TODAYS SCOUTING . . (GOT HOGS ??)

[SAWMAN]

Bruce and I were out this morning doing some recon on where the hogs were and where were they coming from.
Just out from the edge of some super thick nasty stuff,with water at the bottom,was this.
We found several of these places within about 80 acres. Most fresh or at the latest a couple days old.
In this general vacinity we have counted about 20-30 hogs,made up of 2-3 sounders.
In this area there are newly planted pines that are about 4 inches high. The hogs do not target the trees for food,however there are tons of the white grubs in the soft sandy soil. If the hogs have to move a newly planted pine to get to their food . . NO PROBLEM.
We talked to the landowner this AM. He wants the hogs gone . . BAD !! --- SAWMAN

 

[Gator1067]

Man. I live in the wrong part of the state.

 

[Jerry]

Looks like you got your work cut out for you.
Promising little patch right there.

 

[SAWMAN]

The wind has been bad for hunting these spots. There is so much rooting that there has got to be tons of hogs in this area. We have seen huge sounders in the area . . actually on this,and close to this property.
We have been given permission to hunt the entire property. In the past this property has been planted with peanuts,cotton,and soy beans. These three crops are alternated. This year the majority will be cotton which is impossible to hunt after the plants get a couple feet tall. You can hunt peanuts thru out the entire growing season. Soybeans can be hunted after the folage has been sprayed.
The field that will be planted in peanuts is smaller (20-25A~) but is extremely night huntable using thermal. With a wind change,we will get at it. --- SAWMAN

 

[Telum Pisces]

Hunting them is pointless to get them "GONE!" You have to trap and trap, and trap some more effectively getting most of the sounder in the traps! Hunting pressure can make them move on if applied well enough and the food source is not enough to keep them around. This is how you can get them gone in NWFL without trapping. But if it's a current agriculture field and a good food source, you have to trap them!

I hunted an area for 5 years and no amount of shooting them put a dent in the population! I could run them off for a few months with hunting pressure if I stayed on them. But they'd just pop 2-3 more litters out while gone and come back!

I have a brother in south FL who is a nuance wildlife trapper and he get's to run his dogs through million dollar house neighborhoods in the middle of the night where these rich home owners want their nice lawns not torn up. It was crazy riding around at midnight spotlighting in richville!!! We'd corner them on people's porch sometimes and have to take them down by hand! The homeowners knew what was going on and sometimes they'd wake up to watch the show we put on! They wanted every one of them gone! We'd set traps and run the dogs through the neighborhoods and surrounding pastures. The crazy thing was when we would spot the hogs and they would stand still in the middle of some cows hoping we'd mistake them for cattle or something.

South FL is over run with them and we are getting there here in NWFL!

The crazy thing is we'd catch them live so he could sell them to the "pay to hunt" places around the state! He would make a good bit of spending money doing it!

 

[Grassflatsfisher]

Hunting them is pointless to get them "GONE!" You have to trap and trap, and trap some more effectively getting most of the sounder in the traps! Hunting pressure can make them move on if applied well enough and the food source is not enough to keep them around. This is how you can get them gone in NWFL without trapping. But if it's a current agriculture field and a good food source, you have to trap them!

I hunted an area for 5 years and no amount of shooting them put a dent in the population! I could run them off for a few months with hunting pressure if I stayed on them. But they'd just pop 2-3 more litters out while gone and come back!

I have a brother in south FL who is a nuance wildlife trapper and he get's to run his dogs through million dollar house neighborhoods in the middle of the night where these rich home owners want their nice lawns not torn up. It was crazy riding around at midnight spotlighting in richville!!! We'd corner them on people's porch sometimes and have to take them down by hand! The homeowners knew what was going on and sometimes they'd wake up to watch the show we put on! They wanted every one of them gone! We'd set traps and run the dogs through the neighborhoods and surrounding pastures. The crazy thing was when we would spot the hogs and they would stand still in the middle of some cows hoping we'd mistake them for cattle or something.

South FL is over run with them and we are getting there here in NWFL!
The crazy thing is we'd catch them live so he could sell them to the "pay to hunt" places around the state! would make a good bit of spending money doing it!

Yep...or if you are going to gun/stalk hunt them you have to put the dogs on them and keep them on them. Hunted a place in Bullock Co AL that was loaded with hogs. Every sit we saw them. Several of the land owners hired dog hunters to come in one summer and they decimated the population in the area. Went several seasons without seeing a hog. It has to be done right though. You get the right group of guys and dogs that know what their doing they can thin them back big time.

 

[Rebel_Rider1969]

Holy $hit. It's too bad somebody cant come up with a poison that sterilized them.

 

[FLT]

Some folks just want to control their numbers, we remove a large percentage of them from time to time but don’t really want eliminate them altogether .

 

[Bowhntr6pt]

If nothing else, shooting some will drive them from the immediate area... for a while.

Corn... lots of corn for a week... you won't have the hunt them... they will come.

 

[SAWMAN]

Like coyotes,you cannot get rid of them all. My first question to people is "how do you know" ?? Because you have toured a piece of property and there are no tracks ?? No rooting or other VISABLE damage ?? Because you don't see them standing in the open,during daylight ??
There are fields that we hunt that are still covered with thick grass or mowed grass,this time of year. (Pre discing,pre planting.) Unless there happens to be a sandy spot,no visable sign of any animal.
And . . unless you are looking in the right kind of soil or can plainly see the spaceing of the tracks, is the sign hogs or deer ??
You see NO hog sign tonight. Then tomorrow night you see several sounders (about 30 total) in the field. Did they just come for the very first time or have they been coming for the last week ??
In the areas that man feeds them (hogs and deer) with the planted crops like corn,soybeans,early cotton,peanuts,and other crops,hogs breed at one level. In the area of the country where they get nothing from the farmer or hobby garden grower,they breed at a slower rate. Slower . . but not zero.
After a hog gets to be about 30lbs they have few or no natural enimies except man. Even after they are weaned and the sow gets pregnant again or has other piglets,she will still protect them . . . with a vengeance. Close to water . . a gator. Maybe a small piglet if the sow is not close enough . . a good sized bobcat,coyote,or the larger bird of pray. That is about it.
After a hog gets about 40-60lbs NOTHING screws with it unless it happens to come across a Florida Panther. --- SAWMAN

 

[Gator1067]

Dog hunters in south Florida Where I am are a dime a dozen now. My whole family including me use to run hog dogs mostly black mouth currs but that has since passed. Problem is now a days 99 percent of the ones that run dogs here are young are poachers and have shit eatin dogs that will jump on anything so the land owners not only won’t pay to have the hogs removed but won’t even let you on there land. I trap a few properties that I get to keep the hogs. That’s the agreement because if you asked for reimbursement or to get paid there is a line of 18 year old kids with a trap willing to do it for free just to put a picture on face book and brag to their buddies they caught a hog. They have no idea what control is and don’t care.

 

[Daezee]

Re trapping: trapping in the area was successful for about 6 months, then no hogs in traps for about a year, then another 6 mo of it working, now it’s been 1 year 3 months of it not working. Traps are set and baited. If triggers are set, traps are checked every morning. Traps are on two properties. Have watched video at one trap with some hogs running in and a bigger sow refusing to enter and simply lying down outside the trap entrance until the other hogs finished eating...trigger was not yet set to get hogs used to entering and feeding. When video showed all were entering, then the trigger was set.

Much of the time when one or more are shot in a field, others do not come back to that field for a few weeks. That is the goal where peanuts have been freshly planted. That is why I was at a field last night...farmer finished planting at 8:30pm. Saw 20 deer, 4 rabbits, and 2 coyotes in the area. No hogs.

Yes shooting is not THE answer...it is part of the answer and a fun part of the process.

 

[.270 Win]

Looks like armadillos to me.

 

[Gator1067]

We all know hogs are very intelligent. I’ve seen a sow on a piece of property I trapped for years that was trapped and got out teach her piglets not to go in a trap and they too taught there offspring. When the hogs got trap or dog shy in the days I ran dogs I would catch a 40 pounder fit it with one of my tracking callers and give it an hour. He always went to the others and was easy to catch at the end of the day. We would follow the group catching them until the battery on the collar was almost dead. Lol