Hogs

[Moose Guide]

I am in E TN right next to the Smoky Mountain NP. There are some huge hogs around here, and a lot of them. The surprising thing is that the TN Dept of Wildlife Resources has decided that hog hunting is no longer legal in TN, except in certain areas of the Cherokee NF and on private land with owner approval. Their theory is that hunters are causing the spread of the hogs...you read that correctly. They believe hunters are responsible for the hog numbers skyrocketing due to release of domestic swine. I intend to give it a try. How does the taste compare to domestic hog?

Ohhhhh that'll be really good if you can find them. From what I've seen, up there, in the more mountainous areas, you'll have less hogs and they'll be harder to hunt, but it gets cold enough to kill off the ones with more domestic traits. So you have better ;looking, thicker coated, more muscular, shorter and stockier pigs.

I'm very jealous. I've been trying to get up to the mountain WMAs in Ga for a hog hunt for a while but can never get away.

If they can live in southern B.C., why would they freeze to death in northern Tennesse? :idunno:

 

[Paul R]

Some twit here in Manitoba was raising russian boars. Of course, some of them got loose. DNR has declared them a nuiscence (sp?) & should be shot whenever & wherever found. They are surviving quite well & -40 temps are not uncommon in our winters.
Paul

 

[Supercracker]

I am in E TN right next to the Smoky Mountain NP. There are some huge hogs around here, and a lot of them. The surprising thing is that the TN Dept of Wildlife Resources has decided that hog hunting is no longer legal in TN, except in certain areas of the Cherokee NF and on private land with owner approval. Their theory is that hunters are causing the spread of the hogs...you read that correctly. They believe hunters are responsible for the hog numbers skyrocketing due to release of domestic swine. I intend to give it a try. How does the taste compare to domestic hog?

Ohhhhh that'll be really good if you can find them. From what I've seen, up there, in the more mountainous areas, you'll have less hogs and they'll be harder to hunt, but it gets cold enough to kill off the ones with more domestic traits. So you have better ;looking, thicker coated, more muscular, shorter and stockier pigs.

I'm very jealous. I've been trying to get up to the mountain WMAs in Ga for a hog hunt for a while but can never get away.

If they can live in southern B.C., why would they freeze to death in northern Tennesse? :idunno:

No, that's not really what I meant. I didn't say that all pigs could not survive. They'll just tend to be built differently. Hell, there's pigs in Siberia. Here in Fl and in S Ga you see pigs with very thin coats of hair and not very stocky. Don't get me wrong, you can see the stocky, thick furred ones too, but not as often. Once you get far enough north that it actually gets cold, as opposed to a couple of weeks of 50 degrees like we have here, you tend to not see those skinny, thin coated pigs as often because they have a harder time surviving to adulthood. Evolution at work. Some of the pig's I've seen people pulling out of N Ga and the Carolinas would look right at home in Eastern Europe.

I've seen some of those "preserves" up north raising purebred Russians. They have some very very nice looking pigs. Not really my kind of hunting, but nice pigs none the less. And you can bet your bottom dollar that some of them escape. Pigs are crazy smart and if there's a way to get out they'll find it. As was mentioned, hunters will also turn them loose trying to get a population. But if you don't have enough population (yet) for them to breed regularly then you're not really going to see them.

A sow will go into heat every 3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days, have a litter of 6-12, then get bred again almost immediately. By the time she's having her third litter the sows from the first litter are pregnant. As soon as you hit the population density where a wild sow will get bred every time she goes into season then you have a problem. That's when your population curve will go vertical. That's also when I'll be taking trips up there to look for them. If you ever do mess around up there and get good huntable populations (as opposed to an occasional pig here and there)you're going to have some REALLY nice pigs.

 

[Sperit de bois]

No hogs in Maine, Military service stationed in Japan/FL/GA/VA/CA/WA/DC/ME and a few side trips.
Hunted with two friend from Texas/Georgia while stationed in Brunswick, Ga for three years, both said Hog can be very dangerous,five hunts and I was convinced.Never claimed to be an Expert,just shared my experience,limited as it is.
Are you sure about Moose in Fla????

 

[BGRooster1]

Supercracker, You should be a comedian. I have been laughing reading your post .


I have wanted to hunt wild hogs since I was a kid and am now 51. I have researched them and researched hunting them for years. Sounds like hunting most any wild animal.They have survival as the main daily goal. Fight or flight. With flight being the option most always taken .Of course exceptions are always the rule when dealing with anything with a heart beat.

 

[S.Kenton]

I've taken a couple of wild hogs in Southern Ohio with my M'ler during two different deer seasons. I used a 50 cal. one well placed shot and they were down. They weighed in at 150 for one and 180 for the other.
Southern Ohio has a good population and they seem to be spreading Northward..with sightings less than a mile from me now, I live in West Central Ohio. Maybe I wont have to go that far anymore to hunt hogs...should I choose to do so.

 

[BGRooster1]

We have in the last few years had areas that have enough that the DNR has asked hunters to shoot on sight.The hogs are not wanted here and a small game license is all that is needed . That is how you stop the population growth. Now all we need is for the private land owners to let the hunters hunt them.

 

[GreyWhiskers]

Years past, I was fortunate enough to be able to hunt them almost any time I wanted. I've shot a couple dozen of them from little to big, with rifles, handguns and MLs. I followed a wounded boar into a tunnel the hogs had made through tall weeds and got within a couple feet of him. No problems. Never had a pig show me any aggression at all.

BUT, a good friend had a terrifying experience with a wounded boar. He's a big guy and experience hunter but told me that this large boar came at him and scared the poop out of him before he could dispatch it.

Also, some game wardens I know were hunting on state property near where I hunt when a hog came at one of them. It managed to cut his trousers and leg. Don't remember what became of that pig.

I'd say hunt them like any other animal that has the ability to do ya harm but there's no reason to be afraid. GW

 

[hanshi]

Interesting thread. I lived in Georgia more than 60 years and though I never hunted hogs, I can tell everyone that there are some wild, mean nasties down there. I lived in their habitat but finally got where I couldn't make it up and down those hills and ridges. I've heard of bad hog encounters but let's put things in perspective.

Within the last four years we have had two black bear attacks in this county, ALONE. Only one led to a chewed up hunter; the other was RABID yes, I said rabid. This one was killed before he could get to the two hunters who had climbed on top of their truck. This was, incidentally, one of only two cases of a rabid bear in the east, period. We got lots of bears in Va and luckily few if any hogs. But we got bears coming out the wazoo.

 

[Nifeman]

"Proper shot placement is everything. Hit 'em where it counts and they'll die, quick."

AMEN

 

[USMA65]

I saw a special on feral hogs several months ago. Amazingly, a domestic hog, once it becomes feral, will undergo a complete change in the shape of its skull and develop longer tusks than it had originally. The converse is also true; a wild pig will undergo changes to its skull to closely approximate, with time, a domestic hog. The narrator of the show had several biologists with X-rays to prove their research.

 

[cynthialee]

that is weird

 

[Moose Guide]

I am in E TN right next to the Smoky Mountain NP. There are some huge hogs around here, and a lot of them. The surprising thing is that the TN Dept of Wildlife Resources has decided that hog hunting is no longer legal in TN, except in certain areas of the Cherokee NF and on private land with owner approval. Their theory is that hunters are causing the spread of the hogs...you read that correctly. They believe hunters are responsible for the hog numbers skyrocketing due to release of domestic swine. I intend to give it a try. How does the taste compare to domestic hog?

Ohhhhh that'll be really good if you can find them. From what I've seen, up there, in the more mountainous areas, you'll have less hogs and they'll be harder to hunt, but it gets cold enough to kill off the ones with more domestic traits. So you have better ;looking, thicker coated, more muscular, shorter and stockier pigs.

I'm very jealous. I've been trying to get up to the mountain WMAs in Ga for a hog hunt for a while but can never get away.

If they can live in southern B.C., why would they freeze to death in northern Tennesse? :idunno:

No, that's not really what I meant. I didn't say that all pigs could not survive. They'll just tend to be built differently. Hell, there's pigs in Siberia. Here in Fl and in S Ga you see pigs with very thin coats of hair and not very stocky. Don't get me wrong, you can see the stocky, thick furred ones too, but not as often. Once you get far enough north that it actually gets cold, as opposed to a couple of weeks of 50 degrees like we have here, you tend to not see those skinny, thin coated pigs as often because they have a harder time surviving to adulthood. Evolution at work. Some of the pig's I've seen people pulling out of N Ga and the Carolinas would look right at home in Eastern Europe.

I've seen some of those "preserves" up north raising purebred Russians. They have some very very nice looking pigs. Not really my kind of hunting, but nice pigs none the less. And you can bet your bottom dollar that some of them escape. Pigs are crazy smart and if there's a way to get out they'll find it. As was mentioned, hunters will also turn them loose trying to get a population. But if you don't have enough population (yet) for them to breed regularly then you're not really going to see them.

A sow will go into heat every 3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days, have a litter of 6-12, then get bred again almost immediately. By the time she's having her third litter the sows from the first litter are pregnant. As soon as you hit the population density where a wild sow will get bred every time she goes into season then you have a problem. That's when your population curve will go vertical. That's also when I'll be taking trips up there to look for them. If you ever do mess around up there and get good huntable populations (as opposed to an occasional pig here and there)you're going to have some REALLY nice pigs.

The pigs up here escaped from a farm, they are just regular spotted pigs! The pictures I saw were of a sow that was so skinny it looked more like a greyhound(this is big mountain country with very little crops)but she and her piglets were surviving!!! On a seperate note, a pig farmer down the road lost 13 pigs in 2 weeks to 2 grizzlies, Wild pigs might not do well here!!

 

[rabjr]

I saw a special on feral hogs several months ago. Amazingly, a domestic hog, once it becomes feral, will undergo a complete change in the shape of its skull and develop longer tusks than it had originally. The converse is also true; a wild pig will undergo changes to its skull to closely approximate, with time, a domestic hog. The narrator of the show had several biologists with X-rays to prove their research.

His last name wasn't "Moneymaker" was it?? :wink:

 

[don hepler]

I know what you're saying about bears, I used to hunt in another part of Va. and bears where everywhere, eat up trail cameras, tore up tree stands, rolled rocks over all day long. Running around the stands, whenever the season wasn't in and then completely dissappeared, when the season came in. We got five bears in the same trail camera picture, a sow with three cubs, and a two year old still hanging with her that she had. She had twins the first time, and one ethier left or got killed.

If we'd had to deal with hogs, that place would have been a "wild" place.

 

[Johnny Too-Tall]

While stationed at Fort Benning there was so many hogs they were paying you a $40 bounty a hog to kill them. I learned the best place to shoot a hog is high in the back of the shoulder if done correctly you will get the shoulder and spine all in one shot the pigs seldom even get a chance to sqaaaaaawwwwweeeeelllllllll before they are dead. Or a 22 round to the base of the spine and neck right at the head if there in a trap they die instantly like that as well. If ya miss the vitals good luck findin them in the swamps the fat plugs the bullet holes quickly and it next to impossible to find most times. I did it mostly for the money since times are tough, and used a modern gun but the 54 and 50 cal both worked just fine in the restricted areas or during smokepole season only..

 

[Johnny Too-Tall]

Shot well over 100 hogs and never had one attack me yet.. Had a few trapped in the cages that wanted to get at me or out either way they were rammin the cage in my direction. Usually when your in the hogs and you shoot they scatter like crazy and dont stick around. Often they only run around 200 yards before you can bust them again, they are not hard to find walk with the wind in your face and u can smell them 200 yards off they stink so bad.

 

[No Grease]

In Missouri they are shoot when seen. Nothing special needed.

 

[William O.]

We've had wild hogs here in Texas for hundreds of years, ever since the Spanish brought them but in the last 20 years it seems their numbers have increased tremendously as has their Northward spread. Another thing that has increased steadily is the number of ranches and outfitters that feature hog hunting, so instead of shooting on sight there has been a concious effort to encourage them to stick around and breed. Naturally they are going to spread out and move into areas not previously known for having a hog population. There are even some folks that make their living trapping hogs and then selling them to these ranches and outfitters so the "hunters" will always have an opportunity to shoot at one. Farmers on the other hand have suffered greatly due to increasing numbers of hogs, especially peanut growers as hogs really love to root them up and ruin the entire crop. So it can be a double edged sword, on the one hand generating income and on the other causing crop damage, but it seems the hogs are here to stay. I've only been charged once and that was my own fault for rushing over to where the sow was laying after I shot her. She had piglets with her and the bullet took out both shoulders and would eventually be fatal but as soon as she saw me she lunged using her back legs and snapping her jaws as she did. I didn't throw caution to the wind and reach for her with my bare hand when I got to her but it was close enough to scare some sense into me. So yes, I would hunt hogs using my muzzle loader and wouldn't worry about needing a sidearm or backup for that purpose.