I am having trouble wrapping my head around the companies that charge for wild hog removal? How is there a market for them to get paid to do it when there are unlimited hunters that will do it for free??? Don't get me wrong, more power to those businesses, I just don't understand have they make a living off of something people offer to do for free... Anyone shed some light on this situation?

Because of the insurance that is required for their business. People do not have to worry about them damaging their place or sueing them if they get hurt. I know it is sad that we as hunters have to pay to do the same thing that others get paid to do. Isn't this country great.

I also have a hard time understanding this, but it happens. I think if you were able to get to know some landowners then they would let you come kill some hogs for free. I can see how a landowner wouldn't want to let just anyone come out with guns and roam their property.

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The easiest way to get rid of them by far in large numbers is to build a hog trap that is measured in acreage, not square footage. If a person was going to spend the money to extract even a small number of hogs by hiring someone to do it I think their money would be a lot better spent building a large hog trap that will hold hundreds of them at a time. Some friends of mine did this on a 6000 acre lease that I was in down in Louisiana several years ago and pretty much eliminated them from the property....

Not only is it the cost of insurance but in our case you are paying for the ability to use our gear and ammo as well as our long list of landowners and our knowledge of when and where the hogs will be as we guarantee to put you on pigs. I feel it is worth something to pay for a hunt where you have a guaranteed shot on free chase hunting using $50k in thermal and nightvision gear that most do not have the means to own. We are simply trying to pay for our expenses from our attempt to cure an ongoing problem with wild hogs that destroy our land every day in the production agriculture industry.

I agree, and one over looked fact of letting ramdom hunters on your property is that ALOT of them just want to drive around and drink beer, shoot their guns or preaty much do anything except take as many hogs as possible.

I appreciate the land owners that let me hunt their places but I have seen first hand how "hunters" often act and spoil it for every one.

One or two idiots (not hunters) can ruin it for everyone and it doesn't take long for the word to get out, and the horror stories to get around.

I knew a guy that had a huge corn field and he made a huge mistake and posted a sign, "free hog hunting" thinking he could get rid of them or at least cut their numbers so they wouldn't tear up his field.

He let some people in and then word got out and him not living on the property he had people running around out on that field at all hours of the night and driving 4x4 through his field doing more damage than the hogs.

He then had to put up posted signs and lock the gates to keep people out!

X2

The biggest part of it comes down to economics. The most efficient and economical way to rid an area of hogs is with a helicopter. The helicopter flies low over the ground and the shooters use buckshot to take out the hogs. An average team can easily destroy over 100 pigs per day...in fact, I spoke to a gentlemen last week and they eliminated 650 pigs in five days from some private ranches. The cost per pig is approx. $30.
Compare this with someone (or even a group of guys) who go out to eliminate hogs on foot...there's no way they could even get close to the 100 hogs/day. The high kill ratio is also necessary because hogs are such proficient breeders....just picking off a few a day, even over the course of a year, would never make a dent in the population because they reproduce at such a high rate.

I don't think he was questioning why you charge to guide a hog hunt. That is a no-brainer. IMO you would only hire a guide if you did not know how to hunt hogs or did not have the time or place to do it. I think his question is regarding people who charge the landowner to come remove hogs from their land.

Yes, guides are completely uderstandable, and I understand not letting every Joe blow on your place to hunt pigs, as we have had to stop guest from coming to our land for the reason of trigger happy newbs. I think I comes down to insurance, and devotion to property, if there only working your place until there done, that sounds better then hunters out when they have time. If I had 40hours a week devoted to hog hunting, I wouldn't have a problem at our ranch. But once or twice a month, yeah.

From a cattleman or farmers view, a contractor will have his own insurance, if he shoots a cow or calf, I will get paid for it. If he falls out of his truck, his insurance will cover him. The contractor will come out and kill as many hogs as he can, and as quick as he can. They are in the business of killing, not hunting, their equipment will be top notch, like the helicopters. They will kill more in less time than a a bunch of hunters will ever kill.

Now if the landowner asks hunters out, he has to have special insurance, any damages done by the hunters will most likely be paid by the landowner.

I new a guy in the 80's that had a place, hogs galore, quail and dove, a great place he let anybody hunt the place. One hunter came out after a rain, the ruts he created had to be fixed using a dozer. Not only did he make the ruts in the road, he shot one of the calves. Needless to say that place became a non hunt area over night. I know that hunter, every time I see him I remind him of what he did.

Sorry, misunderstood the question.

I agree with you 100%. That is the only way to get rid of hogs effectively is by helicopter. There is a guy here that does helicopter hog removal in Knox and Haskell Counties. His numbers match yours pretty close.