Growing hog wild

Pig populations create opportunities, problems

Ross Romine killed this wild hog Tuesday while deer hunting in Grant County. Hogs have proliferated the area, competing with deer and turkeys for food but creating hunting opportunities.

Ross Romine killed this wild hog Tuesday while deer hunting in Grant County. Hogs have proliferated the area, competing with deer and turkeys for food but creating hunting opportunities.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

— In just one year, wild hogs have colonized another portion of a big hunting club in northern Grant County.

Club members are divided over whether it’s good or bad, but one thing is for certain: The hogs are entrenched and thriving, and they are expanding their range.

“On the one hand, I don’t think they’re good for our deer and turkey,” said Mike Romine, a club officer. “On the other hand, that’s one more thing for us to hunt, and they sure do taste good.”

Through 2011, hogs were found only in a small portion of this 4,000-acre property. It was a low-lying area with a year-round creek. If you wanted to kill a hog, that’s where you went, but you weren’t guaranteed to see a hog.

Now, club members’ chances of seeing and killing hogs are much better over a much larger area. Alfred Romine killed a pig from his deer stand early in the modern gun deer season, and Ross Romine killed a big sow in the same area Tuesday. It weighed nearly 200 pounds and was growing some formidable tusks.

The sow was with a big group of shoats, several of which were still nursing. He shot the sow at a range of nearly 200 yards with a Remington Model 700 chambered in .308 Win. He used factory ammo tipped with a 150-grain Barnes TTSX bullet. It was a perfect heart shot, and the sow ran only a short distance before dying.

The hogs were running at the edge of a fresh cutover bordering a big pine thicket. Even though the ground still has a lot of stumps and pine litter, the hogs had churned up the soil so badly that it looked as if a tractor had pulled a disc over it.

Alfred Romine said he’d been watching the hogs working the area. Even at long distances, he said, you could see them throwing dirt high in the air with their snouts.

I observed evidence of extreme rooting activity in early November at Bois d’Arc Wildlife Management Area, which harbors a large concentration of hogs. There also was a larger concentration of fresh, green vegetation than what one usually sees in deep woods. Soil disturbance stimulates plant growth, which prompts a question of whether hogs might bring unexpected benefits.

Jason Honey, turkey biologist for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said hogs bring no positive biological consequences of any kind. Food supplies are limited in the wild, Honey said, and hogs have voracious appetites. Food consumed by hogs is food not consumed by deer, turkey and other game. This can damage the health of more desirable, native wildlife. Burt Carey, of the National Wild Turkey Federation in Edgehill, S.C., has concurred.

Emon Mahony, a member of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said other things might cause a profusion of greenery. For example, a club he hunts in southwest Arkansas near Bois d’Arc has lost a significant number of nuttall oaks. Mature hardwoods have also lost limbs from ice storms. The loss or reduction of overhead cover, Mahony said, exposes the forest floor to more sunlight, which encourages understory growth.

Regardless, hog populations have passed critical mass in many parts of the state, to the point where eradication is no longer practical or even possible. The hunting media now promotes hog hunting with how-to articles. Savage Arms offers a special hog-hunting rifle, and several ammunition manufacturers are making special hog loads.

Hog numbers will probably continue to grow in Grant County. For better or worse, they represent a significant hunting opportunity for the clubs that have them.

Sports, Pages 26 on 12/02/2012