Self Defense Hunt

[drycreek]

Can’t exactly call this a hunt, more of a mission. I planted a Green Cover mix called Warm Season Soil Builder in a half acre plot on my place. The soil had moisture when I planted and we got a couple of small rains on it, but it was enough to make it flourish. It had a lot of brown top millet in it and I thought that might be a problem since we have a plethora of feral hogs. Sure enough, when the heads began to ripen, the hogs started tearing the stalks down and eating the heads. I was waiting on a rain to broadcast into the standing plot and then crimp with my new shop made crimper. The weather liars kept forecasting rain, and it kept on not raining. Meanwhile, the hogs were busy. Last Saturday I broadcast my seed since every forecast tool plus the guys on tv said we had an 80% chance for Sunday night. I knew that hogs would eat the seed if they could, so Saturday evening I crept up to the plot in my golf cart. Sure enough, a black boar was already at work. He took a round from my AR in 7.62X39 and ran off into the woods. I heard him crash and since I was dressed in shorts and a T shirt I didn’t pursue into the thicket. Sunday evening I went back for guard duty and after about thirty minutes a group of three 70/80 lb. youngsters came in they smelled me and as pigs do, they ran around like the Three Stooges and then huddled. I shot, two ran, one will never run again ! Monday evening I went back and sat in my deer stand with another AR in 6.8 SPC, my favorite pig and coyote rifle. I had been in the stand just a few minutes when a limping pig walks out into my plot. I figure he was in the huddle the night before and was wounded. Glad he came so I could help him out ! After a while a bunch of 10/12 showed up, I picked out the biggest sow and shot her, then tried for another on the run and missed. I heard her squealing in her death throes back in the brush where they came from. Hopefully those are the only pigs on the place, and I’ve either shot or scared most of them. My plot is crimped, we got three inches of rain and hopefully there are enough seeds left to give me a decent plot. I planted the 40 lb. of the Green Cover mix, about ten lb. of crimson clover, and 50 lb. of Elbon rye in the .6 of an acre plot knowing that the hogs would eat some of it. The crimper worked very well on what was still standing but the hogs had destroyed about a third of it. Oh, and the coyotes got to the gimpy pig overnight, pics are a bit graphic.

 

[drycreek]

This is what we deal with.

 

[Native Hunter]

keep up the good work.

 

[hunts_with_stick]

Are they not good eating? Is that why you didn’t go after the one? I don’t care, im
Just asking, I’d think they’d be great tasting.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

That looks like a lot of fun. What part of the country do you live in? A few years ago, a couple friends and I drove from our place in Minnesota to hunt wild pigs in Texas and we drove home with a couple coolers of pork. It wasn't as fat as domestic pig, but it still was great for pulled pork sandwiches.

We looked at the wild hog meat differently than some of the local guys. They wanted them thinned out and didn't really care what happened to the meat.

 

[hunts_with_stick]

That looks like a lot of fun. What part of the country do you live in? A few years ago, a couple friends and I drove from our place in Minnesota to hunt wild pigs in Texas and we drove home with a couple coolers of pork. It wasn't as fat as domestic pig, but it still was great for pulled pork sandwiches.

We looked at the wild hog meat differently than some of the local guys. They wanted them thinned out and didn't really care what happened to the meat.

Did you have to pay or did they let you shoot them at no charge? id think the same thing, i would want to take it all with me.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

Did you have to pay or did they let you shoot them at no charge? id think the same thing, i would want to take it all with me.

We went through an outfitter and I believe we had to pay around $1500 for a 3 day hunt and that included lodging and food in a packed trailer house with a bunch of other hunters. You could shoot as many pigs as you wanted for that price and they had a game pole that you could use if you wanted to butcher your own animals. We butchered our pigs, but most of the other guys just took the pigs to a processor in town or gave them away.

This outfitter leased thousands of acres from nearby ranches and farms and those landowners wanted pigs shot. We hunted there in March after the pigs had been hunted hard for 5 months and there were still plenty of pigs, but they weren't easy to get. I think the 3 of us came home with a total of 8 pigs, so we had some full coolers of meat.

 

[drycreek]

Are they not good eating? Is that why you didn’t go after the one? I don’t care, im
Just asking, I’d think they’d be great tasting.

Sorry, I’ve been busy planting on our lease. To answer your question, lots of people eat them, but I don’t. They will eat anything, including carrion and small fawns. They aren’t a game animal in Texas, they are considered an invasive species. No limits on method of take, or time frame, we can hunt them 24/7/365. I kill every one I can, just like coyotes, and I can’t make a dent in them. They root in my plots, in my roads, and in the few openings that I mow a couple times a year. They are not quite as bad on the place where I live, but I did have to fence 5 acres of my 92 just to keep them out of my yard. Sows can breed at 8 months and have 2.5 litters a year of 5 to 10 piglets. We will never control them and even if I did eat them, I don’t own that many freezers ! On the 217 acres I used to own, my buddy and I killed 30 to 40 a year and could never see a difference. I have killed boars up to 270 pounds and as many as 4 in a night with night vision, but about the most I can do is scare the hell out them for a few days. Another reason to despise the nasty bastards is they hoover up all the acorns in the fall and the deer can’t compete. Imagine 100 hogs coming through a 100 acre woods eating every acorn that they can find. They do that, plus the persimmons, the blackberries, the wild plums, and almost anything else you can think of. For years I never saw them grazing in my wheat, but I guess there are so many of them now that they have learned to eat anything. I regularly catch them on my cameras grazing in my wheat plots. By now, I’m pretty sure y’all are all aware that I hate hogs !

 

[bigbendmarine]

Sure feel your pain... I live in North Florida and have killed over 75 in one year off my approximate 100 acres.

Having been raised by a father who grew up in the depression, it was drilled into my head from a young age not to waste anything / not to kill anything I didn't intend to put to use. So now have 4 large freezers, even after giving away all I can.

For the forum members who asked about the flavor of feral pigs, sows are always tasty. Immature boars whose testicles haven't dropped (these boars will typically weigh under 60 pounds) also are generally good. Mature boars have widely varying levels of "taint" -- androstenone and skatole in the muscle tissue that gives the meat quite a strong odor. About the only thing I do with boars with taint is have them made into smoked sausage, as the smoking process makes the taint imperceptible. Boar sausage I've had made at a local processor has been REALLY good.

Drycreek, not sure if you've tried trapping but it has proven FAR more effective on my place than my prior sniping efforts. For years I was shooting every pig I spotted, but the next year the population would be doubled if not tripled. A local land management conservation group was given grant money to do trapping in our area and a trapper was assigned to my place and neighboring tracts. Using cell-triggered "Boar Buster" brand traps, he was able to catch entire sounders at a time and put so much of a dent in the population that I've only had a random boar or two trigger trail cameras in many months, and rooting of my fields has entirely stopped.

 

[drycreek]

Sure feel your pain... I live in North Florida and have killed over 75 in one year off my approximate 100 acres.

Having been raised by a father who grew up in the depression, it was drilled into my head from a young age not to waste anything / not to kill anything I didn't intend to put to use. So now have 4 large freezers, even after giving away all I can.

For the forum members who asked about the flavor of feral pigs, sows are always tasty. Immature boars whose testicles haven't dropped (these boars will typically weigh under 60 pounds) also are generally good. Mature boars have widely varying levels of "taint" -- androstenone and skatole in the muscle tissue that gives the meat quite a strong odor. About the only thing I do with boars with taint is have them made into smoked sausage, as the smoking process makes the taint imperceptible. Boar sausage I've had made at a local processor has been REALLY good.

Drycreek, not sure if you've tried trapping but it has proven FAR more effective on my place than my prior sniping efforts. For years I was shooting every pig I spotted, but the next year the population would be doubled if not tripled. A local land management conservation group was given grant money to do trapping in our area and a trapper was assigned to my place and neighboring tracts. Using cell-triggered "Boar Buster" brand traps, he was able to catch entire sounders at a time and put so much of a dent in the population that I've only had a random boar or two trigger trail cameras in many months, and rooting of my fields has entirely stopped.

I used to trap on the other place I owned where there were more hogs and more area that they liked to root. I didn’t have a cell trap, but I built a 40 foot corral trap and fabbed an 8’ wide by 5’ tall drop gate and triggered it with a cable attatched to a pin which was pulled out from under the gate when the hogs disturbed the other end. That end was where the corn was placed and the hogs would root the cable and pull the pin. I trapped as many as 17 at once. I still have the trap, but as you can’t even give the hogs away I’m faced with either creating a coyote mecca on my small place or bury them, neither is something that I want to do. I understand the not wasting, but as they are just like a coyote to me, I don’t consider it waste to try to control an invasive species. I know my feeble efforts are not thinning them much, but when I shoot some, they seem to avoid me for awhile and visit my neighbors more often. About the best I can do is show them if you visit me, you might not leave, and they are quick learners. When my buddy and I used to night hunt them, (almost every Friday night) they quickly learned to start coming to the bait later and later. When it got to be after midnight before they showed we had to cease fire for awhile because neither of us wanted to stay up that long !
We did learn that if we put enough night pressure on them, they would revert to daytime movement, but only until we shot some more, then it was back to the nigh shift. I sold that place shortly after I retired simply because I spent too much money and time there, but it was fun for the ten years or so that I had it.

 

[bigbendmarine]

Drycreek, unfortunately my home sits darn close to the middle of my acreage so I had to declare all-out war on them after tearing up my pull-behind mower blades a few times.

Folks who haven't had them can't appreciate the insane digging they can do. Before we put a real hurting on them, each time I'd go to mow a field I'd find multiple swimming pool-sized spots rooted up. Bad as the picture looks, doesn't do justice to the depth dug -- making it almost impossible to drive through without risking back surgery, lol.

 

[Mtyhunter]

I used to trap on the other place I owned where there were more hogs and more area that they liked to root. I didn’t have a cell trap, but I built a 40 foot corral trap and fabbed an 8’ wide by 5’ tall drop gate and triggered it with a cable attatched to a pin which was pulled out from under the gate when the hogs disturbed the other end. That end was where the corn was placed and the hogs would root the cable and pull the pin. I trapped as many as 17 at once. I still have the trap, but as you can’t even give the hogs away I’m faced with either creating a coyote mecca on my small place or bury them, neither is something that I want to do. I understand the not wasting, but as they are just like a coyote to me, I don’t consider it waste to try to control an invasive species. I know my feeble efforts are not thinning them much, but when I shoot some, they seem to avoid me for awhile and visit my neighbors more often. About the best I can do is show them if you visit me, you might not leave, and they are quick learners. When my buddy and I used to night hunt them, (almost every Friday night) they quickly learned to start coming to the bait later and later. When it got to be after midnight before they showed we had to cease fire for awhile because neither of us wanted to stay up that long !
We did learn that if we put enough night pressure on them, they would revert to daytime movement, but only until we shot some more, then it was back to the nigh shift. I sold that place shortly after I retired simply because I spent too much money and time there, but it was fun for the ten years or so that I had it.

Man, I have had the exact same experience as you with the damn pigs. If i was writing your posts, it would almost be verbatim. For those of you who haven't experienced this and think it'd be cool to have them and f around shooting them, it's not.
You simply can't shoot them out. They eat everything. They affect your deer and turkey population. Takes a ton of $ to buy the equipment to hunt at night. They aren't dumb, they adjust. Night hunting is overrated, completely wears my old ass out. Hunting with dogs and bowie knives is a little dangerous, and most dog guys do it at night. Yes it's organic pork, and it tastes fine, but you can't eat them all. You can't give them away. They dull your knife when processing like you wouldn't believe. The ones you leave make the yotes fat and happy, then you gotta deal with them. Trapping works the best, but if you build one, it usually stays where you build it cause it's so big and hard to move, and again, they get smart. And lastly, after shooting a ton of them in the last 5 years, it about ran me out of ammo when ammo was scarce.

 

[Catscratch]

That's rough! I can't stand invasives (including plants like Johnson Grass and Honey Locust). I wish you guys the best at finding a solution. I read somewhere that a university had come up with a poison for wild hogs. I think it said it didn't affect other animals but I'm not sure if I remember that right.

 

[drycreek]

Drycreek, unfortunately my home sits darn close to the middle of my acreage so I had to declare all-out war on them after tearing up my pull-behind mower blades a few times.

Folks who haven't had them can't appreciate the insane digging they can do. Before we put a real hurting on them, each time I'd go to mow a field I'd find multiple swimming pool-sized spots rooted up. Bad as the picture looks, doesn't do justice to the depth dug -- making it almost impossible to drive through without risking back surgery, lol.

View attachment 57801

bigbend, I feel your pain ! On the place I used to own I had lots of creek bottom where behia grass grew in the open areas. Pigs eat behia grass roots so they would root the entire area up much like your picture. I would have to get in first gear to bush hog it. Fortunately for me, I still owned a Cat D5LGP dozer at the time and I could smooth it all up and get ready for the next invasion. We targeted the big 200+ lb. boar hogs because they are the ones that really dug the bomb craters.

My place was more or less square, and when I bought it I had the pines thinned and a 40 foot perimeter clear cut so I could drive all the way around it in a pickup in dry weather. I dug the stumps up and burned all the debris, made low water creek crossings and other road improvements. My background in the dirt moving business came in handy ! I made several trails on the inside that terminated on the perimeter for access to stands for different wind directions. When we night hunted we would bait these intersections with corn about twice a week, (that was easy as I was working in the area), and we could approach the bait no matter the wind direction. We used a golf cart and could get within a hundred yards without a hog being aware. We killed lots of big ole stanky boar hogs with that method. After about the second nightime followup only to find a wounded boar instead of a dead one, we decided discretion being the better part of valor, (that one caused a little heart palpitation) that we would hereafter leave them suckers until the next morning. My Jack Russell would invariably find them if there was any blood at all, which I’m sure you know that hogs don’t leave a good blood trail to follow. I always felt that seeing as how the coyotes were already there, I’d give them a few good meals and maybe they wouldn’t need to exert themselves trying to catch one of my spotted babies.

 

[drycreek]

Man, I have had the exact same experience as you with the damn pigs. If i was writing your posts, it would almost be verbatim. For those of you who haven't experienced this and think it'd be cool to have them and f around shooting them, it's not.
You simply can't shoot them out. They eat everything. They affect your deer and turkey population. Takes a ton of $ to buy the equipment to hunt at night. They aren't dumb, they adjust. Night hunting is overrated, completely wears my old ass out. Hunting with dogs and bowie knives is a little dangerous, and most dog guys do it at night. Yes it's organic pork, and it tastes fine, but you can't eat them all. You can't give them away. They dull your knife when processing like you wouldn't believe. The ones you leave make the yotes fat and happy, then you gotta deal with them. Trapping works the best, but if you build one, it usually stays where you build it cause it's so big and hard to move, and again, they get smart. And lastly, after shooting a ton of them in the last 5 years, it about ran me out of ammo when ammo was scarce.

I simply don’t have the energy or desire to fight them any more. After a two year bout with the Long Covid, a mini-stroke and a heart attack I can’t do any real work any more. Even tractor work, like yesterday when I was planting, about a 6 hour day is all I can muster. Last weekend was the first time I’ve actually went out back with the purpose of trying to shoot hogs. All I had in mind was to shoot them out of my freshly planted seeds. Maybe it worked, maybe not, I’ll know in a few days if they left me enough seeds to have a decent plot.

 

[Mtyhunter]

Drycreek, unfortunately my home sits darn close to the middle of my acreage so I had to declare all-out war on them after tearing up my pull-behind mower blades a few times.

Folks who haven't had them can't appreciate the insane digging they can do. Before we put a real hurting on them, each time I'd go to mow a field I'd find multiple swimming pool-sized spots rooted up. Bad as the picture looks, doesn't do justice to the depth dug -- making it almost impossible to drive through without risking back surgery, lol.

View attachment 57801

Yep, same crap I see on my lease. And like you said, they get down deep. Quick question: how fast do these patches grow back on your property? I've noticed on our lease that they don't grow back fast at all, sometimes its taken a year to recover.

 

[bigbendmarine]

My Jack Russell would invariably find them if there was any blood at all, which I’m sure you know that hogs don’t leave a good blood trail to follow. I always felt that seeing as how the coyotes were already there, I’d give them a few good meals and maybe they wouldn’t need to exert themselves trying to catch one of my spotted babies.

Yep, have had a few I just KNEW that I hit well run without spilling a drop along the way, only to find them, open them up, and find the vitals turned into blood soup inside their chest cavities.

And have to admit after filling up my 4th freezer and giving all I could away, did resort to feeding a few to the local predators.

And to the point of not letting anything go to waste, 'tis true NOTHING really goes to waste as nature has its ways of reclaiming / recycling. Tried enriching my soils a bit with some of the hogs, but they ended up being recycled in a way I didn't intend.

 

[drycreek]

That was great video ! I was just thinking to myself during the first one that given the location you should have had a gator show up when voila, he came slithering out of the goo to get his share.

I killed a couple of young hogs on a place I used to hunt and the vultures found them while I was still in the stand deer hunting. When they all flew away I was kinda surprised but then two bald eagles swooped in, one adult and one juvenile. I watched them for about an hour and the adult would not let the kid get to the carcasses. I was really surprised by that, the juvenile sat like a stump until another adult came flying in and after a few minutes the first adult and the juvenile flew away. The second adult stayed another 15 minutes or so, then another sounder, (or the same one as they were all black and small pigs) came into the plot. The eagle took flight and made a run at the live pigs, scattered them into the woods, then landed on a low limb and stayed a few minutes longer. All this happened about 1 or 2 pm. I normally do not hunt all day, but this particular place is two hours from my house so I usually went for an evening hunt, an all day hunt, then a morning hunt before coming home. The things you see when you’re just deer hunting !

In your second video I learned two things. Possums like chitlins, and they can’t get enough traction !

 

[drycreek]

Yep, same crap I see on my lease. And like you said, they get down deep. Quick question: how fast do these patches grow back on your property? I've noticed on our lease that they don't grow back fast at all, sometimes its taken a year to recover.

Seeing as how they eat the roots on the behia grass, it’s usually weeds that would grow back. As much as I despise behia grass, I’d gladly give them the roots, but I can do without the craters !