hogs... Danderous Game???

[Benny Nganabbarru]

This is the chap that had Tony dancing his finest hot-shoe-shuffle:

 

This is why many of us Aussies believe in slightly more than 50# of bow, and heavy arrows.

[tarponnut]

I don't consider feral hogs "dangerous game" per se, but they can surely hurt you!
I think a lot of feral hog "charges" is just the hog running your direction (not necessarily coming for you, although that happens now and again).Just about every hog guide I've met has a few scars.

Russian boars I do consider dangerous game. A couple of months ago my buddy went on a hunt to Ted Nugent's ranch(high fenced) in Michigan. His buddy was treed by a boar that hadn't even been shot at! It just saw him stalking another hog and charged him!
Another friend once had to run from a feral sow with young.

[Rik]

Any one here know who Billy Baker was?

If not, check out the Australian Bowhunter's Hall of Fame.

I remember one hunt with Bill and his mate Brad Kane deep in the Idaho back country. We had a bit of, shall we say, "an adventure," and that got Brad and Bill to telling stories around the campfire about bad things happening in the Outback.

Well, in one of the tales, seems Bill was hunting the tall grass with two mates, one of whom was a rather large, strong, kill-you-in-a-bar-fight type of guy.

So, said guy shoots a boar, follows it into the "LONG GRASS" to finish it off. Trouble is, the boar has already laid his trap. He hit the guy, knocks him flat, and proceeds to rip the ____ out of his adversary.

Long story short, one long, sharp tusk slices the scrotum wide open and "the boys" come falling out. They are still attached, just hanging free, if you know what I mean.

So, Billy and his friend save the day, save the bowhunter, and get him back to the Ute. Off they go, toward the hospital, several hours away on dirt roads.

Aussies to the core, the two un-injured Aussies try to comfort their, shall we say, "rather large mate," who is cradling "the boys" in his hands as they bump over the rough Outback dirt road toward the hospital.

They are joking, as only Aussies can, about the dire straights, and how funny that is, that their mate is in. If you could joke about one of your best friends getting his jewels ripped wide open, you can imagine how much fun that could be!

Well, about a half hour into the drive, their mate, who, as I mentioned before, is a kill-you-in-a-bar-fight type of guy, quietly tells them basically, and if I can remember Billy's words:

" you mates had best shut the F--- up."

Dead silence all the way from there to the hospital, where, I am happy to report, the boys were happily restored to their rightful place.

Their mate, however, would be mortified by how hard Brad and Bill were laughing while they told this story, high up in the Rocky Mountains in the deep and steep Idaho elk country.

Yeah, I admit it, I was laughing too. Or, as they say in Oz, "Laughing me arse off!

Big boars, dangerous? Nah, they are as tame as kittens!

(I only hope I have that same view as I return from a full month of hunting The Cape this July.)

[piggy]

Rik I was fortunate enough to have spent many a night listening to many stories inc the one you mentioned from one of OZ's great bow hunters!
Have you read his book?
Never underestimate game animals

[Terry Green]

I don't know if hogs are considered dangerous or not, I know a lot more folks that have been hurt by them than deer though....and its fine to talk about them on this forum.

I'd like to know more about Bill Bakers book...like where can you get it and the title?

[Pruneemac]

I dont know if they have ever been designated "Dangerous Game" but they sure can be dangerous when wounded!

[piggy]

His book is called "Born to the Bow" I will let you know where you can purchase it.
A Great read

[Al Kidner]

G'day fella's,

 For those that are keen on ordering Bill's book... Yes there are still some books available. Just send cheque or cash for $30 (includes postage) to 9/22 Thurlow St, Newmarket, QLD, 4051, Australia. Put a small note inside that your after a book of Bill's and make sure there is a return address to somewhere.

Your book will be sent out asap from here in aussie. I just got in contact with James Baker, Bill's son who looks after the sale of whats left of these collectors items now.


Cheers,


ak.


P.S, still miss yah Bill, and Brad is still a crappy shot!

[Terry Green]

WHO do I make the check out to?

Is $30 US funds OK?

I need a copy of that book!!!

Thanks,

[texas woody]

I have a lease in Archer City, TX where monsterquest was looking for the next hogzilla, we have way too many hogs there according to the local ranchers. We have hunted many hogs day and night with no attacks yet,not an outright dangerous animal, but the beast sure do provide some good stories

[nightowl1]

I grew up with hogs in east Texas. The russian breed, not feral pigs. They are a blast to hunt, great to eat, but just like any other animal only dangerous when provoked.

I would be way more scarred of a Bull moose than a hog. I don't care if a hog will eat me afterwards, because I would be dead by then.

[swampdrummer]

I got knocked ass over tea kettle a couple of nights ago. Heres what I sent to my dad the same night:
Had an exciting evening chasing pigs. Got knocked on my ass by a 150-180 pound sow. Was sitting in  clump of brush on one of rogers feeders and she came in directly behind me. I could hear a step, stop, step step stop. Thought it was a deer coming in. Finally saw her out of the corner of my eye and she was all of 2-3 feet away. Could have poked her in the ass with my broadhead. She either saw me, smelled me or that piggy sixth sense kicked in and she turned hard right and jumped into the same clump of brush I was in.I'm trying to get turned to get my feet in front of me as she gets her head stuck in the legs of my little chair.I've got one hand on her neck trying to keep her off of me. Chairs coming off the ground with me still in it. I'm kicking and screaming like a little girl. I somehow end up about 5 feet from where I started looking upside down on my back at the ass end of a fast departing pig...... Chairs another 20 feet beyond me. My butt pack and quiver are another 10 feet down the trail......Guess the pig got her feet caught up in all that on the way thru. I have no idea.... At any rate, I figure that with all that noise my evenings up but  I stuck around just to ssee what else would happen.... Right at dark one of those big boars, remember the ones we saw when we were moving in here? big, black, nuts like grapefuit? don't give a damn big boars? Had a shot, But not after all the excitement.... LOL No damage done. but I think I'm gonna start sitting in a tree stand..... :-)

Dangerous game? naaaa. Worthy of respect? YES

[Benny Nganabbarru]

Cool experience, Swampdrummer! Good on ya!

[Benjy]

Swampdrummer, Now that's funny!!!  

[crazyhorse86]

There's lots of good hog charges on you-tube if you haven't seen them, my friend in Texas makes me take a .44 when i bowhunt on his land because he's had a few incidents, but i wouldn't let someone follow me around with a rifle on a hog hunt. (As opposed to a Griz hunt)

[Andrew Downs]

When I was 17 (20 years ago - wow that's gone fast)
My friend and I where out hunting (with wheelie bows - oh the shame) and my friend stuck an arrow in a mid size boar's butt.

The way this boar exploded (and treed both of us) I'd consider them dangerous game.
We spent 20 minutes up our respective trees, with both our bows (and attached quivers) lying on the ground some good feet away while this damn thing circled us like a porcine land shark...

[Bjorn]

More hunters are harmed by deer than hogs. Any large wild animal can be a danger to humans given the right set of circumstances-we are easy game when unarmed.

[fido dog]

Originally posted by 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!!

I'm sure they think the same of you Curt....  

[Terry Green]

Originally posted by Bjorn:
More hunters are harmed by deer than hogs. Any large wild animal can be a danger to humans given the right set of circumstances-we are easy game when unarmed.

Where did you get that information?


If that is true....we either need to include deer in this forum....or no more hog chat here.

Also, I'd like to learn more about deer attacks so I'll know what to look out for. I've never even remotely been even 'challenged' by a deer, and I don't know one single person that has been hurt by a deer, and I know a lot of deer hunters.  I have been challenged several times and charged twice by hogs.  I also know a few people with scars from hogs....and I don't know as many hog hunters as I do deer hunters.


Can you tell me where you got that info?

Thanks.

[michaelschwister]

I know of three direct deer attacks on humans.  All three were very large-near B&C bucks,  One was a pen deer, one in the bluff/farm country of southern WI, and the last was along the brule river UP/WI border big woods.  All three involved fit woodsman who have taken more than one big buck, all three occured in early November in areas of little/no bow pressure. All three occured the week before gun season. One occured in the 1980s, two occured in the 1970s. The north woods buck chased the guy onto his logging skidder and followed the skidder out to the stub road banging his B&C clean 8X8 rack against the tires. This guy once tracked what was at one time the #12 non ntypical B&C, over 30 miles in snow over two days (1967 I think) That buck finally turned and faced him on a frozen lake, but was promptly dispaced with the lever .35 rem at first opportunity. He said the buck chasing the skidder was bigger in body and rack than the B@C #12, and that buck was a very lean 300# whole on the butchers scale. This guy spends his life in the woods and knows big woods whitetail probably as good as the Benoits. The second wild instance was his nephew, huge buck came at him in the predawn darkness as he started to climb his tree (before use of manufactured tree stands, he was climbing a big oak to sit on a limb)he shimmied up 10 feet to the first good limb, bow still on the ground watching the huge 10 pt circle the tree shaking his head for 30 min after it was light enough to see. These guys have reported Mountain lions for 20 years in WI, and many thought them nuts.  Well even Chicago news crews have now filmed cougers in the wild in WI.  When I posted I thought hogs were no more dangerous than whitetails, I never said they may not come after you.  My best friend is a doctor in WV and fellow ranger.  His ranger buddy is also now a doctor working in Texas.  He reports having to sew up the results from hog encounters on several occasions.  IMHO deer car collision fatalities would tip the scale making whitetails the cause of more fatalities than hogs, but that is a different discussion.