What are your thoughts? I'm currently hunting north central Texas and the rut is just kicking in! Saw all of the bigger bucks on their feet dogging does and chasing! None were receptive but it's close. I have a very close friend with me that has arranged this hunt for the past 3 years. Love him like a brother. My gripe is he WILL NOT let a hog get past him without shooting!! He's from Colorado with no hogs and I'm from GA where they are worthless. He's shot a 170 inch buck, been to Africa a few times, etc. I haven't and I think blasting hogs in the middle of the rut ruins stands!! He settles for a decent buck and I'll looking for a big one. So does shooting hogs affect deer much. I texas is bigger and we're hunting about 1000 acres. What say ye???

No
Hogs will move the deer away.

Shoot the pigs. The deer will be just as likely to come out after as they are if you didn’t shoot so might as well get something on the ground

If you shoot the hog and dump the carcass on your place, you are attracting every coyote there. Coyotes kill the deer and run them off a lot more than hogs. Just take the carcass with you or bury it with a tractor or you’re doing more harm than good.

Feral Hogs are a scourge!

They are a 'Shoot on sight' pest on my property.

The odds I might 'ruin' a deer hunt on any given day (slim) are easily outweighed by the presence of hogs.

Deer will not stay in close proximity with hogs. Hogs compete for some of the same food resources, destroy habitat, pastures,etc and can contaminate water sources.

Hogs and Coyotes have no safe quarter on my land. If fact....I'd be upset if you DIDN'T shoot a hog if an opportunity presented itself. This is good Land/Deer management. And getting a Deer isn't the most important thing.

I am sure it varies from one property to the next but Coyotes have about ZERO effect on Mature, Healthy deer in my area. I've never, ever...come across any evidence that a Coyote (or group) took down a full grown, healthy deer. They DO affect the fawn population each year.

I have a spot where I dump hogs on my property that is a literal Bone Pile of scattered remains. Buzzards and Coyotes clean them up very quickly and the last thing they are looking for is chasing down a healthy, living deer.

Coyotes (I'm sure you are aware) are opportunistic hunters, but the vast majority of their diet are small mammals (rabbits, rats, mice, squirrel, coons, possum and the like). Rarely do I see mature deer react in any way to the presence of a coyote (aside from looking at it). They just don't represent a threat in most instances.

Hogs on the other hand....ALWAYS run the deer off.

I watched them on several occasions over the last year chasing both mature deer and fawns on my ranch. They kill a lot more deer here than hunters do. Hogs run them off for a bit but they come back pretty quickly. Coyotes run them off for hours. To stop all hog pressure on the deer in a feeding area, this is a much better approach.

I have never passed a hog or coyote of any kind. If deer are at my feeder and the hogs come in, they instantly run off and then watch them eat from a distance. I have pictures of pigs at the feeder with deer in the background. I`ve had a coyote ruin 2 hunts this year already but killed him 2 weeks ago. The coyote came in and the deer hauled a$$ like they were scared, unlike the hogs when they just run off and watch from a distance. I have wished several times this year already for pigs not to show up so I didn`t have to ruin a hunt or have to pass on shooting one. Luckily, they are extremely nocturnal this year. Last year I had already killed 7-8 by now. There were so bad a couple of years ago during bow season that I just gave up bow hunting and sat in my gun blind with my .270 and killed them right at dark until they went nocturnal. It worked both times I did this. They get educated pretty quick and either move on or just go nocturnal. Either one works for me as long as the deer come back to the feeder.

This is where I'm at. More than once, I've shot a hog only to have deer show up 10 min later. Kill the hogs (and yotes).

Edit: It's even less of an issue if you're shooting suppressed.

For me, pigs mostly get a pass this time of year. I hammer them hard the rest of the year, especially Jan-March. Now coyotes, they never get a pass.

about the only time I will pass a shot on a hog is if I have to shoot over the top of deer, which is rare. I shot a hog last weekend under one of my feeders with a bunch of deer at the other feeder about 150 yards away, within 20-30 minutes, those same deer grazed over to the other feeder with dead hog under it and were within a few yards of the carcass. This included a couple of 3-4 year old bucks.

https://texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/8941544/were-ready-for-opener#Post8941544

I had several bucks, five I believe, in the pen when I shot this one. I do drag them off. I believe does with yearlings will stay away to avoid coyotes that will scavenge the carcass. I'd give hogs a pass that are just passing through during a white tail hunt.

In my opinion, it depends on how spooky your deer are. Our deer aren’t all that nuts, they were eating around a hog that I shot that morning, the rifles boom didn’t have them spooked at all. A buck chasing a doe is fairly stupid for the time being anyway.

Shoot all hogs on site. I’ve killed hogs and had deer come right back.

I have 2 feeders about 100 yards apart. Shot a hog last week at the bottom feeder and two minutes later had deer show up at the top feeder.

Hogs and Yotes die on the spot on my place. Any time of day. End of story.

I could see where hogs might actually intensify the rut by making it a little more difficult for bucks to find and hang with receptive does. They could have the same effect as more people hanging out at the bar when guys are trying to find a good-looking woman.

^^^^^

Same predator/pest control program on my place!

I believe a lot depends on hunting pressure. I’ve shot hogs standing next to deer and the hog falls down flopping the deer looks down at the hog and keeps eating. Had them haul but at the shot. Most of the time our deer just watch hogs coyotes and javalina and will move to a different clearing or further down the sendero etc.

We use to see hogs almost every sit. Penned the feeders and rarely see them now and the ones we do see don’t hang around much.

Hogs and coyotes never get a pass.

I shoot them. Blessed not to have many hogs where I hunt. Every few years we will have a group move in. We take it a step further than shooting when that happens. We put dogs on them ASAP. The dogs catch a few. The rest have always moved on after putting dogs on them once. The deer go right back to normal. We go back to not having a hog problem. I probably just gave all the dog shooters on here a brain bleed…

Nah. Just reminds me to freshen up the bait on my 330 conibears.

Anything that will prey upon other species that i want to hunt and eat gets a bullet or an
arrow or a trap snapped on it. As others have said, deer will come back to your hunting
area if they're not disturbed.
Coons that eat corn and vegetable gardens and possums and fox
and whatever competes with me gets gone one way or another.
Most all animals are opportunists, and will eat whatever doesn't run away.
If you prefer to see whitetail deer, you'd best do whatever is legal for the county
to do away with whatever other animals that they fear and that prey upon
them and compete for resources

Good Luck