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I have a picture somewhere (in a safe place I can't find) of one of our fields. One side of the two track running through plowed by tractor and disk, the other side by hogs. Hogs did a better job of plowing.
"safe place" is the biggest room in our home. Given all the missing stuff we put someplace safe, it has to be a big room!
 
I will not shoot a pig unless I can pick it up and pack it with one hand. Period. I’ve been shooting em for decades. Most all were trad muzzleloader kills. With everything from rifled to smoothbores. .36 to .62 cal. Round ball or buckshot. Back in the day, My late wife and I have shot several behemoths off the back porch of the house. But That was predator control.
That being said, my favorite pig killing rifle is a little .36 cal Ohio rifle. Round ball and 35 grns FFFG. AS i said I steer clear of big pigs. But I have shot many before. I’ll let those interested in getting a tush hog get em. I spent a great deal of time in the woods. And I personally do not consider them a nuisance. I realize some do. But they don’t seen to bother the livestock here on the place as bad as city folks loose dogs do. Milage will definitely vary
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Way before all this hog hunting got so popular, and they started making TV shows about it all, I knew some German boys upcountry that hunted em with dogs and butcher knives.
This was over 40 years ago.
I’ve hunted places and ranches up in the hill country where there have been wild hogs for over 150 years. They even survived the hog cholera epidemics 60 years ago.
 
In my experience, most landowners don't want random folks let loose on their land and guiding hunts is a hassle. Doesn't mean they wouldn't appreciate the help cleaning them out, but the help is often as much a hassle as the hogs.

In order to just keep the population of wild hogs in check, about 50% of the total population needs to be killed each year. You don't worry about sport when trapping mice in your house. Wild pigs are no different.
As long as it’s considered “eradication” and not “Hunting” then it’s fine but as soon as it’s hunting there are different ethics involved.
Cotton
 
Anyone have private land that needs the hog population thinned a bit? I understand they are quite a problem down south. I’m looking for a place to do a flintlock hog hunt, preferably on a large piece of land. I am in Illinois but would be happy to travel to any of the southern states. Also willing to pay to hunt. I’m dying to get out on a hunting trip with my new .45 kibler SMR!
I moved from Md to north Fl a few yrs ago & I can tell you this first hand from what I've personally seen & heard myself that you just bein from north, you're not at all likely to find anyone to let you come on their private land & hunt anything for any reason. Between them considering me a yankee & the fact that I have zero tolerance for listening to their religious lunacy while hunting, its finding my own way around on WMA & public land or nothing here. Good luck with that. I can't wait to be able to move from here.
 
I moved from Md to north Fl a few yrs ago & I can tell you this first hand from what I've personally seen & heard myself that you just bein from north, you're not at all likely to find anyone to let you come on their private land & hunt anything for any reason. Between them considering me a yankee & the fact that I have zero tolerance for listening to their religious lunacy while hunting, its finding my own way around on WMA & public land or nothing here. Good luck with that. I can't wait to be able to move from here.
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You still have time to leave today
 
I moved from Md to north Fl a few yrs ago & I can tell you this first hand from what I've personally seen & heard myself that you just bein from north, you're not at all likely to find anyone to let you come on their private land & hunt anything for any reason. Between them considering me a yankee & the fact that I have zero tolerance for listening to their religious lunacy while hunting, its finding my own way around on WMA & public land or nothing here. Good luck with that. I can't wait to be able to move from here.
As a Florida native could you please carry a couple of people from New Jersey with you
 
In order to just keep the population of wild hogs in check, about 50% of the total population needs to be killed each year. You don't worry about sport when trapping mice in your house. Wild pigs are no different.
We don't have wild hogs right around here, but I feel the same way about the squirrel population when it gets out of hand and they start trying to (and on occasion have succeeded in) getting into the house. But just out of curiousity, I wonder what you do with the hog carcasses of the ones you kill as a matter of pest control. Just leave them where you shoot them and let the buzzards take care of it? I'm thinking there probably isn't any value in skinning them out for the skins, etc.
 
We don't have wild hogs right around here, but I feel the same way about the squirrel population when it gets out of hand and they start trying to (and on occasion have succeeded in) getting into the house. But just out of curiousity, I wonder what you do with the hog carcasses of the ones you kill as a matter of pest control. Just leave them where you shoot them and let the buzzards take care of it? I'm thinking there probably isn't any value in skinning them out for the skins, etc.
That’s correct - the carcasses stay where they lay. When they shoot by helicopter they just leave them.
As an aside,we have always had hogs in our area. “Back in the day” most ranch land was operated and owned by a local resident. All the landowners shot and killed hogs keeping the population in check.
As ranching became less profitable and land more valuable, locals sold to folks from urban areas. Most of these new owners were absentee - and did not operate or tend the land personally. The result was that fewer hogs were killed. Some landowners allowed hogs to proliferate so they could “hunt all year.”
Clearly these things combined led to a bloom in the wild hog population. Once the genie is out of the bottle it’s hard to put it back in. So now hogs are a bigger nuisance issue and do more damage to crops, fences, and pasture - not to mention the wildlife they disrupt through predation or habitat destruction.
It’s my opinion that, at least locally, this tipping point was in the late 80’s to early 90’s.
 
As a Florida native could you please carry a couple of people from New Jersey with you
We lived in Florida for several years and saw the character of the place change pretty drastically over the last few because of all of the New England migrants. It got more crowded, and the people became less southern in demeanor. That was our impetus for leaving. The problem with having a nice state is that it draws in more people who collectively end up making it less nice.

We'll miss the unique things to see and do out there, as well as being near the good friends we made, but the changes were just too much, and we didn't want to be there to watch it possible become New Yorsey.
 
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