood timber, I need those pastures for my livestock, as I don't want to cut anymore trees down to make pasture, I love my woods. That is why I go out of my way to hunt them down and eradicate them. Yes, it is fun but it is also costly having them here. I still have natural predators on my property and that helps. The cougars and wolves that live here help me to keep the population in check. One reason I don't kill predators. My neighbors ranches are in really bad shape due to pigs, and due to the fact they take every opportunity to kill a wolf or a cougar, they now have nothing to eat the pigs. I have killed 40 or 50 this year and can't even seem to dent the population. The sad thing is they harm the natural population of deer and other animals. I found probably 10 fawns this year that had been torn to pieces by hogs. Their mothers hid them and ran away when the hogs showed up, and unfortunately the fawns were discovered and mutilated, and I know it was hogs because I saw it happen on three of the occasions. I could not get there fast enough to stop it. Biggie, you are welcome to mine, if I could send them to you I surely would. I'll be honest here in saying that I kill so many I run out of things to do with them. Everyone has them, so nobody wants the ones you kill. My freezer is full of hog and other things so I can't take in anymore. What do you do?? I have to leave them in the field, which goes against the very core of my being, the core of all I believe, to kill somthing and not make use of it. I wish there was another solution. Maybe when I am in the country long enough I will organize a tradgang hog bash. But do to my hectic schedule and being out of country with my job I simply have to do what I can when I can to preserve my property in its most natural state.
-Hillbilly
I have the same info as Steve O....I spend a lot of time out in the woods, and have never seen one or any sign.
Arwin, you got enough deer to keep you happy, don't wish those damned hogs on us! ;)
They're fun to hunt and kill. Which is good, cause if you ever get them you'll see that's just what needs to be done.
Arwin, personally haven't seen any, but heard of a couple sightings in Hillsdale County.
I hunt pretty regular in Hillsdale and Calhoun counties...no pigs or sign of any pigs
I thought I saw one up at the Crows Nest last Friday night.... :scared:
They are all over where i have been hunting and you see everything they tear up but rarely see them. They move mostly at night. If you see one or two during the day there are probably 5 times that many around.
east texas hill billy. Are there no sportsman for the homeless around there?
here we have some butchers some places that will clean the hog for free and give it to homeless shelters. If not I think the shelters will still accept the meat but I'd call before I cleaned one. You just might need a license to give meat to hungry people this day in age.
"Of all my "network", only one of us has seen one...he has actually killed two just west of Cadillac."
Steve O and Roger:
That's just a rumor. Those were two waitresses walking home from the Pines Nightclub.
:)
Swamp Pygmy,
I have asked around to no avail, I am centrally located in the middle of nowhere here. I think they do that in Dallas and larger areas. I'm not even sure they have a program like that in Tyler which is the closest semi-large city to me and it's 70 or so miles away. Dallas is 110 miles or so and getting the pigs up there would cost me a fortune in fuel. Diesel being what it is. Hell getting them to Tyler would cost me a small fortune. I wish they had a closer place with such a program I would be glad to give them all the hog they could eat. The homeless and less fortunate unfortunately receive little help from the cities they inhabit around here. The local governments are more concerned with making sure their football teams are decked out and the Christmas decorations and food for the fall/winter pagent is better than the next towns. Priorities seem a bit backwards. They'll spend thousands upon thousands on festivals an crap but won't give a homeless guy living under a bridge a sandwich. They just gripe and wish he would move to someone elses town. Sorry, I kinda got off on a rant there.
-Hillbilly
Hi Gang,
New on this site and first post here. Have not seen any hogs on the properties I hunt in Branch County. As much as I would like to hunt them, I am more then willing to travel to do so. Really don't want them in my backyard.
Bo
I think the DNR is over reacting to this hog problem as they like call it and that there really are not that many pigs out there. I spent the first 3 months of 2008 searching the areas the girl at the DNR office said there were sightings and never cut a track. I also called Jays, Franks, and every gun store and outdoor store from Saginaw to West Branch to Clare and most didn't even know there were wild hogs running around Michigan. Only one bait shop around West Branch had a hog brought in during the 2007 gun season. You would figure if there was a fair number of the beasts out there they be on the buck poles.
I think I agree.....of all the folks we know, of all the time in the woods....somebody would have seen one by now.
One of the guys where I hunt in just outside of Manchester shot a black one he said it was about 150 lbs. I personally have not seen one or any sign of them.
Hillbilly
Just shoot'em! Make use of what you can, dont worry about the rest.
Eric
I saw one in a bar up in harrison... definitely a sow...
Oh I hear ya hillbilly. You're preaching to the choir. In New Orleans we have every failed infrastructure imaginable that would create thugs and gangsters and then the government sits around wondering why the place is the way it is.
I have personally seen some damage to lawns near Midland, and I have seen the tracks where they cross roads, and where they forage in the ditches.
(some deep ditches in the Midland area). Deer avoid going into the deep wet ditches, pigs head there to feed.
I tried and tried to get permission from the nearby landowners, to no avail. These people want to keep the pigs to themselves, because I have heard there are a good number of them being killed during firearms season.
I have seen photo`s of two boars killed with shotguns, and they were dark, and hairy. The ones I saw in the photo`s looked like Russian`s.
The pigs are almost totally nocturnal, and when they turn up a lawn, the residents go to bed with a nice lawn and wake up with patch of worked up earth.
Much of the land in the areas just north of Midland is low and wet. Lots of tight brush close to the ground. Perfect for pigs.
Baiting for deer is still widespread in the area, and the pigs feed freely during the night.
The last batch of tracks I saw there in late October contained tracks of all sizes, and we all know what that means.
I personally searched the areas said to have hogs in Ogemaw county, and never found any sign.
The areas near Midland that I spoke of are just a little east of Meridian Rd (M-30) and just north of US-10.
I saw pig sign just south of the little town of Hope, and just a little further south.
If you go looking, you will see the kind of brush I describe when you are in the right spots.
I found that most homeowners do not own adjacent land, and own only enough room for a house.
Good luck...they ARE there.