Eddie,
I could see why you would shoot the smaller hogs that are good to eat. What's the motivation for shooting the larger hogs?
Obed
Feral pigs are not only destructive to residential landscaping, they are physically dangerous to humans (especially children) and pets as well as causing many dollars worth of damage to agricultural interests.
I went to a pecan growers seminar and one of the hot topics was feral pig control. They had 4 different styles of live traps on display and plenty of actual user experience with them. How do they recommend removing a hog from the trap? First you shoot the hog and when certain it is dead you drag it out or if you are moving the trap do so and then drag the pig.
They have caught as many as 7 hogs in one trap at the same time (one way entry door.) You put food (bait) in the trap and plenty of water because after you catch the first one the others, true to their name (pigs) want to get in on the feast and crowd in to get whatever the earlier arrivals got. The water keeps the early arrivals from being stressed and not being conducive to attracting their cousins.
Three of the big acreage pecan farmers pooled their $ and hired a helicopter to support the state provided professional hunter. He shot 125+ pigs in one afternoon. (Southern Oklahoma)
Pigs will not only attack you under the right (wrong?) circumstances but they will actually eat you.
If I had hogs and kids on the same property I'd not rely on shooting the ones I see but would be using baited traps to get the ones I might not otherwise see.
Some of the trap designs are really simple and easy to disassemble and reassemble and are easily transported (disassembled) in a pickup. Welded wire panels and T-posts are the major components with a little welding fabrication for the door and door frame. The door is mounted out of plumb so gravity holds it closed and hogs inside the trap can't push it open to get out while hogs outside can easily push it open to get in, only to have gravity close it behind them. Like the Roach Motel, "They check in but they don't check out."
It is a sad statement on our litigious times but used to be the meat from the pigs could be donated as charity to orphanages and such but the processors are not allowed to process the hogs for free now due to liability issues.
Unfortunately there are plenty of unscrupulous pig hunters that continuously release domestic pigs into the wild to go feral so they will have abundant pigs to shoot. If the pigs didn't cause anyone problems or economic loss I'd say no harm no foul, have fun guys but given the economic impacts and danger to humans (especially children) it is clearly a very BAD thing to do.
Pat
