Hogs help fill whitetail void...

[Bobcat]

Hogs help fill whitetail void

By Chester Moore, Jr. - The Orange Leader

Deer hunting has been tough in the Pineywoods since the archery season opener.

Warm temperatures and a bright moon over the last week have given hunters few opportunities to score on wary, night-moving whitetails.

Feral hogs, however, have been common around deer feeders and along game trails and are giving hunters plenty of shots.

"I would rather have a big whitetail walk out but I love eat wild pork and never turn down a chance at a pig," said Wesley Pfhol of Vidor.

Pfhol shot a 230-pound sow last week while hunting his deer lease near Crockett.

"The hogs have overrun our lease and have made shooting deer around feeders tough," he said.

I enjoy hunting hogs more than I do deer and that seems to be a growing sentiment among many hunters.

For those of us who love to hunt hogs, Texas is the place to be.

Texas is the unofficial capital of hog hunting with more than 1.5 million roaming the state, according to Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) officials.

The top spots are the East Texas Pineywoods region, which offers more than a million acres of public hunting land via national forests and TPWD's public hunting program.

South Texas offers just as many hogs but very little public land.

Biologists characterize that region by cactus and scrub brush and hunters can find the largest concentration of hogs around the river and creek bottoms. The Sabinal and Nueces bottoms in particular are very productive.

The Hill Country is also full of hogs and areas in Llano, San Saba and Kerr County have super high populations. Ditto for areas in the Cross Timbers and the river bottoms in the Rolling Plains.

I like hunting hogs here in East Texas, partly because I do not have to drive for hours on end to get there, but also because the tall, dark woods match the hogs' behavior. Both are somewhat ominous in their own ways.

For local hunters looking to get in on hog hunting action, some of the public hunting areas are loaded with hogs. The Tony Houseman State Park and Blue Elbow Wildlife Management Area (409-736-2551) in Orange County has hundreds of them roaming its swampy terrain.

Hunting there requires an annual public hunting permit.

Tinsley Ranch in Mauriceville (409-423-5552) has an incredible number of pigs and some of the largest I have seen. My friend Eric Adams from New York bagged a 300-pound boar there last week and we saw nearly 50 hogs during our single afternoon hunt.

The whitetails should start rutting in the Pineywoods soon and that will take my attention away from pigs for a while, but if a big old, boar walks under my stand, I cannot resist.

There is always room for wild pork in my freezer, and if not, my neighbors gladly accept donations.

[captkb]

There is always room for wild pork in my freezer, and if not, my neighbors gladly accept donations.


Since we started putting hogs in the freezer this fall, my neighbors and friends at work sure have gotten alot more friendly. ;D If you have never tried some wild hog german sausage with jalapeno and cheese or wild hog summer sausage with jalapeno and cheese then you are missing out. I have already had friends at work want to buy what summer sausage I have left and I kindly have to tell them no - on special occassions I will thaw a stick out and take to work mainly just to aggrevate them. ;D ;D Ain't I mean!!

[Okie Newton]

I hunted on a lease in South Texas for 3 years. I got on the place hoping to kill a trophy boar. It took three years to get a good one but it was worth it. My best one went 385lbs. with 3 and 5/8 inch tusks. I have his shoulder mount in the living room of my house now.

[Bobcat]

Experts say feral hogs pose mounting threat

By Ted Streuli
The Daily News

Published February 15, 2004

Doug Smith has a favorite story. The agriculture agent for Texas A&M University’s Texas Cooperative Extension system encountered a Clear Lake family last year that was fed up with feral hogs. Armed with bow and arrows, they set off to slay the swine that had been destroying their property. They returned home hours later without their trophy, to find that the creature had availed itself of their absence and destroyed their front lawn.

Feral hogs — those once domesticated creatures that have returned to the wild — are an ever-increasing nuisance to county residents who find their property destroyed, trash cans ravished and lawns irreparably mauled.

A hassle for homeowners, feral hogs can be devastating to small farmers and ranchers; the omnivorous creatures eat almost anything and can destroy crops and livestock, preferring kid goats and lambs.

In a world of suburban sprawl, feral hogs are especially fond of Bermuda and St. Augustine grass and the insects that dwell in the sod.

“They just love that,” said Smith. “You can have a clear lawn that evening when you go to bed and wake up to find it’s all rooted up.”

Christopher Columbus introduced hogs into the Americas in 1498; by 1593 they were established in Florida and spread throughout the southeastern states, putting down roots in Texas as early as 1689. Smith said that in Galveston County, feral hogs number about 10 a square mile and as habitat turns to subdivisions, they become more publicly visible.

“They’re even on Galveston Island,” said County Extension Agent Corey Bowen. “They’re everywhere.”

And a 400-pound feral hog isn’t a creature to mess with. Bowen said they can become aggressive if cornered or if a sow is separated from her litter.

“A domestic hog is going to go away from you,” said Bowen. “A feral hog is going to lock eyes.”

Although they tend to be most harmful economically, Bowen said they can carry a variety of livestock diseases — including anthrax. Most diseases can only be transmitted through direct contact with a carcass, usually while processing, Bowen said.

Hogs can multiply quickly. Since they reach sexual maturity in as little as six months and have a gestation period of less than four months, a sow producing four to eight babies a litter can turn a pair of hogs into 14 in less than two years. With a life span of about five years, the population can grow to unmanageable levels rapidly.

“On the positive side, they’ve provided recreation,” said Bowen.

Often imported to hunting ranches, hogs aren’t considered game animals in Texas, so there are no limits for hunters and they’re never out of season. Hunting, in fact, is one of the methods the Texas Wildlife Damage Management Service recommends for controlling the feral hog population. Other suggested methods are snares and live traps.

But discharging a firearm in a subdivision typically is illegal, so if there are no bow hunting supplies in the closet, the experts suggest calling the county agriculture extension office for a referral to a professional trapper.