Texas Pigs

[Dan Morris]

Just noticed a blurb on MSN that a Texas group is pressuring TPW to allow pig hunting from helicopters. Man, when I grew up there the ranches we hunted said "kill em"...has this grown to this magnitude? Perhaps GOB or some others can expand on this!
Dan

[Mil Dot]

Dan, I've been to Texas on pig hunts a couple of times. The 1st time was shoot all you can carry hunt. The second time was 1 Trophy and a couple of meat pigs. I'm certain that the pigs are still having several batches of young per female per year they're pretty much unchecked. The brush piles and lowlands they prefer to hang in are pretty much inaccessible to humans other than trappers and hunters willing to go in after them. They feed through the night and really raise havoc with crops, unfortunately 99% of Texas is privately owned and alot of the pig hunting is going to go through outfitters or people who you know and own property down there.

[GoodOlBoy]

Several years ago one of my cousins and a couple of his friends were making a living trapping wild pigs (feral pigs mind you) and selling them to packing plants. This just was keeping the pig population under control. Some idiot city bred congrassman decided that feral hogs were a wild resource and wrote tag for a wildlife conservation bill declaring them as such. Thats when the limits went into effect. Now it is illegal to sell the meat, however if they are destroying your land you can kill them and leave them (which is why we have a growing coyote problems) laying or eat them yourself.

Understand feral pigs are domesticated pigs that were let loose when the pork market bottomed out in the early '80s. One Texas parks and wildlife report estimate they are breeding and having liters at the rate of 30K a MONTH now that we can no longer trap and resell them.

Its idiocy and ranches who once could get them trapped for little to no cost are now having to pay professional hunters alot of money to waste meat that you cant even donate to hunters for the hungery.

:mad:

GoodOlBoy

[Dan Morris]

OK, they became cash cows and kinda got outta hand!!!!!! It's been 35 years sense I left the homeland.....lease prices were getting astronomical..even the friends places I hunted were starting to cater to the $$$$.
Like I said, it used to be see em, get rid of em!!!!Man, times do change!
Dan

[GoodOlBoy]

Yep. Alot of ranchers would still like to just have people come get them, but some have taken up selling hunts for them. One place in west Texas sells "primative" hunts with dogs. You are only allowed to use a bow (not a compound) a spear, or a knife. They have a guide standing by with a 45-70 levergun just in case. The dogs "pin" the hog and you go in for the kill. I think people are nuts. NO WAY would I go for that malarky, but apparently they are booked up for months in advance.

Sheesh

GoodOlBoy