Wild hogs in Kentucky

[LostInTheWoods]

Also, look for beds in thicket...

I've seen what looks like where animals have bedded around our place a number of times, but I have always assumed is was deer.

 

[BandRRanch]

These critters are only shy in the respect they know man is a danger to them like any hunted animal. They are extremely dangerous in any setting where they are protecting their young, boxed in, in any way, or wounded. I have hunted these pigs on a number of occasions and the outfitters I went with a few times told horror stories. One outfitter, who was a good 6'5 and 250lbs solid, showed me scars that ran the length of his leg to his arm pit where one had flipped him in the air with its tusks like a rag doll. If you wound one, do not go in after it alone like you would deer or elk. I was on a hunt one year and was reading a paper the night before the first day out and there was a advertisement to come be a "real man" and hunt pigs with a knife... after seeing that outfitters scars, I said...nah..

 

[firemanpat2910]

I agree with all the above. set traps,kill on sight. They will take over your land and run off other game. LOL and if you shoot one in a trap with a 9mm pistol, have on good running and climbing shoes. she WILL come after you

 

[LostInTheWoods]

... LOL and if you shoot one in a trap with a 9mm pistol, have on good running and climbing shoes. she WILL come after you

:laughing: I guess there's no reason to ask how you know.

 

[BandRRanch]

True story. We were up in King City one year hunting wild boar and these are of the Russian wild boar mix. Huge. The outfitter had dogs and they got a boar up into tree line. One of my buddies wanted to shoot it with his .44mag. Shot that sucker in the head from 3 feet and it looked at him like, is that all you got? We just looked at each other like...oly chit...

 

[Redbug]

I would not be surprised if you are having some move in. They are thick as thieves down here and we hunt/trap them all year long.

Here's an interesting 3 part video on them put together by Mississippi State...(I particularly liked parts 2 and 3 the best)...
YouTube - Part 1, A Pickup Load of Pigs: The Feral Swine Pandemic - Natural History

YouTube - Part 2, A Pickup Load of Pigs: The Feral Swine Pandemic - Damage

YouTube - Part 3, A Pickup Load of Pigs: The Feral Swine Pandemic - Control

 

[LostInTheWoods]

Interesting links, Redbug. Methinks I'll not mess with eating any I might find after watching video #2. :laughing:

I hope my wife was wrong about what she saw, but I'm not sure what else fits the description. There aren't any hog farms around us that I know of, and her parents actually raised pigs when she was growing up. So she's not especially likely to confuse domestic with wild, I'd think.

 

[whistlepig]

They are becoming common in south west Ohio. I talked to a local that hunts them there. He took me to a hog wallow that he baits and hunts. The sign was pretty obvious. Hogs had excavated the ground and, as has been said, all the trees in this area have mud and hair on them about three feet up where the hogs have rubbed them. Also the trees have deep gouges where the hogs have bit in to them. He said to shoot and wound one at dusk is a very bad idea. He said they will wait for you in the dark. He also said they can run as fast as any deer.

 

[CurlyDave]

....was reading a paper the night before the first day out and there was a advertisement to come be a "real man" and hunt pigs with a knife...

I have killed 6 with a knife, 2 more I shot because conditions weren't exactly right to use the knife. I have only been bitten once, and just on the hand -- not serious.

I gave up pig stabbing at age 45, it is a young man's activity. Dogs and an experienced guide are vital.

 

[nolefan]

We have them up here in Western NC. I saw one when we were up last summer at some corn I had put out up above the house and then flushed out another when I was bushhogging. I know the adjacent landowner has had boys on his place hunting them along with the coyotes. A couple of weeks ago we were up for a week and found that they had came through the electric fence we have around the yard and had tore up the yard since we were up back in December. Of course I had just about taken care of the damage the horses had done a year ago this past winter when they got in after a heavy snow storm covered the fence. Needless to say I am currently looking into a rifle purchase to add to my handgun collection
The photo is looking down from the porch upon the side yard.