I just watched a DVR'd show called Hogs Gone Wild on Discovery Science.

I'm sorry ... but hunting hogs with dogs is good sport, but it is not an animal control tactic in areas with a real hog problem. Just takes too much time and energy to reduce the population enough to matter!

A good suppressed rifle with night vision would seem to me to be a much more effective approach to killing significant numbers of the beasties.

I would strongly disagree. Dog hunting is the ONLY method that can significantly effect hog populations. There's just not enough people with good dogs to really control them.

Even if they were commonly available, a good suppressed rifle with good night vision would be in the $7000 to $10,000 range, plus getting the FFA stamp.

Gat,

The not having enough people and trained dogs is precisely the point! Just takes too much energy and resource per piggie!

A relatively small group of us have been hunting and trapping on a 500 acre place near Dilly for the last 3-4 years. Have taken a BUNCH of piggies. So many that they are now getting hard to find and the evidence of damage has been dramatically reduced.

A decent night setup doesn't have to cost that much ... the expensive part is the night scope. Is nice and extends the hours after dusk that one can hunt.

Hunting pressure is what reduces populations ... and it's easier to do that with rifles than with dogs if the handlers and the trained dogs are the limiting factor.

Unless it's high fenced, the pigs are simply moving away from pressure. Happens all the time.

Pigs are incredibly smart and seem to pass on memories. I used to see pigs in a certain area all the time in daytime. I killed 3 or 4 there and NEVER see any there in daytime and the activity has decreased substantially even at night. Are there any less pigs on my place, hell no, they are just not in that spot.

How many suppressed night scoped rifle hunters do you know that have their own rigs? I'm not talking rent a rifle hunts. I know hundreds of pig hunters and can't say that any of them have a suppressed night rig. Probably some do in our area, but they damn sure aren't common. OTOH I know a dozen or so dog hunters that catch thousands of pigs a year between them.

However, there is no doubt that it is a multi-phased problem, as well as being a lot of fun for the hunters (not so much for the farmers, obviously) that takes all approaches to even sort of control the population. I've thought of trying the night scopes but, to this point, have not decided the potential gains were worth the expense since I can shoot them fairly easily from a 1/2 moon on up to a full moon with good daytime optics preferably with heavier reticles. To be honest, I don't hunt them at night much anymore, too old and lazy.

We are losing the pig wars and will continue to lose them unless they figure out a way to poison them. I understand Tx Parks and Wildlife is considering sodium nitrate.

It is my understanding (FWIW) that some of these "animal control" companies specifically use dogs and live-catch because many/most slaughter houses will only accept live animals. Walk in with one perforated by a .308 and they will send you on your way. They're thinning the herd plus putting the excess meat to good use - and profit.

Tom