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Like a lot of Texans, I hate pigs. I doubt I hate them more than the farmers and ranchers that have their land and fences destroyed by the porcine infestation. To this point, the Kee ranch has managed to avoid the pig problem, save for a few very rare sighting over the years. But now we’re in full-on invasion mode. And thanks to the fine folks at Stealth Cam, I have some juicy footage of what we’re dealing with…

The full review of the G42NG from Stealth Cam is forthcoming, but in case you’re itching to buy a game cam, I wholeheartedly recommend it. I counted eleven pigs with what appeared to be one sow and ten juveniles. Keep in mind that female feral hogs reach sexual maturity and usually produce their first litter around 13 months. The linked article has some great information about the feral hog problem, but if you prefer to consume your information in video format, Rod Pinkston from JagerPro has a great presentation for you.

Here’s the skinny. Assuming those juveniles are 4 months old, and half of them are ladies, we’re looking at five females about 9 months from dropping their first litter of 5-6 piglets. Or 25-30 more pigs within the next year. Which means that Nick and I are going to be working overtime to eradicate porkers from the area. The perfect gun for the job seems to be Nick’s silenced .300 BLK AR running some sort of deep penetrating fast projectile. That and a strong light as they seem to be showing up on the camera only at night.

But listening to Rod, it seems that the only real solution is to start trapping and killing the entire sounder whereas traditional hunting methods might net 2-3 pigs at a time. And given how intelligent feral hogs are, they’ll just change their habits, have another couple piglets, and we’ll be right back where we started.

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30 COMMENTS

  1. So why exactly can’t we use that extremely successful and simple poison that is controlling them in Australia?

    Isn’t it some type of nitrate that costs less than redi mix concrete? Would kill all of them easily if I remember correctly.

    • Would it also kill my dogs? Rat poison almost killed one of my dogs some years back, cost me $1000 to save her. Simple answers aren’t always simple. OTOH, I am ready to spend the bucks for .300 blk ammo to kill them ALL, sounds like fun.

      • The Kee Ranch has some nice deer that wander around on it.

        He may not want to kill ’em unless he is shooting at ’em…

      • Nope…won’t hurt them at all. That is unless corned beef makes them puke in the living room.

        Simply can’t figure out why its use has not been approved for commercial use yet.
        I am sure many farmers in the know use it now.

    • The poison predominantly used in Australia is called 1080 and have no doubt it will kill your dog with ease. It is actually also used to control wild dog populations over here.

  2. I’d rather the farmers and property owners, and gun shops; make some money for themselves rather than paying a subcontracted cousin of a senator to poison meat that could feed hungry people.

    • Poison people? It is the exact same chemical that they apply to pork to cure ham.

      Pour it on a bushel of apples and wait….Magic

      • sorry that message may have been a title long. what i meant is that most restaurants, and people won’t eat animals that were dead before you found them (lying in the road or field). In florida a group has been working to donate the pork of hunted pigs to restaurants and shelters. if the “poisoned” hogs are still safe to eat then i don’t have as much problem with it.

  4. Dig a long tank trap and toss corn into it for a week. Then, you and several friends play peek-a-boo into the end of it with the baddest hardware you have, and the pig population is decimated in 10 seconds. Toss the dirt over the carcasses, rinse, and repeat.

  5. Still another reason to shake your head at CA. Feral pigs are doing great damage here. We can hunt them year round. If we have a pig tag. 22 bucks for each and every porker. But, we can’t hunt them at night. half hour before sunrise and half hour after sunset.

        • Sigh, so much truth there. Licenses should be enough, and as a nuisance animal, those little porcine so-and-sos, shouldn’t need tags. I live in a predominantly agricultural area of this twisted state, and they’re worse pests than the deer. But at 22 bucks each…and low-cap mags…and outdated hunting restrictions…and bullet buttons…and non-lead ammo (on price principle only)…and no suppressors….

  6. Interesting here. You are NOT allowed to charge a fee to hunt feral hogs here, and if you are a land owner, you are required to report any sittings to ODFW.
    Guess they are trying to prevent the problems the hogs are causing in other states.

  7. I am in McKinney , Texas and looking for a pig hunting friend.
    I’m a Nevada transplant that hunted coyotes hard.
    Would love to get into the hogs..

    Thanks!

  9. Got family in south MS and yea, wild hogs are already a problem. They can be tasty, but after a while you do get tired of it and just want them dead.

  10. You are right on the money re trapping. Hunting/shooting them out in the open wont even keep up with their natural rate of replenishing. Even with a team of people holled up hundreds of yards away, once the first shot hits home, the hogs wont be around very long. My favorite trap design is the Figure-C https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiMiM46yIcU. All you need are some T-Posts and 4ft tall hog panels. Make a 3/4 circle reinforced with T- posts for all but the last 3-4 ft of the open sides of the circle. Then a run a couple panels across the mouth of your 3/4 circle so that the unsupported ends push against it with a little bit of pressure. This effectively creates two chutes where the pigs work their way in as they circle around the bait you will place in the middle and the unsupported ends of the inner circle give enough for them to gain entry but snap back into position trapping the pigs. Roll up on it periodically put the hogs down. Remove the contents and enjoy tasty bacon or donate them. I know Hudson’s in Austin takes harvested hogs as part of the Hunters for the Hungry program and I have even heard rumors that some restaurants will actually pay for them. I don’t think I will ever be able to just shoot/blow-up/poison and leave for the vultures like some advocate. As much as I hate them and as much damage as they do to our land ever year.

    The kind folks over at A&M have a wealth of knowledge on hog control. It is for the most part, all based around trapping. The design above, is the simplest and most cost effective requiring no fabrication or special parts like springs/trip levers and gates. If the hogs catch on and move to a different spot, just uproot the T-posts and relocate.

  11. Here in Arkansas, the most effective way to reduce the numbers has been using thermal scopes on an AR 10 platform and shooting them at night. Traps work, but hogs are smart, and they won’t use a trap more than once or twice. Unless you are using a remote controlled door, it’s a crapshoot on how many pigs you will have in the trap anyway.

  13. I got a solution, guide and land owners should stop robbing hunters and stop charging outrageous fees to hunt them. Count me in to hunt once a month at least. These guys a fun to hunt.

  14. Agreed on the trapping. I used to hunt down south in Brooks county (TX) and we had pigs everywhere. Trying to shoot ’em to keep up is a losing battle. We trapped and shot ’em if we saw ’em, but they do scatter. The little ones are mighty good BBQ… just saying.

  15. I live in Southwest Washington state, the state that just got slammed with a new gun control initiative. I’m looking around for a place to hunt feral swine in Oregon. But, it looks like it would be dumb luck to even spot any on public land. There are some people in Northwest Oregon who will let you hunt on their private land for $400. The next closest place is Northern California, where the rates run much higher. It almost looks cost effective to fly to Texas, Oklahoma or Missouri and hunt down there.

    • Funny, people who have feral pigs damaging their crops and property are the very ones blocking people from attempting to eradicate feral pigs, almost as if they WANT the crop and property and livestock damage. Who is the largest insurer that pays out on damage to farmers’ crops and property? Hmmmm, almost like some sort of scam or some such!

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