I was bored at the airport and ending up going down a rabbit hole of pig hunting, specifically Eurasian boar hunting in Germany and other European countries. I ended up translating and reading some interesting research and forums that I figure would make for some interesting discussion here. I no longer have the links or the boredom to translate and attach but remember the key points.

The gist of it:

It is generally recommended by game managers hoping to cull Eurasian boar herds via hunting (does not seem relevant if trapping and removing whole sounders at a time) to avoid shooting the matriarch of the sounder. This is typically the oldest and largest sow. The reason for this is because the matriarch pig typically controls the timing of breeding within a sounder and which pigs breed (typically she may be the only pig to breed). If she is removed, the sounder goes into what was essentially described as chaos with all non dominant sows coming into heat. This results in a greater amount of sows breeding and more pigs being introduced into the sounder and the property. Therefore it is recommended to shoot boars and the smaller non dominant sows and to keep the matriarch as the primary breeding sow.

If you’re like me, when a sounder comes out and a boar isn’t with them you usually pick out the biggest sow to shoot as she tends to stand out. This may incidentally be hurting your property. Not saying to do one thing or another and if interested, you could go down that same rabbit hole I did, but interesting food for thought.

Makes sense, I've heard they are really resilient animals, similar to how coyotes are. The more you cull, the more the groups reproduce. Continuity of a species under fire, sort of speak.

Interesting, would like to hear more opinions and experiences on this. I used to shoot the biggest one, but quit doing that and shooting a sow, refrained from shooting boars unless they were by themselves, figured a sow would get bred regardless

Just shoot the pig. Any pig. We don’t have to micromanage everything and a mature breeding sow is a great target.

All pigs will come into cycle when they hit a certain weight and will get bred. A dominate sow isn’t gonna keep a boar off another sow in heat. She doesn’t control when the other pigs come into cycle either.

After getting a better trapping system rigged up, it seems to be the most effective method to this point

Trapping 100% is the way to go to reduce pig numbers.

Shooting them, while fun, really does not have an effect in regards to population

Again, there was research to say the opposite of your post and it was common knowledge in the forums I was reading among German game keepers. It might be different among our feral hogs and not relevant, who knows. Being educated on a topic isn’t micromanaging

Just shoot the sow. Any sow.

They're better eating anyway (though, given the numbers, I'm not at all averse to just dragging them off in the brush, slitting them open sternum to pubis, and letting them eat their own).

I’ve shot multiple prego sows out of a sounder and I’ve trapped multiple prego sows out of a sounder. I do not believe the lead sow keeps the others from cycling and I do not believe she could keep them from being bred at all. I also believe whatever goals the Game Keepers have are probably pretty different than eradication.

Trapping and more specifically snaring have been by far our most successful. Snares are not nice and we had quite a bit of unintentional bycatch even with a govt trapper but they were still the most successful.

The European game keepers manage their pigs in order to provide traditional sporting hunts. I don't consider killing pigs here a sport. I view it as eradication and any sow is a prime target.

Exactly. We have all shot multiple pregnant sows out of a sounder.

A single dominate sow cannot keep the others from coming into heat and dang sure can’t keep a boar away from them

Managing to a number is still managing to a number whether it is 0 in the case of landowners including myself in Texas or to a specific density over there. If they have found that selectively shooting a specific hog out of the group helps them achieve that number quicker, the logic could expect to carry over.

Hunting is typically not a meaningful way to control pig numbers, especially in areas like mine where you only have time to shoot one hog out of the sounder before they are back in the brush, but if you could have a greater impact on those numbers by doing what has been found effective elsewhere why would you oppose it?

Not opposed to the logic, but as others have mentioned above, I've seen that particular logic contradicted in the field too many times to believe it applies here.

I would love to see further research done here though. Anything that can help prioritize a target list is probably a good thing. Just don't expect me to pass shooting at a pig when I see it.

The right pig?

That would be the slow one.

Other than controlling the population what is similar about technique in complete eradication and maintaining a sustainable healthy population?

Or the one in my sights when I pull the trigger.

Any pig that you shoot is the right one IMHO.

Actually, that's ALL of them.

If I have time to pick

1. The spotted one
2. Biggest boar
3. Biggest sow

I get sucked into the spotted ones like a bug to lights

I enjoy a good Oreo pig. Killed one giant one years ago and wanted to mount it, but me and another guy couldn’t get it into the back of the truck.

I say this, but actually target big, gnarly, lone boars. It's more of a sport this way and I like making them dead. Something satisfying about putting a bullet right where it belongs and these big animals just hitting the ground right there.

That's an interesting theory, but we don't see that type of breeding behavior in domestic hogs, and most of our ferals were domestic at some point in their ancestry. I'm no expert and I'm not trying to contradict what those Europeans are seeing, but they may be dealing with a different animal with different traits than we are.

Why wouldn't you want to increase your available targets?

I have enough other stuff to think about to start worrying about which pig to shoot. Whichever one gets the closest and stands still for a second gets it.

If they abolish the ATF and grenade launchers become legal then I'll have to tweak my strategy.

Pretty anecdotal, but I had a group of 7 (3 sows, 4 boars, no stud boar), the only hogs on or around my place. One morning I killed all four of the boars out of the group. 3+ years after that, they've never returned at any point. They have been spotted on the neighbors place a few times.