Brass Tacks: Why hunt hogs?

Why hunt hogs? 

Well, if you're already a hunter, you understand that hunting is a multi-layered pursuit.  Preparation for a hunt can be every bit as pleasing and as satisfying as the hunt itself.  You get to research equipment, fret over different calibers, broadheads, attractants, etc.  Many pleasant hours can pass this way, and it's especially nice to share in the process with other likeminded hunters.  Next comes the scouting process:  locating water holes, feeding areas, game trails, and setting up your stands.  This is where the real strategy is laid down, where all your experience and hard-earned hunting knowledge is crystallized into the perfect plan.  The hunt itself can be pure magic.  The smell and taste of the moist, cool evening.  The dappled light fading from the forest floor.  The first twitch of movement in the brush that the predatory part of your brain identifies as quarry far before the rest of you can catch up.  The seconds draw out to hours when the animal is stepping into view.  All the crap that may be going on in the rest of your life is a million miles away.  This feeling is why we hunt.

That's hunting in general.  Hog hunting is great for precisely the above reasons, just amplified by 1000%.  It's hunting in its most raw, most pure manifestation.  Hog hunting is different than such narrow specialty species such as, say, pronghorn.  Pronghorn are encountered in a very extreme environment (wide open spaces) and usually require very specialized equipment (ultra-long range rifles).  It's kind of a niche hunt.  Hog hunting, however, takes place in every possible environment:  swamps, fields, mountains, and sometimes suburban lawns.  Likewise, the equipment for hunting hogs runs the gamut:  rifles in calibers from 22 LR to .416 Rigby, all sorts of handguns, shotguns, bows, crossbows, knives, even spears.   It's a very easy-access sport.

And it is a sport.  Sometimes, it's a very dangerous sport.  Unlike most game animals, hogs can and will bite back.  They truly are dangerous game.  There are hogs roaming around out there in excess of 500 lbs.  That's the size of a small cow.  An old boar that big will have hide on its shoulders that can stop many bullets and bend arrows, and his tusks may measure 6" long.  But in my experience, the smaller, more common boars in the neighborhood of 150 pounds are the real fighters.  These guys are often aggressive when encountered up close, and they are tremendously powerful and agile.  Hunting hogs can be a serious adrenalin rush, and can make deer hunting seem boring by comparison.

A worthy adversary.

In the last 15 or 20 years, the feral hog population has skyrocketed across the country.  All of the South, including Texas, is absolutely full of hogs.   Areas of New Hampshire and New York State have verified breeding populations, as do parts of Michigan's Upper Peninsuala.  Much of California is chock-full of hogs as well.  Since this is such an adaptable animal and has demonstrated a tremendous ability to exist in very close contact with human development, the sky is the limit when forecasting their future range.  Some armchair zoologists believe that the introduction of Eurasian boars, imported several decades ago as an exotic game species, has altered the DNA in feral populations to allow a sow to produce multiple litters per year.  Since there's very little published scientific data on feral hog populations, the reasons behind the tremendous population growth remain shrouded in mystery.  One thing is certain, though- feral hogs are here to stay.

I'm watching you, schmuck.

The agricultural damage in Texas alone is conservatively estimated to be in excess of $50 million annually (Source: Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Texas A&M University).   This figure does not include damage done in motor vehicle accidents, residential property damage, illnesses transmitted via feral swine, or injuries caused by direct encounters.  Not only are wild pigs fun to hunt, there is a moral and civic imperative to hunt them.

The feral hog has proven itself to be a remarkably exciting, challenging quarry.  Swine can be possessed of a near uncanny intelligence, especially when they've been pressured due to hunting.  You've got to know this animal to have success hunting it.  I've spent days walking through acres and acres of hog sign without sighting a single pig.  In hindsight, my tactics were wrong.  More on tactics later.  Suffice to say while hog populations may be staggering, don't believe for a minute that hunting them is like shooting ducks in a barrel.  This is a thinking man's game animal.

Catch me if you can, bitch.

Just keep huntin.