Chinas. Yet, everywhere I’ve hunted feral pigs, from Florida to California, local experts confi dently explain the differences between “true Rooshians” and pigs-gone-wild. Pigs spread rapidly because fe-
males normally have at least two litters each year. In favorable habitat they can have three litters in 14 months, and each litter can number a dozen piglets. Pigs are omnivorous, and not only tear up the landscape (including crops) with their rooting, but eat other animals, especially other animals that didn’t evolve with wild pigs. One in- ternational conservation organization lists feral pigs among their Top 100 “harmful invasive species.” Originally they survived mostly in southern North America, but lately they’ve spread as far north as Wisconsin and Michigan, though the largest population is in Texas, an estimated two million. I have never, ever heard a Texas
rancher call feral pigs a “harmful, in- vasive species.” Instead they use more colorful language. If you visit a few Texas ranches and ask to shoot pigs, you’ll eventually get permission, but for many busy people it’s easier to book a pig hunt. These normally cost less than one-tenth as much as a hunt for the Texas National Animal, the white-tailed deer. The price usually includes being put up at the ranch, along with some degree of guiding. There are as many ways to hunt
Texas pigs as there are ways to make barbeque. They live just about every- where in the state except the far west and northern Panhandle, where there isn’t enough water. I’ve hunted them from the huge King Ranch in South Texas to the oak forests near Arkansas to the broken hills west of Fort Worth, using several different methods. Probably the most common meth-
od is baiting. It’s even legal to bait deer in the state, one reason electric corn feeders sprout like mechanical trees from almost any clearing. The most se- rious pig-baiter I’ve hunted with is Bill Wilson, owner of the Wilson Combat company that makes handguns, AR- 15s, and shotguns. Bill and his company are from Arkansas, but he also has a ranch in northeast Texas, mostly for pig hunting, though some white-tails are taken as well. Wild pigs are well-known for be-
ing nocturnal, and become even more so with hunting pressure, the reason it’s traditional even in Europe (where wild boars are considered a top game ani- mal) to hunt them at night. In Europe, however, the use of artifi cial light is generally illegal, so most night hunting is done over fi elds by moonlight, the reason Europe is still known for big, bright rifl escopes with heavy reticles. Texas considers pigs varmints,
with no restrictions on hunting. They can be shot in unlimited numbers at any time, with anything that will do the job. Consequently the corn feeders on Bill’s ranch are illuminated by battery- powered red lights, allowing shooting even on dark nights. As with other varmints, the red lights don’t alarm pigs, and it’s interesting to sit in one of his shooting houses on an evening and watch the daylight-to-dark progression of animals, from cottontails and deer to raccoons and pigs. I sat near a feeder my fi rst night
on the ranch. After watching the wild- life parade for an hour the last trace of natural light disappeared from the sky, and the only area visible was the dim circle of red under the feeder. The parade of rabbits and deer had disap- peared, probably because of coyotes heard howling from several directions. I was there to shoot a pig, yet it was still rather startling to see a shadow move near the base of an oak tree 30 feet from the feeder.
I raised the Wilson AR-15 and
looked through the Burris scope, the il- luminated center of the crosshairs a tiny red dot in the darkness. The shadow looked even more pig-like, but the front third of the pig appeared to be behind
Feral pigs come in any color, even in the same litter. Sows can easily produce two litters of a dozen piglets a year, the reason feral hogs are spreading across North America.
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