B.C. Government Allows Hunters To Shoot Feral Pigs Anywhere At Anytime

© By Othmar Vohringer

Wild and feral pigs have been spotted in the Kamloops, Okanagan, Peace, Kootenay and Lower Mainland regions, and the government doesn’t want any of it. In a media release the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations announced that the swine are now listed as a “schedule C” animal and hunters with a valid hunting license could shoot them anywhere and anytime they encounter this invasive species.

Having lived and traveled for a few years in America and seen firsthand how fast wild and feral pigs multiply and spread - and the devastation they create on habitat and agricultural crops - I can fully understand and appreciate our government’s drastic measure.

Where do these pigs come from? Wild pigs (like pheasant, fallow deer and many other species) are not native to North America; they were introduced by the first European settlers for sport hunting and agricultural purposes. The current “North American wild pig” is predominantly a hybrid of Russian wild boar and domesticated pigs that escaped. This interbreeding has created a particularly hardy animal that is able to survive in almost any condition from the desert to the lower alpine regions.

So far British Columbia is a small corner of North America where feral pigs are still small in numbers compared to other parts where the pig population, despite relentless hunting from ground and with helicopters, has gone totally out of control. The B.C. government views the “war on pigs” as a proactive measure to make sure we do not end up with the same problems that exist elsewhere.

Once established in an area wild pigs are extremely hard to control and keep their populations in check. Under the right conditions a sow can have two litters of piglets in any given year. While nursing one litter she is already impregnated with the next litter. The piglets are independent within six months and ready to reproduce. The average litter size can be as high as eight to ten piglets with the average surviving to adulthood being five to seven.

The good news for hunters is that wild hogs make for some very good and healthy table fare. Wild pork is some of the best meat that I ever had the pleasure to eat, and being wild it is also totally organic and is not dripping with excessive fat like domestic pork. Hunting wild pigs can also be very challenging. While pigs can’t see much beyond the tip of their noses their incredible sense of smell and hearing make them nearly unapproachable. Something else that makes pigs a challenge to hunt is their “bravery”. When cornered, injured, threatened wild pigs have no hesitation to attack their adversary with the ferocity one would attribute to a lion. There have been eye witness accounts that even a bear or cougar would run if he encountered an angry wild boar. It is for this reason that in Florida and some other American jurisdictions it is mandatory to hunt wild pigs from an elevated platform, like a treestand or shooting house.

In my forays throughout the Nicola Valley I have never seen feral pigs or any sign of them and can’t tell with certainty if we have any roaming around or not. Having said that, I will pay more attention to it in the future, it’s been a while since I had barbecued wild pork ribs and I wouldn’t mind having it again.
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If you have seen any feral or wild hogs in British Columbia or hunted them we would like to hear your story.

Hunting Pheasants Without a Dog

© By Othmar Vohringer

There is no denying that hunting pheasants with the aid of a dog is a huge advantage. However not every hunter owns an upland birding dog or has the time and commitment it takes to turn an ordinary dog into a trusted and well-adjusted hunting partner. Does this mean that hunting pheasants without the aid of a dog is not possible? Far from it. It just means you have to adjust your hunting tactics. Hunting without a dog means you have to know how to read pheasant habitat and how the birds use available cover. Another aspect to consider is the recovery of downed birds. With the lack of a dog’s astonishing sense of smell it can be a bit of a chore to find a downed bird, especially if they come down in thick cover. This means you have to consider carefully when to shoot a flushing bird so that it does not fall, or manages to fly, into thick cover.

Without a dog at your service I find it best to hunt in pairs or in a small group. Personally I prefer a group to consist of not more than three hunters; any more and safety usually becomes an issue. My personal experience is that pairs work best when hunting along the edges of known pheasant habitat. Hunting in pairs still necessitates the establishment for some simple rules; one of the most important is to establish shooting directions. Usually this means to establishing the direction each hunter can shoot and can not shoot. For example, hunters never should shoot in the direction of the other hunter, regardless of how thick the cover is. Also, shooting over head of the other hunter regardless of the angle must be avoided at all times. It is therefore very important to know exactly the whereabouts of your hunting partner at all times. As a pair it is best to walk parallel to each other on either side of the cover. Remember that flushed birds often flush into the wind and then turn downwind to escape.

There are two different likely pheasant habitats that I would like to discuss here that are well suited for hunting without a dog. I will start with the forested habitat (thick cover) and then discuss farmland habitat (open cover). By the way, the tactics discussed here work equally well for other upland birds like the Ruffed Grouse and Blue Grouse among others.

Hunting Tactics: Read All About It

© Othmar Vohringer

Common belief has it that outdoor writers are the lucky ones because they can spend all their time in the great outdoors. While I admit that I call myself “lucky” I do not spend all my time outdoors. A good part of my time as an outdoor writer is used up in my office writing about the outdoors. Proof of that are my new articles published this fall in the BC Outdoors and western Sportsman magazine, available on the newsstands now.

Western Sportsman magazine. September/October 2012: Beat Them To It. On page 69 I reveal seven of my favourite early season deer hunting tactics that may help you too to get an early season buck this year. Here is a teaser.

Hunt Escape Routes.

For most hunters there is nothing worse than having to share the same area with hordes of other hunters. In fact, dealing with all the other hunters used to be the reason why I rarely went out in the early season. Not anymore! I learned how to use the other hunters as my involuntary deer drivers. When hunting highly pressured areas I forget about scouting for deer sign. Instead, I scout for other hunters and the sign they leave behind. Given the habitual human nature the hunters will do the same things again this season. Try to find trail markers hunters have left behind (they always do), stand locations and easy walking and driving access routes to the area.

New World Record Mountain Goat Taken In British Columbia

© By Othmar Vohringer

According to the Boone & Crockett Club hunter Troy M. Sheldon of Alexandria, Ky. Has bagged the new mountain goat world record. After the required drying period the official Boone & Crockett judges panel verified the goats official entry as the new world record. It surpasses the old world record by a substantial 6/8 of an inch.

Troy Sheldon took the animal in the Stikine River area while hunting with Heidi Gutfrucht of Northwest Ranching and Outfitting. As an interesting side note; Sheldon used a Tikka T3 .270 (my personal favourite calibre) to make a perfect 319-yard shot across a ravine.

Extend Your Season, Hunt Coyotes

© By Othmar Vohringer

I live in cattle country and coyotes are everywhere. You can hear them howl and sing all day and all night. Ranchers hate coyotes, especially in the springtime when the calves are born. I’ve heard horror stories of coyotes circling a cow giving birth and the moment the calf’s head shows up they rush in for the kill. I have seen pictures of it and it looks not pretty. Every year rangers loose a few calves to coyotes and understandably are upset with these critters.

I’ve never paid much attention to coyote hunting until recently. I applied for permission to hunt on a ranch that has some prime whitetail deer habitat. The rancher asked; “Are you willing to kill coyotes? Every coyote you see?” Apparently, according to the rancher, most hunters want permission to hunt deer but are not willing to “help” the rancher so lessen his coyote problem.

Extend your hunting season

© By Othmar Vohringer

When I visit other blogs and hunting forums I occurs to me, that ones deer hunting season ends most hunters consider it a done deal until the spring when turkey season opens up. Granted the whitetail deer is the most popular game animal. But the hunting season does not have to come to an end when deer season ends.

No matter where you live in North America you are able to hunt all the way through winter and into the spring right up to turkey season. As hunters we are also wildlife managers. With that I mean that hunters are the wildlife agencies most important toll to manage wildlife populations in a healthy and sustainable balance. With that said we should take advantage of all hunting opportunities.

North America has a huge over population of coyotes. No matter where you live coyotes are plentiful to the point where they are considered a nuisance. Not as wildly distributed but equally successful are wild and feral hogs. A resent study has shown that the wild and feral pigs are the fasted growing game species. These animals multiply so quickly that many jurisdictions regard hogs a problem animal and want them eradicated.

So far wildlife agencies have not had much look in persuading hunters to take care of this problem and thus are faced with the only other solution available. Wildlife agencies are left with no other choice but to hire professional animal control people. These professionals trap, poison and “hunt” coyotes and pigs from helicopters.

What upsets me personally about this drastic wildlife control measures is that:

The media jumps on these mass slaughter events and calls these pest control operations “hunters” and with that thoughtless remark gives us real hunters a bad rap in the public opinion. But more upsetting then that is the fact that the animals that are killed in these eradication operations are wasted. The killed animals are often left where they dropped dead to rot.

After deer hunting season is over don’t put your guns away. There is still a hunting season going on. Coyote hunting is great fun and you do an important service to the community. Coyote hunting is also a good way to open doors to land that has been denied to you in the past. With the calving season coming up many farmers are worried and wonder how many of the newborn calves will end up becoming coyote food.

Knocking on a farmer’s door and offer him to thin the coyote population out on his land might just be the ticket to gain permission to hunt deer too. It worked for me in the past. As a side benefit, coyote fur prizes have gone up over the last two years. A few prime pelts will pay for more then just a box of ammunition. In the current economical crises this has great appeal too.

Wild hog hunting is a great challenge and again farmers are glad when you offer to shoot a few hogs of his land that cause havoc on his cropland. Wild and feral hog provide some of the best pork you will ever eat. The way I see it. As hunters and wildlife managers we should step up to the plate and control wildlife populations even if it is not our favorite game animal. Extending our hunting seasons beyond deer season keeps us in good shooting condition and our hunting skills honed and gives relief to the off season boredom that seems to plague so many hunters. I know several places near our home that are overcrowded with coyotes and I will be heading out this week to talk to a few cattle rangers in the area, I already brushed up on my coyote calling skills.


Othmar Vohringer Outdoors
Founding Member of Outdoor Bloggers Summit

Tags: Coyote Hunting, Wild Hog Hunting, Wildlife Conservation, Hunting Season, Wildlife Management

Could you give me some advice?

© By Othmar Vohringer

I just finished answering the sixth email that came in this morning with requests of advise on deer and turkey hunting tactics. While I like to help other hunters by giving them tips and advice I am always reluctant. Not that I want to hold back on my “secrets” but because it is difficult to advice somebody just going by a description without seeing the hunting property or at least a quality aerial photograph or topographical map as reference.

To help fellow hunters I have created a special and very unique service. To my knowledge it is the only service of that kind available to hunters anywhere in North America. To learn more about the Hunting Strategy & Hunting Property Evaluation
visit my website.

It’s a very unique service that will help hunters to make stand location choices without the time consuming chore of scouting. I am not guaranteeing 100% hunting success with my predictions. There are many influences such as weather, changing food sources, human activity and more that can and will alter deer movement patterns. But my service will take 90% of the guesswork out of scouting and stand location choice. The beauty of my method is that geographical structures/strategies are a constant that can be capitalized on for hunting purposes for generations to come. The fee for this service is negligible in comparison to the time, effort and money you have to spend to scout for days and weeks. All you need to do is look at the map where I marked out all the likely locations for you, and scout these particular spots according to my recommendations.
Scouting never has been that easy.

This service is part of my ongoing effort to assist hunters in becoming more successful and spend more time hunting and less time wondering and worrying.

Hunting Advice, Hunting Strategy Consultant, Hunting Tactics, Helping Hunters

How I missed the buck of a lifetime

© By Othmar Vohringer

From the corner of my eye I caught some movement to my left. Lowering the binoculars and turning the head I saw a huge buck casually meandering across the gas pipeline right of way. “Where did he come from?” I mumbled to myself, surprised that I didn’t hear him walking on the frozen ground that close to me. The buck hasn’t see me hidden behind a tree and a few low growing bushes. At least that I did right. Quickly I dropped to one knee, removing the rifle from the shoulder and put it on the bipod all in one move. Then I picked up the binoculars again to check the buck’s rack. He was standing now about 50 yards from me sniffing the ground. Obviously a hot doe walked there and left her calling card.

I noticed right away that the buck had a huge set of antlers. I stopped counting by four. There were a lot more antler points sticking out everywhere. But four was all I needed to know to make sure he was legal to shoot. He was a monster and made my knees wobble. It was as a good thing that I was kneeling on the ground and not standing. I picked the rifle up and aimed at the buck’s vitals but could see through the scope that a few low hanging branches from a small pine covered the spot were I aimed at. If I move just a foot to my right I will have a clear shot. Just as I moved the buck noticed it and looked in my direction. I froze mid-movement. The buck kept looking at me not quite sure what I was. Then I moved another inch or two – I had to or risk getting a cramp in the leg – and that did it. The buck still didn’t know what I was but deemed it wise to get out of there. With one big leap he vanished from sight into the timber.

I never saw the buck coming out of the woodland on my side of the right-of-way-line, because I was looking trough the binoculars into the far distance down the slope. The spot were the buck walked into the open was just about 20 yards from my position, but I did not notice him until he passed my peripheral vision and was almost across the 45-yard clear cut. Would I have done what I always preach in my seminars and courses and looked first close around me and then slowly zoom out in the far distance I would have seen the buck standing just inside the tree line and could have been ready for him the moment he stepped out. Talking about preaching but not doing, how could I be that stupid and not following my own advice?

Because I disregarded my own advice and searched in the distance first, I missed the rare opportunity to shoot a big monster mule deer buck. Tow days since that blunder and I still could kick myself for disregarding the most basic rule of deer spotting. Don’t make the same mistake. Always look for deer in your direct vicinity first. Slowly and intensely scan the immediate area inch by inch all around you for any sign of deer. Then gradually increase the search yard by yard into the distance. But that just shows you. Even the so-called “experts” make sometimes mistakes that cost them deerly.

But all is not lost – at least I hope not. The buck is still in the area and I will be back on that spot by Monday or Tuesday afternoon, employing one of my scent strategies that have worked very well for me in the past. I will lay a scent trail, using doe-in-estrus-urine, in a huge figure of eight intersecting several deer trails on either side of the clear cut. On the narrowest point of the figure eight there will be several scent locations placed within shooting distance. The idea is that any buck walking along on any of the trails (click on image below to see scent trail layout) will pick up the scent and follow it to the edge of the timber and walk right into one of my shooting lanes. Depending on the weather condition and deer action I may even mix a few deer calls in or some light antler rattling to give the set up a bit more realism and emotion. This usually gets bucks fired up and forget about all caution.



Tags: Mule Deer, Trophy Buck, Binoculars, Hunting, scent Trail, Deer Scent, Deer Calls, Rattling Antlers, Hunting Tips