EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

This here I think will make for a really interesting thread. Who here is for or against catching and releasing, and why?

I know we don't want the day to come when there are no more hogs left to hunt, but with how the current population is, I realistically don't see feral hogs becoming extinct anytime soon.
I'm sure it's a cool feeling to catch a nice big huge barr hog that had been cut and released...BUT...
As hog hunters, isn't one of our main arguments to justify hunting these critters that we are removing destructive invasive nuisances from the land? Now I know a cut boar can't reproduce, however, it can still cause a significant amount of damage to the land in general.

Personally, I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm against it or anything, but I am really interested in hearing others' insights on this subject. Personally, we eat what we catch. Or, if it's young enough, we will pen 'em up either to raise for butcher, or to work young pups.

I look forward to hearing others' perspective on this. I always enjoy hearing points from both sides of the fence.

Ms. La.., Years ago, that was all we did was catch & release. I used to get mad if somebody killed a hog needlessly but now a days, some landowners will not let you hunt their property unless you kill the hogs.
  We still have a lot of areas that we release probably 90% of the hogs we catch. Most people now a days take everything out. I guess it depends on what your circumstances are.

Where I hunt u kill everyone u can. If not u won't hunt it long.


Shotgun
Arkansas

Take what you will eat leave the rest for seed

I usually kill most hogs but if we can't get to the hog our drag it out and it's a big pretty boar Then we cut him and let it go!  Now i make it a habit once a year and per spot to cut one!  I know i don't want to run into a big barred hog every hunt that would keep me from hunting every week while dogs heal So yes there's some pros and cons about cutting them! 

In the areas we hunt the ranchers want the hogs gone , so we remove everything we catch , I would love to release hogs because regardless of what the department of ag says with my dogs we can extinct a place quick and then not have a place that has hogs on it to hunt and I'm talking like 12 miles by 12 miles , been there done it , but if we got caught by per say land owner releasing we would loose giant ranches to hunt and in Oklahoma spots this big are rare so we are on extermination mode , on the other hand on catch and release , I had a friend who caught a boar at a young age and released , he caught again the next yr and released , met the same hog a yr or two later and it cut the tendon in his up and coming bay dogs leg and killed his CD AND THE HOG ESCAPED , the following yr the corn came up and the hogs tracks returned also , my friend new I had Jorge the terminator and called me , I new the story on the boar and said I'm coming , I took a hand and headed his way , he was hurt so he stayed in the buggy and I worked this square mile corn field , we found him in the center backed up to a cage that protected the irrigation motor , he was a bad boy he also new the game , the baddest hog I've seen , he wanted the dogs and me , he worked around three sides of that cage trashing Jorge and Gretchen , they did everything they could to hang on , every time I went for a leg he would charge me , I whipped out my pistol and ran at him and shot him between the eyes and as soon as he fell I put a couple of courtesy shots in there for good measure , it was 911 to the vet , 550 I spent on my CDs , my friend spent a grand the yr before and then he mounted this bad boy in his place of business , this hog cost us 2000 bucks by the time we killed it , so I guess the moral of the story is they learn the game and will sure cost you the bank in the catch and release program at some point

we catch and release alot of hogs we catch and have to kill some hogs because the land owners want them dead its about 50/50 for the places we hunt, i use to hate killing hogs for no reason to me its not much sport in walking up and sticking one with a knife its way more fun to put the hand cuffs on a 300lb boar and even more of a challenge getting them back off and letting him go. i like to run hogs with dogs and every hog i kill is one less hog that i will get to run, i dont barr alot of hogs in the summer usually only in february and dont catch a whole lot of barrs usually about 1 or 2 a year but when i do its usually a stud and thats what i like to catch. we have turned backl loose several dog killers and i know most people would have killed them but if every hog you got on was a 50lb shoat it wouldnt be much fun then. so i guess the pros of turnign them back loose is especially a barr is when you catch them later in life their usually something to take a picture with and they will eat better than a boar, the cons is your dog might get cut or killed but thats just a con of owning a hog dog. just because you catch a sow thats about to have pigs doesnt mean  you have to kill her let her go 9 out of 10 times shes goign to leave the area and two more years you will still have some hogs to run and wont have to sell out because its no hogs on the land you hunt. my motto is " catch and tie not stick and die"

Coming up....the men that "learned me about doggin", lol....they would release every sow and young boar as long as they weren't caught by the curs and tore up beyond healing before we got there. A boar around the 180 + mark, more often than not went to the bay pen (Full Boar Bay Pen, Myrtle Springs Tx). I don't know that they EVER barred one.

If hogs were trapped they went to a piece of land in Mineola.

Hunting Corp land I would kill and leave lay every hog I caught. Looking back..... I should have been catching and releasing those. If I hunt that land anymore...I will.

The private land I have access to it's a must remove situation. I keep my freezer full and the land owners when they want one...and friends as well.

As big as my place is...it can be hunted out....but I don't hunt near as much as I use to so I don't think I have to worry about it much.

This is probably my most one-sided subject I have on hog hunting.  I guess it stems from the way I got started and the areas in which I began to chase hogs.  About 20 years ago a friend of mine just asked me out of the blue on day if I wanted to start hog hunting.  He had never been but had heard some stories of hunts from others around our area and while being a avid coon hunters and cowdog man it intrigued him and so we began our start together.  I can honestly say I had no ideal where to even start looking for a wild hog, I think I had encountered one small group during my entire life in our area, to say they were thin would be and UNDERSTATEMENT!!   I figure by now you can guess how our first several hunts went.  LOL   I'm sharing all this to help explain my strong stance on this topic.   Anyway we finally got hooked up with a couple hog hunters from just outside our area and they eventually started to let us tag along.  We poked and prodded for information about our new sport and all the while we noticed we always caught hogs when we went with these guys because they had real good spots.  Now being the
kinds of guys that wouldn't dare hunt another mans spot we started to think we needed some good spot of our own.  I can only guess you guys all know where this is going so anyway after a few years our hunting spots got better and better and to say we were conservationist would be putting it lightly.  Hogs don't fall out of the sky and they aren't cheap especially for a couple of 20-21 yr old kids starting families and getting involved in a new and very expensive hobby but me and my buddy done what we could.  After a few good years and some hard hunting we noticed some interest in our area from other guys and suddenly there was a few more hog hunters and all the sudden our self-created spots had become others spots and that was not that big of a deal but when we started seeing bought and paid for hogs laying dead in the back of others trucks we started to understand why the guys that helped us get started would NEVER kill a hog and pounded it into our heads.   Nothing like seeing a big sow that you paid 60$ for laying in the back of a truck with a knife wound in her side to drive home the point.  Anyway that was years ago but it has always been my way of approaching hog hunting and I can honestly say I  have killed my fair share of hogs and am not opposed to anyone killing a hog or two every now and then but I have seen the days of riding a horse from daylight til dark and never even seeing an old hog track much less fresh sign.    The truth is we can all kill every hog we bay from now on and the hogs are here to stay but I guess I'm just "old fashion".   Before anyone judges me please ask yourself how many miles you traveled on your first hog hunt before you seen fresh hog sign then think about how them hogs got  there.   I am in no way condemning anyone for killing hogs I only wish to help others to understand why I prefer to NOT kill them.


  That's my version of "we walked uphill both ways in the snow just to get to school and back"!!!       LOL

We use to tie all out hog unless it was jacking the dogs and had the upper hand on us or if the dogs tor it up. We move all the hogs we trap to my buddy's ranch so we will always have a place to hunt if you release down my way you going to have a problem with the land owners most want them out for good

i have hunted with a old man ever since i first started hunting. we use to not take a knife or anything with us if the bulldog caught it you had to catch it no matter what it wasnt a option of taking the easy way out and sticking a knife to it. we tied every hog we caught and back then it was still legal to haul them and relocate or whatever you wanted to do with them. i use to take alot of hogs to places it wasnt many and let go. its not to many farmers over here around my house so a few hogs all they are going to root up is the dirt and in some pine thickets so its no big deal i can understand the farmers wanting them gone but not just the average person, i have some land below my house that has alot of hogs on it that i let go in there they dont tear anything up just eat all the neighbors corn they put out for deer. just because you let a hog go dont mean you have to tell everyone in your town. its ilegal to haul them in bama now and they are passing a new law where they have to be killed on the spot where caught at so i guess ill have to start killing every hog i get my hands on  ;) ;) >:D

I've been hog hunting for over ten years on my own now  and can count on both hands how many hogs I've stuck with a knife, over. 90% of the hogs we catch are released unless we're hunting a spot where they are staring to become a nuisance then we'll bring them out and put them in my 6 acre pen or my buddy's ten acre pen to mess with pups, we don't allow more than 3 dogs at a time in there and if a hogs gets a lil tore up I let it out behind my house where we'll catch it again in a few months, if we catch a boar we'll cut him and put somebody's mark out of our group on him I don't care if he is a dog killer or not it's the just the way I was raised and taught, we keep everybody's freezer full of ground meat sausage and pork chops and NEVER kill what we don't intend to eat

I really don't care for the catch and release aspect, to me this action educates the hog to dogs, creating dog killers. Everyone wants that trophy hog to catch but at what cost. We tie our hogs, or kill if we can't get them out, love those dumb ones

Goose87 you can hunt with me in my spots anytime you want.   Its none of my business what others do in their areas but IMO that's the way it should been done everywhere.  JMO

I HATE killing hogs it's been too hard for me to get spots to hunt to go killin all the hogs. Every other house around here is someone with hog dogs.

Lotta areas in Georgia are running out of hogs because of heavy pressure and night shooters. We release every hog we can except the big boars. The small boars get cut and marked.

There may be places where you can eradicate them by hunting but where I hunt that's not gonna happen. We kill everything or tie it and there is never any less. hogs. The cover is there and so many places you can't hunt that they can run to. All the landowners want them dead so that's what we do. I think I've only seen 2 barrs in 8 yrs of hunting there.

;)

You've got to cut the boars to catch the Barrs, and I could care less to ever catch another sow or shoat unless it's to Barr some boar shoats!

Back then ,early 80s,i was 5 r 6 ,riding on bk of a horse with daddy.with 3 r 4 dogs riding behind us waiting on daddy,tell tell them get a head.nothing went to waste on them hogs,they feed us they feed familys down the road,when we would put meat. In the freezer it take 2 r 3 days.we my kill 6 r 7 at a time.we couldnt kill every hog we bayed.are we wouldnt get to eat.end of month we get together dad,me and my brother,go to the woods catch ten hogs take them to sale,and daddy payed bills,it tgoes bk to we couldnt kill every hog.ive seen men get beat over killing a hog.so were i come from,hogs were like money in bank,if they came out the woods,and got in a field,daddy would know in a day are two.he would pay man for damage,gather them,and drive them bk to the woods.but like over nite things changed,wen the folks stop working the hogs,they exploded and went crazy ,realy hurting the farmer,my dad farmed,i have farmed so i know the damage.present time on all farms we hunt i have to kill all hogs

And some people wonder why we have running hogs! 

Yes indeed ^

Releasing hogs has nothing to do with running hogs.

Are you serious? Do you have any research backing up your statement or is this your opinion?

Pretty sure rough bay busting packs of dogs with about 500 yards of bottom cause most of the runners, but that's just my observations  ;)

So a dog busting a bay educates hogs to run. But , catching and releasing doesn't ?  ???

Yes have seen with my own eyes a bay buster,will and does make hogs run.back in the days iam talking bout runners were slim,when we caught one,we would eat him,are cut him put in pen eat latter,hogs were our stock we took care of them.i dont think we made runners cause we was in the woods working hogs.wat made runners were i come from,is ppl hunting them that went from running deer with walkers,they switched to hog hunting,with open every breath ,and bay busting dogs.some dont understand this way of life,each there own.

use to over here hogs wouldnt hardly run it wasnt no such thing as a 2-8 hour race it was bayed within a few hundred yards but as the woods got logged and clearcuts became more popular and pine thickets the open swamp was done away with and its easy for a dog to stop a hog in the open woods but in a clearcut its alot tougher for a dog to even catch up to a hog. and i think when a hog is bayed and some ruff dogs try to catch and they fool around and let him go hes not hardly going to stop again and let them get another chance at him

   By your own post you penned up the hogs. You didn't cut and release. That is what I referenced in my post. I am not questioning anyone's past time. I could care less what people do but to say catching and releasing doesn't make hogs harder to catch is absurd.

I think there are three factors at play here.

Rough dogs who teach a pig that if you can make it X amount of distance . . you will be left alone.

Catching a pig for any amount of time and even just stressing him (let alone castrating him) and then releasing him . . . shows him that getting away at any cost is better than being caught and tortured.

The hogs most folks are running today are vastly different from the old free range rooters and slightly domesticated hogs that your grandpa worked and penned. The infusion of Eurasian boar genetics causes them to react differently to any combination of the above factors. Modern vs. old style hogs are as different as dogs and wolves. A feral dog that is caught and released will likely be easier to catch next time as long as he isn't handled too poorly. A wolf is going to be way more cautious . . and way more dangerous, afterwards.

I'm not saying cutting boars doesn't educate them to run, but in most areas the Barrs we are re catching don't run nearly as bad as them boar hogs that have torn and ripped up ears that's been healed, which suggests to me he's already had an encounter with some rough dogs that didn't quite do their job well enough.

Ba-iv iam with you on that.good point barlow.

I think there's good points on both sides.... and I really do not feel that there is a 'Right' or 'Wrong' here. I'm pretty much on the page that any hog that's been bayed up by rough dogs before, or bayed/caught then released will likely be a runner from that point on, once they know what a dog is. They aren't stupid, and will likely associate the dogs with that negative experience of being caught/human interaction which they want nothing to do with of course.

Bo Pugh, Ba-iv & Barlow nailed it. All are major factors.

Ive seen this to,in open farm fields,open mouth dog running a hog,every so often hog would stop and listen,and take off 2 r 3 hundred yards stop and do it again,same place silent mouth dogs running hog he stops and listen dont hear nothing kinda stays in fast walk ,dogs catch up to him,bayed hog.i dont wont a race i wont a bay.

I find it the complete opposite. The places that are hunted hard and everything killed the hogs run and run and run.

Yet I have spots that have been dog hunted hundred and hundred of years. All cut mark and release. And in those spots you can actually bay up a rally as long as you aint hunting alligators. If you bay up a group and dont catch the sows and only catch the boar shoats to cut and make barrs. They will not run as bad!

Get faster open mouthed dogs  ;D

And if you already have runners real bad why not Barr a few hogs and at least it would be rewarding when you do catch one of them. It's usually always better to catch a badass bar hog than a average boar. And usually a good Barr is more picture worthy than a boar.

I just enjoy the over all experience of being out with my dogs and watching them work. We kill what we catch and our family eats the meat. We primarily hunt to put food on our table. I guess I'm in the minority but while I'd be tickled to catch a huge brag worthy hog with my dogs, I'm just as happy when they bay up/catch a hundred pounder. I'm still smiling even when we have a dry run. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

my opinion is that yes hogs get educated...but the biggest thing that I see having changed is that the hogs tend to be more of the Russian type and that to me has to do with culling...we catch the hogs that want to stop and fight and those that look more like barn yard hogs...the Russian type are fierce fighters but they would rather run than fight...and those that are smart enough will run and those that have the most stamina will live to breed another day...and if the pack of dogs are better then the culling factor is keener...Do I have proof...yes but not enough data to say for sure...but over the years I have seen the change in the hogs...We kill every hog we catch and the hogs are as thick as ever...it is expected every where we hunt...

I remember back in the 1960's there were ads in the back of Field and Stream and The Outdoor Life magazines about selling wild hogs to release onto the deer leases because it would be a bonus for the deer hunters to shoot them...used to not be any around my area where I grew up at and that place is over ran with them...have been for many years...

Educated hogs run. Hogs that learn they can whip dogs fight. My question is why is it when a topic like this comes up everyone says stuff about rough dogs not running 500 yards. Why is it assumed a rough dog has no bottom. I have seen loose dogs that wouldn't stay either. Don't they teach the hog to run because if he goes far enough they will quit.


Shotgun
Arkansas

I am just kinda reading every other post or so, but are some of you guys saying your dogs get out run by hogs in wide open fields?

Ain't no wide open fields here in loozyana I can tell ya that much lol.
I wish we had some wide open fields though. My bad back and my dogs sure would appreciate it.

Open fields would be nice but I'm not that lucky!  I could argue this point about the running hogs but Its just going to be a waste of may time! 

I didn't mean rough dogs as opposed to loose baying dogs or that rough dogs have no bottom.

I was trying to suggest the combination of being too bitey or breaking the bay and then not following through. That would be the least desirable combination . . in my opinion . . and also a very common result of bulldog crosses which many hunters prefer. Doesn't make them wrong . . just not my preference.

Ideally . . I don't want dogs that are too rough at the wrong time, or too loose. A dog with some inherent or bred-in stock sense should be able to hold a high percentage of hogs until the man with the knife or mule tape shows up. After a long time trying to maintain the roughest bear dogs possible I had my eyes opened by hunting hogs with stock oriented curs. I've come to believe there is a fine line. If the dog is applying the right amount of pressure the hog should be paying more attention to him than my approach. But any time a dog isn't able to hold the hog or hogs at bay . . I expect him to go the distance. If I get tired of hunting I'll try and catch him off. But I want to be the one that chooses when the race is over. If I run out of places to hunt I'll go somewhere else before I start breeding inferior dogs. It's still a big country.

Of course things seldom work out exactly like I want them to.

 As nature evolves, Animals evolve and adapts there self to the environment for survival!  This is true facts!  Hogs are not going to stay around to get ate up they Adapt!!! 

even bears bay up for the right dog or dogs . . and they have ZERO domestic history. but you're right . . it isn't getting bit that holds em. it's the threat of getting bit.

x3

I know we live in different worlds....But to me this is the best there is. 10 month old pups and worked hogs. Some of these hogs are barrs already, some were made barrs later. This place has been working hogs since before the civil war.

*WARNING* Please excuse there is one naughty word in the video. Someone got a little exicited!

(http://s2.photobucket.com/user/cajun2/media/puppyhogs_zps92b5c397.mp4.html)

(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y3/cajun2/pupshog3_zps5757d8ce.jpg)

(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y3/cajun2/pupshog2_zps18de9401.jpg)

The hogs were left to walk away that day. I have bayed up countless rally's most at night. Some of 3-4 hogs the most I have ever seen in one rally was 35. From 250#s down to 25#. Most with dogs that yip on track. Most of the places I kill MAYBE 3 hogs a year off them. And that is fat barr hogs.

To me dog work is the #1 thing I go to the woods for....If I had to a knife through every 60# sow, I would really give it up and do something else.

Video again


(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y3/cajun2/th_puppyhogs_zps92b5c397.jpg) (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y3/cajun2/puppyhogs_zps92b5c397.mp4)

Plenty open fields were i live in louisiana.

What part is that? Yank-ville? ;-p

Let me just go out of my way to elaborate on this comment here I made above (I apparently offended at least one individual)....I was JOKING.....hence the ;-p face. I know that open fields do exist in the great state of LA, just not in the particular areas we hunt.

Gods country of LA has fields. The rest just has skeeters and gators.


Shotgun
Arkansas

Southeast, right on the la/ms line

its not much to catching a hog that dont run further than 100yards anyway, even if its 300lbs or 40lbs it takes little dog work to accomplish that with whatever kind of dogs it would be like riding around fields turnign bulldog loose off the truck and catching hogs and running up there ande sticking it, im into the hunting cause i like dogs with lots of bottom whether they be currs hounds rough or loose, if they cant trail it and run it and stick with it for a few hours i dont want to catch it. if i knew what would make hogs run further i would do that everytime i went to the woods. some people are happy catching a little hog real quick and sticking it with a knife but if thats all i was going to do i would go sit over a corn pile and shoot one with a gun or something.

x what ever it is now LOL. Your lucky to get out alive if its found out you turn a hog loose on purpose. KILL THEM ALL lmao

One of the farms I hunt another guy hunts also. He had 6 hogs tied laying on the trailer in front of the shop. The rule is simple nothing comes out alive. Well the farmer pulled up and saw the pigs. The guy was still running and not around. Well the farmer looked at them about 2 seconds and pulled a 17 out of the truck and shot all 6 laying on the trailer. When the guy came out he asked the farmer why he did it. The farmer said u know the rule and if u don't put a knife in the one on ur wheeler now I'm gonna shoot him to.

Yep he is kinda seriouse.


Shotgun
Arkansas

Could have not said it any better than that!  I can't can't count the times I've just walked in and broke a bay just to get some dog work, has nothing to do with just catching a hog for me.

AMEN!!!!

I understand the sentiment, but that farmer just wasted several hundred, possibly up to 600 dollars for that fella what caught all those hogs. id have sure enough had words with somebody who took 600 bucks out of my pocket! Sounds like hes got a talented hunter with talented dogs to have had 7 hogs tied and he should have been thankful. id be awful tempted to tell him hes more than welcomed to see how many other hawg Dawggers around are catching 7-10 hogs per trip? Sorry to be that way, but money is money

There is no open market in AR for hogs. We do not have buying stations. It is also explained to anyone who runs this farm that nothing leaves alive.


Shotgun
Arkansas

Do you guys take these land owners hunting with you when you go?  I hunted some corn fields for a farmer several years ago and I've never seen some many hogs in one place in my life.  His rule was "kill every hog you bay".   Lol "OK SURE!!!"   

They go with us sometimes sometimes not. To me if the landowner says kill them all I will. If I'm not willing to do so I would not hunt the place. My word is worth something to me. With myself having been in the farmers shoes I understand his stance completely.


Shotgun
Arkansas

I agree.

Way I see it is....on thie subject of when someone gives you permission to hunt THEIR land, and you accept, one should be a man/woman of their word and do exactly as the land owner wishes with the hogs you harvest, be it bring them out alive or dead. If I don't like what the land owner's wishes are, I won't drop my dogs there. I see it a piveledge to be given permission to work my dogs on someone elses land. I don't see how this subject is even up for discussion.

We catch and hobble or kill all the hogs we catch.  The local farmers and ranchers wouldn't like the fact that you're letting hogs go that were caught. You wouldn't have a good Mabee very long. 

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I may be a little behind but as afar as previously caught hogs running harder is concerned, I believe that is more the exception than the rule.
I've been to a bay with roughly twenty hogs, and 3/4 of those hogs wearing a mark. We tied three in a short manner and went to the house letting the rest walk. According to the given idea of how that works none of those hogs would have bayed, much less let 3 out if the pack within 100 yards of the original bay.
How hogs act on a property is dependent on the dogs and people hunting them.

And on another note just how much Russian are people under the influence there is in hogs? I wouldn't think there would be anything near what it is portrayed to be.
But that's just my .02 for what it matters

   I say kill them all  !!!!  lol  if you could see what those 4 little half pot bellied half feral pigs that don't weigh 5 pounds apiece did to this 3 acres in a couple of weeks you'd understand  lol  . been mowing today with my walk behind mower and it was a b. I. t. c. h. !!!!!!!!!!   >:D

On all the farms we hunt. And some farms ive hunted ten yrs,we have to kill all hogs.like i tell them when u bay ten up,u my not kill all ten.we dont use cd much on farms,just the ole 35. When we get new spots the land owner my go one time.but for us to get payed i have to bring heads out.now in the river bottoms,and on our lesse we do things alot diff,but there is no farms .

Ok I'm just a sorry out-fit that lies to landowners and turns out hogs!   Ask them landowners to deer or turkey hunt then get on here and tell who is scratching who's back.  I'll tie and remove any hog they want me to but I will NEVER take any part in an aradication project.   They can call the heli-hunters for that.   Big thread on how sorry them guys are but If someone was to bay and kill 30 head tomorrow they'd blow this site up with pics and we'd all be In line to tell them "good job, great dog work".  I respect the landowners that allow me access but I respect the hogs I hunt just as much.  IMO hogs are no more than a number to brag about to some hog hunters.

Sorry If my strong stance on this topic has offened anyone.

Nobody called u sorry. If u choose not to hunt a place that requires all hogs caught killed that's up to you. As I said I have been in the farmers shoes. I understand his stance. I have lost thousands upon thousands of dollars to hog damage in my crops. It was our stance as well. If it's dead when it leaves we know it won't cause any damage anywhere. I never liked killing a marked hog on the farm cause he meant someone allowed it to continue to cost me money. If I hunt with someone on their place where it's accepted to turn em loose and that person wants to I comply


Shotgun
Arkansas

Not sure on what makes them a runner or not, but we have never minded a running hog. We hunt hounds, catahoulas, and catahoula hound crosses and if we get on a running hog we just try to head it off like a coyote race. Pretty fun hunting that way, but the hounds will stay on it long enough most of the time they catch up to them and bay them.

Our hogs looks favor that of Russian hogs. We kill all we catch or get in front of. We don't seem to have a shortage of them because of it.

I know this is an old thread but I find everyone's opinion interesting and understandable. So I'll give my 2 cents lol well I'll start off by saying when I was younger, if we caught a hog, it was coming out of the woods and going to a buyer. Hardly ever barred one unless we were in a tight spot. Nowadays, I'm older and have a good job and don't necessarily need the extra money from hogs so cuttin hogs is more the thing. I've barred more hogs this year then I have since I've started hunting. Now with that being said, I'm beginning to realize that just like deer, hogs need to be managed too. So this is where I begin to disagree with some folks, although I do understand some areas are less populated with hogs and killing is not needed, but as I was saying, there are certain hogs that need killing if you are wanting a particular area to have BIG hogs when you go hunt. For instance if I catch a big sow and don't need the meat I'll mark her ear bob her tail and cut her loose but if I catch a raw boney sow that looks horrible I'm gonna kill her and if we get amongst a pile of pigs I'll kill them as well, unless there are a few that have good color. And like I said earlier, just about every boar we catch now is getting cut, marked, and released. I'd say 90%.
I like this thread, and everyone's point of view. Thought I would keep it going.


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If you can release do it.

You can sure kill them out last yr my phone rang off the hook from farmersand seem like we couldn't catch enough I didn't kill many but caught lots after this yr flooding in march and April heard of all kinds of ppl shooting them like fish in a bucket off leaves and boating through the woods finding ridges and killing all they caught well this yr I have yet to have a farmer call me to hunt that what happens when ppl kill all they catch when most couldn't have caught them in a real hunting situation we haven't ever really had a big number of hogs but we had enough to get farmers stirred up and want to hunt there places

Pretty simple subject to me.

If you are on land that you can cut and release hogs on why not do it if you don't need the meat? All you are doing is making big trophy meat hogs for years to come.....

If you are on land that you are required to kill or remove everything you catch then that is pretty simple......... kill or remove everything you catch......

Im not seeing the confusion with this......


As far as pros and cons of releasing hogs go I cannot really think of any cons.......the whole "releasing hogs makes running hogs" notion is nonsense in my opinion. Regardless of if a hog has been caught previously or not, if a hog wants to run he is going to do everything in his power to run and thats just how it is, put the best combination of dogs you have on his tail and run his ass til he gives out......... I wont go farther into that as it is not the topic of conversation.

 As far as Pros go I can think of quite a few but the top 3 in my opinion are as follows

1) barr hogs are the best tasting critters in the woods bar none.
2) Trophy hogs........... would you rather catch a 220lb boar or a 350+ lb barr?
3) Healthy and managed hog population, if you don't kill em all you will always have a spot to catch a couple. 4) 

Like BA_IV post over two years ago .................... you can't catch Barrs unless you cut boars


Now if you are in it purely for the sport and don't care about managing a hog population or eating many hogs or if you are in a position where you are not able to catch and release due to landowner wishes or any other factors then none of what I said really applies to you and by all means kill em all.........I wont knock you for it! However if you have a mindset like myself and my hunting buddies then you will understand where I am coming from and why we catch and release every chance we get.

I agree 100% with what Justin said

Yep pretty cut and dry .

What gets me the most is these guys that kill everything they can get there hands on after a few years they start doing everything they can to get in your spot because they know what you do. Omg where is the respect from hounds man to hounds man   I grew up running coyote and deer  hounds there were placed we didn't go because that's were ole joe hunted!! A lot of guys these days aren't hounds man anyway.


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