falcon

Yesterday i checked the game camera at our deer lease. Wanted to hang around and kill a hog. Luckily, i remembered spring gobbler season is open. In OK you can legally bait deer and elk, but hunting near a feeder during turkey season can get one arrested for baiting turkeys.

This place is over-run with wild hogs. Most of them are trap shy.

There is a small hog in the trap on the left. The camera date and time are wrong. The picture was taken on 27 March. The hog was removed on the 28th.

cayugad

wow that is a lot of pork there. I know what I'd be eating for Easter Dinner. Love pork cooked over a grill.

cayugad

Today I looked out the window and there were three deer in the side yard. A large doe was far back near the tree line but two last year fawns came within 15 yards of the kitchen window. And did not seem to mind me trying to figure out my new Fuji digital camera.

Then later in the morning I had been glancing time to time out the window for the deer, and there are seven turkeys in the new cleared side yard. Three moved out of sight behind the garage but the others were just having a time. One was a nice sized Tom.





spring might actually be here. Although I think they are calling for snow tomorrow...

toytruck

Glad to see the game returning to your place Dave! Can you feed them during the summer months?

cayugad

Its a bad idea to feed at or near the house. It draws bears to the area and they can get destructive. Also they can scare the devil out of you when you walk outside and suddenly realize that a black bear is right next to you.

toytruck

Didn't know you had bears too!! Nice neighbors you have...

cayugad

I had to put trip alarms on the stairs leading up, on to the front porch last year. They would walk up on the porch and look in the windows. Also they try to take the recycle barrel off the porch.

I had them suddenly appear on the side of the yard when I am out on my riding mower. That's kind of spooked me too. The town closest to me is called "The Black Bear Capitol of the World" as there was a monster black bear taken just outside the city limits, that was a world record for years. It has now been beat. Now is the time of they year you take your bird feeders down, and start making sure you close doors behind you.

Falcon on them hogs... what's in those field that they hogs like to eat? Are there crops around, or do they just come turn sod? So all them other hogs are NOT in the traps? I see you have a shooting house all set up. Looks like a good spot to make bacon. I finally last year got to taste some "wild" hog. They roasted it on an open fire and I have to admit, if they were around my house (which I am glad they are not. Having seen TV about all the damage they do and the danger they pose.) I would be living off pork.

Do you go armed when out walking in the woods? On that TV show the person telling of the problem (I think it was in Texas) claimed he never enters the woods unless armed. Does the problem get that bad.

For years I worked around domestic pigs. And I know even they can get a little unruly and even dangerous at times. I can only imagine the danger wild hogs pose.

toytruck

I'd be carrying the .44 mag when I mowed for both bears an hogs myself!!

falcon

There is a plot of winter rye close by. The winter rye is heading up now: The hogs are not hitting it now. The deer and hogs are hitting the nearby wheat fields. Hogs are also turning over a lot of sod.

There is a tower stand near the trap and feeder in the above photo. The feeder in the photo is mostly for the deer. There is a low hog fence around it. The deer step over or hop over the low fence but the hogs can't get in. i can move a panel to the side and let the hogs in. Did that today: A 14 year old young man wants to shoot a hog and i'll assist him in any way possible.

The shooting house is in Garvin county. We have killed some good hogs from shooting house; mostly big solitary boars. We have some family rules there: Adults are not allowed to shoot deer in the game plots or under the feeders. Grandkids are allowed to shoot deer in the game plots but not under the feeders. Everyone gets to shoot hogs anywhere.

Yes, wild hog meat is very good, unless the hog is skinny. A skinny hog is not fit to eat.

Pig trapping season has almost come to an end: It's too hot. Now it's time to hang around the ponds, sloughs and feeders; armed with a muzzleloader, of course.

BTW: i deliberately shot a 225 pound boar hog through the shoulders with my .54 New Englander and a patched round ball. The ball exited and kept on going. Hog went about 20 yards after being hit, keeled over, kicked awhile and expired.

Nearly all my walking in the woods is hunting. So i almost always have a gun, usually a muzzleloader.
Been chased a couple times by sows when i got between them and the pigs. Been chased a couple times by wounded boars. Now i go to great lengths to not get chased. If you're gonna get chased by something big do while you can still run. i will never release a live adult hog from a trap, that is asking for trouble. A farmer in TX was cut up badly by a sow he released.

i know of one unprovoked hog attack on a person. The hunter was knocked over by a big sow that he did not see. His rifle went flying. The hunter had a .45 on his leg and he killed the hog.

cayugad

Wow a patched ball penetrated both shoulders!! That's impressive if I go by that TV show I watched where it was telling that the shoulder plate is so thick it can stop a lot of things.

A skinny hog is not good to eat... that's funny. But its the same with domestic pigs. I used to have the farmer I helped, fatten my pigs. He once sold me a 280 pound sow, and I thought I had purchased a pig and a poke. But it was just excellent eating.