Texas losing fight on feral hogs
 

https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/hu...fqTDhcYhgzYeUI


Any Texas hog victims want to let us come and hunt?

Yep, you can hunt hogs in Texas. Just bring loads of cash. :happy0001:

This is the real problem, IMO.

It really isn't the problem. No states are winning the war on hogs. Lots of hogs in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, Florida, etc. You don't see landowners in those states going, "Welcome stranger! You have full access to my land. Have a good time. And no, we don't want any money at all."

There are plenty of landowners who will let you hunt for free, but they don't want somebody that comes when it is convenient. They want somebody that comes on a regular basis and who will actually deal with their hog problems. Vacation hunters and people looking for a free hunt are not people who are there to actually help out with any problems. This has been proven time and time again to landowner when these people come to "help out" the landowners don't actually do enough to make a difference, leave gates open, shoot things they aren't supposed to shoot, leave trash behind, etc. All you need to do is to develop a relationship with the landowners, but the problem is that most have been burned before by people who have come before you.

if you own a 500 S&W revolver

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/26...nose-gas-check




just a bit of info on these lee "440 grain" 500 S&W bullet molds ,
with the gas check and lube on these cast bullets,
at least using my 95% WW alloy and 5% tin, mix,
the projectiles actually weigh about 470 grains
they are quite accurate (WITH THE GAS CHECKS)
http://www.sagesoutdoors.com/500-s-w...tor-gas-checks
the best load for accuracy, after a great deal of testing.. 20 grains of blue dot
Its certainly not a max load but its very accurate and it certainly hammers hogs

if you want a good 500 S&W plinking load that same lee 440 grain cast bullet,
load it over 12 grains of unique powder is at about 1000 fps

if you own a 44 mag

I have a hard time believing this. I live in TX and I know there are a lot of hogs here. However it is nearly impossible to find someone that will just let you on their property to hunt hogs. The same farmers/ranchers that cry the loudest about hogs will demand you pay them around $150 a day to help them with their problem. So in my mind they can't be hurting as bad as they claim they are. Here is a point in fact:

I lived in the Athens TX area for several years. There was a big rancher/landowner not too far from me that was always screaming about the hogs and demanding the state do something to compensate him for the damage they did. I was driving by one of his pastures and saw a big group of hogs rooting for acorns under a big oak tree in the middle of the pasture. This was less than 3 miles from where I lived. I pulled into the ranch house and told him what I saw and also told him I could run home and grab a rifle and get at least 2 or 3 out of that group since they wold have to cover at least 200 yards to get to cover after the first shot. His reply was "NO because he had paying clients coming later that week." So tell me, just how bad was his hog problem if he wouldn't take some out when offered the chance especially when it was a local he knew that offered to help? Note, I wasn't a stranger, I knew the guy.

I used to deliver and pick up at a company called Scimetrics, in Wellington, CO. They made poison bait for rodents. They also came up with one for feral hogs. They got screwed, because the hippies in Texas teamed up with the ranchers to prevent it being legal in TX. The hippies fought it because they are stupid. The ranchers fought it because they wanted the hunter money.

Strange bed fellows.

What is poison to hogs will be poison to other mammals, including dogs, eagles and hippies. Do we want to deposit poison traps out in nature that may have unintended consequences?

It was approved by the Ag Dept. Trust that or not. I know that they sell it to other states, just not TX.

Perhaps they fought it because it is flat out stupid to lay out poison to kill a specific animal when other animals will eat it and die as well. I am no hippie or a rancher but I would have ought it in my state.

The fact is that modern poisons don't translate like that. I used to own a pest control company. I remember the angst some had about poisoned rodents being eaten by other animals. It was shown by the Ag Dept to not be a concern.

Actually I picked up a 50 lb bobcat out of a tobacco barn that has been poisoned by eating poisoned rats and mice from the warfarin the owner put around in the barn. on another occasion I also picked up a whole bunch of hawks, owls, robins and other song birds that were falling out of trees all over a large area in peoples yard. I had them tested and investigated and found they were killed by an avicide that was put in a barn to get rid of starlings. The hawks and owls were killed by eating the dying and sick starlings and the song birds by eating the poisoned grain. Don't try to tell me that secondary poisoning is not an issue. The applicator was a very large exterminator company that is all over our state, I prosecuted them.

Poison was not "fought" because hippies were stupid or that ranchers wanted hunter money. There was an issue with the hogs being eaten by non target animals and them being killed. If you have some kind of issue with private property rights move to China where there are none.

How about non target animals eating the poison? I don't even like using rat poison.

all you texas guys who know farmers, check out this site and see how much taxpayer money the federal government gives them for the damages. then wonder why they want you to pay them for killing their free money cash cow!
https://farm.ewg.org/region.php?fips=48000

Yep - I see that too Flags. The way I see it, if you want hunters to pay to help solve your problem then IMO you can resolve it yourself and quit crying about it. You have hunters wanting to help you and you want them to pay for it. Good luck.

Easy solution . The state should reduce the amount of compensation he receives by the amount he charges hunters. If he gets caught lying about how much he is pocketing from the hunters , then he loses all compensation and gets criminal charges brought against him for defrauding the state. Sounds like these ranchers are freakin scammers. Why are they getting compensated for anyway ? Sounds like they want their cake and to eat it all too .

Most ranchers receive nothing in compensation from the Ag department. The damage hogs do does not really effect raising cattle much. Farmers on the other hand can get hammered by a big population of feral hogs. They receive the compensation and really don't want dummies out there riding around on their planted fields. They also can kill hogs on their own or let people they know shoot them. The funny thing is you guys think hog hunting is just a walk out there and shoot some kind of thing, which does occasionally happen but not often and especially not often in the day time. Night hunting requires a set of skills many don't have and the $150. a night often pays for corn in feeders and someone who has to babysit said hunters all night or at least drop them off and pick them up in the morning. As for your so called help shooting one or two won't make a dent if the hog population density is actually enough to cause the farmer real problems.

Hunters shooting a few hogs will not solve any problems. No one wants strangers on their property wandering around at night with rifles shooting at whatever they think needs to be shot at not knowing the property well enough to know what directions are not safe to shoot toward. Funny also that you think you would pay $150. and just be let in the gate!. Once again I know plenty of people with land and hogs but have yet to hear anyone snivel about it. The real snivelers are those living in nice neighborhoods whose lawns are getting destroyed by the hogs. Try helping them out and see how little "fun" your having. These people want hunters that will respect their property and also kill hogs. If you think it is worth my while to hang out all night waiting for a couple of inexperienced hog hunters to find a hog then you way undervalue my time an patience.

Free money cash cow? So if feral hogs destroy crops they shouldn't be reimbursed?

I know how the system is played, don't go there!

The word Feral indicates the hogs do not belong to anyone so why should the government pay for hog damage? The farmers are free to kill them at will or have others kill them for them. Why should farmers be allowed to double did, get money from the government for damage from hogs while charging hunters who would kill them for free? Sounds like you are afflicted with the government can solve problems syndrome.

I've always had trouble navigating that site. Where are you finding the numbers for hog damages?

Being burned by people wanting to "help" by hunting hogs is one reason a lot say "no". Been there, done that. Not sure how anyone can mistake a 600 lb. angus steer for a wild boar, but it happened.

Also, hunting is just not effective. Shooting 1, 2, or even 3 pigs at a time as time allows doesn't dent the population. Especially if all the neighbors aren't doing the same. It takes solid, consistent pressure from multiple sources to keep the pigs away. Trapping as many as possible, then specifically targeting and shooting those pigs that are trap-wise. Even then, something like poison would still likely be necessary to take the numbers required to decrease the population, and getting poisons approved has been a difficult, slow process.

This will sound convoluted, but here in Kansas, what you described actually resulted in a ban on shooting any wild hogs. What happened was about 10-15 years ago, there were some instances of people who like hog hunting dumping pigs at random to get a population established for hunting. Farmers were starting to discover groups hogs on their property that had gone feral.

Luckily, the state got them eradicated before they spread far and wide. To dash any hopes of ever hunting hogs in Kansas, they convinced the legislature to pass a law against shooting any wild hogs.

It won't specificly say hog damage, just like here in wv its not listed as deer or bear damage, but you can bet the farmers are using it as "farmer's welfare" its a well known fact that 69% of the money goes to 10% of the farmers all accross the country. Don't know what crops are prevalent in the hog areas but you can bet that the big farmers are taking full advantage of the program.

i have permission to hunt on a few ranches in Oklahoma: But seldom hunt those places. It's much easier to hunt hogs on our deer lease which is located on a major stream. That section of the county is over run with wild hogs. Talked with a rancher who owns 1.5 miles of property north of the Red River. He hired a professional hog trapper who took 1,500 hogs off the place. Within a month the place was again over run with hogs.

The hog population of that entire section of the county will dramatically increase in a few months. Hogs have been devouring the huge crop of pecans and are very fat. Among the hogs we recently trapped was this 250 pound sow. She was pregnant with nine pigs. Her chops are huge and delicious:



The best controller of wild hogs is severe drought. Southwestern Oklahoma was in the clutches of a severe drought from 2010-2015. i often hunt a section of wheat north of the Red River that was previously over run with wild hogs. For several years after the drought i never saw a hog on the property, they are only now starting to frequent the place.