Helicopter hunting hogs down side

[SHDeersniper]

Should shoot more hogs so the farmers don't have to resort to helicopters.

You sound like you want a huntable hog population. You should be working on eradication. That might bring them down to a stable population.

 

[sturner]

Me? Heck no they tearing up my bottom I got to fix it every spring
If I could I would put their butt on the endangered species list
Too many trees for helicopters here

 

[okie man]

I've hunted whitetail deer in lots of places , human pressure of any kind can change their patterns and location. Flying a helicopter right over their heads shooting guns is gonna have an adverse effect for sure. As far as hog hunting and pay to hunt for them. Fine, charge money, but it should be taxed, permits issued and regulations . I've leased land once and first thing asked from landowner was cash no checks! Don't want the government to get its share of income from my land. Second thing that irritates me is land owners who claim crop damage and receive money from our tax dollars to pay for damage from wildlife but don't allow hunting. I'd be more than willing too pass a proficiency test with multiple weapons and skills to be a capable harvester of excess animals, carry a liability insurance for any damage to personal property and sign contracts ensuring I'd obey land owner rules of travel on and accessing the properties.

 

[Buck1970]

We shoot all we can, and leave em lay.
Like Josey Wales said, "buzzards gotta eat, same as worms".

 

[J E Custom]

Should shoot more hogs so the farmers don't have to resort to helicopters.

You sound like you want a huntable hog population. You should be working on eradication. That might bring them down to a stable population.

This is an update on the hunting quality after a helicopter hunt on our place.

The lease is heavily wooded with very little open areas, and on the whole lease we found 4 for sure kills after the heli hunt and 1 maybe. We normally kill 20 on average each year and keep the numbers in check. so on our type of land the helicopter hunt was very unsuccessful for doing any management. when we are deer and turkey hunting we take every hog we see and save the deer hunt for later that day.

Our season is 2 months and so far we are not seeing any Turkeys and very few deer. the ones we do see are small. We have game cameras set up and only the hogs are showing up at night.

The hunting has been so bad that the land owner has agreed never to allow this type of hunting on their land again. it looks like it works well on open farm land, but not so well on heavily wooded land.

Just an update on our lease. all the other leases in our area have had the same results/effects.

J E CUSTOM

 

[Buck1970]

Thanks for the update.
We are literally overrun with hogs and they have gone nocturnal. We will hit them hard this week while I'm off work. I got my buck this afternoon and don't need to get up early so we will patrol at night.
I wondered if the helicopter was really helping, or if it was just a sell tactic.

 

[J E Custom]

Thanks for the update.
We are literally overrun with hogs and they have gone nocturnal. We will hit them hard this week while I'm off work. I got my buck this afternoon and don't need to get up early so we will patrol at night.
I wondered if the helicopter was really helping, or if it was just a sell tactic.

From what I have seen it can help in some areas but is devastating in other areas.
We set up 2 designated hog feeders with no hog panels/pens to keep them out. this has worked well and the hogs pass on the pens that they cant get in and frequent the designated ones. we set the feeder timers foe early in the morning just after daylight
so they have to come during the day when we can hunt them and pick the ones we want. If the feeders go late in the evening, they wait until after dark when they are comfortable and that may be any time during the night.

This doesn't/didn't seem to effect the deer hunting before the helicopter hunting because the deer had their own feeders and weren't bothered by the hogs

We leave these feeders alone until we want to hog hunt and this way they get comfortable. It seems like we kill more hogs this way per year. yes it cost a little in corn, but we can kill nice eating hogs when we want and if we see the boars or sows old enough we can thin the population with a few shots.

We had roughly 2 or 3 sounders on the place and they were kept to 6 to 10 hogs
with this method.

J E CUSTOM

 

[6.5shaggy]

We have the heli hunters in my area of Texas as well. They put outrageous kill #s on Facebook, but I have rode behind them horseback and know those #s are not always accurate.

These hogs are VERY INTELLIGENT. They have already figured out if they lay still in cover when the choppers fly, their chances of survival go up, this making the heli's less effective. I have seen cattle disturbed by the choppers, fences destroyed by the stampeding swine, and know it has long lasting negative effects on other wildlife.
That said, helicopters are an effective way to control the hog population, but many of the operators are doing it strictly for profit and are not putting any thought or effort in managing the hogs or any other aspect of the world around them. It is just another luxury hunt for the wealthy that is glorified on Facebook and YouTube. The state of Texas even subsidized these hunts to some extent at one time. It could be a useful tool if more research and technique could be implemented. Until then it's just another video on the internet.

 

[Wedgy]

Last year before my Colorado cow hunt my buddy called and told me the elk were gone... disappeared from both ~500 acre areas where they had been and to wait until they find them. A week later they were back but only came out just before dark and went back in the timber just after dawn. Turns out it was the DFG helicopter doing the elk survey is what chased them away. Very nice warden said "yep, that was us" he even offered to help carry out my cow.
Pig hunting at a ranch here in CA went down to nothing for a month while PGE flew helicopters over the ranch doing power lines. They stopped taking any hunters for 3 weeks, still had some pigs on camera at night but we can't hunt at night here. Took a few weeks to settle back to normal.

 

[6.5shaggy]

Wildlife are not livestock. They are not private property that are there for our convenient viewing pleasure. They go where the want, do whatever they want, whenever they want, for reasons only known to them. For a true outdoorsmen this is understood. My belief is that the more that hunting becomes commercialized and publicized the more misunderstood it may become by many; even to the point where the truth could be lost. We try to manipulate Mother Nature to suit our own needs. There are a lot of folks who live in cities, are financially blessed and want to enjoy the great outdoors. I don't begrudge them for that. I am afraid that the high speed lifestyle we live in makes many of us demand instant gratification. Therefore we use feeders, heated box blinds, cell phone cameras, high fence, etc., etc and anything else that money and the laws will allow to expedite the process. I am not looking down on folks for using these resources as long as they don't miss the point of hunting.
True, after a traumatic event, wildlife will return and settle back in. It just bothers me when someone justifies something that is unhealthy for the environment (the real one not the political one) because it looks fun on YouTube. Just because something can be done doesn't mean it should be done. If the good that comes from it outweighs the bad, then fine; but we can't ignore the side effects just because we get pleasure or profit.