I'm not sure how I feel about this beacuse I sure don't want there to be a shortage of pigs! They are just too fun to hunt and dang good on the table.....
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/10/27/america-15b-problem-ruinous-wild-pigs/?intcmp=features
Anything the feds get involved in will be like throwing money down a rat hole as well as being a failure in the long run. I don't think you have to worry about being pigless.
Blaino,
the only way to get rid of all the pigs in america would be to nuke it. And i'd bet some of the pigs would become radioactive. They are some tough jokers!
funny:
"I've never seen any one species that can affect so many livelihoods and resources," says a Texas official."
Look in the mirror.
ChuckC
My sentiments exactly chuck c
They are so worried about them in New York that they don't want hunters to shoot them........ :dunno: And we all know how well they can manage game in the Empire State!!
How's this:
In NH, you can't kill a hog in the wild without first CONTACTING THE HOG'S OWNER AND SECURING PERMISSION!?!?! They're considered 'private property'.
Yes, get the feds involved, that should solve the problem. Maybe they will put wolves in the states with the hogs. Sure is working out well in the west.
some of you may recall the Catalina Island goat "problem". they helo shot them all. We bowhunters used to be able to go out there and hunt them year round, but someone thought they were destroying the environment and gunned them. Those of us who hunted there loved the freedom of roaming the entire island with bow in hand.
We all understand the dynamic nature of pig reproduction. We also would like to be part of the solution....CA used to make it easy to hunt them-cheap. Now the $$$ rules, both in the price of the license and tag and then trespass fees. If the problem is really a "problem" then why put obsstacles in front of the average guy helping resolve it? I am not naieve enough to think bow hunting alone will control the pig issue in places that have serious overpopulation, but we could put a dent in some of it.
Pigs should be open season, year round with no license fee. Yep, I know a few poacher-types will use such open regs as cover to be going after game species.
Anyone caught moving live pigs should be prosecuted.
The only way to get rid of these animals would be to allow market hunting of them -- kill all you want and sell them for food. If there was a financial incentive to go after them, pigs would go the way several game animals almost did more than a 100 years ago.
QuoteOriginally posted by Bowwild:
Pigs should be open season, year round with no license fee. Yep, I know a few poacher-types will use such open regs as cover to be going after game species.
Anyone caught moving live pigs should be prosecuted.
The only way to get rid of these animals would be to allow market hunting of them -- kill all you want and sell them for food. If there was a financial incentive to go after them, pigs would go the way several game animals almost did more than a 100 years ago.
great point
Bowwild that is very well thought out.
Here in FL its currently legal to hunt them year round on private land day or night, and you don't need a hunting permit. However on public land hunting is restricted to 'day' only, and the open seasons on that particular WMA, the legal methods are narrowed also. Recently I believe a few WMA's allow after dark but its highly restricted.
I feel strongly that FL should open up the WMA's to year round hunting for them day or night, just like private land. I guess they won't cause they'd have to have officers keeping track at all hours for safety reasons and to prevent deer poaching during the off season or whatever.
I support swine genocide 100%.
Wanna hear something crazy though...this morning I was driving to work and on the radio during the news they made a blurb about how FWC in one region of FL was going to start working with some high end restaurants or some crap to bring "wild boar" to the table??? WTH??? I about spit out my coffee. I need to fact check and see what the backstory on this is or if the newscaster didn't have their facts straight. That's all we need is the government making some kinda management deal on them with some restaurants and then they're going to restrict private hunters even more cause its a money maker.
get this.. Where we hunt on a WMA there are a ton of hogs. And i literally mean thousands. They do have a hog season that you can hunt them in march, but here is the kicker. You can't hunt them with anything but a rimfire. I invested in a .22 mag and it does the trick within reason, but if you're truly concerned with the controlling of them, why aren't we allowed to shoot them with whatever we want?
Typical media crap. Divide what they tell you by 7 and you'll get closer to the truth.
Interesting read with a lot of good points. I don't live in a hog rich area, but I would give my eye teeth to have a big game animal to hunt year round. I would LOVE that.
As to management...
Seems like eradication is order many areas. That also seems like an easy problem to fix to me, but the government can rarely be relied on to make sense.
Great thread,
Jake
QuoteOriginally posted by killinstuff:
Typical media crap. Divide what they tell you by 7 and you'll get closer to the truth.
That's the truth. 400# pig ain't a wild pig. Probably raised in a pen and released. We have a lot of pigs in FL, but they aren't the scourge of mankind. just another critter that needs to be chased with a bow.
22? Really? Who makes the rules?
I wish we had wild hogs in masses in PA :/
Then again I'm not a farmer and they wouldn't affect my livelihood at all. I'd just love to have something to get after with a stick bow year round, that's for sure.
Not to mention homemade bacon jerky :D
I recently spoke with a game biologist in Louisiana about hog hunting. He admitted that they are "5 to 10 years" behind with the regulations. He said that the State didn't realize how quickly they would become "problematic".
He assured me that the regulatory agency is working to make it easier (cheaper) to get NRs and Rs alike to hunt the "nuisance quadrupeds"... feral hogs.
I hope to take my first hog down there early next year.
QuoteOriginally posted by gringol:
400# pig ain't a wild pig. Probably raised in a pen and released.
Gringol....I have seen plenty of wild pigs that were 300# plus...not just in south GA but in the mountians of N GA in the Cohutta Wilderness.
I also killed one that was 300# plus in SC at what is now called Wild Things...at the time it was Ray's Hog Heaven.
A shielded sow....
(http://tradgang.com/tg/hogs/sc4.jpg)
That sow was named 'The Bride of Horse Tail' by Ray as he had seen her many times...'Horse Tail' was bigger.
A 400# will pig is very possible.
I saw one once at The Paradise hunting camp I called 'Stretch Red' it was so long it looked like it needed legs in the middle. I only saw it once and didn't get a pic of it. I was spell bound by it let me tell ya.
I wanted to put a stalk on it so bad, but there were too many hogs in between me and HER, plus there was a matriarch doe in between us as well looking me over real hard. All I could do was watch her graze in awe.
I also remember RC talking about one he saw that was pushing 400 and I believe it was on a management area in south GA. That management area is just across the river and east of The Paradise.
And Joe Buck killed one at The Paradise that was a Spanish hog that weighed 387 I believe.
Ya everyone wants them dead but you cant kill them unless you pay them to do it! If you want them dead just let hunters hunt your land and shoot them without charging anything for them to do it. Also you should not need a lic to do so. Widow
QuoteOriginally posted by Bowwild:
Pigs should be open season, year round with no license fee. Yep, I know a few poacher-types will use such open regs as cover to be going after game species.
Anyone caught moving live pigs should be prosecuted.
The only way to get rid of these animals would be to allow market hunting of them -- kill all you want and sell them for food. If there was a financial incentive to go after them, pigs would go the way several game animals almost did more than a 100 years ago.
In Texas they can trap and sell them. They want them alive and believe it or not we export them to Mexico. The ranch I hunt on was almost void of hogs a few years ago. Come to find out the ranch manager and 2 nephews trapped almost 350 in the prior 2 months before we arrived. Three of us never saw a hog. The 350 was just from the first of the year and that wasn't counting the fall. Found this out the next year. They were getting 35 cents a pound live weight. If there is enough money to be made they will get them all.
I'll take your word for it Terry, but I've never seen one much over 250# down here in FL.
Same here in Bama on Mgt areas, 22s, #4 shot or smaller or arrows with field points during small game season, no hog hunting during the off season.
Being pretty close to several of the wildlife biologists I asked "why not broadheads". The answer; because people might be tempted shoot a deer out of season of they were carrying broadheads.
My thinking is anyone who will poach a deer will attempt it with a 22, bird shot or any thing else they are carrying.
What most are missing is that hunting alone will seldom or ever control the population. Especially bowhunting. Landowners for the most part are not ignoring a viable control solution by not allowing open bowhunting for hogs.
Bottom line make it easier to hunt them where they are, in city limits as well. If you are charging me to help you with your pig problem it is not that big a problem, yet!!!! Feed the hungry and your self.
QuoteOriginally posted by T Sunstone:
They were getting 35 cents a pound live weight. If there is enough money to be made they will get them all. [/QB][/QUOTE]
Farmers will hardly go forth and eradicate a source of income. Why would anyone eradicate a source of income that is self renewing and requires no cost of production other than harvest and transport? The only other cost would be loss of production of the mainstream business due to pig damage. The farmer will soon find the most profitable balance for himself.
I do my part to thin the heard when I'm out and about , one of my favorite animals to chase with my bow...
,,,,Sam,,,,
Gringol....here's a FL pig....
I weigh 195....
(http://tradgang.com/tg/hogs/blockhead.jpg)
And, this one was not cut...I can show you the nads if need be.
QuoteOriginally posted by Eric Krewson:
Same here in Bama on Mgt areas, 22s, #4 shot or smaller or arrows with field points during small game season, no hog hunting during the off season.
Being pretty close to several of the wildlife biologists I asked "why not broadheads". The answer; because people might be tempted shoot a deer out of season of they were carrying broadheads.
My thinking is anyone who will poach a deer will attempt it with a 22, bird shot or any thing else they are carrying.
EXACTLY!!!
An outlaw isn't going to obey the laws.