Hog Hunting Tip: Do it the Right Way!

There was not always hogs or hog hunting in North America. Hogs were brought over by Spanish explorers as a food source. These visitors let hogs roam free-range and would slaughter them as necessary. However, some of these domesticated hogs wondered off, creating a feral breeding population, and thus feral hogs were born. Now, shooting this non-native species is mostly unregulated, but that may not mean that it’s “anything goes.”

Many hog people do not understand hunters who think that gut shooting a big boar is okay, as long as you don’t gut shoot a whitetail. I know full well the hog problem many areas face. I am aware of the damage that they cause. I kill a lot of pigs on my place and also work on shooting, trapping and killing pigs on numerous other properties. In fact, I’m often out hunting pigs on work nights when most folks are at home in bed.

I’ve seen first-hand what feral can do to a property. My only gripe is that if you are going to put a bullet in them, at least make sure it’s a quick, human kill shot. I have no problem with letting them lay, as I have no problem shooting any feral animal. However, I can see no reason to gut shoot something just to let it run off and die in agony. There are already enough horribly shot animals (accidentally) that occur from folks carrying guns that call themselves hunters.

I am by no means a tree hugging jackass, but think about it. Why gut shoot an animal? There is no reason not to make a clean kill on a feral hog. Every time some non-hunter, or especially an animal rights activist, overhears someone talking about gut shooting something, I suspect they lose a little more respect for the guys that wear camo and call themselves hunters. That is not a hunter, but simply a killer, a shooter. The average person does not realize there is a difference between the two.

And if you think the average person does not matter, then let me put it to you this way. Hunters are already the minority. About 5 percent of the US population actually hunts. Way less than are involved in hog hunting, but another 5 percent of the US population classifies themselves as an “animal rights activist.” This may seem like an equal fight, at least until that 5 percent antis convinces the remaining 90 percent to not like hunting, ban hunting.

And when you talk about gut shooting anything, well, you are giving them just the ammo they need to convince others to stop hog hunting, deer hunting and every other type of hunting all together. After all, they don’t know the difference.