Outdoor Life receives information about injured hunters for their “This Happened To Me” series. Over the years, bears are #1, deer, elk, moose are #2, and pigs and mountain lions tie for #3 in terms of frequency of injured hunters. There are far fewer pig hunters than deer/elk/moose hunters, so I suspect the % of hunters injured by their quarry is far higher for the pig hunters. This year alone in Colorado at least 3 hunters were injured by bears.
A few years back a friend of mine was attacked ny an elk while bow hunting. He was able to kill the elk before getting seriously hurt, although it was close. Your statement that you’re “a hunter that realizes what a fallacy this dangerous hunting shit is” indicates a high level of ignorance of the facts. We raised pigs, both sets of grandparents raised pigs, my father-in-law raised pigs, and everybody else around us raised pigs. Several of the farmers and more than one dog was injured by them. Trust me, I know a bunch about pigs.
Have shot several domestics with a 16 gauge shotgun at extreme close range (5 feet or less, muzzle to pig). One of them, after being shot right between the eyes, still nearly took my buddy’s leg off. This whole thread, which you responded to, was about a pig hunter who lost an ear, a testicle and, IIRC, other body parts. Ask him if pig hunting is dangerous. Dad just sent me an article out of Forbes, about boar hunting in Hungary (“High on the Hog”, pages 78-83, don’t know the issue except that it is recent). The article quotes the guide talking about how dangerous boar hunting can be.
The family of one of my co-workers owns a vineyard in California. They allow guided pig hunting and the guides lose dogs on an all to frequent basis. For you to suggest pig hunting isn’t dangerous is like suggesting hunting Cape Buffalo isn’t dangerous. Not every Cape Buffalo hunter is killed or injured, but anyone with an open mind knows hunting Cape Buffalo can be quite dangerous. Same with pigs. Both animals can and do injure quite a few hunters. BTW, the difference between a domestic pig and a feral pig is often only the fence that separates them.,
I’ve seen many, many hog hunting shots on the various hunting TV shows. Enough to know that the danger of hunting hogs is a part of what makes it so much fun. If they were out snipping the pigs at 300 yards, it might still be fun, but it certainly would not be like any hog hunting *I’ve* ever seen or heard about. The *vast* majority of hog hunters I know do so on the ground at short range (either with a handgun or bow). Yet others do it by “pig sticking”, ie. using a knife or spear. Perhaps you think that doing this is not “responsible”? (note: answer this question carefully)
In another message, your argument seems to stem from the definition of the word “dangerous”. Is hog hunting a life-threatening type of danger (ala hunting for cape buffalo)? Almost never. Can it be the type of danger that can cause physical harm, even to the point of being serious? From what I’ve seen, certainly. Thus to deny that hunting hogs is not dangerous is more than just simple ignorance (defined: missing some facts); it is foolish (defined: ignoring known facts).
