[MikeG]

A friend of mine lives just outside of Austin TX in a semi-rural area. Pigs have been coming up out of a canyon behind his house. They did this in one night - it's his front yard (or what's left of it). Picture doesn't really do it justice, it's rooted up a foot deep in areas.

Unfortunately, neighbors have been spraying the pigs with shotguns to run them off, which has only educated them to come out after dark. I snuck in about 6:00 am this morning but the wind was wrong and they stampeded off through the brush. You never wonder if the pigs heard you, you just hope that they are running a different direction!

We are building a trap. Should be interesting. I saw at least 10 this morning in a big herd. Too bad it was way too dark to shoot (and that's saying something as I've shot plenty at night). Could just barely see their dark silhouettes as they took off grunting & squealing.

Went to the gun show and advised my friend to pick up a Marlin 1894 in .44 Mag, which he did. $250 and it had a Redfield scope, not sure how well that will work at night. He may have to spring for a used 3x or 4x Leupold. I told him I'd give him all the ammo he'd ever need for free.

By the way those aren't my legs, so no poking fun at me!

Hopefully we'll follow up with a nice picture of a 10-12 pigs in a trap. I have no idea what we will do with that many, but will solve that problem when the time comes.

 

[m141a]

mike, you can pack the incredibly edible meat in dry ice and ship it right away to M141a!!!

 

[Joel B]

Mike,

I've got enough Airline miles to get there for free if you need any back up, I would love to go pig hunting. Even though, you know, I'd rather be hunting the long haired ones up north!

 

[MikeG]

Guys,

Appreciate it!!!!

 

[Charlie Z]

Mike,

I've seen that on a forest floor in South Carolina. Looks like a mini disc harrow went through. It's serious, though, they eat all ground birds eggs, etc. Can't find any quail in these areas of Carolina that aren't pen raised.

Unfortunately, they breed faster than you can kill or trap them. Fun hunt, though...

Charlie

 

[MikeG]

Success with the pig trap!

Last Friday my friend set the pig trap. I was going to be out of town but he set it anyway, against my advise.

On Saturday morning, there were 16 (sixteen!) pigs in the trap. Most about 60 - 100lb range, a few piglets.

Plus there was one very big pig waiting outside the trap. He shot it and it ran off into some dense brush, leaving a blood trail. As he already had 16 other pigs to mess with, not much effort was put into finding this one. I'm sure it's dead, and the vultures & coyotes will feast. After he described the shot, and the blood trail, I think that he hit it in the liver.

Fortunately he found enough people to come and help butcher the pigs, all except the 3 piglets, which someone wanted to take alive.

One pig actually made it out of the trap. When the pigs were all piled up in a corner, one of them ran up the stack and made it over the 5 foot fence! Wish I could have seen that.

The way we set the trap was the key to getting all those pigs in it. What we did was put a bunch of corn under a BIG flat rock at the back of the cage, big enough that a small pig could not move it. A string was tied to the rock, and run out the back of the cage, up the back wall, then over to the latch mechanism. If the rock was moved in any direction it would trip the latch (except straight back, and it was already at the rear of the cage). Since it had to be a big pig to trip it, odds were that there would be smaller pigs in the trap with the bigger one, and that's what happened.

Hopefully an amusing story. Wish I would have been able to take pictures, but not really sorry to miss the butchering!

 

[Old Jim]

We put a mini-mag flashlight inside of a 2 liter mountain dew or 7 up bottle and hang it 8 to 10 feet in the air. Gives enough light to shoot by but not enough to spook the hogs

 

[MikeG]

Jim, interesting, may have to try that sometime. How long do the batteries last, typically?

 

[Old Jim]

Generaly get one session from a fresh battery.
Also helps to pour 50 lbs of corn on the ground directly under the light and then spead it as widely as possible. This gives you a light background so the hogs will show up well in the dim light.
Of course, this is just hearsay because it is illegal to hunt anything over bait in Missouri. Come to think of it, it is also illegal to hunt under lights. And really they frown on anyone hunting in any fashion after dark.
But they (Dept. of Conservation) really wants the hogs killed.
We welcomed the hogs because the Missouri Dept. of Conservation, the best funded Dept. in the US outside of California, has mismanaged our deer herd until we have vast areas that have no deer at all and therefore no "big" game to hunt.


Little rant there, I feel better now.

 

[MikeG]

Jim,

It was my understanding (from talking to my dad) that the MDC wanted the hogs killed so bad, that you didn't even need a license? Even in TX we at least have to have a hunting license. I also wondered about baiting / night hunting - figured that they would just classify the hogs differently than deer, etc., as to permit this. If you can't bait hogs, and can't shoot them at night, they are quite difficult to hunt (control).

Thought the deer herd was doing well - maybe I was mistaken. Any ideas? What was the harvest last year? Just curious.

 

[Old Jim]

MikeG,
You have to have a license of some sort. A standard hunting license will do.
The deer herd is very spotty. There are areas that are "overrun" with deer. Generaly urban areas or North Missouri countys. There are areas of National Forest that haven't seen a deer for several years. The MDC takes the actual deer kill, adds a "killed but not recovered factor" a "poaching" factor, road kill and the bow kill to come up with their working kill numbers. It depends on how loaded the nebulous numbers become what the working number becomes. We had an individual that went to every check station in Barry County a couple of years ago. He got actual checked in deer at each location. His numbers and the MDC numbers were not even close.
Solution? I don't know. Possibly the "anydeer anywhere" tags that are issued this year may help by spreading the hunters out more. You can go to your traditional area and if the deer are not there then you can go else where and still take an "anydeer".
I hope it helps because there are areas of good habitat that are barren now.
As you can see I am not a fan of the MDC. We, the voters of Missouri, gave them the 1/8¢ sales tax funding. I feel that the majority of that money has been spent in the areas where sales tax is highest, that is urban and citys, and not where it is most needed. I have seen one MDC agen in the woods in the last 9 years. One came into the local archery shop with his children and could not identify the animals on the wall in answer to his childrens questions. I think that for them to do their job they are going to have to get their shoes dirty. We do have a poaching problem and a new office, well staffed, in St. Louis is not the solution.
All of this is of course my opinion and is backed up only by my personal observations

 

[Jack Monteith]

Hi, Gents:
I never thought I'd see the day, but a herd of wild boar is established in a provincial park about a 100 miles south east of here (SE Saskatchewan). The gov't wants them out and is handing out free licenses. That's unlikely to succeed. We've had some mild winters lately and I wonder if they'll survive a real old-fashioned rip-snorter. Anyhow, I'll be paying more attention to these pig storys from now on.
http://sask.cbc.ca/template/servlet/View?filename=boars0212009

Bye
Jack

 

[MikeG]

I never thought I'd hear about wild pigs in Canada!

Jack, if they make it through the winter, seems like they'd have a coat that would put a grizzly to shame. Should be interesting.

Trapping and hunting over bait is your only hope, without help from Mother Nature. When they get real bad in Texas, people take helicopers around and shoot them with shotguns from the air. Only works in fairly open areas, like brush country of the south part of the state.

Here's hoping for a good hard freeze, and pigsickles.