Wild hogs not just a Texas/Louisiana problem.

Kind of like California - the only state I know of that actually tries to put seasons and limits on wild hog killing.
 
I laugh every time I see people complaining about not being able to work here in the U.S. Anyone willing to get dirty and get out in the elements can make decent money culling hogs for ranchers & farmers. Even locally here they are starting to spread quickly in the southern part of the state.
 
If CA really wanted the pigs dead (or TX, LA, MS, or any other state), they would not require you to jump through so many licensing hoops. In CA, not only do you have to have a hunting license, but you must have wild pig tags as well. It is obvious that pigs are being exploited as a revenue source by politicians at the expense of agriculture. And taxpayers shoulder the bill and re-elect the ijits. Go figure. So yes, if they wanted to get rid of the pigs, they should just make them more available or accessible to hunters.
 
Scorch, TX, LA, and MS all allow pretty much unlimited hog hunting on private lands. On public lands, the actual land usage is restricted to normal hunting seasons, license, etc. However, on those (during normal hunting seasons) you can kill as many pigs as you want.

In these states, it isn't that the state is making any money off of hog hunting. They just are hesitant to open up public woods for hunting during the off season. I'm thinking that the reason is that it would require much more cost to ensure that deer were not being poached during that time.
 
I guess it's as much a problem for those in Europe,,,
As it is here in the USA.
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There is a significant difference. The wild boar is indigenous to Europe and it is not indigenous here. Wild boar are a problem for them, no doubt, but similar to how we view the deer problem here. Deer destroy/consume a tremendous amount of our agriculture, but we take it in stride a little better as deer are part of our nature here. Deer attack people every year and even manage to kill people every now and then, but we take it in stride. We don't like it, but we perceive the problem in a different manner.

The arguments between the hunters and the conservationists are near identical.
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I personally know two conservationists here in Texas. Neither one has a single argument for hogs being allowed to stay. I realize that some do, but even the one that is anti-gun encourages me to shoot every one I see.
 
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Anyone willing to get dirty and get out in the elements can make decent money culling hogs for ranchers & farmers.
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It is obvious that pigs are being exploited as a revenue source by politicians at the expense of agriculture.
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These are things that we are lead to believe about the hog problems, but just aren't true. it is hard just to get access to hunt hogs on lands that have "problems", let alone get paid for it. You pretty much have to know somebody to hunt hogs on private land, unless you wnat to pay for a canned hunt.

I lived in CA in the 80's, and hunted hogs on public land, because every piece of private land with a "hog problem" wanted top dollar to access, and $200-300 for every "problem" you alleviated. It's not just the state dipping into the economic benefits.

Same thing now in southern Ohio.

I have no problem with a landowner charging to hunt whatever they want on their own land, and am glad they turn it into a silk purse, but this idea that hogs are so destructive that landowners are begging people or willing to pay people to hunt them is a myth.
 
Saw a thing on animal planet the othe night called "Invasive Species" about Texas hogs calling them Mutant wild hogs that pretty but charaterized them as bands of roving man eating killers that attack on sight, and live to hunt humans. They showed this guy hunting them with a "high power assault rifle with large magazine capacity" as though nothing else could take one down. Of course, this high power weapon was a .223.

Yes, I understand there are anecdotes of attacks, which they capitalized on, and made you think were daily occurrances.
 
These are things that we are lead to believe about the hog problems, but just aren't true. it is hard just to get access to hunt hogs on lands that have "problems", let alone get paid for it. You pretty much have to know somebody to hunt hogs on private land, unless you wnat to pay for a canned hunt.

I lived in CA in the 80's, and hunted hogs on public land, because every piece of private land with a "hog problem" wanted top dollar to access, and $200-300 for every "problem" you alleviated. It's not just the state dipping into the economic benefits.
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That's something that one of my brothers brings up quite often - that the guys that scream the loudest about the hog problem are the first ones to turn right around and demand a $200 trespass fee, and then put a $200+ price on each "problem" hog's head.

"Oh gawd! They're eating me out of house and home! ...Oh, you want to help me? That'll be $1,000 for four hogs; and if you shoot a big one, I get to take credit and have my picture in the local paper."

Yea... big problem. :rolleyes:


We have the same problem, here, though. Farmers/ranchers that have problems with deer, elk, moose, bear, coyotes, and wolves scream to high hell that something must be done. So, when the Fish and Game suggests some cull tags for the area, the farmers/ranchers protest and refuse to allow the hunters on their property, unless they can charge an access fee.
"That'll be $250 per person, per day; and a $350 fee if you fill your tag on my land."
Or if the Fish and Game announces that they'll have the Game Wardens cull a few animals, the farmers/ranchers throw a fit because they weren't offered landowner tags first.
 
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Funny how the non-landowners seem to think that just because landowners complain about a problem, that they want some yahoo to come and deal with it. If landowners want "help," then they will ask for it. It really is that simple.

It is often hard to tell which causes more problems, the hogs or the "Good Samaritans" who offer to "help." Too many gates that are supposed to be closed get left open. Some volunteers are just downright dangerous. Too many leave trash behind. Too many shoot stuff they aren't supposed to shoot.

Yeah, it doesn't take too many such helpers to sour landowners fast on letting people come and "help" with the hog problems.
 
Two short stories for you:
There once was a man in Southeastern Idaho that owned a little over 2,800 acres of sagebrush flats. His family had been there since they homesteaded the original parcel in the 1800s, and never had many issues. But, now, he had some problems with fences getting wiped out and cows being shot by drunken locals.
So, he posted a flyer at the local gun shop:
"Coyote problem. Will offer hunting access for help with fence repair."
The coyote issue wasn't necessarily true, but he didn't want to tell people that he just wanted eyes on his property as often as possible.
By the end of the year, his fences were all straight, upright, and solid. His cattleguards had been dug out to be functional again. The few gates that he had were rebuilt with stronger posts. And, there were small game and predator hunters moving through there often enough that the locals no longer considered it a safe place to screw around.
He had one bad apple that had to be told never to return, but, overall, it was well worth it. Now, he considers hunters to be beneficial enough that he'll allow anyone in that asks to hunt his property.


Some years later, and about 25 miles away, there was a man that owned much better land, but only a section (640 acres). He had a legitimate coyote problem, and complained constantly about it. Everyone in town had heard about his problem, and quite a few people offered to help. But, this guy being the paranoid type, he automatically assumed that EVERYONE was a dirt-bag that would tear up his land, shoot at his house, leave his gates open, shoot his sheep, destroy his water troughs, and dump beer cans everywhere. So, he refused to let anyone on the property, and just kept complaining. Within 5 months (April to September), he had lost 168 sheep to predators, including all of the year's lambs, and had to put down over two dozen that were injured.
Fish and Game told him that the only solution they could offer required having him join the Walk-In-Access hunting program.
He refused.
80% of his herd was dead by Spring.
He had no other choice and sold his property to an investment firm, before moving back to Texas.
 
You can hunt for free if you find someone who trusts you. Many farmers don't mind extra help as Frankenmauser explained.

But, often times you allow someone access to your land it's gonna go bad.

One guy gets the privilege, tells his buddies... Next thing you know it's s drunken 4wheeling free-for-all with gates left open and the place trashed.

It happens, trust me.

My friend had the same thing happen, he actually wanted people to enjoy his land, it was a beautiful place. Told a guy he could dove hunt, within a few days people were out there shooting refrigerators.

These threads allways turn into "I have a gun, if the land owners won't let me hunt, they must not have a pig problem"
It's just not that easy.
A people problem can grow faster than an animal problem.
 
Texas is chock full of dumbasses. I know, I was born here, grew up here and lived here all my life. King of the Hill is 100% true.
 
Problem with Texas not very much public land, most is privately owned.

If you don't own any, you can enjoy that many outdoor activities.

So when someone gets the opportunity to shoot and cuss and spit and try out your four wheeler... It all happens at once lol
 
Hogs are spreading into new territory. For hundreds of years the wild hog population was confined mostly to the SE US. Within the past 50 or so years the wild hog population has spread dramatically. They did not get there by walking. They got there when folks released hogs into the wild.

Situation: Bubba wants to hunt wild hogs but there are none anywhere close by. Solution: Buy some hogs at the stock sale or from a hog trapper and release said hogs near home.

Many states allowed hog hunting "ranches" to proliferate, largely unregulated. That is the situation here in OK. Few of those hog hunting "ranches" have adequate fences and hogs often escape. There were no hogs on my hunting properties east and west of I-35 until a hog hunting "ranch" opened shop.

This guy went to TX, acquired some hogs and transported them to SE OK with the intention of releasing them in a "high fenced" hunting area:

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/crim...cle_5011a947-05f6-536f-9886-591da0402098.html
 
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I trapped lots of hogs, some people requested that I let them have a hog when I get them. I would hold the pig till they showed up.

I would not let the pig leave alive, that perturbed a few people.

There are some unsavory hog hunting services, that rerelease a certain amount of pigs to perpetuate their activities, they've been caught letting smaller ones go to keep them in the area.
 
Somebody introduced wild Russian boar into central Texas once upon a.
They interbred with domestic piggy.
Here we are now 50 years later. It's not nice to fool with mother nature.
 
The disturbance to nature came with the release of feral hogs in the New World, first by the Spaniards, then by virtually EVERY other group. Documented from the early colonies well into the 1950s, a popular form of raising domestic hogs was free-ranging. It is probably still done in some areas. In the 1600s, Jamestown was just about overrun by their own hogs gone feral. https://books.google.com/books?id=a...Bw#v=onepage&q=jamestown overrun hogs&f=false

Texas has some idiots, no doubt, but so does EVERY other state (like the OK example noted) and EVERY other country. Look at our friendly Swedes. They were rid of hogs since the 18th century and they brought them back for hunting on controlled reserves, only hogs got loose some how (imagine that). http://files.webb.uu.se/uploader/271/BIOKand-13-025-Duck-Lovisa-Sammanfattning.pdf

In fact, Sweden has done such a poor job with their hogs that the hogs have now invaded Norway and become a huge menace, hogs also being extirpated from that country for a long time. http://dolly.jorgensenweb.net/nordicnature/?p=234

As with Norway and Sweden, Florida, Louisiana, etc., it isn't just a Texas issue and it isn't just a private land issue.
 
Free-ranging hogs in east Texas have been around for a long time. I read stories as a kid in WW II about "piney woods rooters".
 
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