First year in forever I won't be hog hunting

[snox801]

So every year I take a group of guys to Florida for a hog hunt and we shoot everything that moves as it's pay per pig. We started at $125 a pig and last year ended at $150. This year we booked and got flights only to get a call two weeks before saying it had to be $250. Now the guide is a super nice guy so he was asking what I thought the others would think. So i texted everyone and as suspected they all backed out as it's just a fun extra hunt weekend for most. At least I'll be in Texas the week before hunting deer and whatever pig walks through. Still seems crazy that farmers still get government money for damaged crops and want to charge $250 plus per pig. I love shooting pigs and hunting them but to do a hunt now cost just way to much for pigs. Maybe the prices will fall this year in Florida without us taking 70 plus hogs out of population lol.
Well rant over maybe you boys in Texas will be seeing me at ranches hunting hogs in the near future.

 

[lilharcher]

Well that sucks......sounds to me like the hunting got popular and now that Farmer is turning a convenience into a business and wants to keep some of them pigs around to breed again the following year. Not to mention, he probably wants to keep his subsidy checks coming from the Gov't.

 

[snox801]

Yep I get some farmers don't want certain people hunting on a farm with the cows and what not but they should not be allowed to collect our tax dollars for damage when a solution is available that cost no one but the hunters. I wish when I had a problem with something I could collect for a loss and then sell each ( problem) for a healthy profit.
Well this just moves me closer to buying my own place and doing hunts every few months.

 

[lilharcher]

Yeah, get your own place......I'll pay you $125/pig to kill a few each year.....hahahaha

 

[geo4061]

Hate it but that is what has happened to our sport. When I was young you could hunt anywhere just by asking. Now it has become a cash cow for the land owner and places to hunt are very expensive. Sad. How does an average family afford to take their kids hunting?

 

[Dosh]

Hate it but that is what has happened to our sport. When I was young you could hunt anywhere just by asking. Now it has become a cash cow for the land owner and places to hunt are very expensive. Sad. How does an average family afford to take their kids hunting?

Agree, my son and I hog hunted a ranch near Paso Robles, Ca for several years at no charge. The owner passed and the new owner wanted $500 a day!! Checked around the area and that was the going rate, but the vineyard owners bitch like hell about hog damage with their hands out for any government $$$ assistance. Pork is relatively inexpensive here, I'll get mine at Safeway.

 

[lilharcher]

Hate it but that is what has happened to our sport. When I was young you could hunt anywhere just by asking. Now it has become a cash cow for the land owner and places to hunt are very expensive. Sad. How does an average family afford to take their kids hunting?

Hunting is the oldest pasttime in the history of this Country and sadly, it has become a rich man's sport in a lot of respects.....

 

[snox801]

Yep I think if they take $$$ from them he government they should have to allow x number of hunters to hunt. They could choose them but they should have to let them for free or no $$. You can't have it both ways $500 a day and complain when you have to many hogs. I even carry insurance for hunting so any property damage would be covered like cattle and equipment but I always get the same response from farmers they want money or the wrong people take advantage. How do you know that just because they are a paying customer they are not an *** hat? I'm in the process of finding some land that either has hogs or could be fenced in and stocked. I'd love to have a place to hunt hogs. I have tons of feeders and stands so I'm looking for property to lease or buy.
My try a hell hunt next year. Probably be around the same price when all said and done.

 

[scrmblr1982cj8]

Yep I get some farmers don't want certain people hunting on a farm with the cows and what not but they should not be allowed to collect our tax dollars for damage when a solution is available that cost no one but the hunters. I wish when I had a problem with something I could collect for a loss and then sell each ( problem) for a healthy profit.
Well this just moves me closer to buying my own place and doing hunts every few months.

Sadly, I agree that buying one's own property will soon be the only way to ensure that you have a place to hunt. In SC, the hunt club yearly dues and seasonal fees for hunting rights are getting out of hand. I am fortunate to have a friend that lets me hunt his properties, but if it weren't for him, I'd have to pay to hunt. Farmers and landowners view hunters as a mechanism for subsidizing their mortgage payments or padding their bank accounts.

I had a landowner price me out of hunting his place a few years ago. I guess his prices were too high for everyone, and got a phone call from months later begging me to kill hogs off his property. He didn't through the consequences of pricing his land so high that no one could afford it. I drove past his property a week or so later and the hogs had done a job on his pastures. I had to smile.

I would love to form a co-op for the purpose of purchasing and maintaining hunting land, but with a potential relocation in my future, don't think this is the right place or time to do so.

 

[geo4061]

snox I checked on a hell hog hunt. It was $1200 for about 30 minutes. Guessing twenty minutes flight time and ten minutes shooting time if your lucky. A night of guided thermal hunting is $625 plus tip.

 

[snox801]

Ya but the amount of hogs you can get in that 20 min should be great. I have lots of trophy hogs so I just like to shoot. The past few years I've been looking at a small chunk of land to fence in and stock with pigs for the few weekends I wanna go hunt. I work a bit in the south and have my feelers out for someone who would let me hunt. I have lots of box blinds and feeders to donate to the cause so it should be something someone who has land but doesn't want or not enough money to fill feeders all the time. We shall see how the future turns out. My guide called me last night and said he could make something work when it wasn't his busy season so I may end up going later. I'm just gonna try and get as many pigs as I can when I'm at star s ranch in two weeks hunting white tail. I have plenty of deer and just like to shoot so I may settle for a smaller buck but more pigs.

 

[Coy Franks]

Still seems crazy that farmers still get government money for damaged crops

I'm calling BS on this statement. This is the second time I've seen you say this so this time put up some proof.

 

[snox801]

Coy not trying to be mean but to say farmers don't get depridation money is flat false. We have no pigs in Michigan but lots of deer. I live in farm country here and if our local farmers can and do get Federal not state dollars for crop damage by deer why would farmers in Texas not get Federal dollars for hogs. It's also stated by the US government that they pay. If asking if I personally know and can prove someone in Texas then no I can't but I know personal friends that get money from the Feds for crop damage caused by deer so I'm sure it happens for hogs. Probably more so as the are an invasive species. They get lots of Federal dollars for the problem.
I know you don't like when this gets brought up but it is facts and facts don't care about feelings. I also stated i understand the problem with letting people hunt on ones property but I wouldn't like it either. That being said I don't believe the government should give any money to anyone that doesn't provide them a service.
My problem lies not in farmers that don't allow hunting it's the ones that do allow it but want $1 a pound or $500 a day. Then same farmers complain about all the damage. Not all farmers just some. These would be the same type that receive money to not plant a certain crop suck as corn but are allowed to plant soy and sell that. My personal friend does this and it ****es me off just the same gets paid not to plant corn or other such crops and is allowed to do onions and sell those and keep the fed dollars
He allow got money for crop damage of deer till the farm next to him allowed so hunters to shoot 60 deer on damage tags they receive. So I do know a bit about it and it's not all ways the case but to act like it doesn't happen and call it out is not factual either.

 

[snox801]

I must clear up that the federal money is payed by fed funded insurance so no not a direct check but it's still funded by tax payers. I i lump that into my rant a bit. Didn't want to ruffle feathers but it's hard to hear anyone complain about how something is negatively affecting them when an easy solution is available. I'm sure you feel the same about life long welfar recipients complain about being poor for year after year. Simple solution it's called a job.