# Hog Hunting



## lazydaisy67

Hubby and neighbor have been trying to set up a hog hunting trip. I almost had to change my pants when I saw the price tags on some of these excursions! $500 bucks to shoot a hog from a feeding station underneath your tree? Oh, and you get to sleep in a bunk bed in a machine shed building for 2 nights. Seriously? For $500 I want a king sized bed, breakfast cooked to order, soft white sheets, a fully functional bathroom and absolutely no chance of coming into contact with a poisonous snake. I don't get it! :nuts: Neighbor guy said it's the "experience" and that hubby "deserves" it. So I was thinking maybe I deserved to have the experience of a new Kitchenaid mixer.

Any of y'all have hogs that you want rid of?


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## k0xxx

I'd let him shoot the Pot Belly pig for less than that....


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## JustCliff

That sounds a bit steep. You can probably find a farmer in an overrun area that would let you shoot them free of charge. You could find your own hotel and eats.
This was the first site I came to when searching "hog hunting Texas".
A heck of a lot cheaper. AND They will barter for the costs if you have what they need. 
http://hoghuntinghoghunting.com/


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## airdrop

Is this a canned hunt ,pigs are enclosed by fence? Or out in the wild kind of hunt were they are free rangeing. Even if it's canned I'd expect nice bed time and at lest a kitchenette for that price. If they have feeders out your chances are better if not stay home lol. Pigs roam ,you might see them in one area today and not again in that area for 2 weeks. they set in dense cover most days and move at night thats why a lot of guys are going with thermo scopes and rifles with a can on them (silencer) to night hunt.


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## lazydaisy67

I think they've looked at both types of hunts. The fenced in, feed em underneath your tree hunts cost more. I guess that's because they all but throw the pork chops in the back of your truck for you. 
My personal opinion is that they're going down there for strong drink and loose women....just kidding.


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## txcatlady

Got another sow down tonight. That's 3in last two weeks that won't be having pigs forever. Hubby has gotten 2 also and bil shot one tonight too. Cooler weather must have them moving! Hubby has killed 16 since mid December! I only have 4. No time to sit and hunt. Just come up on them and half time no gun. Found 3dogs trespassing. Messing with cows, calves and deer. I haven't done that before, but we may have to take care of that problem!


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## kyredneck

txcatlady said:


> Got another sow down tonight. That's 3in last two weeks that won't be having pigs forever. Hubby has gotten 2 also and bil shot one tonight too. Cooler weather must have them moving! Hubby has killed 16 since mid December! I only have 4. No time to sit and hunt. Just come up on them and half time no gun. Found 3dogs trespassing. Messing with cows, calves and deer. I haven't done that before, but we may have to take care of that problem!


Maybe dumb question, do you all eat the hogs? Or is it too strong? Surely some choice cuts from the sows at least?


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## tsrwivey

lazydaisy67 said:


> Hubby and neighbor have been trying to set up a hog hunting trip. I almost had to change my pants when I saw the price tags on some of these excursions! $500 bucks to shoot a hog from a feeding station underneath your tree? Oh, and you get to sleep in a bunk bed in a machine shed building for 2 nights. Seriously? For $500 I want a king sized bed, breakfast cooked to order, soft white sheets, a fully functional bathroom and absolutely no chance of coming into contact with a poisonous snake. I don't get it! :nuts: Neighbor guy said it's the "experience" and that hubby "deserves" it. So I was thinking maybe I deserved to have the experience of a new Kitchenaid mixer.
> 
> Any of y'all have hogs that you want rid of?


Ive got 20 acres on the river, come on down.


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## ContinualHarvest

txcatlady said:


> Got another sow down tonight. That's 3in last two weeks that won't be having pigs forever. Hubby has gotten 2 also and bil shot one tonight too. Cooler weather must have them moving! Hubby has killed 16 since mid December! I only have 4. No time to sit and hunt. Just come up on them and half time no gun. Found 3dogs trespassing. Messing with cows, calves and deer. I haven't done that before, but we may have to take care of that problem!


Do you have a smokehouse? I'm sure you could cure the meat. Prosciutto, hams, bacon. Mmm mm. We've got them in the western part of the state. I'm going to try to bag one.


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## LincTex

Most folks that shoot them wild in Texas just take a few choice cuts only.

The biggest thing here is trapping them live, then finishing them on grain for 30-45 days to clean up the taste and add a little marbling.


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## Viking

lazydaisy67 said:


> I think they've looked at both types of hunts. The fenced in, feed em underneath your tree hunts cost more. I guess that's because they all but throw the pork chops in the back of your truck for you.
> My personal opinion is that they're going down there for strong drink and loose women....just kidding.


I've known "hunters" that did that, one guy came to work with black eye from his wife, seems to me that he didn't want to talk about what happened. Personally I don't think strong drink and hunting should even be considered and it has been a really good thing that my wife goes hunting with me as she has spotted game when I couldn't due to them blending in with their surroundings. I'm a bit colorblind so that could also be why I sometimes miss seeing them, anyway shes helped put a lot of venison in the freezer.


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## kyredneck

My wife's a better ambush hunter than me because she can sit still longer. Don't know who's killed more deer, probably me, but that's only because I've been hunting longer than her.


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## Dakine

$450 is one of the lower prices I've heard for private ranch hunting here in CA. Some of them have exotics like various sheep and if you want one of the russo/eurasian boars, that's an additional $100.

At some of them no tags or hunting regs apply, because you're shooting a farm animal instead of "game" but others it does apply, so it must have to do with how they were acquired, and fed, housed whatever?

You can hunt for nothing but the cost of a hunting license and a $20 pig tag if you want to go to the national forest or other open hunting lands, but at the private ranch they virtually guarantee you can shoot one if you want to, and they offer really good butchering prices compared to bringing the carcass to a butcher in town. Granted some people here are probably quite familiar with all of that themselves, but I don't have the tools (knives alone can be quite an investment) nor the time and space to do it at home, so I pretty much have to pay for the service.


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## cnsper

For $500 I can buy and pig and have it cut and wrapped. 

For that price it better be cut and wrapped for you too.


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## Dakine

well, I didnt include the $25 bunk house fee if you want to camp overnight, or the $45 fee (+ tip) for butchering (which I dont think includes wrapping) or the couple tanks of gas to get there and back at $4/gal 

I think places like this are okay, especially if you're bringing someone who's never gone hunting before, it's a $50 fee if you dont take any animal at all, so someone gets a chance to find out if they have it in them to pull the trigger on one of God's yummy little 4 legged critters. Not everyone does, it's been a few years for me but I'm pretty sure I can find enough malice in my heart to put a pig down, but I would be wishing it was an Elk 

the other thing too, they have an extremely high success rate, they have the exotics like the sheep, some of which have really impressive horns so people that are looking for trophy mounts and stuff get into that... personally I want to hunt for the meat, not the mounted critter.

Also they help with game retrieval and all of that stuff, using an ATV or whatever, as opposed to CA forestry laws which say "if you use your truck off road, or if you menace a squirrel, or if we're bored, we'll use our drones to take video evidence and confiscate your truck, your rifle, your dog, and your hunting rights for the next 20 years" (obviously that is wildly sarcastic and exaggerated but yeah there are definitely tight restrictions here for game retrieval compared to private ranches or other states) Anyway, for elderly or hunters that have mobility issues or possible other handicaps this might still be a really good option for them to at least get into the field with a high rate of success and enjoy the sport... eh, such as it is anyway.

Actually the off road restrictions are one of the reasons I just bought a 2 wheeled cart that folds down, and has a carrying capacity of 500 lbs! pretty neat!


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## Dakine

meh. 

went out pig hunting and did see pig poop at one place, which ironically we only stopped because I needed to stretch. 

Other than that I saw some deer tracks, a single deer, very small and made during or shortly after the big rainstorms we had here last week. woohoo! 

oh and some coyote crap.

Lots of private ranches have No Trespassing signs posted... that private ranch is starting to look pretty good, but then again, that's not really hunting  meh. MEH! I sez!!!


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## *Andi

LincTex said:


> Most folks that shoot them wild in Texas just take a few choice cuts only.
> 
> The biggest thing here is trapping them live, then finishing them on grain for 30-45 days to clean up the taste and add a little marbling.


I have never understood this ... 

If you don't care for a "wild" hog ... Food lion/Wal-Mart sells pork...

But that is just me.


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## Dakine

*Andi said:


> I have never understood this ...
> 
> If you don't care for a "wild" hog ... Food lion/Wal-Mart sells pork...
> 
> But that is just me.


I'm going to hazard a guess and say that they are so plentiful in some areas and they are so destructive, have no natural predators, and are 100% a problem, that people dont waste time getting anything but the choice cuts. Plenty more where that one came from.

I was watching pig movies on Netflix, one of them said a sow has a litter 3-4 times a year? holy crap!!! no wonder why the pig population is exploding.


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## *Andi

Dakine said:


> I'm going to hazard a guess and say that they are so plentiful in some areas and they are so destructive, have no natural predators, and are 100% a problem, that people dont waste time getting anything but the choice cuts. Plenty more where that one came from.
> 
> I was watching pig movies on Netflix, one of them said a sow has a litter 3-4 times a year? holy crap!!! no wonder why the pig population is exploding.


I've heard that they "wild pigs" were hear for 20 years now ... but I have never had that op ...(never saw one)

But for me meat is meat ... Wild games was just a part of life!

I don't see putting a wild critter in a pen, to make it taste better. (?) But that is just me ... 

A deer roast is just that, a deer roast... We didn't put that deer in a lot so it would taste like beef ... Just sa'ing...


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## Dakine

*Andi said:


> I've heard that they "wild pigs" were hear for 20 years now ... but I have never had that op ...(never saw one)
> 
> But for me meat is meat ... Wild games was just a part of life!
> 
> I don't see putting a wild critter in a pen, to make it taste better. (?) But that is just me ...
> 
> A deer roast is just that, a deer roast... We didn't put that deer in a lot so it would taste like beef ... Just sa'ing...


I agree completely, and I guess it really breaks down into cost averaging... if you are NOT working, OR you were not going to be curing cancer in your offtime (this is me!!) and piggies are plentiful and easily trapped, would you trap a piggy and then artificially fatten it up?

I guess I would, assuming the trapping was pretty much a sure thing, and the cost to feed it was still going to result in much less cost per .lb of meat than at the grocery store.

I'm not in that situation either, and the game ranch idea is really starting to rub on my nerves the wrong way. Not because I'm opposed to their business in any way, I'm not, and I think their prices are competitive, but I am starting to think I'd rather sink those dollars into my new BOV and if I want canned pork... I can watch for the next time Food4less (kroger) sells at .78 per lb, and I'll buy 5 of them and call it a day! well that may take 2 days to can it all, but still...

in fact, this thread is continuing to talk myself more and more out of wasting money on pig hunting.

TIRES! Dak needs tires for his new truck


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## lazydaisy67

Well, from some of the vids I've seen the wild hogs are not only a menace, but procreating like nuts so people who were once not terribly worried about the numbers are not freaking out about how to control them. I'm not against somebody making a buck off of hunters who want to shoot a hog or two on your land, but for $500, the 'experience' had better be pretty darn amazing. I think the men folk have changed their minds about going down there just because the cost seems prohibitive and driving to GA where it isn't so expensive wouldn't be any cheaper. Too bad, cause we'd love to have a pig or two in the freezer.


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## LincTex

Dakine said:


> I'm going to hazard a guess and say that they are so plentiful in some areas and they are so destructive, have no natural predators, and are 100% a problem, that people don't waste time getting anything but the choice cuts. Plenty more where that one came from.


That is correct... anything else isn't worth the time and trouble.

I m opposed to senseless killing of anything...but killing the wild hogs barely puts a dent in the problem. And they are damn smart, so it isn't really an easy hunt.

Penning and feeding them for a month gets rid of the nasty taste, and then it's off to the butcher for some tasty loins, chops, bacon and sausage.


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