Wild pig problems in the southeast

[Highbanked Hauler]

  WOW I happened to see a documentary  on wild pigs and the problems they cause and its getting worse. The worst of it is in the southeast US but it is spreading outward toward the rest of the country. The (pig bomb) as they called it went off towards 10 years ago and the population has doubled in that time and they are an environmental disaster. They have somehow bred with European wild pigs and they have longer legs, larger bodies and are vicious with about 4" tusks. I never knew there was such a problem till I saw this. Has anybody had to deal with them?

[bull]

Sounds like a job for dad's 30-06 to me. Bacon, pork chops and ham hocks for all.

[John_Kunkel]

I saw that show and it's not isolated to one part of the country.

Here in NorCal farmers used to invite hunters onto their land to shoot the pigs and now it's turned into a cottage industry with both land owners and hunting guides making a buck off of the pig kills.

[BigBlackDodge]

Was this the Hogzilla show?


BBD

[Highbanked Hauler]

I saw that show and it's not isolated to one part of the country.

Here in NorCal farmers used to invite hunters onto their land to shoot the pigs and now it's turned into a cottage industry with both land owners and hunting guides making a buck off of the pig kills.

Was this the Hogzilla show?  Yep.

I heard them say it had spread across  the country but I wasn't sure how far.

[Highbanked Hauler]

Sounds like a job for dad's 30-06 to me. Bacon, pork chops and ham hocks for all.

I figured a snipers rifle and infrared gear,its easier to get them at night.  I would think they would be tough eating though.

[chargergirl]

Sounds like a job for dad's 30-06 to me. Bacon, pork chops and ham hocks for all.

I figured a snipers rifle and infrared gear,its easier to get them at night.  I would think they would be tough eating though.

Nope quite good...but the boars especially have to be "bled" right then and there or the meat gets...destroyed.

[hemi-hampton]

There was a Documentary I seen on wild Pigs or Boars running wild in Florida & spreading north. The Hogzilla was a freak of Nature from Georgia. LEON.

[Highbanked Hauler]

 Yea, that was the one and there has been a few of them that large.  A while back there was a 10-12 year old kid that shot a hogzilla that they figured was 1000-1200 lb. and that was the first I heard of the problem.

chargergirl, I have never dressed off an animal so  the whole thing would be a learning experience. One thing I know is never underestimate  what you are dealing with

[tricky lugnuts]

"One thing I know is never underestimate  what you are dealing with"

Good advice! Now let's go see who can get one first, on the ground with a traditional recurve, a la Fred Bear. You guys first! 

[chargergirl]

30-06 or a no go for me! Have friends in Hudson, FL that go hog hunting. Two big dogs and big guns...I used to just wait. Back home I would show up when they pulled the pig from the ground, Imu, and shred hundreds of pounds with friends. Some ono! (Very delicious)!

[Highbanked Hauler]

30-06 or a no go for me! Have friends in Hudson, FL that go hog hunting. Two big dogs and big guns...I used to just wait. Back home I would show up when they pulled the pig from the ground, Imu, and shred hundreds of pounds with friends. Some ono! (Very delicious)!

How did they get the pig out of the woods? Even one 3-400 lb. would be hard to drag out without some equipment.

[elacruze]

I used to ride my motorcycle to work between Stuart and Okeechobee, Florida on a mostly deserted two-lane. We have plenty of pigs roaming around out there, and I had to dodge two or three. Scary stuff. Strangely, I never saw a flat one so I may have been moving faster than the truck traffic they were used to...

I met some Hawaiians on the side of the road in Maui who had a couple 3-400 pound pigs in their pickup truck. I asked what they hunted with. They looked at me like I had two heads, laughed, and said 'well, the knife haole!'. We had a pretty good laugh over that...but still they just wait for one to come around, fall on it with a big knife and apparently win more often than the pig.

I don't think even those guys want something 800 pounds, though.

[hemi-hampton]

Here's a Pic of Hogzilla2.  LEON.

[1969chargerrtse]

Great thread. I saw that show also.  Very very scary. Freaked me out. I'm hoping they come up with a grain that kills the mail pig sperm. The idea of catching a group in a feed pen was great.

[ih8gmandford]

Here's a Pic of Hogzilla2.  LEON.

I think the pic of Hogzilla 2 is fake. Probably a large pig, but the perspective is wrong (kid's way behind the pig, not leaning on it). I'll show the wife the pic, though. Gives me a reason to have the 45/70 guide gun... the pork shreds itself! -Jason

[vancamp]

we have them pretty bad here in south arkansas nothing the size of hogzilla but they tear up quite a bit of property around here

[Mike DC]

 
This whole concept sounds like a bad movie on the Sci-Fi channel. 

[mikesbbody]

A lot of pig hunting over here in New Zealand This Dog belongs to
A friend of mine the injuries were from a "small" Hog they are not
To be taken lightly! the Dog was ok.

[chargergirl]

Got called on a newby pig dog to stitch up from a pig "slinging" on him. I got that call at 1am and was finished at 2am. My boys drove me home....I was a mess...having to stitch Moses was not something I EVER wanted to do. Moses still loves me to this day and he is a 130 lb American Pit...He's learned since then how to hold and keep himself safe.

[mikesbbody]

That's true Chargergirl, once the Dog learns to be a "Hard Holder" the risk is reduced for everyone. I have another pic of this Dog all stiched up sitting on the back seat just one of those things that happens sometimes.

[Highbanked Hauler]

Here's a Pic of Hogzilla2.  LEON.

I wonder about that picture also. If its real its as big as the top  2/3 of an elephant  not including its head. To support that size it would need a few hundred pounds of food and water per day.

[tricky lugnuts]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogzilla

Maybe this will shed some light on the hoax/real question?

[tricky lugnuts]

Also this:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7264865/

Not quite as big as it was made out to be, but still probably nothing to F&$^% with! 

[chargergirl]

So there ya go...one more reason why I camp at the Hyatt!

[motorcitydak]

This is how they are taken care of. Make sure to watch it with the sound on especially the very end

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EymHKsaOpRg

[1969chargerrtse]

Awesome. scary, but awesome.

[hemi-hampton]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogzilla

Maybe this will shed some light on the hoax/real question?

I think Highbank Hauler was commenting on my 2nd pic, not my first pic, Hogzilla #2. Supposably the Pic is legit but how it was cought is not. LEON.

[tricky lugnuts]

OK - But based on Hogzilla - it sounds like some kind of Monster truck or something - being significantly smaller than was claimed at the time (still massive, it's true), I figured that Pic 2 of  "Monster Pig" would also be considered a hoax.

It looks like a few news outlets ran reports of an 11-year-old Alabama boy shooting Monster Pig, claimed to be even larger than the Hogzilla National Geographic had unearthed and debunked (though it was still a massive pig). But apparently the photo was "rigged" using perspective and such to make the pig look much larger than it actually was:

http://www.stinkyjournalism.org/latest-journalism-news-updates-45.php

Apparently some of the news outlets tossed in the hedge "if" when reporting on it to save their reputations just in case:

http://urbanlegends.about.com/b/2007/05/25/monster-pig.htm

Here's a link to the original Fox New story about Monster Pig:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,275524,00.html

And apparently, aside from the "optical illusion" aspects of the photo, Monster Pig was in fact (I'd prefer to use possibly) a domestic, farm-raised pig named Fred:

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/hunting/news/story?id=3220628

And it looks like there might be a real scandal here that the AP has not fessed up to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_Pig

And a year after the hunt, the scandal unfolds, kind of:

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/hunting/news/story?id=3378412

[tricky lugnuts]

One more - it looks like the AP, to be fair, did report that Monster Pig was not really a feral hog:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18989526/

[hemi-hampton]

Yeah, I read all those before. The Perspective Illusion is nothing like trick photography. It's all in the mind & optical illusion, nothing done in a lab or computer.  LEON.

[Brock Samson]

    http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,29527.0.html   from '07

there was a special i saw some time ago on these pros that would dress their south African dogs breed specially for the duty in Kevlar body armor before releasing them into the swamp to round up the wild boars,.. I bet it was at least 5 years ago I saw this... It was really entertaining, and I seem to remember some guy here on the site who was into it and hunting for squirrels or ground hogs with hand grenades that was a few years back too...

[b5blue]

You were thinking of Cooter!