Hog Conservationist or Hog Killer?

Mainly conservationist. I prefer to cut the boars and turn them loose and never kill a sow. I cut boars for years on the ranch I lived on and we had some great Barr hogs. Never killed a sow the whole time I was on the ranch (7 years) as if you wanted a hog, you could go catch a Barr.

With some of the public land hunts they require you to kill the hogs. If they catch you turning one loose, you won't get a permit to hunt that place again (or any other water management land). So I mainly kill the hogs on those hunts. But every now and then, when you are way off a road, one may accidently slip loose......

I keep hearing about the "overpopulation" of hogs. Places I hunt there are fewer and fewer hogs every year. Too many people killing everything they can, whether its with dogs, traps or shooting. I wish I could find a place to hunt here in Fla that actually had a good hog population. The guy I used to hunt with the most, has a couple leases. He and I used to hunt together a lot. He rarely killed a hog and got in trouble at his old lease because he got mad at the deer hunters for killing all the hogs. But he has bought into the "non native invasive species " crap. Now he traps, snares and shoots hogs 365 days a year. Now these are woods leases no crops at all. It just makes me mad as I have young dogs to train and he kills everything he can, then wants me to bring my young dogs out and try to catch the big nasty boar hogs he can't catch. I am the one that pays the vet bills and gets wrecked dogs as thats all that is left on the place. Bad boar hogs and young inexperienced dogs are not a good combination......

I also have another gripe along the same lines. I trap hogs in places I can't run dogs and try and find homes for them...alive. I buy the corn...spend my time and money checking traps, wrestling live hogs out of traps, putting them in my dog box (by myself most of the time) and give them to guys that have hunting leases and want the hogs.

One year I gave a guy over 70 LIVE hogs to turn loose at his club. We hunted together and I took him to my places and on several public land hunts. He even got some pups from me. But he NEVER, not one time EVER invited me to hunt HIS club....the one that he turned all the hogs loose on. Even though we hunted together for 3-4 years. So needless to say that got old k....

Then I have another guy that I have hunted with. Nice guy, I like him as we get along, rag on each other's dogs etc. But again, I have known this guy for several years, have given him over 30 live hogs for his lease and in the 2-3 years I have hunted with him I have been invited to hunt his lease ONE time and that was dead of summer and the whole hunt might have lasted an hour. Even though I have taken him to my club, put him up at my house on public land hunts, etc.

What gets old is when these guys text you pics of hogs they caught over the weekend, at their leases, AFTER they went hunting. But you never get an invite BEFORE they go hunting......ever, even though you are the one that helped stock their leases.

So I guess I need new hunting places (with lots of hogs) and a couple new hunting buddies!