Pesky Critters

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  • Last Post 07 February 2015
Wineman posted this 01 February 2015

Saw this article and thought of Giorgio. We may have to add wild Boar to the list of creatures to survive the nuclear Armageddon which now is Rats and Cockroaches.

http://www.wineindustryinsight.com/ex_nf.php?url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/wine/11360416/How-wild-boars-are-causing-chaos-in-Tuscanys-vineyards.html>http://www.wineindustryinsight.com/exnf.php?url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/wine/11360416/How-wild-boars-are-causing-chaos-in-Tuscanys-vineyards.html

Dave

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SouthDakota4440 posted this 01 February 2015

Interesting post Dave.  They are a pain in parts of the US too.....Florida west through Texas, and even northward towards the Midwest.  Heard that western Iowa is even getting “invaded".  Thus far, nothing significant in South Dakota, although there have been several reports of boar spotted on the South Dakota/Minnesota State Line.  Not sure of all the details. Marc 

mm

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Wineman posted this 02 February 2015

I thought there was a Cable show dedicated to hunting boar that are becoming pests? One of my favorite winemakers, Dick Graff, who started Chalone Winery in the Monterrey area died in a plane crash. The wild Boar had messed with his landing lights on the winery runway and his night landing went badly. Tough animals, smart and elusive. With the number of hunters decreasing, and more urbanization the Boar seem to be getting the upper hand.

Dave

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bandmiller2 posted this 02 February 2015

When those hogs reach Ma. the goodie goodies will want them protected. All I need are those snouted dozers in my corn patch. Frank C.

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delmarskid1 posted this 03 February 2015

Wisconsin has had wild pigs in the south west of the state. Our states Department of Natural Resources is encouraging eradication. we can hunt them without a season with the purchase of a small game license.

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SouthDakota4440 posted this 03 February 2015

Dave.....you're correct.  It seems I did see a cable show called PIGMAN.  It's dedicated to catching wild boar.....mainly by trapping.  Seems like they were always always catching them from a clients property, tying them up ("hog tying") and transporting them somewhere.  For what's its worth, sometimes the outdoor hunting shows feature boar hunting in California or Texas. I've seen those big boys in both Germany and Northern France too....problems for those farmers too.  The German jaegers would hunt them either from a “hochsitz", i.e. tree stand, or drive them.  Some very fine drillings were carried as well.  Sorry to hear about the landing accident.....freaky.

mm

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gunarea posted this 03 February 2015

Dang

     It must be a Florida thing down here. “Wild boars” are not really any problem other than being the root of most situations. Packs of sows and piglets do most of our reported damage and are much more dangerous. Boars generally lead solitary lives except during service periods. Every pig in Florida has domesticated bloodlines with the additional label of feral attached to those uncontained. Hogs in Florida have no dedicated hunting season and are killed all year long. On private agricultural holdings, we kill them indiscriminately without restriction, reservation or licensing. As a non indigenous species they are viewed as pests by most. Just across the hi-way is a man selling hog killing opportunities under the guise of hog hunts. Stan has remarked to me “this is the best I ever done selling pigs". Just like the rat and roach, they are uncontrollable down here. I struggled with the feral pigs situation throughout my life until just recently. Trust me here, you can't kill them into submission. Honestly, I'm gonna miss their succulent aggravation.

     My Grandpa taught me how to keep them away from my personal space around the ranch. It's kinda gross, requires a reduced level of personal modesty and good memory to prevent embarrassing discoveries.

     You a pig killer? Go to the thread “So your a pig killer” and add expertise for the enlightenment and entertainment of others.

                                                                                              Roy

Shoot often, Shoot well

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tturner53 posted this 03 February 2015

A few years back I took my nephew on a paid guided pig hunt around Bakersfield. He was fixin' to go over there and this hunt was his send off. Turned out the two wild pigs we “found” out in wide open BLM land were castrated some how. Oh well. Delicious though.

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giorgio de galleani posted this 04 February 2015

I hunt boars in the Appennine mountains of Genoa ,where we use hounds and beaters , all organized in a team of merry friends .Unfortunately lead bullets are illegal for boars , but lead shot is legal for upland birds ,hares ,waterfowl and roe deer  and fallow deer.

There is no beauty in the  light  hollow pint copper bullets , 

In the hills along the Po river ,where I live , being in a different province of the very same nation there is no lead prohibition.

The country is much more densely populated ,with  paved roads and houses everywhere , and there are a lot of vineyards , producing the barbera wine .The farmers are favourable to the thinning of the wild pgs ,but it is not  the landscape for  big drives of hounds and beaters and lines of shooters. A more discreet approach is necessary

We have been promised a licence for hunting boars alone , using a scoped rifle, I am waiting for the course of lessons to begin in april. 

My scoped Ruger  N°1 in 375H&H is ready zeroed in  with a 300 grains LBT gas checked bullet.

Here ias my collection of my 375 nominal bullets , for  my 38 /55 and 375H&H guns .

They all shoot very well ,I size them to 379  ,the plainbase at subsonic speed ,and the Gas check bullets at 1500-1600 fps.

I use large rifle primers in the 38/55 and  Winchester large rifle or magnum primers of the other makers in the H&H case.

In the 375 I have an old CZ mod 602 and I had a post 64 winchester  70, they all shot better than I can hold with cast bullets .( yes the Mod 70 extractor was unreliable)

 

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tturner53 posted this 04 February 2015

Have fun Giorgio! Can we get a picture of that old CZ? I like CZ's.

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giorgio de galleani posted this 04 February 2015

The CZ modified mausers are great,as actually all the CZ products.

Alas ,many of them are imported in Italy with a horrible german style stock , with the cheekpiece sloped in the wrong way.

The 375 I got used in 1976 had a California stock ,with a nice montecarlo cheekpiece and a flat forend . Good from the bench and offhand .

I had a 458Winchester with the boer hump back ,and  I traded it away after half a box of cast bullet rounds .

I can shoot all day a Ruger  bolt gun in 458 Lott with stout cast bullet loads, it has a proper stock .

A proper stock is in a post war  CZ 98 , that born in 7X57 , converted to 7x64 for the french market and at last has become a 308w for me . Lovely and sturdy metal parts as is usual with Cz guns. 

My CZ in  a stand upn a high Tuscan tree . A Swiss army surplus binocular.i

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Wineman posted this 05 February 2015

Giorgio,

It is nice to know you are doing your part. My last visit to Italia was in 2009. We started in Venezia and went to Traviso and the Veneto for the Prosecco and horse for lunch (can not remember the Italian translation). Then to Cortona and Creti on Good Friday. Amazing the processions after dark! Romans, Jesus with his Cross, the Mass. Spent Easter Sunday in Motntepulciano. Spent some time in Florence and Chianti and finally to Roma. My first trip was in 1982, this was better. Had the Sistine Chapel to ourselves for at least 30 minutes in the morning with our guide. Your country is amazing and I would love to go again.

Dave

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giorgio de galleani posted this 05 February 2015

Do come and visit , I can show you some nice places.as Ed Harris did a couple of years ago.

Ed shooting a Mousqueton Berthier in the hills of Acqui terme.

M. W. Curtess posted this 05 February 2015

Feral Hogs are becoming an increasingly serious problem here in the Texas central Coast area. Ours seem to be a European Boar & Domestic Hybrid, in which the Boar is the dominant gene. They merely respond to hunting pressure with increased birth-rates. Something (?) eventually must be done to control/eradicate them. In addition to the staggering cost to agriculture, they take a serious toll via being a common traffic hazard. Hitting a mature one on the hiway does incredible damage to modern plastic and flimsy sheet-metal auto construction, but so far no indication that the auto insurance industry has become concerned. Hog meat has long been a staple of local diets (with predictable high incidence of colon cancer, etc). The only likely solution will be in bio-engineering (infect them with something that makes the offspring sterile) but so far such a program has not been concieved (?) or funded. Meanwhile, hogs individually respond to large cast lead projectiles very satisfactorily, at ranges that “Buffalo Rifles” excel at. (Just not nearly enough bullet casters around here to be of benefit). (I've done my part, tho.) I am retired from the Wildlife Management field, and thus far too familiar with the anti-gun, anti-hunting, “Bunny-Hugger” hysteria,  (Another emerging problem - yet to be sufficiently recognized and effectively addressed.)

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giorgio de galleani posted this 05 February 2015

I prefer  a policy of  hunting them all the year round, using the drives with hounds and  surrounding them with short range big bore rifles, where the topography of the landscape allows.

And snipe at them all the year round with scpes and night visors ,  using electric feeders clock controlled. It is quite a system to date in ambush.

All these options are costless , for the taxpayers, Imagine how much would cost ,in our  Banana republic , the operation of  caching and sterilizing the sows.

American wild hogs ,mixed with  domestic pigs gone AWOL are bigger than  the Po valley specimens , where an adult female is around 150 lbs on the hoof and big males are around  30% bigger.

The tender and juicy yearlings are around the  80 lbs mark. 

A dozen ready for the butchers.

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M. W. Curtess posted this 07 February 2015

Officially considered “exotics” (and therefore “non-game") here, as far as I know there are no restricions on hunting them -altho (possibly except for the land-owner?) holding a current hunting license is a good idea. Normal rules (such as no shooting from, or across, a public road) applies. The point is: That casual hunter harvesting has simply intensified the problem. Maybe it is because ours have some domestic genes, males and females are constantly associated, and there does not appear to be a defined “service” season (as there is for Deer, for instance).  "Sportsmen” commonly hunt (and subdue) them with dogs, and one faction makes it a point to kill them with knives. (There is no “wrong” way to kill a Feral Hog.)  Subsistence, and (technically “illegal") commercial hunters most commonly trap them-sometimes in incredible numbers.  The population simply multiplies as a result. Females breed before they are one year old, have litters of 6-8 twice yearly, and (aside from alligators) have no natural “enemies".  Adults are reasonably intelligent, and seem to know the distance from the average ambulatory hunter that is “safe", and they commonly choose to cross alligator-infested waterways via hiway bridges, where they commonly collide with vehicular traffic.

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giorgio de galleani posted this 07 February 2015

They are clever animals indeed , they can read Italian and English ,and most navigate internet , but only after dark.

Their number decreased only a couple of years ago , but only in the scarsely cultivated areas of our  Appennine highlands ,because the chestnut trees got a Chinese fly illness, and the winter was long and snowy.

And now they have learned to feed on different food and their number is slowly gowing up again .

Their number appears to be controlled by the quantity of available food and water and the winter snow .

We should hunt them with the intensity deployed by the hungry hillibillies  of the past centuries, but to days human population is made in the majority by gun hating  vegetarian bambi huggers.

They  ford the creeks  at the same fords used by humans.  The Marlin 45/70 was compelled by stupid laws to feed with copper bullets .

giorgio de galleani posted this 07 February 2015

Please ,pardon me , the rifle is the 444 marlin fed with 350 plus ranchdog bullets,it was before the stupid laws.

The houds risk their life for our sport.

ubetcha posted this 07 February 2015

delmarskid1 wrote: Wisconsin has had wild pigs in the south west of the state. Our states Department of Natural Resources is encouraging eradication. we can hunt them without a season with the purchase of a small game license. I spring turkey in Eastman which is just north of Prarie Du Chein and was  talking with the land owner about wild pigs. He stated that he has not seen any pigs nor has heard of and in the area. I believe that the area where the critters started was just north of there. I'm kind of hoping to do my part to get rid of them.

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