Let me first start off by saying that hogs are a HUGE problem for ranchers and farmers in Texas. Not only do they cause a lot of damage to crops they also destroy the land with their non stop rooting. The hog population has exploded in recent years and that explosion has just begun to be documented on networks such as Discovery Channel and the History Channel. The problem these ranchers and farmers are facing is that there is no such thing as a “natural” predator for a hog once it reaches 20lbs and therefore the population is left unchecked and continues to increase exponentially.

Hogs are also a great entry point for new hunters. There’s no season to wait for, you just get geared up and go. I’ve taken a lot of new people hunting and introduced them to hog hunting first. It’s a great, inexpensive way to allow a new hunter (or young hunter) to get the experience of putting an animal on the ground. Here you can teach them about shot placement and dealing with nerves and excitement once an animal walks out. Especially with someone new to hunting I’d much rather see them miss a hog than miss a whitetail they paid hard earned money for. Get them the experience of shooting some hogs and putting some of that great pork on the table and you’ll have a hunter for life.

So consider the above statements as the closest thing to a pseudo disclaimer I can muster. The fact is hogs are a problem and shooting them is literally a blast. I like it because it’s just flat out fun. With no seasons and no limits hogs are one of the funnest, cheapest, and all year long animals to hunt. Not only do I get to have a lot of fun hunting but it allows me the pleasure of providing a lot of food for myself, my family, my friends and awesome programs like Hunters for the Hungry. So don’t get me wrong I love and respect hunting and whitetail is where it’s at but hogs are a real problem so any chance I get to hunt them I jump at it.

The guys let me know we were headed out to a ranch to shoot some hogs and I was in the truck before I hung up the phone. This hunt was one of those hunts where the hogs had gone nuts on a property and we were going to get them on the ground as best we could. What I didn’t know was the guys from USA Ammo were going to meet us on this hunt. These guys have an incredible website with a huge catalog of products and I’m pretty sure they brought most of it with them on this trip.

This trip was awesome but what you don’t see on the show is that we did a lot of blind hunting each morning and evening. The problem was we couldn’t get any of these hogs to come into the stand for us to unleash the Bowtech Destroyers on. Not one hog would co-operate with us and what footage we did have was at night and we couldn’t use it. Talk about frustrating. However since we couldn’t hunt these hogs in some stands that were already set up we took to the good old fashioned spot and stalk. With hogs sometimes this is where you have most of your luck. For me, it was crazy. I never had five hogs come running past me so close and thanks to the guys at USA Ammo I’ve never been more prepared. Let me be very clear again and say that we weren’t trophy hunting whitetails we were there to exterminate a problem. With that being said, I let the trigger finger take over and the red dot affix itself to each one of those hogs. After letting the DPMS .223 rip it was time to make sure that each hog that was hit (and it was five for five) was quickly and humanely dispatched with the Glock 20. Not one hog was wounded and not recovered. Each hog that was shot at was killed and the best part was we got to send all of the meat home with some police officers who were also there to hunt hogs but not as fortunate on their hunts as we were.

This was a great hunt and trust me it isn’t like hunting whitetail at all. With deer it’s all about managing a herd and taking great care to make sure those deer grow to the right ages before they are taken. However with hogs it’s a flat out fight for land and resources and with over 50 million dollars in property damage here in Texas alone it’s our job as hunters to get out there and help get rid of them. I just think you should have fun doing it too!

Get out and hunt,
Steve