I just read a cool article (pg. 54 July 2012 American Hunter) where Texas passed a law (Pork Chopper Bill) to make it more feasible for the average hunter to be able to shoot hogs from a helicopter. The law allows chopper owners, with the proper permits, etc., to take paying clients up for a hog shoot. Thus creating a new type of "Outfitter," so to speak.

Though for some this may seem controversial, the wild hog problem is literally out of control and this is a necessary, even if ineffective, control method.

By inneffective: 2 million hogs in Texas, only 24,000 killed annually. Take their reproduction into account and the picture gets grim.

Dang, I'm moving to Texas getting my rotor head license and giving up flying a lear jet. I could combine my two passions. Hunting and flying. Dang. Thanks Gregg, you working on getting me a divorce? LOL!

Yes, the hog problem down here is serious. To us they are vermin --- to be killed by any method possible. It is common in Texas & NM to hunt coyotes from airplanes or copters. Both have already been used around here for hogs. A semiauto 12 ga gunner riding "shotgun" is pretty effective in open country on both coyotes & hogs.

However, much of Texas is forest, brush country or a combination. Aerial hunting will much much less effective there.

At our little place near Clarendon I keep a trail cam out year round. Last weekend it showed photos of two hogs one night. However, only for the one night. Clearly they do not live on us, but come to visit periodically and only in the dark.

The law, when passed last fall did create a significant business opportunity for those contract services that had providing aerial predator control for years prior.

The going rate seems to be $600/hr with a 2-hour minimum.

I'm curious where the article came up with the 24,000 hog annual take figure - that harvest number seems low to me, but still hardly a dent in an exploding population.

Personally I don't like the new hunting method. And I am a life-long Texan. Even if they are "just" hogs, how many of them are going to suffer a miserable death after being wounded by some yahoo with more money than sense. The whole hog thing is out of whack down here. The ranchers pay people to kill hogs and we hunters have to pay the ranchers to hunt them (the hogs, not the "professionals"). There are a lot of different sides to it and ,it would seem, no easy solution.

Yeah I had several problems with the numbers quoted in that article but Adam prob. got the info from TP&W. Texas doesn't even know how many deer are killed annually much less hogs - there are no reporting requirements. I'm sure doing that would be damn fun once maybe twice for the experience but it's shooting and not hunting. Plus you're flying at an altitude where if something goes wrong there isn't much time for a do-over. About two years ago there were a couple guys down in the Del Rio area killed when their bird went down doing just that. Next time you run into Weishuhn at a show or something ask him how many helicopter crashes he's been in. I think he might even hold the record for the most crashes in one day.

Agree that it is not hunting --- just killing. But that is the point. A more effective way to reduce the numbers. Sport hunting does not work. Land owners (farmers & ranchers) killing every one that they can also does not work. Shooting them from above will not elminate them, but it will thin on them some.

When the Feds outlawed poison baits for coyotes, their numbers exploded. They are hunted every day by those with livestock, they are hunted from planes, etc. ---- but they have not been eliminated --- not even close. Hogs are worse.

If you have had your freshly planted field wiped out by a bunch of hogs, you would more clearly understand. An extra few thousand dollars for another batch of seed and you are ready to burn more fuel and plant again. Coyotes will get a few baby calves in some years, but hogs can ruin a farmer. In some of our areas here, farmers cannot plant peanuts. The hogs will root the freshly planted seed out that night. They just go down each row rooting them out & eating them. Many have considered a "seed treatment" that would solve the problem. However, that is also against the law.

In the Panhandle of Texas it is mostly flat open country -- farms and ranches. Our little place near Clarendon is "just below the caprock" (which is relatively undefined right there) but there is more cover for wildlife (including hogs) and more draws. Even in the Panhandle, producers have not been able to eliminate wild hogs but they can keep the numbers under control. Down there it is much more difficult to do so.

Seems to me a fellow could make a modest living doing pest control in Texas