really bad, or just smell bad?

[Carl Fowler III]

Pigs is like pitbulls... They don't always attack, in fact it MIGHT be said that they "seldom" attack but they are built to finish the fight when it gets started. Low center of gravity high/dense muscle mass, and sharp tusks make them VERY dangerous when they choose to be, which is often enough.
Wasn't long ago when a local here was killed and mostly eaten by his "pet" boar... http://www.ibtimes.com/oregon-man-eaten-hogs-did-700-pound-pigs-kill-terry-garner-799007[/quote]


Friend of mine used to shoot deer on his property for crop damage...was supposed to turn over to the game commission for disposal, but said his pigs needed fed and would throw the whole deer into the hog enclosure...them hogs would eat everything...let me repeat that...eat every scrap of the deer leaving nothing! :shocked2:

 

[Col. Batguano]

They call him; MISTER PIG!

 

[William O.]

I've only been "charged" by a hog once, and it was after she'd been mortally wounded with a shot from my CF rifle that left both front legs broken and usless. Yes, she had shoats nearby but by the time I got down from my stand I thought she'd expired. She managed to rear up on her hind legs and lunge at me in a final death spasm but only scared me into jumping out of the way. No doubt she might have done some damage had she connected with me but all that was my fault for not treating her with the respect we should give to all wild animals. Even deer will turn on you if you do something they don't like, and people get injured every year by just feeding them because they don't treat them as wild animals, thinking they are somehow tame pets and are used to people. Hogs are tough but you need to remember that they are not built the same as deer so you can't shoot them in the same spot you would a whitetail. As a hunting guide, admittedly a brief time in my life, I tried to emphasize that fact to my clients but all too often that advice was ignored and they made bad shots, often adding to the myths of bullet proof hogs. On another note, from the research I have done along with first hand observation, unless you have had a captive breeding program with genetic testing over the last 200 years, there are no 100% Russian Boars in the United States. All wild hogs will have some traits of both Russian as well as European hogs so you can't tell how much of either genes they have by just looking at them. Some will have longer snouts, wider more rounded ears, etc., but unless you test their genetic makeup there is no way to tell for sure.
One last observation is that a lung shot hog, no matter what caliber is used will run for what seems like forever and be difficult to track. This goes back to shooting them based on a deer's anatomy, which is different. Learn where a hog's heart is and adjust accordingly, or better yet shoot them just behind the ear.

PS- fat insulates so you need to gut a hog sooner than you would a deer. As soon as the fat on a hog begins to break down and infiltrate the meat it takes on a gamey taste and that happens when the carcass isn't cooled down quickly. If you can, skin the hog first then gut it and get a bag of ice into the body cavity if you're going to wait to butcher and process the meat. Also from experience, never gut shoot a hog, it's a stinking mess that I personally won't deal with ever again. I got to the point of telling clients that if they gut shoot their hog then they get to clean it.

 

[FishDFly]

"One last observation is that a lung shot hog, no matter what caliber is used will run for what seems like forever and be difficult to track."

Hogs tend to run each time unless shot high on the neck or head. It's rare that I lung shoot a hog and will not shoot a lung shoot one late in the day.

I don't like trailing in the dark and dealing with a wounded hog in the woods after dark is not my wife's ideas of fun. The rules of engagement are now in the hog's area of advantage.

I had one pass between my wife and I after dark when trailing him, he kind of woofed as he went between us. We backed out and found him the next morning.

Do not put freshly killed hog in a plastic bag and then put it in an ice chest. If you do, it will spoil before you get home.

Rule is, ice on the bottom, layer of meat, layer of ice, layer of meat and layer of ice on top.

If you walk up to a boar hog and he stinks, walk away, the meat is no longer eatable. He has been chasing sows and is full of whatever and no way you can clean the meat to be able to eat it. Cooking the meat will stink up your kitchen, it's not worth it.

 

[lonehunter]

Hogs are no different than any other wild animal, Some will have bad attitudes some dont.
I cant help but wonder how many times a "charge" is nothing more than the pig wanted to go in that direction and a person just happened to be in the way.
They do have the ability to do great harm as those cutters are sharp and they are a very strong animal.

As far as taking them with dogs and a knife, Why not?
We use to take them live with dogs, When that ole pig has three or four catch dogs latched on to its face and ears, He has no idea you are there he has bigger problems than a human at the moment.
Thats when you can slip in from behind, Grab the hog by the hind feet and tip them right over sideways, Once on the ground a knee to the neck (from the backside, of course) pins them to the ground and they are helpless, Zip tie the legs together then break the dogs off which can be the hardest parts of the hunt, They do not want to let go.
The dogs do take quite a risk as they are dealing with the mean end of these critters, Most use a kevlar vest on the dogs to give them a little protection. A guy whoe does a lot of this type hunting can usually stitch up a dog in the field better than most vets in the office.
YMMV :v

 

[flyfisher76544]

Respect the animal, its usually when people walk up on them and they have young to protect or a boar who is rutting. In the last 10 years of hunting hogs here in Georgia, I can only think of one person that I know who had an incident with a hog. He was walking back to his vehicle because he had left his lunch in his truck. As he passed by a palmetto thicket a group of hogs jumped up(they like to sleep in the palmettos down here) Well there were piglets and the biggest hog stood his ground and rushed forward. My bud used a small tree that was between them to his advantage by keeping it between him and the hog and ended the disagreement with a well placed shot from his modern gun. Thats the only one that I have personally heard.

 

[Robert Egler]

Good post and I've had similar thoughts over the years...we raised some on the farm and I've seen the power & aggression of a boar on another hog a couple of occasions first hand, when another farmer would bring a sow over to be bred...and it left a lasting impression on me my entire life.
I've never seen a human attacked, but that said, I grew up learning they were always given a healthy does of respect and were always carefully controlled with chutes and gates for loading, unloading, penning, etc...nobody in our family was ever allowed inside an open area with them.

Roundball, your location is "South of Virginia"? You're still here in The Old North State, aren't you? (Which I will grant you IS south of Virginia, just never seen it specified that way! :wink: )

 

[hanshi]

I lived/hunted in Ga for over 60 years. Ironically, though I hunted, lived and roamed around among them in their habitat, I never hunted (or killed) one of THEM. Seldom did I ever shoot any critter that I was not hunting at the time and I saw many bobcats (did kill two with a ML), foxes, turkeys, coyotes (shot only one), etc, etc. I guess it was due to me being a lazy sort that knew the REAL work started AFTER the critter went down.

 

[Kapow]

Pig hunting is kind of our national pastime. I know two guys that have been seriously ripped by boars. First one had his wrist completely punctured from defence then fell backwards and had his calf muscle ripped off. The second was gored up the inner thigh and had his scrotum ripped enough for one of his mangoes to pop out.

I have been charged by them and pushed the last one I shot off me with my boot. Lucky it was not a comitted charge. I have seen them charge and rip at vehicles when pushed. They are the evil undead with headshots, every now and again coming back to life while you are sitting on them or dragging them. We used to chase them on motorbikes and catch them by hooking our leg over them and slowly applying the handbrake then hit them on the head with a hammer.

 

[pargent]

Now they realy do think we are mad, but I feel our Cpt. Cookers are much larger then their hogs . They can be very dangerous to hunt in close cover.

 

[Birdwatcher]

Feral hogs are abundant in San Antonio, this town floods during the rare but regular heavy rains such that every creek has a fairly wide floodplain that cannot be built upon. These strips of land are usually densely wooded, all torn up from the last flood and festooned with trash washed in.

Not very pretty, muddy, lots of bugs, and hogs too, everywhere.

I count birds for the city twice a year, in dry years the woods stay fairly open, in wet years by June everywhere in the open and between the trees is packed with 4-7ft growths of thistle, wild sunflower and giant ragweed that you have to wade through.

I have found you can walk right up on hogs, they do not react to the noise of your approach. Several times I have been within conversation distance, ten or twenty feet. Sometimes you can even hear piglets nursing, and when the hogs do get up and move often you still cant see 'em, you just hear them grunt and see the weeds move.

Worse, most often I'm ON a hog trail pushing through the weeds.

For this reason I'll generally bring one of my heelers (dogs), they stay close and will alert to the presence of pigs. Also, since it is legal here, I'll discretly pack a Glock 10mm w/ten rounds of 200gr lead solids.

Might seen like overkill but hogs are nasty creatures.

Birdwatcher

 

[Birdwatcher]

Worst local hog story I have heard, from one of my students (I teach high school in the big city).

They lived adjacent to a wooded creek bed, had a Rottweiler chained up in the back yard. One day she was home alone when a big boar hog walks out of the woods, probably to eat the dog's food.

The hog walks up to the sleeping dog and attacked it, and then dragged the screaming dog back into the woods, breaking the chain, she said it was screaming back there for about twenty minutes.

This was in a bad neighborhood where, for a variety of reasons, calling the Cops was not an option.

When her mom got home they went out and looked, all they found of the dog was the head and part of the spine :shocked2:

Birdwatcher

 

[Carl Fowler III]

Worst local hog story I have heard, from one of my students (I teach high school in the big city).

They lived adjacent to a wooded creek bed, had a Rottweiler chained up in the back yard. One day she was home alone when a big boar hog walks out of the woods, probably to eat the dog's food.

The hog walks up to the sleeping dog and attacked it, and then dragged the screaming dog back into the woods, breaking the chain, she said it was screaming back there for about twenty minutes.

This was in a bad neighborhood where, for a variety of reasons, calling the Cops was not an option.

When her mom got home they went out and looked, all they found of the dog was the head and part of the spine :shocked2:

Birdwatcher

See, that's why I love hunt'n these critters...the danger factor involved! :wink:

 

[Bob J]

Worst local hog story I have heard, from one of my students (I teach high school in the big city).

They lived adjacent to a wooded creek bed, had a Rottweiler chained up in the back yard. One day she was home alone when a big boar hog walks out of the woods, probably to eat the dog's food.

The hog walks up to the sleeping dog and attacked it, and then dragged the screaming dog back into the woods, breaking the chain, she said it was screaming back there for about twenty minutes.

This was in a bad neighborhood where, for a variety of reasons, calling the Cops was not an option.

When her mom got home they went out and looked, all they found of the dog was the head and part of the spine :shocked2:

Birdwatcher

OK, Birdwatcher, now I want the .72 Kodiak s x s! :grin:

 

[Lonegun1894]

I realize this was apparently a child, but I know how that would have ended at my house. My parents weren't perfect, as no ones are, but they did make sure I had both training and access to weapons should I need them to defend myself if I was home alone. And while I know this wasn't against a hog, but a large aggressive dog instead, but I did use one of those weapons to protect my dog from the neighbors dog who tore a hole in our fence to get at my dog. The neighbor wasn't thrilled and called the cops on me for firing a shotgun, but once the officers arrived and learned the reason, I got several handshakes and smiles while being told to "not do that again and call" them instead. A box of shotgun shells also appeared on our front porch one morning, but I didn';t see who it was that left it so can't say for sure, even though one of the officers asked what gauge mine was a couple of times while he was there. My dog was fine, and that neighbor was informed to keep his next one under control if he got a replacement. I did that as a kid, and will do it again if needed, regardless of what the threat is, hog or anything else.

 

[blackpowderscout]

These were some pups I had a few years back. This was the first pig they'd ever laid eyes on, about 5 minutes prior to this. This little shoat was a little bada$$ that grew up to be a sweety. Both dogs went on to be great on hogs. Click on the picture for a video.

 

[Birdwatcher]

I realize this was apparently a child, but I know how that would have ended at my house. My parents weren't perfect, as no ones are, but they did make sure I had both training and access to weapons should I need them to defend myself if I was home alone

It was a lower-income high school-age girl, living in a trailer on an auto salvage yard lot, one or both parents convicted felons.

How people like that in THAT setting contrived to have no firearms at hand I dunno, maybe the father had 'em hidden away somewhere.

A big hog killing a chained dog I find entirely believable, prob'ly they had been scrounging the dog's dish for awhile. The local hog pack consuming said dog is believable too.

The only part I have problems with is the hog dragging off the screaming Rottweiler and breaking whatever chain/cable/rope it was on.

But that is what she said happened.

Birdwatcher

 

[Birdwatcher]

Anyhoo... I weren't all that worried about hogs, until a friend pointed out that prob'ly the BEST way to become one of them rare attack victims was to walk up on 'em all the time in dense cover while counting birds :haha:

Then there was that ornery boar I ran into that one time which photos I posted on that other thread. Only time I've EVER run into a feral hog with an attitude like that out of hundreds, but once was enough...

See this? This is what ten rounds of Buffalo Bore 200 grain 10mm lead hardcasts look like rapid-fired from a compact Glock 29 into a target at 30 feet :grin:

Birdwatcher