the USA ferral hog situation ....

[michaelschwister]

I see a natural hog predator every morning in the mirror..........

[Troy Breeding]

All I want to know is, if hogs are such a problem why is it everytime I ask about hunting them dollar sign pop into the eyes of the landowners I ask?

Troy

[MikeW]

Originally posted by Troy Breeding:
All I want to know is, if hogs are such a problem why is it everytime I ask about hunting them dollar sign pop into the eyes of the landowners I ask?

Troy

Cause everyone likes money and if you don't want to pay the next guy will.
Pretty sad really

[Bill Sant]

Troy,  exactly the feeling I get when listening to the landowners whine about the hog problem.  If they will pay a lot of money for the hog dog guys to hunt them why do they expect hunters to pay them???  Am I missing something??  Not trying to be sarcastic but I truly don't understand that mode of thinking.

[Troy Breeding]

Not trying to change things on this thread, but if a farmer is having trouble with water standing in his fields and you offer to dig a drainage ditch to run the water off he will gladly except.

Whats the difference????

Troy

[Jason R. Wesbrock]

Originally posted by Troy Breeding:
Not trying to change things on this thread, but if a farmer is having trouble with water standing in his fields and you offer to dig a drainage ditch to run the water off he will gladly except.

Whats the difference????

Troy

There aren't a line of guys behind you with shovels willing to pay the farmer to dig that same ditch?

[Ben Maher]

Somehow I suspect Leopold would be rolling in his grave. [/QB]

How true !

Australia has been absolutely decimated by hogs, goats , rabbits etc
It s great to be able to hunt them but the native flora and faune should come first every time !!!
If you haven't got hogs ,be glad ... you don't want them .

[steadman]

You want to get rid of them let the UT F&G manage them, they will be gone in a couple seasons. LOL!!

[MikeW]

Originally posted by Troy Breeding:
Not trying to change things on this thread, but if a farmer is having trouble with water standing in his fields and you offer to dig a drainage ditch to run the water off he will gladly except.

Whats the difference????

Troy

Would you pay him to dig his ditch?
You don't see the difference?

[Troy Breeding]

Several years ago while living in AL I talked to one of the conservation officers about a place to hog hunt. He gave me the name an location of a farmer that had called him several times.

After driving acouple of hours I finaly located the farmer. When I ask about helping with his problem he refused to let me hunt. Stated he didn't allow hunting on his land.

Troy

[MikeW]

Originally posted by Troy Breeding:
Several years ago while living in AL I talked to one of the conservation officers about a place to hog hunt. He gave me the name an location of a farmer that had called him several times.

After driving a couple of hours I finally located the farmer. When I ask about helping with his problem he refused to let me hunt. Stated he didn't allow hunting on his land.

Troy

Doesn't make a whole that of sense does it? I'd like to hear that conversation. What was his problem with it and also why didn't you call him first before driving all that way?

I can understand some land owners having reservations with letting strangers hunt their land, their are just too many jerks out their now days that ruin it for everyone else.

Littering, leaving gates open, hurting livestock, rutting up the roads where they shouldn't go with 4wd's, killing what they weren't allowed to..ect. ect. ect.

Am sure they have been through it and seen it all and I can see where they would trust a Gov. official over a Joe Blow hunter not to do that.

[Troy Breeding]

I informed the farmer that the CO had given me his name. Didn't make a difference, he wasn't letting me hunt even when I offered to call the CO to have him confirm everything.

BTW, CO suggested I contact the farmer in person.

Anyway, after talking to the CO later he stated the farmer was just out of luck from now on because he wasn't the pied piper and had made an attempt to help by sending me.

Troy

[Cyclic-Rivers]

The reason farmers will charge for hunting rights and also complain about crop damage is because they stand to benefit financially from both.

If they let you hunt on their land for free, heaven forbid, now they actually have to grow something to get paid.

as far as hunters transplanting hogs to hunt illegally, I am sure it is a HUGE problem or they wouldn't have thought of stopping the hunt.  Most people assume these agencies come to these laws for the heck of it or based on hearsay.  I am sure they had sound reason for their decision and probably spend way too much money getting to their stance.  

My bet is hunters were transporting hogs non stop. If they had a shoot to kill any violators, no questions asked, now that would probably discourage the activity a little more.  Instead, they make a rule that affects everyone negatively, not just the culprits.

[RC]

For the record I have hunted where there are deer , hogs and Turkeys for near 35 years. The only critters that there are "less" of the last 10 years on this property are hogs. I`m talking about near 10,000 acres. In the past few years a group of 20 pigs is a very large group. Many years ago seeing 100 pigs in a day was not uncommon and I am talking about public land.RC

[rg176bnc]

I cant see guys driving to TX and back to release hogs especially in several states.

Id believe farmers let them go when the pork market crashed first.

Unfortunatly the conservation dept has a louder voice than the public so we get drown out.

Another example of this is Mountain Lions.  For years when they were killed or seen here we were told they had to of been someones pet.  Now 20yrs later finally were told the truth that they are wild, because there is simply too many encounters to dismiss anymore.

All we can do is wack'em while the wacking is good!!

[far rider]

Thanks for sharing that Rob. We've been lucky in the Piedmont area, as we haven't seen an outbreak......yet.

[Red4arm]

I live in east tn where the mountains are. A lot of bear and hog hound guys here. They hunted "hawgs" year round. They also raise wild ones and release them year round. Its always been illegal, but so is selling bear gaulbladders. It's a lifestyle to them and it's a bigger problem than most think.
With the hog shows on tv, now everyone wants to hunt them, and if they don't have any they want to stock them.
I don't think they are as big of a problem as tv let's on, but in some areas I have seen, like Savanah Wildlife refuge in ga., they have taken over even with hunting allowed there.
Just look at the interest on this site, everyone wants to hunt hogs. I like to hunt hogs too, I just don't want them on my land here. They are just to destructive to native wildlife. Quail and grouse have a hard enough time as it is.

[MikeW]

 With the hog shows on tv, now everyone wants to hunt them

Yeah you think it's expensive now just wait til that catches on, it will do what "The River Runs Though it" did to fly fishing

[sawtoothscream]

they were spotted in my area. i havnt seen any yet and we dont have a huge population of them. would love to hunt them though.

[buckeye_hunter]

In areas where the pigs are not well established and they need to be removed...

Banning hunting and then extensive trapping would seem to make sense. Remove the incentive and the pigs. I would guess trapping catches and removes more than shooting one or two per hunter.

All that being said, I would love to go pig hunting!