Wild Hog Roundup’ reduces feral numbers

Wild hog hunters were out in force the past weekend, looking to reduce the number of feral hogs in the area.

Marvin Stewart, 50, of Warner Robins staged his third annual Wild Hog Round-up to help area farmers.

“It’s named that because hunting clubs used to go after feral hogs and kill them right before spring planting to help out farmers,” Stewart said. “Hogs can destroy plants easily.”

The Jan. 28 issue of Georgia Outdoor News notes that Georgia is one of 39 states sharing in $20 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to battle swine infestation. The state’s share was $295,000.

Stewart said the roundup of feral hogs attracted 17 teams of four persons with their dogs.

The teams had three days – Friday, Saturday and Sunday – to hunt and had to bring their catch by 3 p.m. Sunday to Georgia’s Best Processing on Aultman Road in Peach County north of Perry. There the hogs were weighed and measured.

All hunters had to obtain permission to hunt on private property, he said. Hunters came from all over the state, including Cairo, Albany and Wilcox County.

There were two main categories: the biggest (weight) and the baddest (length of teeth). A third category, Stringers, was for the weight of a team’s three biggest hogs.

There was also the Stand category, where the hunter could shoot the boar using a tree stand.

The biggest winner was 236 pounds, he said, brought in by the Hard Core Hog Dogs team, and the baddest, with more than 5 ½ inches of teeth, was brought in by the Hog Stalker team.

“That’ll give you all the bragging rights,” Stewart said.

The top stringer weighed in at 584 pounds, and was collected by the Deep Cut team.

There was no limit on the number of hogs, he said.

Houston County’s Josh Bloodworth won the stand category with a 105-pound boar, he said.

“I saw trucks bringing in 12, 17, 21 hogs, even 40 hogs that totaled 251 pounds,” he said. “They were mostly smaller pigs.”

Other states hold feral eradication programs, he said.

He started in the business three years ago. Before that, Bass Pro Shops in Macon sponsored a hunt one year but didn’t renew the event. At the urging of friends and hunt club members, Stewart began the Wild Hog Roundup three years ago, he said.

First year saw eight teams, 12 teams the second year and 17 teams this year. Each team has four men on it.

“The main reason for that is it is much easier to handle your dogs and help prepare the hogs with four people on your team,” he said.

Some hogs were processed and a few were donated to charities, he said. Some went to food banks and some to a South Georgia group staging a fund-raising event called “The Wild Game Supper.”

You only use boars for the hunt, but can use sows in the Stringer category.

Stewart, born and raised in Houston County, said he’s been hunting 30 years.

He started off hunting quail, and when numbers dwindled went to hunting hogs.

“We do it before planting and after deer season gives out,” he said. “Some thought about doing it earlier in the winter, but when hunters lay out their deer food plots a hog can destroy that in one night.”

HHJ News