would like to get mo trad guys toghter

[Curtis Haden]

Well, I'd been exchanging some PM's with John (JDS3) about a couple of places here in north Texas County.  I've made arrangements to meet with a person who's been trapping piggies for the Conservation Dept. on Tuesday, June 24.  We're going to go to an area where they've trapped pigs and have taken several game camera pics in the past.  According to my friend, there are tons of pigs in the area, and it's all public land.

So... If no one has a better idea, I will report back here after next Tuesday, and we can start thinking about getting some dates set.  I'll know more after looking it over, but I can tell you now that it's walk-in only, and the most likely area will be a little less than a mile from the nearest public road.

Curtis

[John3]

Curtis,

Thank you again for all the "work" getting us set up.. Walking in just makes it better. I will not have to see or hear any 4 wheelers or people out bird watching..LOL

When you know for sure I will get an area map to make a plan with.
I hope you find good sign and then we can all get after them.

[goodolboy94]

thank you very much curtis and we planned on camping out anyway so that makes it even better as long as it is legal to camp there

[dnovo]

Put me down as another guy who is very interested. I'll be looking for info when you guys decide on some dates.

[geno]

are you thinking paddy creek? any where south of post should give you as good a chance as anywhere.You cant camp on post but you could always make a day of it..

[Curtis Haden]

Geno, the area I'm going to scout Tuesday is known as "Tie-Slide".  It's only about 4 road miles from the Paddy Creek Campground, and probably about 2 miles through the woods.  There's an old creek slough near Tie-Slide where the hogs are supposed to hang out quite a bit.

Given what little I know now, I think the biggest obstacle will be whether or not the hogs are moving during daylight hours.  It has been hunted in the past, but not by me.  If the scouting trip doesn't look favorable, I'll post that and if someone wants to suggest an alternate location, it won't hurt my feelings.

[OzarkRamblr]

Well, I'm seeing this kind of late but if the Ft. Leonard Wood location doesn't look good for some reason I can take a look at Lake Wappapello.  

Seein' as I only live about 15 minutes from it, it's not much trouble.  I helped with some of the grunt work for the 1st SEMO Hog Hunt.  I wasn't able to make the actual hunt because of work commitments.  I'll tell ya though, hog hunting around the lake is tough. They get pressured pretty hard as I understand it & are mostly nocturnal.  I've seen lots of sign but I've yet to see a hog, plus it's been a while since I've been up there specifically intent on pursuing hogs so some things may have changed.

There is lots of camping opportunity around the lake on Corp. owned campgrounds plus Miller's Motor Lodge is there if you want to rent a motel room.  Poplar Bluff is a short 15 minute drive as well and it has lots of motel rooms.  Seeing as I live here, if you guys start to lean back towards the Lake Wappapello location let me know & I'll see what kind of up to date info I can get together.

[Curtis Haden]

I should add that Paddy Creek Campground is primitive camping only.  They have toilets, but if you want electric/water/etc. hookups, you'd have to go to Licking, MO, which is about 10-15 minutes away.  There should always be motel rooms available in Licking as well.  There may be camper hookups at Deer Lick Park, but I'll have to check on that.

I was afraid I'd forget to mention that later, so there it is.     :cool:  

I'll check on getting some area maps if the final decision is made to try it here.

[buckster]

I might be persuaded to join in.  I live in Central AR, I also have 100 acres in Dade County, but no hogs in this part of SW MO, at least we never seen any around my place.

Let me know goodoldboy?

Barry

[goodolboy94]

once we get the where we I will try to get a date toghter that will accomadate as many people as possible

[BobT]

Let me know if I can help with anything! I can probably make it if I get a little advance notice, camping is good for me. Sounds like a good time.

Bob

[TRAP]

Guys,

Better shoot for Lake Wappapello...I think hogs have been succesfully eradicated from Ft Leonard Wood (at least untill someone illegally releases some more).

I attended the Feral Hog Conference that was held in St. Louis in April and the Area Biologist at Wood said there were no hogs at present time.  

Hog hunting in Missouri is definitely more famine than feast.  I'd take along a fishing rod and a .22 cal. for squirrell hunting if you want to eat fresh game in camp.

Trap

[-Achilles-]

Im in...I wish we could get everyone to leave them alone for 2 years...then there would be plenty and we could have more gang hunts like this...I have no desire to see them killed out

[Curtis Haden]

Well, I have news, but it's not very good.

I spent a couple hours walking around the tie-slide area today, and I did see some some sign.  Hundreds of tracks, and a few rubs.  Very little rooting.  The problem is, the sign is very scattered, and the vegetation there is just horrendous.  There were several large bottom fields that might be possible to spot & stalk, but you'd just have to look for moving grass, because it's waist high or better.  The old slough I had high hopes for is so dense that there are many areas where visibility is about 10-20 feet.

Compounding the flora problems, is the fact that there is water everywhere.  No isolated areas where the hogs will congregate to water and wallow.  I'm convinced this will be a good area in maybe August or later, but for now, it would just be blind luck to see a pig.

I'd still be glad to help with logistics if you guys want to camp and hunt in the area, but my hopes for success, at least for now, are greatly diminished.

Some good news is, from what I saw there are still a good number of pigs.  I just think it won't be very good hunting for a while.  I looked at some pictures from when the Conservation Dept. was trapping there in February, and you'd swear it was on a different planet!  I think it would take a lot of bait, or some dogs, to make this a feasible hunt right now.

I might add that there are literally thousands of acres of forestry service land in mature timber that would be available to hunt, but again, finding pigs in that much area might prove difficult.

[TRAP]

Feral Hogs are destuctive and detrimental to native flora and fauna.  It will probably never happen, but the sooner they are erradicated the better in my opinion.  

Feral Hogs are being released under the cover of darkness on public land in Missouri so they can be hunted by selfish violators that call themselves sportsmen.  If they were to release them on private land they wouldnt be able to hunt them without trespassing and if caught in the act of releasing them on private they might get shot.

You can bet that landowners and land managers that are managing for native Missouri species such white-tailed deer and wild turkeys don't have much use for them.  

Not saying you should or shouldnt hunt them.  Kill all you can.  A dead hog is a good hog IMO.

I'd hate to hear Missouri commonly referred to as a "Hog-Hunting" state.  (we're not there yet and it will be a sad day when we are) Sure, a few hogs are killed in Missouri by hunters, More are killed by the scumbags that are releasing them illegally and charging people to come hunt them behind their dogs.  Even more are being killed by employees of state and federal agencies as part of a statewide erradication program.  

The only way to truly solve the problem would be to make the hunting of feral hogs illegal, thus taking away the commercial incentive of those that are illegally releasing them for their own monetary gain.  Kansas has done this and they still have alot of hogs to kill but at least the illegal release has been minimized.

Sorry to hijack a thread but when I hear people encouraging the building up of a feral hog population it makes me wonder if those same people have thought it through.  They arent landowners I can assure you.  Maybe they could just care-less about habitat that is unique to the Missouri Ozarks and the native wildlife that resides there.  

Like I said in a previous post, if you want to experience the Missouri Ozarks why not grab a fishing pole and a "Rebel Crawdad" and go catch a nice Smallmouth or two.  Or better yet, take a kid huntin and put some young of the year Fox Squirrels in the game bag and on the grill.

This obsessive desire to hunt "Big" game even if it's a non native horribly destructive disease ridden and carrying POS Hog has me a more than a little concerned.

Respectfully submitted and awaiting a wave of criticism, Daryl Damron

[BMOELLER]

Trap,  I tend to agree with you. You have to admit a little that it would be nice to have some hogs to shoot.  I have seen the destruction hogs can do to land because when I lived in Georgia and had a quail lease in southwest Georgia The rooting was unbelieveable.  The thing about it though you never hear people from the south complaining too much about them unless they are on their land.

I'm kind of divided.  It would be nice to be able to shoot wild hogs, but then again the destruction they do is not good.

[BMOELLER]

Sounds to me the area Curtis was talking about is the best option to go try for them other than Wappapello.  I like to try and go down there later this summer or early september if I can get away.

[Curtis Haden]

Originally posted by TRAP:
Sorry to hijack a thread but when I hear people encouraging the building up of a feral hog population it makes me wonder if those same people have thought it through.  They arent landowners I can assure you.  Maybe they could just care-less about habitat that is unique to the Missouri Ozarks and the native wildlife that resides there.  

Like I said in a previous post, if you want to experience the Missouri Ozarks why not grab a fishing pole and a "Rebel Crawdad" and go catch a nice Smallmouth or two.  Or better yet, take a kid huntin and put some young of the year Fox Squirrels in the game bag and on the grill.

This obsessive desire to hunt "Big" game even if it's a non native horribly destructive disease ridden and carrying POS Hog has me a more than a little concerned.

Respectfully submitted and awaiting a wave of criticism, Daryl Damron

Daryl,

I'm not going to criticize you or your beliefs, but simply say I disagree with you on making hunting illegal for existing hog populations.  Also, I don't believe anyone on this thread, to this point, has advocated the illegal release of hogs into the wild.  The fact of the matter is, we have feral hogs in parts of our state, and they breed like rats.

If you are truly sorry to hijack this thread, you could always post your thoughts in the "Hunting Issues and Politics" forum.

[TRAP]

Curtis,

I'm quite certain I never accused anyone that has posted on this thread of advocating the "release" of feral hogs, but someone mentioned leaving them alone for a couple years so their population would grow so we'd have plenty for gang hunts like this.  

It was my intention to simply point out the negatives of this train of thought

I'd love to get together with a bunch of guys and go hunt them someplace they are more abundant and accepted as wild game.  Anybody want to make a trip to Texas? Better yet, how about Hawaii where feral hogs have denuded 70% of native flora and caused hundreds of plant species to become extinct.

I'll take your advice and start a thread in the "Hunting Issues and Politics" forum and maybe we can all get to the "ROOT" (no pun intended) of the Missouri feral hog issue.

Daryl

[John3]

Curtis,
Thanks for the legwork down in the brush. All I know is that we can't kill a hog in the house. Lets let it dry up a bit and go get after them some weekend in July. It HAS to quit raining sometime soon. We can do pushes, ect trying to get the hogs moving. This can be a hog drive/squirrel/stump shooting Missouri trad gang guy weekend... LOL

I'm all for it. Goodoldboy get a weekend picked and we will see who can make it. I'm in for anyweekend between now and August 15th.

Again Curtis thanks for the scouting down there.

John III