After hearing the stories from several friends that hunted Florida last year... I can honestly say I don't think I will EVER turn one of my dogs out on a Florida hog. We have some unsavory characters in Texas, but I have never heard of so much BS involving hog dogging as I have heard about that Florida trip. Dumping dogs, claiming hogs, etc. Just not worth it for me.
The saddest part about that is I doubt it was exagerated at all. It is basically all we know on public lands in Florida. I have yet to accept it though. I am quick to share my feelings on it in the timber.
CBK,
I think one of the differences that was mentioned is the number of permits given per acre of land. I don;t recall the exact numbers, but lets say it was 100 hunters on 30,000 acres, all hitting the same block of woods in the short hunting period.
Whereas when we were able to hunt the national forest, you may have a 100 or more hunters, but it was on 160,000 acres, and the "season" was about 4 times as long.
I suspect that the hunters and their lack of ethics are similar, it's just that the population density of public land hunting is more dense in Florida.
You take some/ possibly most of the national forest hunters here in Texas, and give them a week or two to hunt 30k acres, you would be reading about how sorry the Texas hunters are about dumping hogs, and claiming hogs...
It's no wonder why the general populous has a poor attitude toward hog doggers.
