Nothing shocking that we didn't already assume but it quantifies what we already believed.
Numbers just about shocking. Less hogs means more turkeys. Chances that Chuckles and crew acknowledge it or do anything, i estimate to be 0%

Put a bounty on them like Louisiana did on nutria. That would help more people be interested in getting them killed.

Been saying that it is a much bigger factor than anyone is willing to acknowledge for years. Decline in turkeys on the properties I hunt corresponds with the explosion in hog numbers.

Unfortunately....Ala. Game and Fish is all about taking $$$$ IN......but Hell to th' Naw-Naw on forking any back to a Hog Hunter!!

I have seen the same thing at our lease in Forest Home.

Shot them leave them laying buzzard got get

Here's a link.

https://deerassociation.com/to-hear...medium=email&utm_campaign=08-25-2022

Glad to see it. But man we are wasting a lot of time and money in replace of common sense.

DGT studies included.

I don't agree , who hunt the land needs to take care of their own problem . Don't let coyotes and hog walk and bitch about them being there

Oh I agree with that as well, but I do know a bunch of folks who dont wanna shoot them because they dont feel like messing with them or having to move them from their hunting spot. A bounty may give them a little more incentive. I for one kill every pig or coyote I see. Opossums, bobcats and coons dont get many free passes either.

Deer don't care about dead stuff being around . I used to hunt coyotes around dead cows seen deer all the time

I killed 10 hogs today matter of fact

Oh hell , there goes your snake population .

Nah I done got them thinned out too, but then again I am anti hunting so I will probably slack up on em all soon.

Lol

Thanks for the link; that was an interesting read.

There are no hogs on any of the 3 tracts that I hunt, and maybe that's part of the reason I've seen no decline in turkey numbers. I have heard from several friends in Wilcox county that the turkey numbers on their places are down, and all of those places are infested with hogs.

If You are in ANY of th' Blackbelt Counties.....There are Hogs Near!! Lot of Swamp Bottoms.....they have to have a mud-hole to wallow in and keep Cool during the Summer.....they Don't Sweat....... And they are Damn' sure Nomads in regards to food and mud holes!!

Deer get the same treatment around the ag crops

Yeap, years back I drug a many out of the fields

Been saying this for years. AL A&M did a study on stomach contents of wild hogs in the month of June while I was on Black Warrior WMA, and it was shocking how many had turkey poult embryos in them. I declared war on the hog at BWWMA with blessings from the admin at that point.

Does the state still have restrictions on killing hogs? I've said it before , when Alabama gets as serious about protecting turkeys as South Dakota is about protecting Pheasants we'll make some progress. In SD anything that isn't protected by the Feds is fair game day and night. Chuckie and Co just wanta talk a big game.

Chuckie and Co want your dollars. Can’t have you going out and recreating without them getting their cut.

Look , by now every body should know a hog will eat ANY thing .

Hell, they are cannibals

Like a coyote you see one, kill it leave it laying there if you don't want it

Common sense isn't always true. It can be wrong. There's good research to show that shooting individual hogs makes them more wary and harder to trap. The goal is to get the whole sounder at once. Common sense would say "shoot a hog if you see one".

And hog hunting also incentivizes people to move hogs around because people secretly love hunting hogs and they want more of them.

Some midwestern states have outlawed hog hunting to remove the incentive to bring them there. Because that's how hogs are moving in many cases.

A lot of people thought TN and KS were taking pretty drastic measures and creating a bigger problem by restricting hog hunting. That approach actually worked well. It removed the incentive to move them around. Relaxing hog hunting laws has actually been proven not to help the issue. They need to be throwing money and resources at control methods and educating the public on proper removal, rather than encouraging recreational hunting, which does basically nothing.

Exactly. This is NOT common sense. Common sense would say "open 'err up and shoot every one you see!"

You can't shoot enough to matter and trapping is the only way to fix it. And allowing shooting allows people to have a new target species to hunt. Even though no one admits it, lots of people love to shoot a hog.

Yeah , if you gonna trap them . If not then just leave them alone ????

It's kinda funny most ever thing we hunt now would have been wiped out years ago if steps hadn't been taken to manage those animals but now for some reason coyotes and hogs just can't be controlled.

I don't have time or the money to trap hogs. If I get a couple of consecutive days off and I have time to run to a lease I will do coons occasionally. Guess I should just not shoot coyote or pigs if I see them since it is a futile effort anyway.

saw 12-15 turkeys saturday and another dozen yesterday afternoon.

And some people cuss us with high fences. You could easily kill a dozen birds on our 1200 acres because that’s where the hens are safe from all pigs and most yotes. The outside looks like you been plowing it the pigs are so bad especially when the acorns fall. Any one thought about low fencing a few hundred acres of prime turkey habitat?

I think common sense would indeed say that you can't eradicate hogs by hunting. That hasn't worked anywhere, so common sense says it isn't gonna start working. I know very little about feral hogs, but I've read that you can run them off your land with hunting pressure. We have seen only 2 hogs on our place in over 50 years, and both of them passed away quickly. That was 10 years ago and we haven't seen any since. If we ever see any more, we will try to convince them to leave. I know there are hogs just a few miles away, and I hope whoever has them can eradicate them, but I can only deal with them if they are on my land.

I have always wanted to high fence part of the farm to keep deer out, not in. And of course it would keep out coyotes and any hogs that wanted to visit. But that seems unlikely to happen now; I got too old and never had enough money to use that way.

I wish turkeys reproduced as efficiently and prolifically as hogs.

My grandfather own(ed)-he died in February so I guess it belongs to my mother now-300 acres on the Dallas/Perry County line. I know there are hogs VERY close in all directions. They're not uncommon on the national forest just a couple hundred yards away as the crow flies(in fact, I keep hearing they are actually becoming more and more abundant), and they have pretty much overran other properties within just a 5 mile radius....However, I have never seen sign, or gotten a picture on a trail camera, or laid eyes on one

He bought the land in 2010 but the prior landowner was a friend of the family and hunted it for 60 years and never saw a hog on it.....makes me wonder if there is some sort of geographical reason that the hogs haven't made it in there yet.....maybe we are just really lucky.

It stands to reason that some hogs can be run off a property same as deer will but I don't think they will be completely gone anymore than deer. Some of them will still be there just like deer will. They may become more nocturnal but they won't completely leave as long as there is food to be had.

Just now seeing this. I didn’t say I’m a hog hunting, shoot everyone you see advocate. I’m just saying we know they are bad for birds. I also believe, it actually should be common sense that hunting hogs, for the purpose of controlling the population is pointless. Hog hunters like to have good hog populations, period. They want hogs around. Hog hunters, by definition, are hog advocates, end of discussion. Trapping is not “hunting”, obviously.

Summary. Trapping is trapping. Hunting is hunting. Any state allowing hog hunting has no concern for the damage they cause.

Well ,,,,, like a coyote I see one it dies . Dead animal don't eat .

Well there you go it ain't that they can't it's they dont or won't control.

they can be controled

Sounds like some anti hunting propoganda.

You need to roll that around in your head a little more. You pretty much just proved what I’ve been saying for the sake of a one liner. You want to constrain turkey season and limit harvest. Seems like you trap hogs - and we agree with that plan.

Unwanted species vs native species with a hunting heritage that runs deep around here.

Had fits with them when I lived in Louisiana, feel so blessed to not have any (YET) here in the Childersburg area where our lease is now. Hoping not too see any when I move over to our new home in the Wilsonville/Columbiana area within the next 2 weeks.

In Louisiana they were so thick that we killed all we could plus paid a guy to set up the remote traps, heard 'em up and kill 'em. We paid him $5.00 a head.... he loved it and made gas money.

I live in Louisiana, and they are bad here north of Baton Rouge. I have spent quite a bit of time in that Childersburg/Sylacauga general area on the Pinhoti trail. Beautiful area. I hope you never see a hog there.

No sir I want more Turkeys, I want what turkey hunting used to be so the kids growing up now wont have to listen to us say we used to hear 10 turkeys a morning when they only hear 1. I dont beleive I have ever stated I wanted to constrain a season or limit harvest. But I dont whine when they change the season dates and claim they stole days from me. I am for whatever actually helps turkey populations and am open to what experts say. I am no expert and experts may be proven wrong over time, if so I will be the first to state whatever they tried failed and be happy to see a next option tried until we get it to something that solves the population problem.

Ben, I think waiting on the state to get it right is a big mistake. The way they manage theyll always be behind the curve. Just the way it is .

Do what you thing is right on your land. People can try and make it as complicated as they want but really it's common sense.

Got that and understand the common sense opinions and dont disagree but also dont fault the "experts " for trying. The common sense methods are difficult for a bunch of people. Just because I have the time and ability to trap and feed and plant does not mean the next 10 land owners around me do so even doing all I can do may not be enough, so maybe the states experiments will pay off in some fashion to help out. Thats my hope at least.