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Are you fully equipped for when the SHTF? Have you bought all the tactical gear you need for TEOTWAWKI? Are your friends starting to whisper ‘mall ninja’ behind your back? You need to take your tactical gear out and get it dirty. Shooting at the range is pretty far down on the adrenaline generation scale. Those paper targets don’t move much. Not to mention that the looks you get from the other shooters when you show up wearing BDUs and an LBE vest stuffed with mags can be kind of embarrassing. You need to get out and train on something that’s alive…

And Texas has just the place(s) for you. The Wall Street Journal highlights a budding new mini-industry taking shooters out to hunt the pesky porkers.

Tactical Hog Control, started in 2009 by Texas ranchers Clark Osborne and Mr. Dreher, is among a handful of next-generation outfitters across the South offering a new style of hog hunting designed to appeal to hunters’ inner commando. Each client on a nocturnal hunt with the two men suits up with roughly $40,000 of military-grade gear, including semiautomatic rifles like the DPMS AR-10. The men prowl bumpy pastures and farmland in off-road vehicles bristling with gun racks and infrared headlights.

“I believe every man in the U.S. has a tactical gene,” said Rod Pinkston, an Army veteran and former Olympic sharp-shooting coach whose Jager Pro guide service conducts high-tech hog hunts in western Georgia. “They’ve always wanted to be a soldier, a SWAT team member. We’re the closest thing to combat that these guys are ever going to experience.”

These guides take tactical Walter Mittys out on six hour hunts at $500 a pop. Many states have no limit to the number of feral hogs you can shoot in a night due to the damage they cause to crops and their designation as invasive species in some locales. The fun of the hunt has even inspired literary creativity among some shooters.

This little piggy got an arrow
this little piggy got lead
this little piggy got buckshot
all the little piggies got dead

The immortal words of hunting bard, Ted Nugent

So don’t let that tactical gear collect dust. You have to train to keep your skills sharp anyway, right? Might as well get in some practice stalking, reduce a nuisance population and bring home some chops for the grill all at the same time. Better to zero that scope, gear up and let porky know who’s boss.

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28 COMMENTS

  1. I live outside Austin, and don’t have hogs on my property YET. But they’re getting close. The hog population is out of control, with no real possibility of halting the growth, let alone causing it to decline. There was a story a couple months ago about hogs tearing up a neighborhood in north Austin. People could see them at night, but couldn’t shoot them because of Austin’s prohibition on firing guns inside the city limit. That’s why TX needs a law like FL just implemented to make sure that no municipality can simply ban using firearms like that.

  2. I live outside Dallas and have no problem with hogs. However, the bobcats run through my neighborhoods like Donald Trump in a hairspray factory. The city told me if I introduce one to my shotgun, I’ll end up in jail.

  3. I read the headline to quickly and thought it said “Tactical Wannabes Find a New Target: Federal Hogs.” But no, that would be so wrong. Still . . . .

  4. I was quail hunting just north of Laredo a few years ago and a hog about the size of a Shetland pony came out of the cactus towards me full bore. The bird shot didn’t slow it down but a very lucky shot from my .22 pistol dropped it dead in its tracks. DPMS AR-10 my a$$!

    • Gage, That is exactly why I carry a .357 on hip when hunting.

      Well that and the random redneck meth heads in their not so well hidden outdoor labs, I would rather run in with moonshiners any day compared to the tweakers.

  5. Buying a chest rig for a Magpul/Vickers/Pantone/Howe carbine class? Ok.
    Wearing said chest rig every time you go to the local range? Lame.
    Wearing a couple kydex pouches on your belt at the range? Ok.

  6. Tacticool sucks. Well more it was annoying as hell wearing the old LBEs in ROTC. I dunno about the newer rigs but give me a good pair of crago pants I’ll carry my ammo that way.

    Shooting feral hogs, well, I can somehow see the need for night vision. But eh…

    Seriously mall ninjas. You don’t pull out that gear unless S -really- HTF. But eh…what floats their boat. Probably need some justification in buying all that stuff.

  7. I have some friends here in north Texas that are heavily into this. They use everything from big knives to suppressed, night-scoped 6.8 Rem AR-15’s. I saw video of one of their hunts where they weren’t just using night vision, they were using thermal IR scopes! Except for the exotic guns and scopes, they don’t really go all tacticool. Apparently, this kind of thing is getting real popular because they are in negotiations for a TV show. Yes, ANOTHER “reality” show!

    One of my best buddies just sprang $4000 for a digital nightscope that even has a USP port for camcorder linkup. I’ve got to admit to a bit of gear envy whenever he mentions his latest acquisition.

    Yes, it’s all pretty over the top.

  8. If Texans would give up beef in favor of pork for their barbeque and ribs, the situation with the feral hogs would resolve itself. Practically overnight. 🙂

  9. In Florida feral hogs are only a regulated game animal on public land. Any hog on private property is assumed to be the property of the landowner, and can be disposed of in any manner seen fit.

    Yes, they do tremendous damage to the land and also to anything on the land – including ground nesting birds, like quail. Night time is, without a doubt, the best time to hunt them.

    Of course if you really want to add some excitement to the mix get down on the ground with them. Those little piggies can get downright mean.

  10. I prefer a full choke 12 bore 870 and Dixie Tri-Ball buckshot. Three .60 caliber hard cast buckshot pellets put a hog down fast!

  11. Its amazing how many “real men” want to dress up like GI joe to kill something, but can’t,do manly stuff like rehab houses for elderly or poor people in their community, or help volunteer to assist nieghborhood youth sports!

    I’ve go hunted before. All you need is a good pig reserve, a decent bolt action rifle, a canteen and a decent guide if its your first time(and a license if your state requires it-quite a few don’t as pigs are considered wild vermin)

    “dressing up like recon ranger ” is silly( I’ve worn surplus bdu pants and a booney hat, but only cause if they get muddy or torn over my longjohns, i don’t give a shit! My old jeans work just as well)

    The thrill of the hunt is cool, the thrill of the kill?? No-hog equals meat for FOOD,whether you donate it or dress it and carted of the butchers as future refrigerator fillings.

    It doesn’t replace stalking and shooting man-something that is neither cool nor taken lightly….

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