that big a problem then can it? Reading the article referenced here http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090219/ap_on_re_us/pork_choppers;_ylt=Agd83LhiH2x2G5CQ6BzgMe534T0D you start to say WOW, it must really be getting bad. Yet I couldn't help but think, well if they weren't so tight with access they could have had lots of bow kills. And you read what they're going to do and you have to ask, how cost effect is hunting from Choppers going to be? They've been hiring professionals to hunt from choppers. Flight time has to cost them. And then you say, boy they got a problem. But the true Texas land barron mentality shines through. They want to pass a law letting sportsmen hunt from choppers to help control pigs. And almost as an after thought they say, "Of course the sportsmen would have to pay the land owners to hunt". Must not be that big a problem afterall. They pay professionals to kill them. We have and would have hunted pigs for years if they let us on. They create the problem and now wnat to sportsmen to pay to help..... OR.... they'll pay professionals to flie around in helicopters. Something wrong with that.
No question that sportsmen could have a huge impact on the Texas hog population. I hog hunt whenever I get a chance. Its something that is a ton of fun and wild pork is just tasty. I have personally asked dozens of property owners for permission to hunt and the response is almost always about how much they want me tto pay. On two separate occasions I have overheard ranchers talking about problems with hogs. Once in a cafe and once in a feed store. I interuppted politely on both occasions and offered to help by bowhunting the hogs. I offered references from other property owners. On both occasions I was asked how much I was willing to pay per hog or per day. On both occasions I politely declined the opportunity to pay to hunt. I gave my card to each gentleman and asked them to call me if I could help resolve their hog problem for free. I haven't ever heard from them. I don't guess the problem was too awful bad.
