Over the last several days I have seen pig groups of a scale I have never seen or heard of before. I saw a wall of pig that consisted of at least 50 and have encountered other large groups over the last three nights I have shot a few but holy cow....will they ever be put in check??
Texas has the highest feral hog population in the country with approximately half or more than the 4 million present in the US. Dryer areas have historically not been to the hog's liking, but they are now well into the driest of areas so long as they have consistent supplies of water. In short, there are just about everywhere in Texas now. Folks in New Mexico are feeling the problem as well.
Will they ever be put into check? So far, no state program has met with any success in being able to say that they have ceased hog population increases in their state and none have a program that has been found to be effective on a wide scale basis that would be needed to actually limit the population.
Depending on the researcher making the estimates, the hog population has the potential to match the projected human population by 2050 or 2060. In short, you can't shoot enough of them.
You can probly hunt on any ranch we long as you are capable of hitting pigs and not cows...
no limits they are not native.
While there are no limits and they aren't native, land owners are not quick to let armed strangers onto their property to shoot hogs. It is a bad idea from a personal safety standpoint and a bad idea from a liability standpoint. Think about it. Would you give armed strangers the run of your property? What happens when they accidently shoot someone in your family or a neighbor? They can sign a wavier that they won't sue you if they get injured, but that doesn't protect you if they shoot somebody not associated with their hunting group. You can be held liable for allowing the activity, maybe only fractionally so, but is it worth the risk?
Hogs do damage, about $25 per head per year in Texas and that number is increasing. A lot are killed early in life and don't do much damage, but some of the older hogs may accumulate thousands of dollars of damage over the course of their lives. So the landowner needs to consider the costs of the hogs relative to the costs if something goes wrong. It can be a tough decision.