This right here. I fell down the “wild boar problem” rabbit hole a couple years ago. I was curious about what controls have been tried and what could be done to bring things back into balance. The statistic I read said that 75000 boars must be killed per year in Texas just to keep their numbers stable there. Holy hell. That’s a lot of dangerous game hunting.
The problem is that there are not nearly enough people that hunt to even keep the population stable through hunting. The fact that hog hunting has become a business is the reason that real solutions to wiping out feral populations aren’t making headway.
JayleneSlide@lemmy.world 4 days ago
HelixDab2@lemm.ee 4 days ago
If I was going to guess, the actual numbers killed are far, far lower than that. Especially since there are a lot of very large private hunting preserves that intentionally try to keep their feral pig population high so that they can attract paying hunters.
libra00@lemmy.world 5 days ago
Oh I know, I was being sarcastic, doing the typical redneck ‘lol we shootin’ ‘em fer fun, what’s the problem?!’ type thing.
JamesTBagg@lemmy.world 5 days ago
When I moved out of Texas in 2016, some friends told me there was a $5 bounty for hog tails from the state. So, you could do it for more than fun; less than a dollar a round for .308, then 5 dollars per tail… that’s a decent profit.
HelixDab2@lemm.ee 4 days ago
Man, I wish good .308 ammo was only $1/round… Even if I’m loading it myself, good 6.5CM ammo (defined as sub-MOA performance) costs about $1/ea. with Hornady 147gr ELD-M bullets, and that’s only if I ignore how much I’ve sunk into a press and case prep.
JamesTBagg@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Yeah, this was before the industry decided on their panic price increaes. It’s weird how post panic prices never corrected. Going shooting is almost painful now on the wallet.
libra00@lemmy.world 5 days ago
Assuming you’re a good shot and can hit a moving target. More than a couple-three rounds per hog and you start getting into marginal territory.