Hog Heaven / Wisconsin wild pigs

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LenH
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Hog Heaven / Wisconsin wild pigs

Unread postby LenH » Fri Feb 19, 2010 8:33 am

Hog Heaven

Written by: Len Harris

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Crawford County Wisconsin has been dubbed the Wild Hog Capitol of Wisconsin. One need not go any further than Bob *Hogman* Messlings home to talk hunting wild hogs and maybe if you are really lucky...Go hog hunting with Bob. Bob's partner in Hog Heaven is John Feyen.

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From left to right, John Feyen, Luke, Buck, Hogman, Blackie


Bob's dogs first started out as Coon Dogs and have been trained by Bob to hunt Hogs now exclusively. Bob's dogs have very different personalities.

The Head Dog *Buck* is fearless. He is English Red Tick Coon hound. Buck is 4 years old. Buck leads all hunts and is the aggressor. Buck is the first on the hog and always takes the head. Buck has a huge scar on his stomach from a 500 pound plus Boar that got away. The injury required 77 sutures and staples to close. Buck was ready to go again the next day.

Luke is a Black/White/Tan Treeing Walker Purebred.Luke is 5 years old. Luke always follows Buck and when the 2 corner a Hog, Luke boxes in the Hog and takes the rear. Luke is much more laid back and manageable.

Blackie is a Brindle Mountain Cur and usually stay near Bob during a hunt. Blackie is the clean-up dog. He usually aids the other 2 when the hog is too big.

ALL dogs are fitted with location collars. Bob uses the Wildlife Material brand. The tracking collars and antenna costed 670 dollars and are good out to 14 miles.

The dogs are let out on a active trail. Bob scouts the area prior and finds the active trails and gets permission from landowners. The dogs usually run silent until they actually see a Hog. The dogs (Buck & Luke) corner the hog. If the hog is a larger hog the dogs barking becomes louder and and more frequent. Blackie usually joins the fray when he hears the action. If the hog is smaller the dogs quit barking and all you hear is the pig squealing. Buck takes the front Luke the back. It is very important to get to your dogs quickly so they are not injured. Bob has a couple 4 wheelers to expedite getting to dogs.

Bob uses a 7MM as his weapon of choice for hogs. He has used a 243 in the past and believes the caliber is too small. Bob says he does NOT take a typical front shoulder shot on hogs. The shoulder blades and hips are almost armor plated and hard to get a good kill shot. Bob tries to place his shot directly in front of the hide leg centered. The hog usually dies with 15 seconds of shot. Bob biggest Boar (male) he ever shot absorbed a shot from a 243 in the front shoulder and didn't even flinch. Bob uses ONLY iron sights due to the close proximity of the shot and scope doesn't show whole picture.

The best times of the year to hunt wild hogs in Hog Heaven is at the end of deer hunting and before turkey hunting starts. Bob believes the Russian hog lines were brought in by a now closed game farm from the area that had escapees. Most of the wild hogs in the area have a certain percentage of Russian and domestic hog in them.
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Hogman and Dave Benzing with a 130 lbs hog. Benzing shot the hogs from 125 yards running. Iron sights

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Below information supplied by Mike Cross (Conservation Warden Crawford County)
Thanks Mike.
.
Feral hogs in Wisconsin are an unwanted species for several reasons. Disease, crop damage, property damage, erosion, and competition for food top the concerns. Presently feral hogs are Classified as an unprotected species. Anyone interested in hunting them must possess a small game hunting license. There is no registration, tagging, season, or hunting hour restrictions.
The DNR and USDA-Wildlife Services confirm that feral hogs cause "considerable" crop damage, primarily to corn during it's early development stage and "milk" stage. In addition to the crop damage concern is the disease risk. Feral hogs are know to carry pseudo rabies and Swine Brucellosis. Being a wild animal the risk of attack to humans exists, however there has been no attack reports received in our area. Like any other wild animal, especially a feral hog, it's a possibility. But, not a cause to stay indoors. The feral hogs are extremely wild and flee when human scent or presence in detected.

Origin at the present time is unknown. They are either domestic hogs gone feral or they were illegally stocked. For the most part, the feral hogs appearance is like a Russian Boar, even though color varies from black, to brown, to multicolor.

During the 2008 winter trapping efforts, USDA-Wildlife Services was responsible for the removal (trapping/shooting) of 20 feral hogs and the DNR killed one other. Private property owners/hunters killed another 4. 25 total killed this winter that we are aware of. The DNR, State Dept. of Ag and USDA encourage citizens to report sightings.


dan
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Re: Hog Heaven

Unread postby dan » Sat Feb 20, 2010 11:58 am

Great post Len!
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Re: Hog Heaven

Unread postby huntinnurse » Tue Feb 23, 2010 4:32 am

For a minute there I thought you were gonna post a pic or 2 of a place I liked to hang out and shoot pool in the Keys............. :P
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.John 3:16 KJV
DevinJD2007
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Re: Hog Heaven

Unread postby DevinJD2007 » Wed Feb 24, 2010 2:49 pm

dan wrote:Great post Len!


X2 it was a great read thanks for posting it Len.
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Re: Hog Heaven / Wisconsin wild pigs

Unread postby dan » Tue Jun 08, 2010 7:20 am

The one thing I don't like about Wisconsins handling of the feral hog problem is that you can't kill a wild pig in Wisconsin unless you purchase a small game license 1st. This means you could not shoot one while deer hunting, or in the off season even if its doing damage unless you happen to also posses a small game license.
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Dewey
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Re: Hog Heaven / Wisconsin wild pigs

Unread postby Dewey » Tue Jun 08, 2010 6:52 pm

dan wrote:The one thing I don't like about Wisconsins handling of the feral hog problem is that you can't kill a wild pig in Wisconsin unless you purchase a small game license 1st. This means you could not shoot one while deer hunting, or in the off season even if its doing damage unless you happen to also posses a small game license.

That's our DNR for ya, always trying to make some extra cash. Kinda like selling 18,000 antlerless tags in unit 69 instead of calling it a herd reduction unit. :roll:
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Re: Hog Heaven / Wisconsin wild pigs

Unread postby solocam88 » Fri Oct 01, 2010 2:53 pm

This is a good post, Do they have a general idea of how many hogs are killed in WI yearly?
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Re: Hog Heaven / Wisconsin wild pigs

Unread postby huntinnurse » Fri Oct 01, 2010 7:17 pm

I think that is typical for any DNR. Hogs and other feral/exotic animals here in TX, you can hunt 24/7/365 with or without lights, any weapon, but, you still need a license to do it. I have no problem with that. They have (and so do I) what is called the Super Combo ($69). It covers: Gun, archery, Saltwater,freshwater (fishing), upland birds, Migratory birds, 1 Red drum (gulf or bay), 4 turkey tags(1 eaastern, 3 rios), Mule deer( one either, 1 antlerless), whitetails (my county I hunt is a 5 deer county). You get alot for your $$ here. And you see the results in the of that $$ in various things around the state, the first thing that comes to mind is the state parks are fabulous here. Some, you can get a permit to hunt as well. To hunt public here you have to get drawn and get a permit. If you don't complete the survey they want, and try to get a drawn the following year, you will be denied. There is not alot of public land here, amazing for the size of the state. Most peoplew get the super combo. However, it skews the # of archery hunters in the count of who hunts bow and who hunts gun. The hog problem here is getting real bad in places, especially those that were blessed with good rain thru the year, like where I live. Seeing more dead hogs on the roadways than you see deer. And they can do as much damage as a deer to your car!!!!
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.John 3:16 KJV
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Re: Hog Heaven / Wisconsin wild pigs

Unread postby dan » Fri Oct 01, 2010 9:01 pm

solocam88 wrote:This is a good post, Do they have a general idea of how many hogs are killed in WI yearly?

From what I heard last, sounds like they have just about killed em all now.
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Re: Hog Heaven / Wisconsin wild pigs

Unread postby solocam88 » Sat Feb 09, 2013 9:14 am

Any reports out there if they are still seeing/shooting hogs in WI?

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Re: Hog Heaven / Wisconsin wild pigs

Unread postby Sabreguy » Sat Aug 24, 2013 4:59 am

good looking dogs, hogman. i enjoyed the write up , Me and my buddies like to use spears and knives if we dont take them alive, i dig the action of a hog hunt,Thanks, Keith
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Re: Hog Heaven / Wisconsin wild pigs

Unread postby matt1336 » Sat Aug 24, 2013 9:44 am

I was thinking that the reason the dnr requires a small game license to hunt hogs was to avoid people without the training (hunters Ed) from hunting and handling guns. That's just my .02.

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UntouchableNess
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Re: Hog Heaven / Wisconsin wild pigs

Unread postby UntouchableNess » Sat Aug 24, 2013 11:30 am

dan wrote:The one thing I don't like about Wisconsins handling of the feral hog problem is that you can't kill a wild pig in Wisconsin unless you purchase a small game license 1st. This means you could not shoot one while deer hunting, or in the off season even if its doing damage unless you happen to also posses a small game license.


Well, Iowa requires that you buy a "general" small game hunting license first, before deer and turkey tags on top of that. You have to have it to hunt deer/turkey.


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