Wild Hogs along the road.

[jayste]

Eddie,

Great pics. I really like the one of the kids in the foreground and hogs on the feeder in the back ground! Hahaha! That's some serious hog "slayin'" going on there! I'm by no means an authority on hogs but by the sound of things your deer population my be directly affected by the porkers. Seems the deer are lean enough without the hogs being factored in as well. Sometimes I think these critters are worst than rabbits when it comes to "natural increase" in population. Good luck with keeping them under control.

As far as that "Annie Oakley, gun totin' wife", you might consider some business cards with "have gun, will travel" on them!

 

[bullbreaker]

Eddie thanks for stories and pictures.Been enjoying TBN posts for years from you and fellow MEMBERS!Just became official member and started giving 2 cents worth.Many hogs around our parts,they dont seem as big as ones I Have Seen In Texas.Largest one Ive got up to date 545LBS.BOAR near central FLA.,8 yard bow kill.

EZEKIEL 20:19

 

[JoeinTX]

Yes, the wild hog problem has been a big one here for a long time. I've been really heavily hunting them for about the last 6 months or so and have netted a good number of them. And, as one poster above noted, they can make some of the best barbecue you have ever had.....great taste to them.


When vehicles hit these pigs on the highway the pig's body has a tendancy to try to go under the vehicle (causing serious accidents where cars lose control and sometimes roll over) rather than, say, deer which will bounce back or up when hit.

Dangerous these things are on the highway......

 

[two_bit_score]

We've been known to harvest a few of them ourselves. My wife never hunted or even shot a gun before we met. What I find funny about that is her dad is a police chief, he hunts, her brother hunts, her uncle and a bunch of cousins all hunt, but no girls. I taught her how to shoot. We started out with a Ruger 10/22 at first, which she became VERY good at. I shot expert in the Marine Corps, I've hunted around the world and consider myself to be a good shot. She's allot better then I am.

Her first hog came after talking to me in the shop after work and then seeing them come out to the feeder. She had never shot anything bigger then a .22, so she wasn't afraid of a bigger caliber. That was my plan from the beginning. Teach her to shoot, and then just give her the 30-06 for her first kill. It worked out great. She dropped that hog with one shot and never felt the recoil.

She's killed five hogs now, and has become picky on what she shoots. She likes to shoot the big boars. We've sat and watched family groups feed and even crawled up on them to withing bow range, but just watched and waited for a big boar to show up.

She's also killed one coyote. But so far, she hasn't taken a deer. We don't have very many deer on our land and it's very rare to see them here. I don't really understand it, but the state biologist that I've spoken to say that there is about one deer per 40 acres in our area. We have 68 acres, so that's sort of the problem there.

I've shot quite a few hogs and don't have any idea of how many. It's now just something that I do every now and then if we want one to eat, or it's a problem animal that's eating our bird seed in the front yard. This has happened a few times and I shot one saw 25 feet from our front door!!!

Eddie

I've heard that hogs can decimate a deer population.

 

[SkyPup]

My SIG 556 has been decimating the feral hog population here on our farm, nailed 27 since the beginning of the year!

Enjoyed your story very much Eddie.

 

[jayste]

Skypup, nice hog and nice firearm! I assume it's chambered for .223? I'm not familiar with the gun but assumed by the model 556. Where do you aim for with that caliber. I know shot placement is important on hogs. Most of mine have been with a bow. I'm not against taking one with a gun just haven't had the opportunity. What part of central Florida are you. I used to live in Orange Park area for a year. I guess these hogs are everywhere aren't they. Looks like you folks have got more that your share of them.

 

[aaron9161]

Hey, aaron9161, what part of Jacksonville are you? I used to have folks that lived in Mandarin and we lived for a while in Orange Park. We used to see deer all over that city. They seemed a little small but deer non the less.

I live out near Maxville, near 301 on the Westside. We get deer, turkey, hogs ... in the backyard. I put out corn to attract the deer but since all of the timber land around here was donated to the state as part of Jennings State Forest and they do not hunt the land anymore, the hogs are taking over. There are a lot of oak tree near where I live so the hogs come around in the fall for the acorns.