Have any Michiganders spotted wild hogs?

E. Texas HillBilly · December 05, 2008, 04:03:00 PM

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

Bojangles · December 05, 2008, 06:16:00 PM

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

killinstuff · December 05, 2008, 06:37:00 PM

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.

**DONOTDELETE** · December 05, 2008, 07:29:00 PM

I think I agree.....of all the folks we know, of all the time in the woods....somebody would have seen one by now.

Arrow Slinga · December 05, 2008, 09:18:00 PM

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.

WESTBROOK · December 05, 2008, 10:04:00 PM

Hillbilly

Just shoot'em! Make use of what you can, dont worry about the rest.

Eric

jacobsladder · December 05, 2008, 10:08:00 PM

I saw one in a bar up in harrison... definitely a sow...

Swamp Pygmy · December 06, 2008, 12:05:00 AM

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.

Bonebuster · December 06, 2008, 08:27:00 AM

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.