2017 - Alabama Hog Control

A little late in starting the thread this year. It has been crazy already. Going to try and post more stories and pictures this year and less of simply a body count. Of course, I will keep that running as well.

What a great year for trapping already. Clients are knocking out some big numbers already. Had catches this weekend of 16, 19 and 19 that I am aware of. Had several more catches that haven't reported in yet with the totals.

The thermal hunts are smoking already as well. Have killed 19 of a single field that had peanuts planted on it last year.

We killed out largest sow to date this weekend. A smoking huge 325 lbs. Will try to get a bunch of pics posted tonight.

I do plan on doing a hunt or two from drawings on here again this year, but I am booked up until June already. Will have to wait until summer time and things slow down on the bookings a little before I can take some of you folks!

Our total since Jan 1 to date is 123.

I look forward to the pics. normally I cant keep my mind off of deer hunting year around but now pigs are on my brain.

175 total to date.

Things have been slower this spring so far. I don't get to hunt many of my properties during turkey season for obvious reasons. All hell is going to break loose come May 1st.

I must admit I am surprised by the lack of pigs we are seeing on some properties. I love it when farmers call and tell me they have just planted X number of acres of corn and they don't have any damage. Sucks for my numbers but it is great for the farmers.

What a long weekend. Caught in 3 different traps (49 total) and shot 6 with the thermals.

After the good weekend last weekend we have jumped to 232 for the year. That is 113 shooting and 119 trapping.

I need to get a good update on my trapping clients. They should be well over 1,000 by now.

Nothing against all my buddies that enjoy chasing the gobble bird but I am dang glad the season is over. I can get back to some hog killing now.

Killed 16 on thermal hunts this weekend and caught 2 sows in a trap. Things are going to get bloody now!

Had a good weekend finally. Killed 18 on night hunts and 11 on day hunts.

Finally hit 300 for the year. Dang full moon really had the sows and little pigs shut down this weekend. All kills were boars.

Yep, we killed 4 boars late last week too.

Sometimes being successful creates problems as well. LOL

We are in our 5th year now and several of our properties have played out. This is great for the landowners and that is exactly what we set out to accomplish. But, the side effect is hard on the pig kill numbers.

Places we used to kill 10-15 a night are now 0-2 locations now. We still work them regularly just to keep the new comers at bay. But, that sure does make for a lot more traveling around all night hitting lots of locations. It is not uncommon at all for me to work parts of Lowndes, Dallas, and Wilcox counties in a single night now.

As such, I am always looking for new properties to work. It is funny when I hear folks are looking for a place to shoot a pig. I always tell them I am as well. LOL

The hogs on our farm show up one day and there will be sign everywhere. We hit them hard for a few days and they dissappear for a couple weeks and it starts all over again.

Hog sign in the dry months appears with the rain. They are normally still there. They just don't leave as many tracks on hard dry ground. As soon as it rains, they leave sign everywhere.

Keep it up Barry. You'll get them. Your doing good so far

Had a good night. Caught 16 in a trap at the club and shot 4 more while we were in the county! 320 now

Was looking back over my spreadsheet and realized that I have caught 216 pigs in a single Jager Pro MINE trap over 3 locations on our club in Wilcox County. That trap has dang sure paid for itself.

First set in Sept of 2015. First catch 9-13-2015.

White Oak location 3 catches for 27 pigs.
Pig Plot location 19 catches for 128 pigs.
Little Bit location 5 catches for 61 pigs.
21 months 27 catches for 216 pigs.

You can dang sure spend more or less money on a hog trap but you can't buy a better one!

Nice. We killed two pigs yesterday in Coy. Wish I had known you were around so I could have hindered you.

What would you say the average size is of all the ones you've killed?

The average size of the ones killed while hunting is probably around 90 lbs. I would guess less than that on the ones caught in the trap. Catch lots of little pigs with sows in the traps.

Caught 5 out in a cotton field last night. The wind allowed me to sneak to within 30 yards and it allowed me to get between them and the woods. I was by myself. The score ended 5-0. I won! LOL

The field had been flooded bad and the visibility was great.

334 for the year now.

Finally broke 400 for the year. Killed 3 mature boars in a peanut field in Dallas County last night. The ole moon was bright and the boars were the only pigs out.

402 total now.

Cool!

Random question - in the regions you habitually trap, can you tell over time that the population is taking a hit, or does it seem like they multiply so fast that there's no noticeable difference?

It does make a difference if the landowners stay after them. It takes a real effort and it depends on how big the place is and how much equipment is used.

My club as an example. We have 3 traps on it (not near enough) but we have trapped/shot almost 400 hogs off of it over the past 2.5 years. We are still catching pigs but we are not catching the big sounders like we did in the locations to start with. When I do find a big sounder, we move a trap in there.

I have farmers that trap and allow us to do thermal work on the place. That combo really seems to work much better. They don't have near the crop damage as before.

I have some landowners that only trap outside of deer and then turkey season. They are simply trying to keep the numbers in check. A good year round attack is best.

10-4 makes sense

End of Sept update. We have had another record year on the thermal shooting in 2017 and our best ever month this past Sept.

Our total for the year is now 613 with 413 being shot on our thermal hunts. We killed 120 in Sept alone. Combination of cut corn fields and lots of effort made for a great month. Of course adding ole SwampHunter on as a guide dang sure helped as well! LOL

Our overall figures are down for the year though. Our trapping clients have learned it is cheaper to buy the equipment so I don't have as much in the trapping total as in years past.

But, we will still be trapping on some places so those numbers will improve over the winter.

Oct 10 update.

647 total.

660 now

We broke 700 this weekend, 722 total. Dang it was a rough year in a way. Sept and Oct (140 and 108) have been on fire though. Both months were way over avg. Our thermal numbers are well over all priors years. We just didn't have many trapping contracts this year. Trapping clients are simply buying them and running them themselves. Which is fine, it just cuts into the total some.

Hunting 514
Trapping 208

Of course the trapping will take off in Dec. I guess it is still possible that we will break last years total of 800 but I am doubting it.

Anyway, it has been another great year with lots of happy clients and landowners!

Updated after 10/30.

781 total now. Been doing some good catching lately. Caught last night. The first night catch in 6 catches. Was crazy catching all those day walkers.

Finally got on pace to break last years total. Need 20 more.

Good job Barry. Im sure youll make it with over a month left!

Boy that didn't take long. We caught 15 and shot 6 more deer hunting. That put us over the top!

Total now is 802!

Day hunting 50
Night hunting 482
Trapping 270

We were under lasts years kill totals every month except Feb this year until August. Then it kicked in like crazy. Farmers cutting corn really helped! We were up 7 in August, 58 in September, 61 in October, and 64 in November.

Going to really work on getting more trapping contracts next year since I will have a great deal more time. With the good Lord's grace, I should break 1,000 easy.

806 now

Home till the 22nd, call me if you need to get rid of some pigs!
I'm about 2 hours away, and available 24/7.

812 now

Good luck Barry! Heres to hoping you break 1000

That's a lot of dead pigs.

I feel very confident that we will next year.

Thanks for the kind comments guys!

Getting close to the end of the year.

The total is 825 now.

Did you count all the ones you got for me? 55

Nope, I only counted the 3 I shot outside the trap. I don't count client catches in my totals. I do try to keep up with how many my clients are catching. So, thanks for the total.

Well 2017 is over now. We had another great year.

Some final stats.

Kill total of 826.

Mature Boars - 263
Mature Sows - 246
Young boars - 136
Gilts - 181

Female vs. Male - Females win again +28

This was the 2nd year out of 5 that we killed more mature boars than mature sows. We hit a streak in July where we killed 17 mature boars in a row. Just crazy, couldn't find a sounder anywhere for about 2 weeks. But, the old boys were out tearing things up everywhere.

Thanks to everyone that enjoys following AHC!