Texas feral pig extermination "hunt"

[jinman]

I'm thinking this is not a very efficient way of dealing with feral hogs. You can't have more than one chopper in a pretty large area zigging and zagging based on the direction of the hogs. Also, how many hogs are just wounded? What does the hourly rate for that helo cost? I would think an organized hunt with dogs to surround and drive the hogs into pens/traps would be more efficient if cost and safety are considered. Driving hogs in these open fields should be easy. Trying to drive them in forested areas would be very hard. I'd think baiting and trapping on a large scale would work there based on observed habits.

I don't have any problem with hunting the hogs any way needed to thin them out, but I just think the helo method is expensive and a bit dangerous with many of the hogs just being wounded instead of killed.

 

[Bird]

For 8 years we lived across the road from Navarro Mills Lake property in Navarro County (1995-2002). I've forgotten exactly when it was, but the Corps of Engineers hired a company from Ft. Worth to fly a little helicopter around over the lake property and shoot feral hogs with a 12 gauge shotgun for 3 days. But unlike the video in this thread, a great deal of the Corps property around the lake was heavily wooded. I saw the chopper several times and, according to the newspaper, I think they said they killed about 130 hogs. Some of my neighbors said that wouldn't be a drop in the bucket and was a waste of time and money.

 

[dave1949]

I don't have any problem with hunting the hogs any way needed to thin them out, but I just think the helo method is expensive and a bit dangerous with many of the hogs just being wounded instead of killed.

I noticed the gunner would pop the wounded ones. I think he was trying for good kills at least. No doubt there could have been some that didn't die quickly.

I was amazed at how fast those critters can run. I knew pigs could be fast, having chased a few, but those hogs are in shape. They are smart enough to run for the brush too.
Dave.

 

[MossRoad]

You also have to take into effect the camera lens. He was much closer to the hogs than it appears. The pilot kept him right on them. I think I saw power lines in one shot and the pilot had to go up and over. What I am most curious about is the camera system they used as it stayed on the hogs and switched from target to target with the shooter. The gunner and videographer is listed as the same person.

If anyone finds any more information on that I would be very interested.

As for operating costs for the helicopter, I found a really neat calculator for Robbins helicopters here:

The Robinson Helicopter Operating Cost Calculator

It depends on how old the helicopter is, how many hours it has on it, how many hours per year you fly it, etc... lots of variables. However, if they own it and fly it often total cost per hour can drop to below $300/hr so that 3 hour hog eradication would be around $1000.00 for the helicopter.

Didn't the video mention a group of land owners got together and hired them to eradicate the hogs? That could actually be reasonably priced. Wipe out a large chunk of the population from the air to get them under control and then use traditional hunting to get the rest. Seems like a good bang for the buck with as many as they got so quickly. Think about how long it would take for ground hunters to shoot a hundred hogs VS two guys in a helicopter.

 

[MossRoad]

Hey, I read all the comments on the youtube video and the creators of the video mention they mounted the camera directly on the guns, so that answers that.

 

[MossRoad]

He wrote that one of the camera mounts mounted the camera to the side and torqued the gun, so his dad made a camera mount out of a bayonet and that mounted the camera directly under the barrel. He also wrote that most of his shots were with iron sights because wants the sun came up the laser was washed out. Pretty neat system, I must say.

 

[JB4310]

Looked to me the image was taken right from the scope as you could see he had a white and red dot on them, almost like the viewer was looking thru the scope?

IMO one guy shooting in a downward trajectory would be safer than a whole group of hunters in the brush shooting in a parallel to the ground trajectory. Not counting the cost of the chopper, I think that is the most efficient way of getting big numbers of them.

Look at that monster boar at 4:20 - 4:30 in the video, he was ready to take on the chopper, was charging right at it and didn't stand down till the last second when he finally turned to run away. I wouldn't want to bump into him on the ground when my gun jammed or was reloading

.

 

[EddieWalker]

There were able to get closer to the hogs because they are wearing camoflage !!! LOL

I think poison is the most effective method for getting rid of hogs. Of the stories I've heard about poison being used, it's never been done legally. The results are very impressive.

New Zealand really perfected shooting animals from helicopters. In a few years, they killed a million animals. Everything from red deer to wild hogs.

With the conditions in the video, with wide open spaces, I think that a helicpoter is going to be very effective. Fast, movable and able to flush them out. I bet they got most of the hogs in the area they flew over.

Eddie

 

[The Dougster]

the fellow who leases our land ro graze cattle is a government hunter and he often hunts from choppers... If I'm not mistaken, he uses 00 shot shells... says that it's not unusual to kill as many as 80 hogs in a single hunt.

 

[Uncle Doug]

Do a search on youtube for Jager Pro and watch some of their night vision hog hunts. Now that guy can shoot an moving hog on the run, at night..

In my area we will not ever get rid of the hogs as my place backs up to a couple thousand acres of the Trinity Wildlife Refuge. Its like they know where to run back and hide at.