Feral Hogs (and Sows)

[longhorn_92]

Count me in on the hunt....eeerrrrr...free assistance. I can already smell the BBQ fest!

Doug

mmm! Bacon!!

[flintknapper]

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[flintknapper]

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[dadoo]

Count me in on the hunt....eeerrrrr...free assistance. I can already smell the BBQ fest!

Sounds like a party in the making. Guns, pigs, and BBQ sauce. Gotta love Texas

[XDgal]

Hey Flintknapper, I'd like to see the photos of hog "signs". I'm from the city, too, but I'm pretty sure we've got feral hogs right here, deep in the heart of Oak Cliff ( Big D). I live by Kiest Park, a 250 acre park 7 miles south of downtown. The park is divided by Kiest Blvd., a six lane divided road, with roughly 2/3 on the north and 1/3 south of the road. The northern two thirds are developed, seven baseball fields, five or six soccer fields, a picnic area, tennis courts, and more. The southern third is about 80 acres and about 70 acres is heavily wooded and not many folks go in this area. There are three short trails, but to get into the woods you have to go through the brush. Five Mile Creek is the southern border. In this wooded area are lots of what I think look like rootings, both in the few medows, and in the woods. I've also seen what looks like hog droppings to me. On three different occasions I've found tracks in a couple of tributaries of Five Mile always a day or two after it has rained, so, I know they are currently in residence. I've haven't seen the hogs, just the damage and tracks, but I'd like to know what else to look for. When are they active? Day, night, both? To show how wild these woods are, last Friday I saw Bob Cat tracks on the banks of Five Mile. I have seen Deer droppings, too. I saw a Gray Fox in the fur on Valentines Day ( got photos of it, too). I love "my" woods! Not bad for a park in the middle of 1,000,000+ people! TIA.
By the way, I always have my 45 with me when I go into these woods.

[brian704]

oh my god this is all funny to me. i am still kinda of a new Texan i guess you can say i only lived here for about 8 years, and i am from new jersey. when people around here said they where oging pig or hog hunting i was always thinking the little pig with the little curly tail. then they brought one by the house to show me and i had no idea how big these things could get and the power it takes to stop them.

i guess all i am saying is good luck with the buying of property and good luck with the pig problem

[T3hK1w1]

I've only seen one or two hogs in the wild that MAYBE broke 275. Mostly from what I've seen the boars usually run 150-200, with the occasional smelly old boar running 250. I've seen one pig "charge", a sow that we let out of a trap that we were using to catch and castrate wild piglets. She went out the cage door straight for one of us, and when he jumped into the hood of the truck, she grunted and kept going into the brush. I have no doubt she would have taken a nasty chunk out of him, but hanging around trying to kill a person is not the way pigs seem to operate, even when severely provoked as I mentioned.

[quote=Recit]You can hit them in the flank all day long and it will get them running but it won't drop them.[/quote] I'm not quite sure what you mean by this, are you referring to using a .22 like you mentioned earlier in your post? Cause I've found that 45-70, 444 Marlin, etc drop hogs real well, even through the thick underskin shoulder layer that people on the interweb are so afraid of (You'd think it was made of layered Kevlar and titanium to hear some people talk).

[RECIT]

[quote=Recit]You can hit them in the flank all day long and it will get them running but it won't drop them.[/quote] I'm not quite sure what you mean by this, are you referring to using a .22 like you mentioned earlier in your post? Cause I've found that 45-70, 444 Marlin, etc drop hogs real well, even through the thick underskin shoulder layer that people on the interweb are so afraid of (You'd think it was made of layered Kevlar and titanium to hear some people talk).

I was talking about a .22LR when hit in the body. My uncle will shoot them in the butt w/ a .22 to get them away from his deer feeder. It doesn't hardly shake them up, just gets them moving. But yes any large caliber rifle will drop them where they stand with a good shot on the front shoulder. They do have an armor type hide but its not impenetrable. It is funny how people speculate about what they have heard on the web. I honestly don't think there is anything to be afraid of, I have grown up on 30+ acres most of my childhood. I came across plenty of wild hogs before I was old enough to know they were a real threat. When you live in the country you learn to watch where you walk and be aware cause you are not the only critter out there.

[Abraham]

T3hK1w1,

"...that we were using to catch and castrate wild piglets."

To raise?

Would you provide some details of what you with em after castrating?

This idea really appeals to me, (as, off and on) )I have wild pigs on my property I could trap.

[flintknapper]

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[flintknapper]

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[flintknapper]

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[JasonH]

Flint, fascinating post and pictures. Thanks for taking the time to do that.

[flintknapper]

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[XDgal]

Thanks alot, Flint! Thats just what I needed. I'll be on the look out for more signs. As I said, I haven't seen any hogs at all, but what I have seen are most definitely hog signs. Now the question is, when I do see a track with a hog in it, how do I get all that bacon back to the house?! and get around that pesky city ordanance about not discharging a gun in the city limits.