Somebody else wanna tell him I’m not a DCNR employee since I’m being ignored.

Yes!! I’ve read every word in this whole thread. I agree 100% with Matt about recreational hog hunting and just so you know Matt is no longer and employee of the state. He never said he was anti hog hunting, he said he do t care for recreational hog hunting. He is just a hunter who know the destruction hogs can cause and thinks hogs shouldn’t be hunted recreationally to which many agree with. Every method available should be used to remove hogs from the landscape. Recreational hunting will never be a tried and true method of removing all hogs from an area. Just ask Elkhunter. He’s got a full time hog hunting/ trapping operation and never runs out of hogs. I’m still not sure why you keep bringing up this crap about bureaucrats because they have nothing to do with the common sense thinking most people have about hogs. They all need to go no matter what you believe is the best way. I hope you find the hogs you hold so near and dear to your heart to hunt. We are gonna keep getting rid of them 1 group at a time trapping them.

I can see the frustration from both sides of this argument.

Landowners complain about hogs but the second someone asks to hunt them they become real estate moguls and want to charge you. I understand why they do, it’s their land but I understand why the hog hunters would get mad because it is hypocritical on the landowners part.

If the state wants to trap hogs and remove them from one of the oldest wilderness areas in the country then I’m fine with that. But you’re attempting to kill off a resource that you on the flip side want people to pay to hunt at night. This is hypocritical on the States part.

Finally I can see where the landowners are frustrated at the hog hunters because they approach you under the guise of helping your problem but they’re more interested in having something and somewhere to hunt than they are in truly helping by trapping. This is hypocritical on the hog hunters part.

That’s how I see it. I don’t side with anyone on this but I can understand each train of thought.

Common sense isnt so common. "Shooting them every fall"?? Hogs breed multiple times, year round. If you're not killing them 24/7, 365 days a year, youre losing ground. I've shot every hog I've seen on our property for the last 6 yrs. None get a pass. Every hog seen from a stand takes a bullet or an arrow. Anytime we are riding around, we have an AR with a red dot in the truck, on the ranger, on the tractor, or strapped on our backs if walking. Except for fields, the property is all wooded. We generally kill between 12 and 20 a year with guns and bows while hunting. 6 yrs of shooting every one seen, year round, not just during hunting season, and it's never made even a remote dent. Have killed 70+ since Nov 1st trapping. The only way to beat them back and get them somewhat under control is through trapping. Hogs are smarter than deer and you absolutely cannot shoot them out if your property is wooded. You might have marginal success if the majority of your property is all huge open fields and you can hunt them at night with thermals but you still wont hurt them enough to decrease or even maintain overall numbers.

Here's the math. Lets say hunters kill 100,000 hogs a year in AL. That's great! Sounds like a lot. But as far as numbers go, no its not. It's not even a drop in the bucket as far as keeping hogs in check. AL is well on its way to having as many hogs as deer. Deer breed once a year and on avg, 1-1.5 fawns per doe survive. Every sow pig breeds twice a year and the average litter is 7-8 piglets with an 85-90% survival rate on them. So while every doe is having 1.5 surviving fawns on average, a year, every sow is having 12-15 surviving piglets a year. In AL hunters kill 300,000 deer a year with a bunch more killed by coyotes, poachers, and cars too. Let that sink in. 300,000 a year to basically keep the deer population in check (or decreasing if you believe CNC) and that's with fawns being dropped at only 1.5 per doe per year. State put out an estimate of there being only 225,000 hogs in AL in 2023 (I personally think that number is low by about 50%) Hogs are like deer and they drop litters at basically a 50/50 male to female ratio. So using the state's estimate, there are 112,500 sow hogs in the current herd. Breeding twice a year, at even 5 surviving piglets per sow, per litter (10 piglets per sow, per year, for 2 breedings), the current population has the valid potential to introduce 1,125,000 new piglets into the herd annually. Which coincidentally mature sexually in 6 months and can begin being breeding too. Thinking that you can manage that, one trigger pull at a time, during deer season only, is laughable. If you want to make "temporary" dent in your hog population, you have to be trapping and killing them 15-30 at a time. Between guns and trapping, we've taken over 90 off 1200 acres in just 4 months. There are still hogs there and most certainly, additional sounders will move in by summer and we will have to deal with them too. It's a never ending battle that you dont see, when you dont have to take care of the property you're hunting. Matt Brock was taking care of this problem for you and the others enjoying the hunting on that free public land. The land where all you do is pay for your WMA permit and climb a tree or walk a ridge, hunt, get in your vehicle and go home. The same land where you dont have to worry about the labor or expense to plant fields, manage the wildlife or habitat, or deal with the worry of road or habitat damage caused by the hogs. Forgetting the damage they do, if you like to hunt deer or turkey, you should want hog numbers reduced drastically. Hogs will kill and eat 100% of every newly dropped fawn they run across and bust and eat every turkey egg or freshly hatched poult they run across, 100% of the time.

Recreational hog hunting is what has caused a lot of the spread......Guys catching and releasing them in new areas so they can have something to hunt

Winner winner!!

That’s exactly how it started here. Some guys trapped some and put them on a little section of the intracoastal canal they had to deer hunt so they would have some to hunt. In 2 years they ran every deer of the small section and ate everything they could reach. They then wanted them gone. They started really putting the pressure on them and they then realized that a hog will swim. Most of the hogs left the small section and made it across the canal to the marshes that meet up with the high ground we live and farmed on. In a few years the numbers were out of control and still are 15years later. The Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge is a few miles from my house. We all grew up now hunting this place. It’s now so overrun with hogs that all the deer have moved on. Bow hunters and duck hunters try to kill everyone they can but it’s a losing battle. People who want wild hogs have never had them. We only thought the nutria was destructive to the marshes. Hogs will totally uproot every plant in a marsh if given the chance. Not to mention what they do to rice fields and field levees and roads. I DO NOT wish hogs on anyone.

Man, this discussion has really taken off

Maybe we can get folks to turn some pythons loose too......I hear they're fun to hunt.

Thanks for the common sense approach.

I was assured up the board that "it doesn't matter how much they breed".

I pretty much decided to bow out of this unserious conversation at that point.

I hope to never see another on the land I own.

Yep!!! Ole Ridge Ranger would feel a lot different if he had hogs on land he owned!! As I said earlier, anyone who wants hogs never had to deal with hogs on a property they owned or had control of.

Wow and all I wanted to do was kill some hogs to help out some less fortunate people.

Shame on you! 😁

We spent about a $100k a year in texas to try and keep our roads maintained an drivable because the bastages destroyed everything they came in contact with….if i could flip a switch id kill every wild hog in north america….we anihalated them from helicopters, thermal..night vision…..traps…and we still could only maintain their presence..if we let up for even a little bit theyd be back again…i hate them..hate THEM!!!!!!!!! I have worked myself to death because of them….HATE THEM🤬…an Matt dont work for dcnr…your welcome Matthew…🦑