Any reasonable priced hog hunts? I don't mind paying reasonable dollars.Anyone that wants several shot for free I would do that also but I don't want to go to a fancy lodge for 2 days and pay $750 to over a grand to shoot a couple ugly hogs.

Unless you can find one for free, it doesn't get any cheaper than CHC's hunt he has advertised in the Classifieds. Of course, you have to get there and it will be hot, damn hot, or unbelievably hot.

quote:

Originally posted by Gatogordo:
Unless you can find one for free, it doesn't get any cheaper than CHC's hunt he has advertised in the Classifieds. Of course, you have to get there and it will be hot, damn hot, or unbelievably hot.

Around may 17th IIRC




that's 113 degrees F in case the pix is not clear enough, 103 in the shade, but at least in the Hill Country the humidity is low.

By now the jack rabbits are carrying canteens.

Best

GWB

Many Texas hunts run $300-$500 with lodging and meals, noon Friday to noon Sunday. Unless you know someone, you are not going to get access to hunt.

quote:

Originally posted by Bob in TX:
Many Texas hunts run $300-$500 with lodging and meals, noon Friday to noon Sunday. Unless you know someone, you are not going to get access to hunt.

In that case I would be as well off to pay the $600 to $800 for a place near by. Give them $50 or $75 they charge to butcher and wrap it and have a freezer full of meat.
Im safe but for that price for a stinky old boar I will just go somewhere within an hour or two of the house have a freezer full and you all can keep all your hogs out in Texas.
No offense to you personally

quote:

Originally posted by Jarrod:
I will just go somewhere within an hour or two of the house have a freezer full and you all can keep all your hogs out in Texas.
No offense to you personally

Who would be offended by a fellow hunter making a sound, logical decison based on economics.
Time and money are precious commodities. Time moreso as you can't get that back.
Be sure and post pix of your pork.
Best
GWB

quote:

Originally posted by Geedubya:

quote:

Originally posted by Jarrod:
I will just go somewhere within an hour or two of the house have a freezer full and you all can keep all your hogs out in Texas.
No offense to you personally

Who would be offended by a fellow hunter making a sound, logical decison based on economics.
Time and money are precious commodities. Time moreso as you can't get that back.
Be sure and post pix of your pork.
Best
GWB

I don't think anyone would be offended. My comment was kind of sarcastic in nature. I guess what I was getting at was you would think with all the people on AR that hog hunt a person would be able to find a place to go without too much trouble. Crazy Horse's hunt offer is very reasonable however

Jarrod I fully understand what you are getting at. This will probably misconstrued by some reading it, and coming from someone that does earn part of their income from hunting, it does seem strange.

I was born in 1950. I did not kill my first white tail deer until 1970. Apart from the 27 + or - years that I lived and worked at the Fort Worth Zoo and the DFW Metroplex area, I have lived and grew up in the Olney/Newcastle area of Young county.

I witnessed the change of from when there were few if any deer in most of this county and remember quite well that the landowners that did have deer on their property viewed them one of two ways. Either as pests and did not care if people wanted to kill the things, this was in the days before all Texas counties were under TP&W rules, and the Commissioners Courts set hunting seasons and bag limits.

There were few if any hogs, mostly right along the Brazos River corridor. As our economy got better during the 80's and 90's and people had access to more money, they got interested in hunting. Most folks had moved away from the rural areas in favor of the metropolitan areas simply because the economy in the rural areas, never really caught up with the cities.

With the advent of hunting shows on television, a proliferation of hunting related magazines and the founding of such organizations as Texas Trophy Hunters Association/Buck Master's and QDMA the interest and the natural human competitiveness, produced a demand by a large segment of the population for places to hunt.

As with many or most activities that generate interest and competitiveness among humans, especially men, it moved into the realm of paying to play and simply put the more a person was willing to pay, the price for being able to play increased accordingly with the demand.

I am very fortunate in that working for Robert I have access to a couple of thousand acres and don't mind shooting does.

Same is true with pigs. Robert works with me on hunt pricing on all the hunt packages we offer, and with our doe and pig hunts I personally believe in offering a hunt package that I would be willing to pay for and go on.

I checked out the ad in the outfitters section and must say that this is the best offer I've seen. I only wish that I lived in the area.

Locally I've seen hunts offered for $125. Thus far I've taken my my son twice. First time no pigs, no coyotes just a few rabbits. This past time we saw the tail end of a hog heading back into the brush.

What I was trying to say and I think I did it poorly, is that in Americas Capitalistic/Free Enterprise business people, of which ranchers/farmers/guides and outfitters are members of that group, will and do charge whatever the market will bear.

In Texas especially, because there is so little Public Land, especially Public Land with exceptional hunting opportunities, that leaves hunters basically at the mercy of those controlling access to the land and the wildlife.

While many folks believe those individuals are greedy and merely gouging people, having been able to view the situations from both sides and also witnessed how the situation evolved, I tend to believe that I have a fairly realistic idea of the problem.

Yes feral hogs are destructive and white tail deer are property of the citizens of the state. The fly in the ointment is that the vast majority of these animals reside on Private Land.

I grew up during a time and in an area where my Dad and I had permission to fish on practically every farm and ranch in Young county. It was the same with many people in the area. As I got older I could hunt dove and waterfowl on most of those same properties. At that time hunting was not that big a deal with a lot of people and there were very few deer and few or no feral hogs over most of the area.

Going into the 70's and early 80's, the economy up here went sour. Many folks moved out of the area and many of the kids that had been away at college did not want to come back and go into ranching or farming. Then when the economy began to turn around and the interest in deer hunting began to skyrocket, animals that were once considered pests suddenly became a cash crop, at a time when traditional farming/ranching activities were depressed.

With the national attention, as far as hunting is concerned being focused on white tail deer, especially Big Bucks, and the competiveness of hunters willing to pay big $$$$$$$$$$'s to gain access to those lands, the average person has been squeezed out in many cases.

As white tail hunting hit a plateau and sort of peaked, enter the feral hog. As more people began getting interested, once again the people with the access to the resource got a new shot in the arm, because feral hogs could be hunted year round and could be hunted by methods that are highly illegal for deer. Add to that the element of danger, no matter how real or imagined, that a large animal with the level of unpredictability of behavior that a 200 to possibly 300 pound pig presents, and the demand for hunts went thru the roof.

One other important aspect that figures into the equation, is that Non-Residents, depending on how an operation is set up either does not have to have a hunting license or only needs the special 5 day license that sells for $48.00.

Not having to buy the $315.00 regular NR license generates a lot of interest.

The end result is that many folks simply can't or won't pay the prices some folks are asking for such hunts. The people with the access have their own set of worries with liability being the major one. I feel bad that prices have escalated to the levels they have, but the reality of the situation is that as long as the hunting public is willing to pay the prices they do, I do not see things changing drastically.

One of the unintentional side effects caused by the cost issue is that not as many hogs are being taken out as there needs to be. This also, at least by my observations, is happening with white tails in some areas in that not enough does are being taken out and overall deer numbers are getting to high for the available habitat.

I wish there were easy answers but I personally don't see any that will be a compromise that the majority will agree on. The one side effect I have seen happen that bothers me the most, is the number of older hunters and in this area, local hunters that can no longer afford a place to hunt.

Randall,
perhaps not the place or time but I blame outfits like TTH and QDMA and the like for the emphasis on "trophy hunting". Some places charge big bucks for a lease and if a kid or an inexperienced hunter makes a mistake they are ridiculed and even kicked off a lease.
How can we expect to translate our love of hunting if a kid has to sit in a stand for hours and days and let venison on the hoof walk.
Nice things about hogs, nobody gives ya' grief if you don't shoot a 7 year old boar with 6" tushes and a 10" diameter nut sack.
End of rant.

Best

GWB

It is as good a time and place as any and I agree with you 100%.

Not meaning to take Jarrod's discussion so far off track, but in my opinion, and that is all it is, one mans opinion, probably the worst thing to ever happen to American Hunting took place when it got classified as a "Sport" under the modern day definition of the word.

That classification while creating an increased interest in hunting, created it in what I consider the wrong direction.

In what could be termed the blink of an eye things went from where any deer a hunter killed was a "Quality" animal and the major emphasis was time in the field and the number of good meals and memories that were created in the killing of the animal, with what at those times were considered a decent set of antlers were viewed as a bonus.

Then the eye blink and the emphasis centered on the size of antlers/the cost of obtaining those antlers whether it be the money spent to hunt the property where the animal was killed, the cost of the rifle/scope used to make the kill, cost and superiority of all the associated clothing and equipment used have evolved into the defining concept of what is or is not a "Quality" animal.

Again, and this is just one man's opinion, classifying hunting as a sport, brought the same negative aspects that effect other sports, greed/avarice, jealousy, envy and cheating.

Randall:
You're on the right track with your ideas and most of your opinions.

Thing I see up here in CO, it costs like hell to own a property regardless of how it's used as income producing.

Wish you well,
George