Venture Surplus ad

Looking to hog hunt

The #1 community for Gun Owners in Texas

Member Benefits:

  • Fewer Ads!
  • Discuss all aspects of firearm ownership
  • Discuss anti-gun legislation
  • Buy, sell, and trade in the classified section
  • Chat with Local gun shops, ranges, trainers & other businesses
  • Discover free outdoor shooting areas
  • View up to date on firearm-related events
  • Share photos & video with other members
  • ...and so much more!
  • TX69

    TGT Addict
    Emeritus - "Texas Proud"
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Dec 23, 2012
    6,801
    21
    DFW
    15 years ago people would let you hunt hogs for free, some would pay bounties. Now alot of them whine about damage but when someone offers to get rid of some, they ask how much you will pay them per hog or wont let you hunt them at all but lease to deer hunters. I am willing to pay a working lease ranch, but not to save them money when they will pay a hogger a lot more. Best to make friends with some ranchers and prove yourself or go to one of the day hunt ranches.

    Your best bet is to find an old timer with land that still does business on a handshake.

    A lot of the "ranchers" you find online are too busy trying to convince everyone that they're part of an elite class that they'll just be rude to you.

    .....
    Guns International
     

    Jlrockboy

    Member
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Feb 4, 2013
    69
    1
    Midland
    With all the leasing going on in Texas, I have never heard of a land owner letting you hunt on their land for free. Now, a relative or friend might, but if they lease chances are they will not let you set foot on their land either. When you are changing people thousands of dollars a year to hunt, they want no one on their lease. The reason I have not hunted in Texas for years.
     

    TexMex247

    TGT Addict
    Rating - 100%
    19   0   0
    May 11, 2009
    3,369
    96
    Leander(NW Austin)
    Hoji is not just being abrasive. He is a guy who was paid to exterminate them by the state not all that long ago. The only way a "real" hog problem is dealt with is by trapping and mass extermination on a regular basis. Allowing a few hunters to come out and shoot a few hogs won't solve a landowner's problems and in fact just invites more liabilities on their behalf. If you wanna shoot some pigs you gotta pay to play or just know someone. There is no happy medium.
     

    jordanmills

    TGT Addict
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Sep 29, 2009
    5,371
    96
    Pearland, TX
    Hoji is not just being abrasive. He is a guy who was paid to exterminate them by the state not all that long ago. The only way a "real" hog problem is dealt with is by trapping and mass extermination on a regular basis. Allowing a few hunters to come out and shoot a few hogs won't solve a landowner's problems and in fact just invites more liabilities on their behalf. If you wanna shoot some pigs you gotta pay to play or just know someone. There is no happy medium.

    Yes, if you shoot hogs, they magically come back to life at dawn the next day and keep tearing up land.
     

    TexasRedneck

    1911 Nut
    Lifetime Member
    Rating - 100%
    9   0   0
    Jan 23, 2009
    14,560
    96
    New Braunfels, TX
    Point being, once you start shooting, they scatter - if you get 2-4 of 'em, you're lucky. Trapping them, they'll stay around, and depending on your trap method, you'll either continue to catch 'em, or get them when they come back after the trap is emptied.
     

    jrbfishn

    TGT Addict
    Lifetime Member
    Rating - 100%
    3   0   0
    Aug 9, 2013
    28,316
    96
    south of killeen
    Hogs learn quick, you have to adapt. They will also come back to a dead hog or gut pile. Most ranchers dont like gut piles because it can atract more than you can get rid of. If you take the time to do some small ranch day hunts, sometimes you can prove yourself enough to get invited by other local ranchers. But it aint easy. Nither way will get rid of hogs alone, it takes hunting and traping together. Hogs learn too quick. Faster than some poeple
     

    Dash Riprock

    Well-Known
    Rating - 100%
    4   0   0
    Jan 8, 2009
    1,459
    66
    Austin
    Yes, if you shoot hogs, they magically come back to life at dawn the next day and keep tearing up land.

    You're completely missing the point.

    Wow, can't believe some of what I'm reading here. Some of y'all should read the dove hunting thread below, where a generous fellow poster couldn't even manage to pull off a hunt for the members here.

    I best just keep my mouth shut. But... wow.
     

    Hoji

    Bowling-Pin Commando
    Rating - 100%
    36   0   0
    May 28, 2008
    17,700
    96
    Mustang Ridge
    Let me just say that I am pretty sure I have killed more pigs in an average year than most of you will kill in your lifetimes. Hunting is the absolute last step in a management plan. Before you can have any effect at all with hunting them, you need to trap, snare, and aerial shoot them to get the numbers to a point where simple hunting will keep the population somewhat in check.

    You need to kill 66% of the total population of the hogs on a given property JUST to keep the population where it was before you killed that 66%. Simply put, if you have 100 pigs on your property, and kill 66 of them, and no more, in less than a year you will have 100+ pigs again.Most places with pigs have more than 100. You can not hunt them out.

    I still help with land management when I am home from work. When the group I kill pigs with go out, we use thermal imaging weapon systems, top of the line Gen3 night vision, ultra quiet UTVs suppressed semi auto .308 rifles and we chase them to the ends of the earth. We bait roads, wallows, trails, as well as run a few feeders. We set up on ponds, creeks, and rivers. On a good night we have killed 25+ pigs. Most people do not have the gear, time, or motivation to have any significant effect on a hog population. They are not prepared to eat dust, be stung/bitten by blood sucking insects and ticks, nor are they willing/able to deal with sweating their balls off( or freezing them off) while doing all of the above.

    If you want to hunt some hogs, there are plenty of places that charge low fees($100 per day range) that you can go to and kill a pig or two. Please stop coming onto forums and offering to "help with your hog problem" then bitch and moan about land owners not falling all over themselves to let you come on to their property for free. The one or two pigs you may kill will do absolutely nothing to help, the cow,horse, water tank, dog, etc that you end of inadvertently shooting will cause more harm than any good you think you are doing by killing a pig.
     
    Last edited:

    jordanmills

    TGT Addict
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Sep 29, 2009
    5,371
    96
    Pearland, TX
    You're completely missing the point.

    Wow, can't believe some of what I'm reading here. Some of y'all should read the dove hunting thread below, where a generous fellow poster couldn't even manage to pull off a hunt for the members here.

    I best just keep my mouth shut. But... wow.
    So what's the point? If you want to educate someone, make the point, don't talk around it. It might likely be something I don't know. Look at how it's done:
    Point being, once you start shooting, they scatter - if you get 2-4 of 'em, you're lucky. Trapping them, they'll stay around, and depending on your trap method, you'll either continue to catch 'em, or get them when they come back after the trap is emptied.
    And thanks, that makes sense.
     

    jordanmills

    TGT Addict
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Sep 29, 2009
    5,371
    96
    Pearland, TX
    If you want to hunt some hogs, there are plenty of places that charge low fees($100 per day range) that you can go to and kill a pig or two. Please stop coming onto forums and offering to "help with your hog problem" then bitch and moan about land owners not falling all over themselves to let you come on to their property for free. The one or two pigs you may kill will do absolutely nothing to help, the cow,horse, water tank, dog, etc that you end of inadvertently shooting will cause more harm than any good you think you are doing by killing a pig.

    I don't know if that's what most are getting at. I personally think it would be fun to spend a long weekend or a week tending bait drops, noting damage, and then staying up half the night to wait for the herd. And if I give them a weekend off of baiting drops and staying up nights so they can take their honey out to the hill country, and enjoy a "weekend off".

    Problem is finding someone who would trust john wannabeahunter with his land and home alone over a weekend.
     

    Hoji

    Bowling-Pin Commando
    Rating - 100%
    36   0   0
    May 28, 2008
    17,700
    96
    Mustang Ridge
    I don't know if that's what most are getting at. I personally think it would be fun to spend a long weekend or a week tending bait drops, noting damage, and then staying up half the night to wait for the herd. And if I give them a weekend off of baiting drops and staying up nights so they can take their honey out to the hill country, and enjoy a "weekend off".

    Problem is finding someone who would trust john wannabeahunter with his land and home alone over a weekend.

    You will have better luck killing pigs by paying someone's day rate.
     

    Hoji

    Bowling-Pin Commando
    Rating - 100%
    36   0   0
    May 28, 2008
    17,700
    96
    Mustang Ridge
    Point being, once you start shooting, they scatter - if you get 2-4 of 'em, you're lucky. Trapping them, they'll stay around, and depending on your trap method, you'll either continue to catch 'em, or get them when they come back after the trap is emptied.
    Based on my observations, the majority of people would be lucky to get 2. The luck being a pass through shot on the first one. When shooting pigs with the intent of elimination, most regular hunters do not have it in them to double tap any available target a sounder of pigs offers to them.

    To shoot out a sounder, any hits on pigs are good shots. Even multiple hits into the body cavity. Any pigs that are on the ground spine shot after the initial barrage can be head shot when the shooting stops.

    It is messy, ugly, and 99% of hunters do not have the stomach for it.

    I am not in any way coming down on someone who only takes an ethical, clean, 100% shot, but when it comes to pigs and eradication hunting, it gets ugly if you want to be effective.
     

    jordanmills

    TGT Addict
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Sep 29, 2009
    5,371
    96
    Pearland, TX
    I am not in any way coming down on someone who only takes an ethical, clean, 100% shot, but when it comes to pigs and eradication hunting, it gets ugly if you want to be effective.

    Thing is, you're talking about having hunters do something that's not hunting. There's nothing wrong with reasonably humane pest eradication, but it's not hunting.
     

    Hoji

    Bowling-Pin Commando
    Rating - 100%
    36   0   0
    May 28, 2008
    17,700
    96
    Mustang Ridge
    Thing is, you're talking about having hunters do something that's not hunting. There's nothing wrong with reasonably humane pest eradication, but it's not hunting.

    All of you are talking about doing something that does not "help" with the problem.

    Except that it does zero for the actual elimination of said pests to kill them one at a time. Most hunters are not skilled enough to take multiple shots on moving targets either.

    please quit kidding yourselves. One off hunting does nothing but make pigs smarter and harder to get rid of. If you want to hunt pigs, make friends who can take guests to their lease, pay the day rates, or buy property.

    Your offers to help with the problem are anything but helpful.
     
    Last edited:
    Top Bottom