hogs... Danderous Game???

[beaver#1]

when did feral hogs become dangerous game?  is it anything over a certain weight? what makes them them more dangerous than a pissy moose.

[tradtusker]

I dont put them in the true "Dangerous Game" category.
I have been charged by a few pigs though, they can be dangerous.
Sure are awesome to hunt though.

[beaver#1]

yes, i like to hunt them too.

[mark land]

Yeah I've always wondered that as well, although they can be dangerous if cornered or penned up with a dog, but spot and stalk hunting they just want to get out of there.  Of course a big boar tending a sow can get ornary, but I don't think I would classify them as dangerous game when compared to some other species!

[Ragnarok Forge]

I think you might want to watch Pig Bomb on Discovery Channel.  Large Boars can be dangerous.  Also look at the thread on PowWow about a ganger getting knocked down.  Lots of people have been hurt by hogs.  In Europe the hunters and woodsmen avoid the Russian Boars whenver they can.

I would say anything over 200 lbs would qualify as dangerous.  They weigh enough and have long enough teeth to take you down.  Not mention if you were alone the pig would be likely to eat you after the get done stomping you into the mud.  

Is it likely that the average pig will attack you?  Not so much, is it possible that a big boar or sow will come after you, yes it is. The bigger they are the meaner they get. A 400lb or bigger male is dangerous no matter how you look at it.  I wouldn't rate them with water buffallo or lions.  I would rate large males as equal with Moose for agressiveness.

[beaver#1]

i am a feral swine specialist for the texas wildlife services, i have killed literally thousands of hogs.  i have had only one try to get me and that was after i wounded it.  you cant take everything on  discovery channel as fact(most of the time thier facts are wrong)  and yes they can be very dangerous in certain cases,  but with most they want to stay away from you . i just dont see them as a aniaml that is mean.

[Rik]

I'm waiting for some Aussies to chime in here. There's a fair few of them with some nasty scars on their legs. If I have my facts straight, a friend of mine over there has twice spent several weeks in the hospital after being ripped up by a boar.

The last one laid in wait for him after he shot it. He followed it, and came to a place where he needed to walk across a log to cross a gully. The boar was hidden, waiting for him in the gully and took him down after he crossed the log. If I remember right, that one cost him two or three weeks in the hospital.

I once had a big boar come after me in California, and I had to fight him off with my longbow, which I used like a spear to keep him off of me. If I had been shooting a recurve, I think I'd have a few big scars now myself. The tip of an 80-pound longbow make's a pretty fair defensive weapon in a pinch.

[Ragnarok Forge]

beaver#1,

I have to agree with you that Discovery is not always correct, but when a sherrif was saved by his dog from an unprovoked attack it is pretty telling.  As you mentioned it is when you wound them that they can get agressive.  Any wounded animal can be dangerous.  Russian boar strains are a lot more agressive than wild pigs which makes them more dangerous as well.

[Guru]

Considered "Dangerous Game"...not hardly, not me.

Any animal we hunt can be "dangerous" at times.

But that title should be saved for the "Big 5", Grizz/Brown/Polar bears, and the like....Those are DANGEROUS critters!!

[beaver#1]

my point exactly

[Ben Maher]

I tend to err on the side of caution . certainly the big 5 are " dangerous game " but here in Oz with so many pigs and pig hunters about , pigs should , i think rightfully be considered if not " dangerous game " , at the very least dangerous .
granted any animal can potentially be dangerous , but i believe pigs are just plain ol' better at being ' dangerous ' than most criters we are likely to come across in the bush . A sow around her young should always be treated with respect . A friend of my fathers , once a game warden in Africa and well respected old school bushman , once ended up with a couple of hundred stitches courtesy of an angry sow and was only saved his own life  due to the Australian flying doctor service  and a three barrelled drilling .
Not every pig will attack... far from it and very rarely ... but any animal that can tear 2 80kg large mastiff crossX dogs , bred purely for Pig Hunting by Australian professional pig hunters into shreds [ rather common occurance over here ]  and walk away unscathed is surely deserving of respect , if not the title of dangerous .
i have been  genuinely charged twice  by swine . two of those times i was unconcerned ... the second time ended , luckily for me,  on the end of Puma bowie . i remember the event rather fondly , if only for it being the close shave with a mouthful of tusk that  could so easily have been life threatening .
Buffalo they ain't ... but for me ...they are my "dangerous game " .
Ben

[Mark U]

Rik is leaving out a few details.  I was in the vicinity, as they say.

  Seems he put the sneak on a sleeping pig on a hillside, couldn't figure north from east and shot it in the arse.  Pig took exception to the bother, jumpt up and the call to "loose the hounds" echoed from the hillside across the way.  Mad dog pursuit and mad pig quandry resulted in an empty quiver and a pig looking for relief from torment.  Rik, being primary tormentor, turned into focal point of pig aggression and subsequent dancing with the stars moment.  

  Rik is kind of a drama queen and since he can still type with both hands, the outcome is obvious.

  My story, on the other hand, has real merit.  I'm pretty sure this is somewhere in the tradgang archives.  

  We were hunting down in south Texas on a friends place, something we do infrequently but enough times to kill the winter blues from Idaho.  I had just finished up a blown stalk on some pigs and went to find John, who was sitting on a feeder they use down there to bring pigs in, and he said he hit a small one in the guts. The phrase "a little far back" is what most bowhunters use.  We followed the trail it went down and actually found quite a bit of blood.  Not to give up on good sign, we got into a few acres of wolf brush, they call it, and it is a few tunnels of pig trails with the brush about waist high.  John eventually found his arrow.  It was sticking out into a trail, but had a rhythm to it.  Up and down.  He said "There is my arrow, but I can't see the pig" and I said step off to the side and shoot it again right where the arrow is.  Well, the pig didn't like the irritation any and made a run at John, who promptly fell over backwards, out of sight.  I was in the trail a few feet away, and the pig adjusted his focus and came down the trail I was on and hit me on the knees.  Of course I went over backwards.  Pig then backed up and tried to get by me one more time, but I was too quick and kicked him in the head whereupon he bit a hole in my left boot and got on top of me like an old girlfriend back in the sixties at a drive in movie.  Eventually he moved on and I was covered in blood, but it was all pig blood and my shooting glove to this day is still stained brown.  We called it a morning, went and got breakfast with our friends, came back later and the pig was sill alive and charged one more time.  In the end it was a 125 pound black boar.  

  Before we left Texas, we stopped for breakfast in a nearby town, and the waitress asked "Are you the Idaho folks who the pig got?"

[beaver#1]

i guess when you grow up hunting and living with its a bit different. thanx for everyones input

[tradtusker]

Ya just about everything we hunt can be considered somewhat dangerous
But hogs don't fit in the proper "Dangerous game"
Everyone that has hunted pigs enough has a healthy respect for them absolutely!, but nothing in comparison to Water Buff or Lion    

have a lion in front of you crouched down ears laid back, tail whipping around, growling...
Then your talking "Dangerous Game"  

I watched a video the other day of a PH getting mauled by a Leopard, only on him for seconds and WOW! this being a family site we'l leave it at that.

[Rik]

Mark's got it right, I snuck up on that boar, picked my spot, and put the arrow right there,, unfortunately the spot I picked was not the shoulder, but square in the middle of the arse, as the pig was facing the opposite direction. Uh-oh!

The only thing he left out was that while I was sneaking in on the pig in my stocking feet, I came "this close" to putting my foot down on a coiled-up sleeping rattle snake. I am not sure if my eyes were more bugged out when I stopped my foot several inches from the snake of when the pig asked me if I wanted to dance.

That was one exciting day.

[firsted]

A big feral hog will bust you up first, then eat you.  That's dangerous to me.

[gregg dudley]

I nearly got wrecked by a spike whitetail that wasn't yet dead when I grabbed it by the antler.  I have had some interesting experiences with hogs in thick cover too.  Anything you hunt can hurt you one way or another. When I hear dangerous game, though,I think Big 5 and big bears.

[michaelschwister]

In my years as a swine herdsman, butcher, and bowhunter of hogs I have never seen anything that makes me believe they are any more dangerous than a whitetail deer.  Having said that, at Pig Gig # 4 a couple weeks ago my wife made a successful stalk on a medium bedded boar and was subsequantly charged twice for her trouble.  I have had them bluff, but they always chicken out.

[piggy]

Plenty of hunters here in Australia have been mauled / ripped up by wild boars. Most you will find are either doggers (use dogs to locate and hold pig until it can be dispatched with a knife) or those who have chased a wounded pig until it eventually stop's and stands it ground.

However I have watched while a sow in a swamp walked straight out of the swamp and to my mate some 80+ meters away and proceeded to try and touch him up all the while he was swing his compound bow at her until she had had enough.
Needless to say myself and another hunter who were watching from the comfort of the car had a good old laugh.

Any animal can inflict some type of wound so all should be treated with that in mind.

[Benny Nganabbarru]

I have a mate, Tony "Dances-With-Boars" Jensen, who seems to enjoy the occasional Cranky Boar Waltz.

I think the really big boys are potentially dangerous, but usually not. All the sows with suckers that I've encountered here in the NT have all chosen to err on the side of caution rather than gallantry.