Wild Boar Hunting ...in Ontario

[SongDog]

Watched a show not long ago about feral pigs in Texas. They interviewed lots of big ranch owners and small time farmers and even just hunters.

All of them talked about how much of a pest they are, Then later when asked if they could have pigs completely wiped out, Would they?

90% of them said, No, I wouldn't want them eradicated because they are so much fun to hunt. One guy live trapped over 1000 pigs on his ranch that year, Even he said he enjoys the challenge of catching them.


Hog hunting is a big business down there, I really want to go sometime soon.

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[canthitathing]

Don't hold your breath on that "for free bit', that's the problem down there , not just Texas, most want big dollars to hunt on their grounds, unless you have some connections.

Yeah, that's why I stressed the "free", lol. I'm a diy hunter, don't plan on ever paying (other than license fees) to anyone for hunting (especially for pest species). I am disappointed in forced hiring of "outfitters" in many jurisdictions for other game species in Canada although I can see their "justifications". I'd consider a, lets say, 'bucket list' trip down there to help eliminate some hogs but not interested in paying to do pest control for them.

[73hunter]

So.....308, 30-06, .270....30-30 ?

We have a few more weeks till there’s anything to hunt up here

[jaycee]

From what I understood, most ranchers hire (PAY) hunters to come in to eradicate them...maybe some entrepreneurial types charge Canadians to hunt for them while they are being paid by the owner. HaHa..

You had better check that out, as that is contrary to what friends that go down there and know what it costs.

[MikePal]

You really need to spend some time and bring yourself up to speed with reality Jaycee:

Only tourists pay to hunt on most leases now...

Back then, many landowners who leased land considered hogs on their place as an asset. Hunters were willing to pay good money for the opportunity to hunt them in addition to deer, turkey and quail. Hogs were often considered a “bonus” on hunting lands and leases “with hogs” gleaned a higher price than those without.
We soon discovered that hogs were very proficient at reproduction, even in the wild. Roving sounders quickly followed creeks and rivers and their numbers spread to areas where they had never previously existed in the wild. Truth be known, some hunters also helped this population boon by stocking trapped wild hogs on their hunting leases. Hunting alone could not begin to keep up with their numbers. What began as a positive thing quickly became a plague.
Wild hogs began ripping up hay meadows, demolishing the nests of ground nesting birds, rooting up row after row of newly planted corn, and fouling stock tanks.
Farmers and ranchers from across much of the state screamed, “We’ve got a hog problem!” And indeed they did have a problem; wild hogs were literally eating them out of house and home and creating millions of dollars in losses statewide. Something had to be done and quickly.

The 3,000-acre ranch, in McMullen County, has been in the family of Lloyd Stewart’s wife, Susan, since the mid-1900s. Stewart and his hunting and wildlife manager, Craig Oakes, began noticing wild hogs on the land in the 1980s, and the animals have become more of a problem every year. In 2002, Stewart began selling hog-hunting leases, charging $150 to $200 for a daylong hunt and $300 for weekends. But wild hogs have become so common around the state that it’s getting hard to attract hunters. “Deer hunters tell us they have a lot of hogs at home,” Oakes says, “so they don’t want to pay to come shoot them here.”

In fact in a lot of areas they PAY bounties to remove the hogs :

“The residents of the county keep asking ‘When is the county going to do a bounty program?’ So I think this is a proactive way that we can look at our county and say we’re doing something to help our farmers and ranchers abate the hog problem,” he said.
The bounty opened on Monday, and it’s available until August 28. Every tail brought to the county as proof of a dead hog is worth $5. "

So what attracts the tourists willing to pay...

There is no closed season on feral pigs. They can be hunted any time of the day or night, using silencers, spotlights, night-vision scopes, AR-15’s, or AK-47’s. Thanks to Stephenville representative Sid Miller’s so-called pork chopper bill, they can be hunted from helicopters

Hunters changed from a being a solution to being part of the problem...

Interesting read on how ignorance and greed created the mess...

https://www.texasobserver.org/turning-tail/

[MikePal]

From what I understood, most ranchers hire (PAY) hunters to come in to eradicate them...maybe some entrepreneurial types charge Canadians to hunt for them while they are being paid by the owner. HaHa..

To support that comment directly:

These are stats produced from almost 4,000 Ranchers/Framers/Landowners in regards to the boar problem...

Survey respondents reported that pasture damage was the most frequently occurring damage type (76% of survey respondents) followed by loss of owner/employee time (37%), damage to fences, water troughs and other improvements (29%), commodity crop losses (27%), loss of land value (24%), wetland damage (22%), damage to equipment or vehicles (18%), loss of wildlife lease value and damage to food plots/feeders (16%), loss of specialty crops (15%), livestock injury, death or diseases (7%), stored commodities (3%) and personal injuries (2%).
Control methods most frequently employed by respondents included trapping and destroying (51%), owner/employee shooting (46%), use of dogs (18%), trapping and moving (16%), trapping and selling (15%), lease hunting (6%) and use of snares/aerial control (6%).

Those 'owner/employee' cost and efforts include the use of contractors to remove the boars. They pay to have them removed.

Only 6% of owners lease land to outfitters and individuals to hunt. And most of them translate into tourist hunters, like Canadains..who pay is a much as $150 -$200 a day plus $50 a hog.

[bellerivercrossbowhunter]

I have a 3 day South Carolina free range hog hunt in January 2020. it's a group hunt (8 hunters) with crossbow magazine that sold out in 1 day.
Includes 5 star accommodations / food.
Transportation to and from the baited tree stands.

Do you guys think this should be free or should they be paying me to hunt the hogs? lol

[jaycee]

Free Hog Hunting in Texas ? is n't really free, you still have to pay non resident license fee, guides as most ranches are thousands of acres which do not hold hogs everywhere.
Just go to google and look up free hog hunting in Texas, lots of hits ie; first hog is around $400.00 then the second is free and so on.
But if you have all the info. go for it !

[canthitathing]

Well, $5 a tail likely wouldn't cover the gas (or beverage) costs to embark on such a safari but it's something, lol. Do they have a structured process for donating the hogs to local food bank organizations?

A safari to break the local-doldrum winter monotony, helping local food banks, bringing home a couple porkers for personal consumption, improving US-Canada relations, this is sounding better and better, ha ha.

[MikePal]

Well, $5 a tail likely wouldn't cover the gas (or beverage) costs to embark on such a safari but it's something, lol.

Back in the day they used to have a boundy on gophers in Sask...it was peanuts, something like $0.05 for a pair of feet. Every kid with a Cooey was out all day....they nearly eradicated the buggers.

They still have one in some places...$1 a tail...one township pays out almost $500/yr !!