I witrnessed a helicopter gunning aftermath.

[jagdtank]

I took a trip down to the red around bonham tx area but across the river on ok side. my cousin and I went hunting. we went to a spot that used to be loaded with pigs. It still looks loaded by the sign. we only caught one boar though. On our way to the bay we stepped out in a forty acre pasture and saw dead hogs everywhere im saying one per acre at least I thought there were forty to fifty but it could be more because there were piglets as well. I saw around one hundred total just going to and from bay. I was told they killed 380 around this place last spring. the are flying from a little town called yuba to up by durant. I heard the chopper both days i was there. my thoughts are, If they are flying the river everyday I would think that they will get all the hogs gone because I would think they would all drift toward the river at some point. also the people there told me that when the landowner signs the paper for the helicopter to shoot on them it's perpetual and they cant get out of it again. anyone know anything about this? if I would have thought I would have taken pictures of the dead hogs just rotting and sent it to peta or something ;DIt just dont seem right to waste meat like that to me. i could not imagine just handing over rights to anything i own to the government permanent. I cant figure out why they would need permanent access to shoot. well thats all inlighten me if you know anything I dont.

[Reuben]

I like the idea of always having hogs...but they do need to be controlled because of all the damage they cause...not just to the farmer or rancher but to all wildlife that depend on their habitat to not be disrupted...and if the hogs can't be controlled the government will employ someone who will...

[hillcountry]

First of all are you shure it was wildlife services and not a priveate contractor? The agreement that is signed with W, S. Is not a binding contract it simply states the species we are allowed to take and the methods we are allowed to use to take them , the agreement can be cancelled at any time and is good for 5 yrs . All aireal opperations consist of a ground crew that will remove carcases from fields roads andtanks and dispatch wounded a nimals . The reason they are left is they must be inspected to give away to puplic and they would be liable if some one got sick.   So 40 hogs half m half fm  20 sows haveing about 12 to 10 in a litter with a motality rate of 2 percent makes how many Thats why the heli is such a valuible tool in controling wild boar populations.

[halfbreed]

  I have seen many a sounder with piglets , raised many a wild sow in the pen fed good and never had a sow drop more than six . those offspring estimates are way off . now that said , I have all ways said if you doggers don't get busy and start killing hogs and showing numbers [ heavy numbers ] the govt. will take over . heck I never wanted to hunt a spot that you had to trip over hogs to get to a bay , and the dogs didn't have to even hunt . you could take a couple of poodles and get hogs in them spots  lol . but in most states AND texas you are required by law to properly dispose of carcases and not waist resources .

[wine6978]

I don't see how it was Wildlife Services when we haven't been flying or trapping or anything since before Dec. 20th. I'm guessing it was a private helicopter service. And Pete is right about those agreements the landowner signs. They are not permanent, and can be canceled at anytime. Plus the landowner can say they do not want the helicopter. I have A LOT of them down here that want nothing to do with it.

[hillcountry]

I was throwing out a figure  the numbers can vary  the point is the population is growing the land owners are going to use any method avaliable to bring the numbers down and stop the damage.  Feral hogs are not a game animal therefore wantin waist laws do not aply you can do any thing you want to with them. Some hunters have put a sour taste in some land owners mouths and have to do whatever they can to manage  and like it or not the helicopter in certian country is the best way . Halfbreed ive always agreed with pretty much all your post and opinions but i aint no internet hunter and dont live behind a computer screen,i hunt every day for a living and have seen several litters over six and bayed a sounder or two so i do know what im talking about.

[Peachcreek]

Come on uncle pete...... i mean come on.............. preach

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

[halfbreed]

  that's cool hillcountry I figured you got that estimate from the tpwd I have heard it before just never witnessed any of those numbers . kinda just like that they have three litters a year . you get the gist of it .  I think a lot of it comes from seeing a sow with a bunch of little ones trailing her , I do know any ol sow that's milking  will let every piglet in the sounder nurse when they lay down , I studied these ol pigs in my area for years , but we did have more russion influence in our hogs .    I didn't mean to sound like I was calling b/s on what you said just adding to the conversation when these boys think they're gonna run out of pigs   lol 

 I sat down and did the math one year and with just one boar and three sows having two litters a year and half of those piglets being sows at how many pigs you would have in three years , boys we ain't gonna run out of pigs  lol  I did the math that year to show the farmers that told me they had only seen a few pigs on their place just how fast they would become a problem , needless to say it opened up some land for me  . i'll see if I can find my old journal and post up the numbers , or the math is easy to do if you're interested  .

 

[Reuben]

over the years I have come to believe 4-6 is about average from what I have seen...but I hunt quite a bit more on the internet now adays... and the 3 litters a year is kind of hard for me to believe but I have no experience on this...maybe 2 a year or the average might be 2.51 litters a year and that rounds up to three... 

[jagdtank]

why do you figure the mortality rate is 2 percent? almost all the sows I've killed that were pregnant had at least eight in them. I was told each piglet has its own tit. I have seen them dry up as you pull piglets off them. another thing i noticed was there were a lot more dead boars than sows. a couple had there heads removed  but other than that they were just rotting. I might feel different if I was living where there were abundant hog numbers. I guess I just have a hard time believing they can't kill them off. maybe not next year but eventually. I can see some good reasons to have abundant hog populations. I don't mind if they thin the numbers pretty good. But they are a community resource and could really be used as a great food source in a pinch. I always thought the chopper people were exaggerating with kill numbers but I bet they did that in an hour. It just shocked me is all. I cant say I enjoyed seeing it. I'm not sure why I care other than I like hunting them. I could always run coon or something I suppose.

[Reuben]

JagdTank...I am a little concerned too but in my area they can get most in some places but lots of places there is no way they can get to them...

[justincorbell]

JagdTank...I am a little concerned too but in my area they can get most in some places but lots of places there is no way they can get to them...

This is how i feel about it as well, there are a few places we hunt that a heli could pretty much wipe em out but most of the places we hunt are thick woods and a helo wont stand a chance so i reckon it all comes out in the wash.

[charles]

JagdTank...I am a little concerned too but in my area they can get most in some places but lots of places there is no way they can get to them...

most of the places we hunt are thick woods and a helo wont stand a chance.

Thats till the aerial shooters go to thermal optics or FLIR which both work day or night and their body temp is hotter than the surrounding terrain/vegitation.
In iraq, when nods didnt work, we could switch to FLIR and find our targets.
 
Hopefully the pigs dont learn to use thermal blankets 

[sethmcalex]

[sethmcalex]

I'm sure we will never run out of hogs........

[hillcountry]

This is looking more and more like the work of pay shooters notice i did not say hunters , gunning in chopper for hogs is like shooting fish in a barrel they run ina line you start in back and work way up line usaly turns my stomach but its necessary in crop land and heavy populations , i dont like it more than any body elsr but it is what it is and i shure seem to  not have safe shot or need to reload every time we come to a big boar.

[justincorbell]

JagdTank...I am a little concerned too but in my area they can get most in some places but lots of places there is no way they can get to them...

most of the places we hunt are thick woods and a helo wont stand a chance.

Thats till the aerial shooters go to thermal optics or FLIR which both work day or night and their body temp is hotter than the surrounding terrain/vegitation.
In iraq, when nods didnt work, we could switch to FLIR and find our targets.
 
Hopefully the pigs dont learn to use thermal blankets 

Charles, im ignorant to all them high dollar dohickeys you are talkin about, obv i know what thermal optics are but my question to you is how effective do you realisticly (sp?) think the use of these optics would be in pine thickets with thick canopy cover and a thicker forest floor? Not being a jackass, just honestly wondering.....seems like it would leave alotta room for error ie. mistaken targets and illegal animals being harvested, i know one thing it deff. would bring new meaning to the ol "threadin the needle" saying hahaha

[charles]

Both thermal n FLIR work off of temp variations compared to its surroundings. The thermal/FLIR sights on an apache, hawk, hook n 58 can pick up n clearly identify a human at nearly a mile if not a wee bit further, even in the desert where ground temps at night can be in the high 80s to 90s. When the acft comes to a hover, it will blow the tree tops around like a high mph wind storm, opening the canopy up in places that the optics can penetrate through. Both in ks n here in central tx iv been able to clearly id deer from a couple 100yds away at a hover using FLIR. Granted both places are not east tx, but ft hood has booku cedar that u cant even walk through n ft riley has heavy cedar and hardwood and able to distinguish between deer, elk, but coon, beaver n possum are harder to tell 1 from the other. East tx is my old stoping grounds and knowing what it looks like there, it will work, but at $15,000-20,000 per unit, not every aerial shooter or even every heli charter can afford them. A guy i was in the military with is getting his aerial hog hunting up n going and fixin to invest a weapon mntd unit and an acft mntd unit, around $65,000 for both and he is shooting in east tx, a few miles south of houston

[Middleton]

they wont get them all with chopper we do alot of it hear where i am from in aus. be glad they dont poision their that sucks, u cant run a dog where its been baited till u get good rain.