Feral Hog Hunting

[Texas by God]

There's always collateral damage in poisoning. If it would ONLY kill pigs & coyotes, ok. But it would kill much more. So I vote no even though coyotes killed a weeks old calf of my sister's night before last. Had a pack raising my hair unseen a hundred yards away at dusk today. Yes, I got the AR out but never saw one. Time to go calling & spotlighting- they're too brave. Best, Thomas.

[Milsurp Junkie]

I am pretty sure that the only serious poison being considered for feral hogs is sodium nitrite. Ironically, it is also used to cure bacon...The USDA is/was conducting tests of it.

Sodium nitrite, used as a salt to preserve meat, can keep red blood cells from grabbing oxygen in live animals. Unlike people and tested domestic animals, pigs make very low levels of an enzyme that counteracts the chemical. Swine that eat enough sodium nitrite at once show symptoms akin to carbon dioxide poisoning: They become uncoordinated, lose consciousness and die.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2...e-year-to.html

[sixshot]

Best poison for hogs is lead poison.....at about 2800 fps!! Or 1300 fps with a good cast slug from my sixguns.

Dick

[starmac]

From what I have read the poison will not affect other animals much, just too hard for them to get a lethal dose. They claim you can even still eat the hog meat from hogs that have ate it.

I have my doubts how much good it will do as far as getting rid of hogs though. Texas is mostly private land, so unless they can somehow force folks to put poisin out on their land, I just don't see it doing a lot.

[popper]

LD50 is lethal dose that kills 50% of rats. 0.012% dose. Dogs fed 5 days of nutrina killed by LD50 died, as did mink. Cats & other animals have some problem, with varying LD rates. LD is calc. by mg/kgm of body weight. Game birds, waterfowl, fish don't eat meat so no problem. No tests I could find on carnivorous birds. Pigs are very sensitive to it but you can't control how much they eat. I have no skin in this game, just providing info.

[Lonegun1894]

I'm still thinking introducing poison into the food chain that many of us here are part of is a very bad idea. Lets think about this. We're talking a blood thinner here. Even if it isn't a lethal dose you get from eating a meal or 3 of poisoned hog, what if you eat it, and being a blood thinner, it thins your blood just a bit, and you get in a car accident on your way to work the next day. Do you want to take the chance of bleeding out because your blood is thinned, when you would have been miserable for a while, but alive if it hadn't been for the blood thinner in your system? I know, chances of this are slim, but if it's you, or your wife, or your child, is it still an acceptable risk?

[huntrick64]

Show me one reference in history where a governmental body poisoned something and then 50 years later said "That was a really good idea!"

DDT?
Cyanide?
Methyl Alcohol? During prohibition
Formaldehyde?
Agent Orange?

Why is this all of the sudden different?

[Dale53]

IMHO, the only proper way to "thin the herd" is with hunting. Specific targets, meat is usable for human consumption if properly cooked, and no "unintended consequences". Of course, that will encourage the practical use of guns, so the "Left" will HATE this method. That would be MY suggestion (along with many others, here, of course). I am a firm believer in baiting in cases like this. The hogs can do SERIOUS damage as others have mentioned. Baiting may not be exactly "fair chase" but it IS practical. Feral hogs are VARMINTS, good people.

FWIW
Dale53

[Lonegun1894]

I completely agree, lets hunt them all. But I mean hunting, as in precise shots that minimize suffering of the animal, allow recovery of it so it can be eaten, etc. Not gut-shooting them like I have seen and heard some people advocate, or blowing them up with tannerite (or any other explosive for that matter) when they come to a bait pile, or anything else that isn't legal and ethical for any other animal. Now before anyone gets mad at me, I'm NOT suggesting seasons and bag limits and such, shoot and eat them all, and I will gladly help in the effort, but just saying don't be cruel about it.

[sixshot]

There are hunts & then there is culling & it's different. Texas is in a war with hogs, take it or leave it. They are losing millions of dollars to feral hogs. I don't live there but I did many years ago & it's much worse now & I did go back & spend one winter there a few years back. It's really bad. I talked with one big farmer who told me he had planted something like $100,000+ in corn seed & he would look behind his tractor & the feral hogs would come out of the woods behind him & go right down the rows, rooting up the corn seed.. Like I said, it's a war. You can call it ethical or unethical but when it's war you fight to win & survive. How many times can that guy plant $100,000 worth of seed & lose it?

Dick

[TXGunNut]

I love hunting (and eating!) wild hogs but I don't eat or even process every hog I shoot. I'll drag the nasty ones off to feed the coyotes. But I'm actually part of the problem, I should probably shoot every hog I see while hunting whether I need the meat or not...but I don't. I don't think there's better meat on my table than a well-fed 80-100lb sow and I won't shoot a hog just to kill it. I think it's a terrible waste but most knowledgeable game biologists say I'm wrong. I've come home with venison last two seasons so I'm not helping much, even though I did shoot a big stinky boar last season.
Point is, if I and lots of other Texas hunters don't do what we can to thin the herd some landowners will have to do something that may not work out too well for the environment or hunters. Some biologists say hunters can't keep pace with the reproduction rate of feral hogs. If that's the case aggressive trapping and possibly poison may be the answer. I like the sounds of the sodium nitrite treatment, sounds like a better plan to me.

[Milsurp Junkie]

Truth of the matter is that Texas has so many hogs that we would not be able to reduce their numbers through rifle/bow hunting alone. Hogs are smart and if they start feeling hunting pressure, they will change their routines to another location or time. Trapping actually reduces the numbers in a population more so than hunting (think large round traps that can get 30-40 hogs in it at a time).
There is a reason why we can hunt them at night, baited, and with zero restriction on caliber and magazine capacity...there are way too many of them, and their numbers need to be reduced.

I do not think warfarin is not a good idea. As I stated above the USDA is testing sodium nitrite, which is not that bad for other animals. They have had some issues in making it palatable (it is supposedly bitter) by adding it to something akin to apple gummy bears. We will see.

[David2011]

Been shooting pigs in Texas for 5 years and had an opportunity to observe their population expansion. It is hard to imagine. They reproduce as effectively as roaches. I have never felt anything but satisfaction putting one down. One afternoon in 2 hours from one position I shot 5 with a cumulative weight of over 1000 pounds and one was a baby of about 30 pounds. It was the victim of a shoot-through when I shot the sow in the head. As good as that sounds, there were about 30 more that I didn't shoot, most of them approaching reproducing age. If half of those 30 each have a litter of 8 that's a jump from 30 to 150 in a few months and it goes exponential from there. For all the naysayers of head and neck shots, it's IMO the only way to shoot pigs. Of all the pigs I've shot I think 3 were not DRT with head/neck shots. Those 3 were taken with chest shots and ran a little.

David

[popper]

Listening to the Texas Ag Comm. right now. Evidently the fat turns blue so processor can see a 'poisoned' pig. Special traps, no special permit needed but land owner must post sign indicating use, special feeder required. Warfrin is NOT a blood thinner, a anti-coagulant. This bait will have 1/5 the LD50 dose. Has been used in Australia for years. Texas AM has 'approved' it? Personally, still a little leery of the idea as to claims of no environmental effect on anything but pigs.

[Dinny]

There's gotta be a pharmacist or doctor on here that can speak to the harm of us eating these poisoned pigs. I'm guessing we would have to eat a truckload to have a slim chance of it being a problem, but that's just a guess. I'm not a doctor, but I did sleep in a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Thanks, Dinny

[bronte454]

I grew up in TX lived there the last 43 yrs . I've been a Massachusetts resident for 8 months now (ughhh homesick) . Anyway hog hunting was difficult for me to find and I know ranchers and farmers who know each other from panhandle of Lubbock for 2 hrs North East and west and for 6hrs southeast . They are not everywhere but are in pockets all over . One rancher I worked with from Eden Tx he has several ranches around the area and only one had hogs on it which was down south of Menard Tx 45 miles away I've been down there many times . Always had a gun and never even saw a hog on the hoof till we trapped a 7lb piglet Woo-hoo. I've seen pictures from there big round pen trap that has had 15 hogs at a time in it . I've seen pictures from the hunters who have knocked down a few . They pass through on a circuit and no telling when that will be . I've killed exactly 4 hogs in 43 yrs all running shots at full tilt with a 308 . Got lead in 3-4 others that were non recovered . The problem is unless you are working for one of these ranchers or are BFF with one they don't let you in to hunt . They make money off the hog hunting just like the deer hunting it is very difficult . I also saw an article about the wayfarin being approved and I agree this is a horrible idea . Don't know what the answer is but this isn't it . Maybe some day I will be down south of Menard Tx when the hogs come through and I hope I can load the back of the one tone dually full of pig . It is tasty . Minus the wayfarin I hope .

[T-Bird]

I'm a veterinarian if that counts as a doctor. I have treated one dog that was secondarily poisoned by eating anticoagulant intoxicated rats, so it is possible. Warfarin was the first of these drugs and has been around a long time-long enough that a lot of rats aren't affected by it. Most of the anticoagulant rodenticides nowdays are much more potent that warfarin- like 50-200 times more potent. Amount of meat required to make you sick would probably depend on the drug that was consumed by the hog, warfarin or one or the newer generation anticoagulants. The dog lived, by the way.

[Milsurp Junkie]

Guess we should all be eating spinach salads with our Texas feral pork. The vitamin k in the green, leafy vegetables is a necessary co-factor in clotting proteins.

[308Jeff]

I completely agree, lets hunt them all. But I mean hunting, as in precise shots that minimize suffering of the animal, allow recovery of it so it can be eaten, etc. Not gut-shooting them like I have seen and heard some people advocate, or blowing them up with tannerite (or any other explosive for that matter) when they come to a bait pile, or anything else that isn't legal and ethical for any other animal. Now before anyone gets mad at me, I'm NOT suggesting seasons and bag limits and such, shoot and eat them all, and I will gladly help in the effort, but just saying don't be cruel about it.

Agreed. If you can't shoot well enough to assure DRT or very close to it, keep practicing until you can before you start shooting animals. Even feral hogs.

[Love Life]

I have a hog problem on my property in Georgia now. I am letting people trap them for free, and wasn't opposed to paying to have them trapped...but they said they'll do it for free about 15 seconds into my inquiry for hog trappers, lol.

I'd say come on down, but hogs are off and on in my area. They'll come around for awhile and then disappear for months to a year.