Been going out at night doing a little thermal hunting. I thought trapping was addictive, thermal hunting as about equal to it.
My thermal has a record button and that has helped tremendously in locating pigs that run after the shot. I can go back and view the footage to know where to start looking the next day.
Here’s a few pics…

That is a lot of pork

What caliber

PLEASE don't say 6.5 man bun

Haha, heck NO. Ruger Predator .308 with an IRay Bolt TH50-C. I have a video where my son took it to see how it sounded with a suppressor and subsonic ammo, the results would surprise you. Guess I need to post my hunts on YouTube and the suppressed video.

Nice Hogs

Has the infiltration of wild hogs into the southern US been good or bad?

Hogs are never good. Mainly because of habitat destruction. We kill on sight…we trap as well. We may go a month or two and see evidence of none, then they’re every where. This makes 12 over the last month in this one area.
I was watching football last night when one of my cameras went off and there were 10 on the peanuts. I haven’t gotten a hog pic at that location in several months. I left the house to go after those and by the time I got there they were gone. I went across the pond dam to check out the dove fields and my camera in the back of the property went off, so I headed to the back.
Besides the two bigger hogs I shot there was 3 others that size that got away. There were 4 piglets and only got one of those.
I’ll give that area a rest tonight and go sit up front to see if the others show back up. I’m killing while the killing is good. The best that could happen is I eventually run them off. The area in the back has bone piles everywhere from 20yds to 100yds from my feeding area.
I think the fact the loggers appear to be clear cutting the property next to us is what’s pushing them onto our property in numbers right now.

Atta boy! Kill em all

If you value native wildlife (flora and fauna) then it is bad. I can’t think of a single upside to having feral hogs when it comes to native wildlife. If you just want to have something else to go shoot at year around then it is good, I guess.

Yes

Are you processing the meat?

Nope. If I get a young sow and someone wants it I’ll take it to them. Sometimes we’ll take the back straps off a young one for the grill, mostly they’re buzzard bait.

Gotcha

These are invasive and not game animals…no laws broken by night hunting, shooting over bait, or leaving the carcasses for buzzards. In fact I’m some parts of the county, shooting from the road is allowed. That’s an agreement with the farmers and the Sheriff Dept. No one likes hogs down here.

If you are a farmer or cattle rancher - hogs can be horrible. Fortunately, I do neither. I see no correlation between number of hogs and number of deer. I have lots of deer and have had a lot of hogs. I dont farm - I manage my place for wildlife. In this respect - I cant grow a lot of plantings because of the deer. Hogs will eat the seeds - beans, corn, wheat, milo - but they dont generally eat the plant as soon as it pops out of the ground - like deer. Hogs are easily fenced out - deer are difficult to fence out. I have multiple beehives around my place - never had a hog mess with them. Cant say the same for coons and skunks. Fruit tree plantings - you better cage every one with five ft wire or the deer will eat them up - and then rub them. I have to e fence my garden fifty yards from my front door to keep the deer out - no problem from hogs. THe local hogs do little rooting - I have no sand in my soil. Even though deer are much more problematic - we like them - so thats ok.

I can control hogs around my place - because I live here - and am willing to hunt at night. Absentee landowners will need a good trapping program. I do like to hunt hogs - probably moreso than deer. Typically, I have one or two target deer. I might have several hundred deer sightings in a year and never draw a bow or take the safety off. EVERY hog is a potential target - from 3 lbs to 300 lbs.

Some of the color patterns and frames on those hogs look feral. Some others look more domestic. As in pure to maybe one cross, as in a Hampshire, some spotted poland china and duroc. That would suggest somebody is either turning them loose or allowing them to escape. The red spotted one looks just like the 3 way cross of Yorkshire + spotted poland china x duroc we used to raise to send to KC stockyards. High quality hogs and every load we dumped out set top of market for that day. The point being I believe there is an element of "sportsmen" who see hogs as a beneficial resource. Something to shoot. Somebody may be back filling on you.

Yup......don't know about survival of ferals, but a domestic sow can have at least 2 litters per year, with 8 to 10 pigs per litter average........that then multiplies with each gilt that survives to breeding age. Except for time it takes to get to puberty, they rival rats with ability to reproduce.

Have heard that most ferals came from domestics that escaped or were turned loose at one time or another. So lots of color patterns and frames in the genetics. But from what I have seen, over time, those eventually take on a consistent color pattern, frame and look. The sow and pig pair with long snout being pretty typical of the multi-generational ferals. Short snouts, blocky frames and distinct color patterns look more like a first or 2nd generation domestic.

But whatever the case, we don't need em.......any of them.

We’ve got a couple Hampshires that I’ve been after for 2 years now, lol. These jokers catch a hint of human scent and are GONE. They cross your path an hour or two after you’ve walked it and they turn tail and run. Deer are stupid animals compared to wild hogs.
Here’s a Hampshire.

Here’s a group that JUST showed up 2 nights ago. I plan to be out at 0400 tomorrow morning trying to get some.