Many hog people do not understand hunters who think that gut shooting a big boar is okay, as long as you don’t gut shoot a whitetail. I know full well the hog problem many areas face. I am aware of the damage that they cause. I kill a lot of pigs on my place and also work on shooting, trapping and killing pigs on numerous other properties. In fact, I’m often out hunting pigs on work nights when most folks are at home in bed.

I’ve seen first-hand what feral can do to a property. My only gripe is that if you are going to put a bullet in them, at least make sure it’s a quick, human kill shot. I have no problem with letting them lay, as I have no problem shooting any feral animal. However, I can see no reason to gut shoot something just to let it run off and die in agony. There are already enough horribly shot animals (accidentally) that occur from folks carrying guns that call themselves hunters.

I am by no means a tree hugging jackass, but think about it. Why gut shoot an animal? There is no reason not to make a clean kill on a feral hog. Every time some non-hunter, or especially an animal rights activist, overhears someone talking about gut shooting something, I suspect they lose a little more respect for the guys that wear camo and call themselves hunters. That is not a hunter, but simply a killer, a shooter. The average person does not realize there is a difference between the two.

And if you think the average person does not matter, then let me put it to you this way. Hunters are already the minority. About 5 percent of the US population actually hunts. Way less than are involved in hog hunting, but another 5 percent of the US population classifies themselves as an “animal rights activist.” This may seem like an equal fight, at least until that 5 percent antis convinces the remaining 90 percent to not like hunting, ban hunting.

And when you talk about gut shooting anything, well, you are giving them just the ammo they need to convince others to stop hog hunting, deer hunting and every other type of hunting all together. After all, they don’t know the difference.

When it comes to plowing through a big boar’s shield you better be prepared. It takes wicked broadhead to open up a big boar like a filleted fish. Many people asked me, “What broadheads do you recommend for wild hogs? Do you use cheaper ones or the more expensive broadheads?” Okay, expensive is a matter of income. What is expensive to one person is not necessarily expensive to another. To me, the right broadhead for hog hunting depends on a number of factors for each individual hunter.

Here lately, I will often shoot a carbon arrow with a Mangus two blade 100 grain broadhead. I have killed seven big hogs just fine in the last three months. Make a good shot and the arrow will pass through and stick right in the ground. This can be said of any good shot, regardless of broadhead. Any high quality three blade would be good in my opinion, but many hunters that have a lot of hog shot opportunities will decided not to waste expensive broadheads on pigs.

Less expensive broadheads will give you a one and out. They will often create enough trauma that the animal dies, but the broadhead will often be worthless after the shot. In other words, you can’t recycle them. You can repair and easily sharpen the Mangus two blade broadheads. I’ve used other broadheads in the past and have had hog hunting success with them too. It’s more about shooting ability and being able to put the arrow in the right spot at the right time while chasing them in their habitat. On a horrible shot, even the best broadhead will not help you put pork on the table.

The one thing I would not suggest is a mechanical broadhead. Stick to fixed blades and go with them.  If you are shooting hogs fairly often, especially smaller ones, go with the cheaper broadheads if you are not worried about losing an animal or being able to reuse the broadhead. For big hogs, go with quality or you risk losing your animal because of lesser quality material and fabrication. I’ve shot enough hogs and went through enough broadheads to know that you get what you pay for. A hog is not contest for a well-placed, sharp broadhead. The best broadhead for hog hunting is the one you can shoot the best.

Though helicopter hog hunting had been allowed for some time under state permit, the new legislation allows landowners to rent out seats on helicopters used to hunt feral hogs and coyotes by air. In short, operators conducting hog hunts can legally charge for recreational hunters to jump on board, lock and load, and shoot hogs from a helicopter.

The passage of this legislation is sighted on the problem of two million feral hogs loose in Texas. In the past, feral hogs and coyotes were primarily only an issue in rural areas, but now it is starting to be a problem in urban areas. Coyotes have been living in greenbelts around cities for decades, but now officials are seeing cases where feral hogs are coming into backyards and endangering pets and young children.

Damage and losses caused by feral hogs and coyotes amounts to about $400 million in damage to crops, property and fences each year. In addition to indirect losses caused by hogs and coyotes, they both cause direct loss to agricultural producers. Both hogs and coyotes prey on young lambs and goats, in addition to white-tailed deer fawns. There are also concerns that feral hogs and coyotes harbor several diseases that transfer readily to domestic livestock and humans.

Landowners can currently apply for a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department permit to conduct aerial helicopter hog hunting and hire a helicopter company and professional shooter. However, the recently-passed bill helps defray the cost by allowing landowners to sell the passenger side of the helicopter to qualified recreational hunters looking to take aim at Texas’ wild hogs and coyotes.

“Here is a cute little Texas pig that was killed in the town of Cut-N-Shoot, Texas. We call them Piney Wood Rooter’s. There was a documentary on about a month ago about these PIGS growing up so rapidly in the US. They’re all over Georgia, Arkansas, Texas, Florida, and other states. Did you ever wonder what happens to those people that just leave home and disappear but their car is found out on a dirt road? Between bigfoot and these monsters, I think we know!

This feral hog was killed by a medical radiology worker. What would you do if this beast was coming at you? Run for dear life? Climb a tree? Or simply get run over? This hog weighed over 1,800 pounds and was shot and killed near Conroe, Texas, near the county airport, east of I-45 and near the community of Cut and Shoot. Yep…only in Texas!”

In short, I can say without a doubt that this huge hog was not killed in Texas. Yes, the photos are impressive, but nothing in them looks like Texas. According to an article in the Conroe paper, no 1,800 pound wild boar has ever been seen near Conroe, Texas, let alone hunted, bagged, and photographed for all of eternity. Your average Texas feral hog weighs in at approximately 120 pounds, says a Texas Parks and Wildlife game warden quoted in the paper. An exceptionally large one might tip the scales at 300, which falls way short of a ton.

Additionally, it’s doubtful there is a feral hog anywhere that weighs 1,800 pounds. Yes, there have been reports of domestic hogs approaching or exceeding that weight, but the largest documented specimens in the wild have topped out at 1,100 pounds or less.

The huge hog in these hunt pictures was actually a 781 pound boar killed in Turkey in 2005. The biggest tip that this is the case that the “Nature Tours” logo on the side of a vehicle in one of the photos, which points to a Turkish hog hunting website on which the same images are displayed. So this huge hog was not killed in Texas, but there are some fairly big hogs there too – just not this big!

When it comes to habitat, hogs can make it just about anywhere as long as water and some amount of cover are present. Wild pigs are found in many habitats from woodland, riparian, and marshes to even chaparral and open grasslands. Feral hogs are comfortable on flat to very steep terrain. They are quite mobile, despite they wear the name “pigs.” For the most part, wild hogs are most abundant in woodlands interspersed with grasslands.

Although adaptable in many ways, wild hogs are not everywhere. They do not tend to inhabit very dry areas such as deserts. Hogs also avoid high mountains with substantial winter snowfall. In addition, though they often wreak havoc with farmers and ranchers, wild pigs to not like intensive agricultural areas where screening cover is scarce. However, excellent hog hunting can be had near suitable habitat adjacent these agricultural areas.

Wild hogs are omnivorous and consume a wide variety of available foods, including both plant and animal matter. The feral hog diet is almost limitless, but for the most part their food includes acorns, grasses, forbs, berries, bulbs, tubers, invertebrates, reptiles, birds, eggs, and animal carcasses. Like many wild animals, their diet varies with the season. Wild pigs feed on grasses and forbs in the spring, mast and fruits in the summer and fall, and roots, tubers and invertebrates throughout the year.

As with all animals that are hunted, feral hog behavior tends to change as hog hunting pressure increases. Where hunting rarely occurs, wild pigs are active throughout the day, though they become less active in hot weather. With moderate hunting, hogs will bed up around sunrise and become active again in the late afternoon. When hog hunting pressure is very high wild hogs will only move and feed at night. Although rare, feral hogs will leave an area when hunting pressure becomes severe.

And dirty, bacteria-laden rivers and streams is one thing that Texans can live without. That’s part of the reason why Coryell County will took to the sky this February, hiring a helicopter and marksman to go on a three-day aerial feral hog hunt over ranches along the river. Coryell County Judge John Firth said, “That’s why the feral hog issue ties into recent research conducted along the river. So to the degree that we can get the feral hog issue under control, we hope to also be able to lower the bacteria level in the Leon River.”

Aerial hog hunting is typically carried out from a helicopter, which allows the pilot to sit over hoggy-looking areas to bust critters from the brush. A helicopter also allows the pilot to keep the shooter in prime position for fleeing feral hogs. Most helicopter hog hunters use shotguns loaded with buckshot, and it is highly effective on running individuals and groups of hogs.

A reduction in the feral hog population in Coryell County through hunting and trapping is one part of fixing the Leon River, but other measures for cleaning up the Leon River will include repairs to home septic systems and adding buffer strips along riparian habitat to slow the flow of organic material into the river. It’s all in an effort by landowners and local governments to tackle the problem themselves–without the threat of morass of mandates and litigation that could stem from a federal environmental crackdown. And you thought hog hunting was just about fun and putting pork chops on the table. It’s a new world.

Last year, a buddy and I were picked for a feral hog hunt at Mad Island WMA. It’s one of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s special permits hunts. We had hunted this property, but were pumped up about it nonetheless. Though we are seasoned hog hunters by anyone’s measure, we did not know quite what to expect in this coastal environment. We just knew that pas success rates were very high.

The flat terrain worried us because a hog’s sense of smell is very good. Big, mature trees are lacking, so no climbing to get the advantage that elevation offers. The WMA did provide 12 foot tripods, so luckily for us that wild pigs have poor eyesight. These vantage points provided great lookout locations about the 3 and 4 foot tall vegetation that dominated Mad Island.

Hog hunting at Mad Island WMA is awesome! We ended up taking 6 hogs over the hunt period, and a few got away. The biologists on staff know how to run the hunts and it was first rate. This is not the easiest place to get drawn for public hunting, but no place is. And from what we could tell, it looks like Mad Island should provide some excellent duck hunting opportunities too.

Their will also be an optional Big Hog Jackpot associated with the contest that will pay out 100%. You can have a 1 to 4 man gun team or a 2 to 4 man dog team. Entry fee is $50.00 per man and optional big hog entry fee is $50.00 per team. Tournament check in will be at 4163 CR 3132 Lone Oak, TX 75453 by the Sabine River bridge (look for signs by) or entry by mail is available. Sign up times start Friday March 18th 2011 from 1pm-8pm.

Tournament start time is at 5:00 pm on March 18, 2011. Feral hog weigh in will be Sunday March 20th 2011 at 10:00 am. Twenty percent of entry fees will be pulled to take care of food and drinks. Whatever is left over will be added back into payout money. BBQ, drinks and door prizes shortly after the hog hunting winners are announced. No hog trapping is allowed!

Since 2000, the feral hog population has been increasing at the NWR. Now, wildlife officials at Balcones are hoping to combat the destructive impact of feral hogs on native habitat. In fact, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering hunting the hogs by shooting them from a helicopter. It was not the first choice for controlling the increasing hog population, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

For years the Balcones Canyonlands refuge staff has tried to keep hog populations down by trapping them or killing them in one of several late autumn hunts, but those hunts have not yielded enough animals to prevent the growth of the resident hog population. Rooting aggressively for food and willing to wallow in anything that looks like a comforting depression of mud, the hogs have caused widespread damage to pastures, according to refuge manager Deborah Holle .

The refuge was formed in 1992 to protect habitat for two endangered songbirds, the black-capped vireo and the golden-cheeked warbler. The Balcones Canyonlands NWR comprises about 23,000 acres in Burnet, Travis and Williamson counties. There is no evidence that the feral hogs disrupt the life of the endangered songbirds, but they do wreak havoc on other wildlife in the refuge, Holle said. Plain and simple, wild hogs are competing with the natives for food and destroying their habitat.

Under the Feral Hog Management Plan, which was approved in 2001, hunters can shoot the animals during the refuge’s “Big Game Hunt.” The federal agency is considering amending the plan to allow for aerial shooting, which it calls a “successful and accepted means of hog control” in a news release. “Aerial shooting can be a cost-effective method for reducing the number of feral hogs occurring in high densities.” It has been used for years at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers land surround Lake Granger and comprising the Granger Wildlife Management Area.

The tournament objectives are to decrease the numbers of feral hogs and their impact on farmers and ranchers, educate all hunters on the impacts of feral hogs to the economy and natural habitat, provide literature on methods of trapping and transporting hogs, and provide feral hog meat to interested persons. All participants must have a valid hunting license and abide by all federal and state regulations.

Hog hunters are required to dispose of their hogs by either donating field-dressed hogs to interested persons or selling live hogs to the Texas Approved Feral Swine Holding Facility in Windom. Hogs sold to the facility cannot be less than 50 pounds, be lame or captured with dogs.

Also partnering with the NWTF is Fannin County Agrilife Extension Service, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Caddo National Grasslands. This hog hunting tournament should be a lot of fun, so lock and load and look for some hogs!

Here are the rules:

Decisions: All decisions of the tournament officials are final.

Eligibility: All State and Federal penal code laws apply at all times. All Federal and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department laws and regulations shall apply at all times. Contestants must have proof of a valid hunting license on their person during tournament hours. Each team member must be a paid contestant of the Lone Star Wild Hog Tournament and abide by all rules and regulations.

Any contestant found to be in violation of any tournament rules and
regulations will be subject to disqualification from this tournament and
all future tournaments. Tournament officials have the right to refuse any entry. Hogs may be harvested by any legal means or methods, including trapping, and only on property that you lease, own, have the landowners permission to hunt on or the appropriate permit for (such as a Wildlife Management Area). No hogs may be harvested from a helicopter.

Registration and Entry Fee: Registration form with complete entry fee ($20 per person or $35 per two-person team) must be received at the time of their first hog checked in. There will be no refunds or substitutions of entry fees for any reason.

Tournament Times and Check In: Tournament begins on February 26, 2011 at 7:00 a.m. and ends March 6, 2011 at 5:00 p.m. A check station will be located at the Caddo National Grasslands work center 10 miles north of Honey Grove at County Road 409. It will be open from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. the days of the tournament. Tails of the hogs will be removed at check in station by tournament officials.

Only freshly harvested hogs will be allowed to be checked in. Hogs
may not be frozen. It is up to the discretion of the tournament officials
to decide if a hog is not eligible for entry into the contest. All hogs must be disposed of by the hunter.

Prize Money: There are 3 regions. Places will be determined by the teams that checks in the highest Number of wild hogs per region during the tournament. Any ties will be split at appropriate places: 1st Place = $1,000 per team, 2nd Place = $750 per team, and 3rd Place = $500 per team. This contest will be conducted over 2 other regions as well. Check station locations by region:

North Region

• Caddo National Grasslands Work Station

(10 miles north of Honey Grove on CR 409, 903-378-2103)

Central Region

• A. Central – Angelina National Forest Ranger Station (111 Walnut Ridge Road, Zavalla, 936-897-1068)

• B. Central – Sabine National Forest Ranger Station (5050 Highway 21 East, 5 miles east of Milam, 409-625-1940)

South Region

• A.  South – Davy Crockett National Forest Ranger Station (On Highway 7 about one-quarter mile west of FM 227 near Ratcliff, 936-655-2299)

• B.  South – Sam Houston National Forest Ranger Station (394 FM 1375 West, New Waverly, 936-344-6205

Polygraph: Each contestant, by signing the entry form and/or participation in the tournament, agrees to submit to polygraph examination. Polygraph test will be given on a random basis and must be passed.