Deer recruitment

I'm at the hunting camp doing some mowing (You can tell because the Spanish are biting) and have seen several does, and each one of them looks like she swallowed a basketball. It's about time for them to be dropping their fawns, so I guess my mowing will be limited to roads---don't want to chop up any of those little fellas.

Yesterday evening, I was eating a particularly sweet slice of watermelon about dark and a black hog came wandering in to run the does off the corn I had scattered down front. I put the watermelon back in the fridge, opened the front door quietly and shot him to teach him some manners. He was actually a good eating size hog, about 100 lbs., but I'd already had my shower and supper and it was still hot outside. I loaded him in the bucket on the tractor this morning and took him elsewhere. The buzzards are having a feast.

Not going to waste I guess(buzzard's dining in)......to bad a neighbor couldn't have shared in the feast
Hog's are on my bucket list of things to do before I pass on

Hey Ironman....check PM's!

No doubt, Haywire, if you killed one last night, 3 sows had a litter of 6 each, so you have 17 more today than you had yesterday!

Thankfully, we don't have many hogs in my corner of Tennessee (although reports show them spreading), but I keep talking about going somewhere after deer season closed to try shooting one. I could probably get a group of 3-5 fellows to do a road trip sometime if you guys have a good spot or know of a reasonable outfitter. I'm sure we could work out a fair price for land access.

PM me if you know of somewhere, please!

They are one of the most adaptive omnivores in the world. They will get turkey eggs, soft mast, hard mast, gardens, pasture, and row crops. Mice may be a little more prolific reproducers but not by much. The thought of skinning and gutting one of those muddy lice ridden rotten smelling beasts isn't pleasant to say the least. Tasty yes but good riddance. Now if you could just take out the other ten dozen on your property.

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Originally Posted by crosshairy

Thankfully, we don't have many hogs in my corner of Tennessee (although reports show them spreading), but I keep talking about going somewhere after deer season closed to try shooting one. I could probably get a group of 3-5 fellows to do a road trip sometime if you guys have a good spot or know of a reasonable outfitter. I'm sure we could work out a fair price for land access.

PM me if you know of somewhere, please!

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Curious, Crosshairy which corner of TN is yours?

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Originally Posted by witler

Curious, Crosshairy which corner of TN is yours?

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Dummy me, just saw your profile location. Wife is from opposite corner, Bristol.

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Originally Posted by witler

Dummy me, just saw your profile location. Wife is from opposite corner, Bristol.

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Yeah...in several ways, her corner of the state is superior, but mine is a bit closer to the beach and generally has more deer :). I would kill for a bit of clean water and some fishable lakes closer to home, though.

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Originally Posted by crosshairy

Thankfully, we don't have many hogs in my corner of Tennessee (although reports show them spreading), but I keep talking about going somewhere after deer season closed to try shooting one. I could probably get a group of 3-5 fellows to do a road trip sometime if you guys have a good spot or know of a reasonable outfitter. I'm sure we could work out a fair price for land access.

PM me if you know of somewhere, please!

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Look up William Bankhead National Forrest in north Central alabama, overrun with hogs and I believe they are year round hunting. You would need a license of course and depending on which part of the Forrest, a free permit maybe required.

Some of the guys I work with hunt them with dogs at bankhead. They say its overran with them. Not sure about gun season now or if its during dear season. I'm not a hunter but glad your guy's are

I would love to get in on a bama pig hunt. We can't hunt them here anymore

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Originally Posted by stik

I would love to get in on a bama pig hunt. We can't hunt them here anymore

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Why can't y'all hunt them?

I know some states have taken over eradication efforts from hunters because some hunters like hog hunting so well that they encourage pig population growth---transplanting hogs into areas where there weren't any, etc. I know they do that kind of crap and I'll tell you the whole story next time I see you on the pier---remind me.

Lots of people like to hunt hogs, but nobody who owns any land has any use for them. Eym_sirius has already covered their destructive nature. They are a curse and a plague and I wish every damn one of them was dead and in hog hell.

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Originally Posted by DUCK

Why can't y'all hunt them?

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Haywire answered it. hogs were turning up 200 miles from the nearest hog populations. they didn't get there by themselves. it seems to be working in some places but not in others. on one place we hunt, i haven't seen a deer or heard a turkey since the hogs moved in.

You can hunt hogs year round in bankhead except the wildlife management areas, in those hog hunting is only during deer season, and it is pretty over run with them, my work is on the edge of it and i can usually take a 3 mile ride after work and have a hog within an hour, though when its hot like this they usually go deeper into the brush and its alot more work getting them out

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Originally Posted by stik

Haywire answered it. hogs were turning up 200 miles from the nearest hog populations. they didn't get there by themselves. it seems to be working in some places but not in others. on one place we hunt, i haven't seen a deer or heard a turkey since the hogs moved in.

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We have a 200 acre commercial fox pen approximately one mile, as the crow flies, from our acreage. At some point about 15 years ago, they apparently decided that foxes weren't good enough any more for running dogs. They started importing Russian boars and also bringing in local trapped hogs. Now they've escaped and bred and it's been all down hill from there.

Our nearest neighbor out there is a watermelon farmer about two miles down the road. He's had 200 acres of watermelons ruined in a night, with one bite taken out of each one.

Don't even get me started on our food plots.

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Originally Posted by backwoods

We have a 200 acre commercial fox pen approximately one mile, as the crow flies, from our acreage. At some point about 15 years ago, they apparently decided that foxes weren't good enough any more for running dogs. They started importing Russian boars and also bringing in local trapped hogs. Now they've escaped and bred and it's been all down hill from there.

Our nearest neighbor out there is a watermelon farmer about two miles down the road. He's had 200 acres of watermelons ruined in a night, with one bite taken out of each one.

Don't even get me started on our food plots.

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They did a similar thing in eastern North Carolina years ago, except when the dogs would not chase the fox they started using coyotes.
Some escaped..the rest is history.

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Originally Posted by witler

They did a similar thing in eastern North Carolina years ago, except when the dogs would not chase the fox they started using coyotes.
Some escaped..the rest is history.

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We've got coyotes so bad on my family place that we can kill a deer and have it be gone in 20 minutes or so of returning to pick it up with a vehicle. Even in town, where I live (city of 50K), my neighbors kill them every other night.

Luckily, I've got a new "urban" lease where there aren't any hogs and much fewer coyotes. It's 6 minutes from my downtown office, so I can't complain too much.

I'll be due to pull some pics from cams just before I come down to do some fishing in a few weeks. I can't wait on either.