FWIW:
If you want thin them out , the following is based on 6 years in Central Europe , 4 of them with NATO resident Bavarian or Hessian hunting licenes and a couple or 3 Belgian nonresident permits.
Shoot the females , leave the males alone . It's a lot easier to post than it is to do . The ideal within the German system is based on thinning out the young females very hard and leaving the males alone until they are harvest ripe . Within that system the ideal top tier trophy boar is a very big animal with large tusks just past his prime. The ideal conservation trophy would be an old , over ripe boar , buck ram , or stag that is well past his prime , has eluded hunters for a season or two ( or more ) and is likely to go to waste if not taken down . It's a completely different mindset than ours but it works well for them.
Germany has a lot of pigs , significant but limited property & enviornmental damage and historically , the hunting rocked. Obviously the US wild pig situation is completely different.
The temptation is too shoot every pig you see . IMO that will never work . The hogs get smart too fast and they can multiple faster than they can be killed indiscriminately . Besides , the sows are better groceries . Dead pigs make great hog bait , but just leaving dead pigs laying around unattended ( not covered by fire periodically ) is completely self defeating . More high grade food equals faster multiplying . Hogs move around a lot , which makes controling them even tougher. Pigs in the US are likely to be a significant PITA for a long time.
FWIW and good luck.
Last edited by A-Bear680; 10-22-11 at 09:43.
Reason: Clarity.
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