Just curious how many guys could get themselves to kill these tiny little babies? I have killed a lot of hogs and try to salvage anything of an edible size for friends and people that want some...but these little sized kids are something different for me. I shot this sow, but the babies didn't want to leave and were even running across my feet when I was working on loading up their mom. One of them even went back into the trap before I left and was just waiting there. I picked it up and sat it in the back of my pickup for a while where it wandered around looking at stuff. I understand they might not survive on their own, but if they were to find the rest of the sounder, another sow would probably accept them.
Killing little babies just doesn't seem right to me !

We shoot the babies, but by golly, they can be tough little targets when they start running.

They are destructive too and I try not to think about them as babies. They also make a great adobo. My friends from the Philippines take them all sizes and they are delicious when made into adobo.

Take them home and finish them on clean water and corn. Then kill em.

That one single baby will add 100's of destructive hogs to your property in it's lifetime........but it's your call.

X2

X3

If you have a place and time to keep them, it could turn out delicious.
If you feed them good now, they will feed you good later and you will have a good idea what went into them beforehand.
Or possibly one of the folks you give pigs to will want them.

They grow up so just killem.

^^^^

Agreed.

IMO the BEST time to get rid of them is when they are young, have not yet bred and haven't destroyed a lot of property. You avoid as many negative things about them as is possible...the quicker you can kill them.

Leaving them to 'grow up' only insures you'll have more of them, trust me. I just checked my cameras this morning and the hogs never stop 'MAKING MORE'.

If you kill a big fat cockroach, and then see three little cockroaches next to the one you just killed, do you let the three little cockroaches go? I look at pigs as really big cockroaches.

whole roasted piglets YUM!

I also shoot them. I've tried to cook the tiny pigs, thinking they would be good and tender to eat. But it was like eating a rubber band. The meat was tough and very chewy. So I don't mess with them any longer.

Wow....sorta looks like guys are REALLY behind the "kill em" side of this. Chances are the coyotes and whatever will take care of them..

kill them and leave them in the field. Coyotes will still take care of them...but the babies won't starve to death first.

As a bonus, you can use the baby carcasses as coyote bait!

One year we managed to shoot nearly all the adults down at the place I hunt in Bosque County. The leftover piglets formed their own sounders. When our time ended due to deer season, we were still trying to kill them off. I would not count on the coyotes finishing the job for you.

Shoot on sight. You ain't gonna make a dent and you will be helping out the land and all other nature including the coyotes if you let him lay where they drop.

Stony, I know I am not going to change your mind and I know for some reason you have a soft spot for the little ones, because you've been giving them a pass for years that I am aware of. But logically speaking, it is more humane (if that is an issue for you) for YOU to kill them quickly and cleanly..than it is to wash your hands of it and let the Coyotes do it. If the Coyotes kill them...they will die in terror, running for their lives...only to be caught and ripped apart. It's not a great way to 'go'.

I don't enjoy killing even the big one's, let alone the young ones. It's just a necessary thing to do IF I want any chance at all of protecting my property from their ravaging. I am fully committed to reducing their numbers to the extent that I can. I am neither happy nor remorseful for doing so. It just has to be done. I'd rather we had no hogs at all. I have much better things to do.

But..I fully respect and honor your decision to do as you wish with the hogs you trap. You've a been a dedicated and successful soldier in the ongoing war to keep them beat back. My hat is off to you.

Flint.

let them go I like a little bigger target

Kill em all, don't bother sorting them out. A little nuisance is a nuisance. They'll only get bigger and ruin your land.

My only angst is the difficulty in lining them up so you can get more than 1 with a single round.

Charlie

I’d cut em down and wouldn’t think twice

The more the merrier!

Don't mean to sound heartless, but kill them all.

Shoot mama watch babies run off when they return shoot babies

They fall apart in a Crock Pot. I kill every shoat/piglet that I can and enjoy every bite of them.

It's a personal decision, but I try to take out as many as I can — including the small ones.

It's easy, you just don't lead them as much.

Those little guys are gold,
I take them home and bottle feed them for a bit and they will be like your personal puppies but more connected to you that a puppy. Then sell them.
I have sold them as pets at 5 lbs and raised them for a couple months, They are a blast to have around but as they grow (just a few months old) they will start tearing stuff up, like your yard, your ankles etc... cause that is what pigs do and then it is time to find them new homes.

You'd kill them if you saw them in 4 months. Shoot them now and avoid letting them reproduce.

I would either keep and attempt to raise to a bigger size or shoot them and eat them or shoot them and feed the buzzards and coyotes. Im not in on hog management.

I have really softened up as I have gotten older (48 now). I used to be a cold blooded killer. Now, I still kill hogs, and even piglets too, but I have a little more empathy for them now as I get older. Was out hunting the other night with my thermal and no hogs or coyotes came out. I could not bring myself to shoot a jackrabbit and they were hopping around and appeared to be having a grand old time in the pasture.

Not going to lie, since i dont own land and hog hunting is still just a fun way to get some extra meat and frankly, "sport", I'd have a hard time shooting them that young - especially if I had a moment to think about it. It's such a hypocritical world we live in, hard to pass judgement - I'd happily shoot them in 3 months without a second thought. But, real small like that, especially that close and personal, it'd be tough.
That being said, if I didnt have a place to take them - I'd probably have still shot them. Leaving them out there alone would be worse than a quick shot behind the head. But again, super easy for me to say from behind the computer screen.

I showed up to deer camp one Saturday afternoon. My uncle was there sitting by the fire barrel. He'd hunted that morning so I asked how he'd done. He said he hadn't seen many deer but he'd killed a "little pig," and put him in my fridge. I have a really big side x side fridge in there so it's not unusual finding a whole quartered deer or pig in it. I go to get a beer expecting to see a big steam table insert loaded up with pig parts. No pig. I poked my head out the door and hollered at him if he was sure he put the pig in my fridge? He hollered back he was sure, so I looked again. Still no pig. I hollered back at him again, "You sure? I'm not seeing it.". He gets all flustered iike he did and shouted back, "Yes, dammit! He's behind. the milk"! LOL!!! I'll never forget that. He had the whole pig butterflied in a gallon freezer bag.

We grilled it like a split chicken over mesquite coals and it was really good.

Take them all. Shoot mama and the piglets will show back up.

I guess I've just gotten too soft in my old age. I can sorta understand the aggressive approach to hogs where you shoot anything that can oink, but I guess it's sort of a personal thing. I was talking to a guy that is even older than me today, that owns the properties I manage and hunt on, and he said he certainly couldn't shoot a tiny baby. He loves the fact of the amount of hogs I shoot on these properties, but I guess it's to each his own

I like hunting, but deep down I don’t enjoy killing. Most animals that I’m able to kill get a pass. I’d rather watch them and photograph them any day then to kill them. The exception are pigs and coyotes. None of them get a pass. Pigs are the rude dudes of the outdoors and are so destructive to everything else. If you let any live then don’t tell me about it. Shoot them little or big.

Fry them up like they were rabbits...

Hmmmmm. I draw the line where the relationship transitions from being transactional to relational. That line is different for different people, and is also situational.

X2......except I would put a few other critters on that list of no mercy extended like rattlesnakes, copperheads, skunks, raccoons and possums.

Kill 'em all! Even pregnant sows before they drop. 7 or 8 with 1 shot that way.

I am not a hog trapper. With a gun, I can pick which hog to shoot. The other ones usually run away. It is best for the land to kill all of the hogs. If you find it difficult to kill a baby pig, I get it. No judgement passed here.

When it comes to deer hunting I've become more of a watcher than a killer. When I see the damage hogs do to my pastures it makes me realize that they all have to go. I don't like the idea of shooting baby hogs but there is really no alternative IMO.

Some folks have no business on a hunting forum.

It's not like I haven't killed some young ones, I just find it difficult to live with killing the tiny babies. I was just curious about the attitudes of others about it. I guess we all just have our individual feelings and it is what it is as far as the way we do things.

X4

If your gonna eat it ain't no difference than killing and eating a Bass.

The only thing I feel when I shoot a hog is recoil

I have often thought about this when I have piglets trapped. So far I have killed them all but if I had more time and desire I would kill all the females and release the castrated males.

I don't give hogs a second thought. They are feral... no different than a rat. I don't shoot native species unless I'm going to eat it. I'll feed ferals to the coyotes, including other coyotes.

^^^^^

That would address their ability to reproduce...but does nothing to curtail the damage they do (rooting, contaminating water sources, spreading diseases) or the competition for food sources and bedding areas with the deer population.

Best solution is a mindset of eradication (read...kill them all).

Got a neighbor that has done this in the past. Pisses me off to no end, and I shoot every one I can. Nuts or no nuts, they still tear chit up.

i posted this elsewhere but ill repost here. it pretty much sums up my thoughts...

I haven't done it, but i can understand doing it. I've heard of guys castrating, clipping an ear for ID, then releasing them to be killed later. Take away the desire to reproduce, and they fatten up. Good eating!

I'm with you. Kill the little cockroaches.

Yessir, that's what happens and why. If he'd just put a pig proof fence up around his place............

Do a bit of research on opossums and you’ll sing a different tune. They don’t dig or destroy property, they eat insects like roaches, etc.. After learning what I did, they are welcome in my yard anytime. They are nature’s sanitation engineers. About the worst thing they ever did at my home was drive my coon hound crazy if he got a scent of one.

Those babies can make you go mad throwing lead at them from a helicopter

These.....



Just turn into these....



So...looks like I'd better get busy.

Sort of an endless battle ! I didn't have any hogs in my traps this morning, but there were sure a lot of tiny tracks everywhere in the area. Not long back I had pics of lots of really, really, fat sows looking ready to drop some babies....I guess they are doing it now.

[quote=Old Stony]Sort of an endless battle ! I didn't have any hogs in my traps this morning, but there were sure a lot of tiny tracks everywhere in the area. Not long back I had pics of lots of really, really, fat sows looking ready to drop some babies....I guess they are doing it now.[/quote]

Stony, that is what I am seeing on my game cams right now. Positively huge (pregnant) Sows. Getting ready to drop babies at any time now. They will leave the sounder for a week or so...while nesting and suckling the newborns, but will soon rejoin the group with all the little ones 'in tow'. By the time the piglets are two weeks old...they have no trouble following mom just about anywhere.

Little oinkers are delicious, so yes, little ones in my trap are going in the ice chest.

Okay...Okay.....I finally gave up and took care of a few today. I still have some feelings about killing babies, but I guess some of them need to be done with.

X4

Those are perfect crockpot size...

Well if you try something you give it a valiant effort

Sorry Old Stony, it just struck me funny. Nice haul today, if you don’t like killing them don’t do it.

They are cool when they are that little,and hogs have a very structured family system
As far as killing babies
I have a different prospective as a hog hunting guide on one of my properties is a mostly
Untouched by humans creek bottom to keep populations up we hunt the mature
Boars first then eating size 80 plus pounds the last on target list are sows with shoats
In the bottom they regulate their population naturally and we hunt it regularly so need more targets
Growing up
Then on the other hand I hunt a fenced property that ever hog in the fence is to be killed
On sight and those babies pop like balloons

Good job Stony. In the aggregate those hogs represent thousands of new hogs if left to mature and breed.

IF the idea is to keep numbers down...then you did the right thing....no matter how unpleasant. I take no pleasure in killing any hog (size matters not), I am simply trying to protect my property. It is a necessary thing to do. If I had my way, there would be NO hogs in Texas.

I am not hunting for food or sport.