Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk AL HOGS upper and lower wma hog hunting

I am just getting into hog hunting the delta. I plan on going up there in the next couple of weeks if I get a gator tag to scout it out. I have been reading on the regs but I am unclear on 1 of them. Am I reading right that you cannot hunt hogs on wma unless there is a concurrent hunting season of some kind going on? In other words I can't hunt them in the summer time?

That is the way I understand it.

That is correct. On the upper delta you can only use ammo for whatever is in season. For example, if rabbit season is in you can only use timfire or approved shotshells for hogs. You can only use deer calibers if it is a gun hunt day. On the lower delta you can hunt them with ANY caliber as long as there is an open season.

I can save you a ton of time if you tell me if you are going to hunt the upper or lower. Will you be going by boat or are you land locked?

Lowndes Co has a lot of Hogs. I have killed some fatties over there in the last year. I was invited to an exclusive lodge over there and smoked a couple that went over 300lbs. Huge cutters too.

I plan on hunting both. I have a boat with a jet foot to get me in shallow water.

PM incoming to ya.

One other thing I wanted to check on was hunting at night. I have night vision which they pretty much say no in the regs but I keep seeing people mention hunting them with thermal and green lights like the laser genetics. I read that you cannot hunt with anything that projects light forward of the barrel. Is there something I am missing. As far as hog hunting I know there is less regs on private lands than public lands.

Not legal on WMA's.
Permit required on Private lands.

I wonder what the scientific and biological reason is for this requirement.

A destructive species, one that several state agencies have now joined forces with to work together to combat, is allowed to have free reign on a WMA unless there's a concurrent season for other game animals and then may only be killed with the weapon/ammo for that in-season game animal.

Does not make a whit of sense whatsoever.

Because they don't want to make sure you are only killing hogs. That's the best I can figure and agree its stupid.

No it does not make sense considering that Oakmulgee sits almost smack dab in the middle of the Talladega National Forest where, if I am correct, you can hunt them year round. The Oakmulgee WMA along with others have become a safe haven for the hogs. I have noticed that at Oakmulgee the DCNR has at least two hog traps set up on their open fields, still why not open it to a Hog Season in the Summer before it becomes too hot.

I don't care if it's hot or minus 20 degrees. There shouldn't be any closed season for hogs and they shouldn't be a game animal, even on WMAs.

If protecting the deer is a concern, jack up the penalties for illegally killing a deer on WMAs. But allowing the hogs to roam unmolested, other than what the DCNR may kill outside of seasons when hunters can shoot them, seems counter-productive to curtailing the populations.

Going to Lowndes or Delta or Oakmulgee right now might be damned crazy due to the heat and snakes - SNAKES!!! - but if someone wanted to go, so be it. I'd probably give a hearty handshake to a guy stalking hogs right now in a south Bama WMA.

However, the DCNR has authority over WMAs. So it is what it is, for now.

If you're seeing a lot of snakes you ain't found the hogs. You generally don't see too many if there are a lot of hogs close by. There is no way that I would walk in the delta without good snake boots during warm weather though. I've been in some areas where you could stand in one spot and pick out 3 to 4 moccasins.
If you know what your doing, you can generally find pigs and only have to get out of the boat to go load one up.

x10. I have seen one snake in the lower delta and plenty of damn hogs. I have seen more snakes than I care to remember on that back road of the upper delta property and hogs too almost every time I've been on it.

Snakes are your friend..

I keep hearing about how we can never get rid of hogs......

But, do people not realize that hogs roamed the woods all over in the 'Open-Range' times. People came and went where they wanted.......and caught/killed them as a food source. When the Stock Law took effect, people wiped them out!!!!

But, nowadays with vast blocks of land allowing NO access to hunters (and much of that is deemed Public and bought and paid for with OUR money), the hogs are proliferating. It is not a wildlife problem....it is an access and control problem.

I was wondering when this guy was gonna show up.

Why can't DCNR issue depredation permits for folks that want to hunt hogs on wma's? Don't get me wrong, I think hogs should be hunted year round but if a farmer can get a permit to kill deer that are eating his crops, why can't Joe Citizen get one to hunt resource destroying Hogs.

Sounds like the Game Wardens want to keep some guaranteed pork for their freezers.