We are just starting to see wild hogs in Southern Kansas. They are *disasterous.* Found a fascinating show about a family in Texas who hunt them for a living. I had heard they were fast and smart, but I was surprised to see just *how* fast they were.
Anyone here ever hunt them?
(This is the family who hunts them...shows some Texas color for the Brits here in the crowd.)
http://www.hulu.com/watch/386073
No, but it's on my list:)
If you want to eradicate them, I believe you can bait them in using 'Hog Bombs' that smell like corn ...and then blast them from a tree stand. I've been watching some fairly horrific helicopter shoots in Texas where they kill hundreds over a few days on youtube but its a far cry from being PG so I won't post the URLs.
Yeah, they just absolutely destroy everything looking for food. They can be very mean too. I imagine they could grow big up your way too with all that food. That's going to be a real problem at some point.
I've spooked a few hiking in the mountains in Japan. They're enormous, but much faster than you might imagine. I'm fortunate not to have pissed one off because they are mean. There are always stories about these things wandering into towns and goring people.
Quote from: grnidone on August 07, 2012, 12:54:09 AM
...shows some Texas color for the Brits here in the crowd.)
http://www.hulu.com/watch/386073
The Brits here can prolly not view that video :) It's US-only ::)
They were a regular pest when I had my offices in Poland,
Although I never went hunting for them, i knew many locals that did. BTW I thought they tasted lovely ;)
Also, are you actually thinking about 'hunting' and eating them? Or do you just want them dead?
As a hunter, I would have to look at the situation to tell you what to do in it, but if you are looking at this as 'extermination of invasive and exotic animals', then you need helicopters. Short of them, I think you need to put on large scale drives (aka walk in a line and push game to others waiting to ambush).
If I were alone, and we did away with 'sportsmanship', I'd sit and wait for them at night, in a tree stand, over bait. Or with dogs in the daytime. But I would not go on an extermination run, with a large number of people shooting over dogs, for fear someone might shoot my dogs by accident. I think I also might make use of fences to push them into a coral of some sort. Even if you pushed them by a bunch of shooters, it could make all the difference with animals like them. They are stupid and they cant jump like deer. They also run remarkably flat, which means they are easier to get a bead on than a deer too.
If I were 'hunting hunting' by myself for sport and dinner, I find where they travel and set up a stand in a tree nearby. Then I'd grab my .44 with the 8 and 3/8th barrel and go out the next morning at 4am and wait. If I was more impatient, I'd grab my bolt action deer rifle and dial the scope down to 3X and set up shop where I had a better vantage point of a high trafficked crossroads.
...and if shots over 75 yards were not possible, then I'd go to my shotgun with buckshot.
you can boar hunt in the uk - I know that a few people advertise it. Assume its from managed groups when they're selling hunts in large quantity, but I know a lot of farmers along the south coast shoot wild, wild boar, so perhaps some of the hunts are on wild colony's.
I'm pretty sure there are a few different kind of wild swine, some bigger, some meaner than others.
I don't mind paid outfitters, but I think if you want to exterminate them people should somehow harvest them (humanely) and feed the poor or something with them. I just don't think it's right to run around and waste that much meat. I also don't like people wounding them then not tracking them, leaving them to die a slow death. That is what gives hunters a bad name. That isn't hunting. If you want to shoot a few hundred by helicopter, don't call it 'hunting'; that's just 'killing'.
So what's the plan, hop a long? You going to rustle up some bacon?
These people don't sit in the tree stand, as they tend to wander. And, with all the Texas brush, they have plenty of places to hide. They follow on horse after dogs who are wearing body armor. The dogs, after scenting the hogs out, chase them down and then "keep the front end busy" why people go behind the hog and grab its back legs, kneel on top of them and then hog-tie them with hobbles.
Most of time they don't have to shoot them, as the dogs tend to keep them busy, but in one episode, a helicopter scared up about 20 hogs who charged the people on the ground, so they had to use pistols. (.38 revolvers from the look of them). I couldn't believe how fast those pigs could run, and how incredibly ferocious they are.
The hogs are taken alive (if possible) and taken to a butcher where the meat is given to food banks.
That's why I asked your intention. If you want to 'hunt' them with dogs and horses that's fine, I'm all for it. But those guys are hopelessly outnumbered if they are trying to actually eradicate them.
Go to youtube and type in: helicopter hog hunting ...and look for the 'Cedar Ridge' one; those guys are from Texas too, but they are part of the mass eradication program. Now THAT is some serious Nam style slaughter.
The part of Texas the helicopter guys were in was waaaaay different than the show I saw. The helicopter guys had flat range land, the people I watched had *lots* of trees, lots of hedge and lots of hills and valleys. I doubt you could really see the hogs from the air, as there was just too much ground cover.
Those were some massively huge hogs from the chopper though...
Quote from: dogboy on August 07, 2012, 01:49:44 PMThey are stupid and they cant jump like deer. They also run remarkably flat, which means they are easier to get a bead on than a deer too.
The farmers in Japan tell me these things are quite smart. They put out giant steel cages baited with food and swear that the hogs learned to hold the door open while another eats the bait. They say it's easier to shoot them in their fields. They are tasty.
Of course, how you rate intelligence depends on the context and the definition of intelligence you are using.. however, in quite a few areas pigs outperform dogs.
Yes, I know, pigs <> wild hogs, but they are easier to test.
You're right. I should have just said 'they appear much easier to kill than most of the animals I shoot' and left it at that. I called them stupid because, as a whole, it's difficult to train them to do anything for you, especially unsupervised on their own. Even the domesticated ones. They were selectively bred be used for eating. That's it. Their claim to fame is you can feed them anything, they dont mind living in filth, and they grow fat and taste like bacon.
As far as dogs are concerned, intelligence really wasn't the point of all that selective breeding either, although it played a role. Their ability to communicate (interpret/respond) and to please their owners is quite unparalleled, and it the reason they can perform 'work' and are valued as companions (instead of dead weight or dinner).
Any animal we work with - dogs, horses, elephants, and a few sea mammals come to mind - has to be able to communicate with us, process the information, and then act in a coordinated manner, with a goal of collective success, for them to do their 'job' correctly. And in my book, any animal that can do that is at the very least 'not stupid'. But again, it's more like 'wavelengths' than 'intelligence' I'm talking about here.
My brother worked on a pig farm for a while - he swore they had a sense of humour.
Said you that if he turned his back on one particular pig when shovelling muck, it would 'jump him' and knock him face down in the crap then run off making what sounded like 'laughing' noises. I have no idea if this is true, but I would love to have seen it.
Pigs are *very very* smart. I'd put their intelligence up with dogs or wolves. I don't doubt what your brother says at all.
>it would 'jump him' and knock him face down in the crap then run off making what sounded like 'laughing' noises.
I think I dated her sister.
> I think I dated her sister.
I married their mum!