Catch & Release: Pros and Cons

[MrsLouisianaHogDog]

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.

[Cajun]

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.

[Shotgun wg]

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


Shotgun
Arkansas

[Curcross1987]

Take what you will eat leave the rest for seed

[Muddogkennels]

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! 

[bob]

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

[Bo Pugh]

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"

[KevinN]

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.

[oconee]

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

[Judge peel]

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

[Bo Pugh]

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 

[Goose87]

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

[ChanceandAnita]

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

[oconee]

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

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

[J. Tallina]

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.

[buddylee]

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.

[WayOutWest]

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.

[warrent423]

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

[BA-IV]

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!

[colecross]

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