Got Bacon??

[Dave Sikorski]

It was a video Frank.

http://vimeo.com/21181307

-D

[NY Bearhunter]

They have to have an outfitter offering these hunts. Texas has a serious problem with hogs, I'm sure this has to be done on a quarterly basis!

AFTER A QUARTER OF THAT THE PIG PROBLEM IS TAKEN CARE OF...

[NY Bearhunter]

Texas may let hunters shoot pigs from helicopters
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MERTZON, Texas (AP) — Millions of wild pigs weighing up to 300 pounds have been tearing up crops, trampling fences and eating just about anything in their path in Texas. But now they had better watch their hairy backs.
A state lawmaker is proposing to allow ordinary Texans with rifles and shotguns to shoot the voracious, tusked animals from helicopters.

For years, ranchers in the Lone Star State have hired professional hunters in choppers to thin the hogs' fast-multiplying ranks. Now state Rep. Sid Miller of the Fort Worth area wants to bring more firepower to the task by issuing permits to sportsmen.

"I've had numerous calls and complaints that someone needs to do something," Miller said. "We're losing ground on this problem."

If approved, it could be the first program of its kind in the nation. Some other states, like Gov. Sarah Palin's Alaska, allow aerial hunting, but only to control predators, such as bears and wolves.

Some Texans worry about collateral damage.

"If they're going to open up to where you can do this and anybody who's got a helicopter can go off to an old boy's place and hunt, that's going to be bad," said Jay Smith, owner of Smith Helicopters in Cotulla. Some people "may get confused and shoot the rancher's dog or a calf."

Miller gave assurances the hunting would be closely regulated, though details on such things as how many hunters would be allowed to take part, and how many hogs they would be permitted to kill, have yet to be worked out.

"You're not going to have some bubba up there going, 'Pass me a beer and ammo' and hunting some hogs," the legislator said. "We certainly want to do it right."

Many hunters and landowners will probably leave the carcasses in the field, just as they do now. Wild hogs that are gunned down cannot be sold for meat under U.S. agriculture regulations. (Moreover, wild boar is said by some to be tough and gamey.)

An estimated 2 million wild hogs are causing $52 million a year in crop damage in Texas, according to agricultural experts. Pigs that they are, they eat just about anything, including the carcasses of their own brethren. They trample crops, dig up plants with their snouts and steal animal feed. Entire peanut farms have been stripped.

And the pasture-wrecking porkers are causing trouble well beyond farms. Authorities in Texas are reporting an increase in collisions between hogs and cars, while golf courses and suburbs are increasingly finding turf uprooted by hogs.

The animals are descended from hogs introduced into Texas by Spanish explorers more than 300 years ago. But their numbers began booming in the 1980s.

The big ones have no natural predators. Not even a coyote will tangle with a pig bigger than 20 pounds.

During a recent pass in his helicopter over Mertzon in West Texas, Kyle Lange, a professional hunter who is paid to pick off wild hogs from the air in what some are calling a "pork chopper," offered a glimpse of the magnitude of the problem.

As his helicopter flew over, several packs of hogs that had been rooting around in the brush or napping in the sun suddenly scattered in all directions, with piglets scampering to keep close to their mothers, the little hairs on their backs blown back by the breeze from the chopper.

"You can kill 300 in a day from up here in the Panhandle and you've just slowed them down is all," Lange said over the whump-whump of his two-seat chopper.

Wildlife experts have tried less brutal methods to control their numbers. But the hogs are smart and have learned to avoid traps, and a birth control pill for female hogs is still in development. Many experts agree aerial hunting works.

Nearly 1,100 permits to kill hogs from the air were issued in Texas last year, up from 201 in 2000. Under Miller's bill, weekend hunters would be able to get permits too, though they would also have to pay landowners for the right to hunt on their property.

[NY Bearhunter]

AUSTIN -- Hunters moved closer Monday to being able to use helicopters to kill feral hogs that are damaging the Texas landscape.

With no discussion, Texas House members voted 137-9 to give preliminary approval to a bill that would let people hunt feral hogs and wolves from a helicopter. Officials estimate that the state has 1 million to 4 million feral hogs, which cause as much as $400 million in damage to land and crops each year.

"In the past, it has been a problem mainly in rural areas to crops and livestock," said Rep. Sid Miller, R-Stephenville, who carried the bill. "But now they are found in our urban areas -- in our cemeteries, our parks, our golf courses and residential yards.

"Rep. Harper Brown recently trapped 250 hogs in Irving, Texas -- downtown."

Miller, who said the hogs are found in all 254 counties, asked House members to approve the bill to "help land owners defray costs by aerial gunning" of the feral hogs.

Currently, Texans may hunt feral hogs from helicopters only on their own land. This bill, which also applies to coyotes, lets landowners sell seats to others, according to Miller's office.

Final approval in the House could come as soon as today, but the measure does not have a sponsor in the Senate.

Feral hogs, which are a mix of domestic hogs and the more aggressive Russian boars, typically are dark and furry and have longer tusks than domestic hogs. They are unprotected nongame animals, prolific breeders and a danger to people and other animals. They can also carry diseases that could hurt livestock.

All local House members voted in favor of the bill.

"I know feral hogs are a problem," said Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington. "Anything we can do to alleviate the problem, we should promote."

Rep. Marc Veasey said he has received complaints of feral hogs near some Fort Worth near golf courses.

"Nobody likes the idea of people shooting rifles from the sky," said Veasey, D-Fort Worth. "But this has become such a big problem everywhere, and they multiply so suddenly.

"If done correctly, this could help manage the population. It's going to become a real problem on the peripheral of even larger cities."

Agriculture officials have said more than three-fourths of Texas has the appropriate cover and terrain to hunt feral hogs from helicopters. And they have called hunting from helicopters a cheaper way to control the growing feral hog population.

A similar bill died in 2009, amid concerns that dogs, cattle or other animals might inadvertently be shot instead.

[NY Bearhunter]

FIELD AND STREAM REPORTS...

GET YOUR GUNS READY FOR ACTION....


August 29, 2011

Helicopter Hunting For Feral Hogs Begins in TX Thursday




Thursday is the traditional kick-off to many fall hunting seasons, from dove to grouse to...pork choppers? Yes, pork choppers. And according to this story, hunters from across the nation are lining up to be a part of Texas' first helicopter-based hog season.

From this story in the Forth Worth Star-Telegram:
"Pork choppers," Texas' newest weapon in the war on feral hogs, will take to the skies Thursday when it becomes legal for hunters to buy seats on hog-hunting helicopters and gun down as many pigs as they can put in their sights. With more than 2 million feral hogs rooting around the Lone Star State, there will be plenty of targets for aerial gunners willing to pay $475 for an hour of heli-hunting. Vertex Helicopters is already bringing home the bacon as a result of the measure passed by the Texas Legislature this year. The Houston-based firm requires shooters to take a $350 hunting safety course before they can book a hunt, said President Mike Morgan, a former Army helicopter pilot.

Sixty hunters have taken the course, and two more 15-person classes are already filled, he said. "These are people who are really, really serious about shooting things," Morgan said, noting that hunters from New York City, Missouri and Kansas have taken the course, which includes a four-hour class and 30 minutes of learning airborne target practice.

What about you? Given the opportunity, would you pay someone to let you shoot hogs from above? Hunting or simply aerial gunnery? Granted, the feral hog season is all about eradication of an invasive and destructive species, so do the environmental issues feral hogs pose outweigh even the faintest trace of fair chase ethics?