Shooting and Hunting

Shooting and hunting incorporates traditional still hunting and night shooting.  Shooting and hunting are not the same.

When using shooting or hunting as a means of control, keep in mind:

• Headshots provide the quickest death and minimize the need for tracking

• Target the adults of a sounder first. If an older feral swine falls in its tracks, most of the time the younger individuals will not break and run

• Most states, including Georgia, have very liberal regulations for killing feral swine on private property, allowing harvest to occur year-round

• Be sure to follow state game laws whenever using any of these methods

Sport Hunting

Sport hunting is commonly used in many areas across the United States as a method to reduce feral swine populations.  It can provide extra revenue in the form of lease fees for many farmers, ranchers, and private landowners. Hunters often use archery equipment, high powered centerfire rifles, shotguns loaded with buckshot, or muzzleloaders. While this type of control can be fun and exciting for hunters, it is limited in success because only a small number of feral swine are taken at one time. Sport hunting for feral swine tends to be selective to adult feral swine and removal of these individuals alone is typically not enough to reduce population densities. Feral swine are intelligent creatures and under heavy hunting pressure they will often become nocturnal and learn to avoid humans all together.

Night shooting  

Once feral swine become nocturnal, traditional hunting and shooting become less effective as a management tool. Night shooting employs the use of bait and specialized equipment such as spotlights, motion detecting floodlights, night vision goggles, telescopic sights (both regular optical and thermal imaging), and sound suppressed weapons. 

Night shooting may include the use of thermal imaging optics and high-capacity magazines on semi-automatic rifles. Before utilizing any night shooting as a means of feral swine control, check state and local regulations on what equipment is legal for use. Baiting can be used to increase success. 

Spotlighting. The oldest means of night shooting utilizes spotlights and traditional rifles and scopes. Typically spotlights between 1 and 5 million candlepower (or 900-1000 lumens) are used. These lights are fairly inexpensive - ranging between $30 for a basic hand-held style and $150 for scope mounted versions. While spotlight technology has improved with the development of LED bulbs, they tend to have a focused beam which can only illuminate one or two animals at a time. Plus, the constant turning on and off could spook feral swine and deter them from coming to the bait. In Georgia, a light must be carried by the person, attached to a belt system or to a hat worn by the hunter. There is no voltage restriction on lights used to night hunting wild pigs in Georgia.

Motion detection floodlights. An alternative to traditional spotlights carried by the hunter is solar powered motion detection floodlights. These can be used with night shooting from tree stands often over bait.  These lights range in cost depending on brand and lumen output.  They operate from long-lasting batteries or a solar panel that charges a battery during the day. The light can be mounted on a 4-inch by 4-inch pressure treated post between 10 and 12 feet tall or to a tree with the light and motion detector facing down on the bait. The beam created by the flood head can be up to 350 square feet (approximately 17-feet by 17-feet), depending on how high the fixture is mounted.  Some lights have multiple settings that allow the bulb to stay on for 1, 3, or 5 minutes.  During prebaiting, the light can be set for five-minute intervals to allow wild pigs to become accustomed to it. 

Night vision technology.  Night vision goggles and scopes have made their way onto the public market from military development in recent years. While this technology works best with bait, it can be used remove multiple feral swine feeding in open terrain.  This equipment allows shooters to get fairly close to a group of feral swine using the dark of night to their advantage. However, night vision optics tends to be fairly expensive with costs ranging from $300 to $5,000. There are two types of night vision optics available; near-infrared light and thermal imaging. The cost of this technology may increase the cost of per-pig removal, while still only removing a few feral swine.

Shooting over bait  

As the name implies this management tool employs the use of bait. An area where feral swine sign is prevalent is pre-baited consistently to get the sounder comfortable with visiting the site.  Longer pre-baiting (up to a week) is better than a shorter time.  Shooting over bait can be done during the day or at night from a tree stand or on the ground from a distance. Baiting is legal for hunting feral swine in Georgia on private land.