Pennsylvania Game Commission State Wildlife Agency

[Maverick]

Link to Pennsylvania Game Commission State Wildlife Agency.

Pennsylvania Game Commission State Wildlife Management Agency

[PAoutlaw]

The state of Pennsylvania has proposed a season and bag limit on wild boar, it states from their website: WILD BOAR- May be taken while lawfully hunting deer, bear, or fall turkey. Unlimited bag limit.

[PAoutlaw]

This is for the 2008-2009 hunting season.

[PAoutlaw]

Just an update on the 2008-2009 hog regulations straight out of the rule book:

Feral swine have no place in Pennsylvania. Feral swine refers to any pig that is found outside of captivity, which is where they usually originate. They pose a very real threat to native PA wildlife and wildlife habitats. Not only do they damage wildlife habitats, but they will kill birds, the young of many mammalian species, including deer fawns, and transmit a host of dangerous disease. Because they have no natural predators, can live anywhere and reproduce rapidly, they will be difficult to control in the best of circumstances.
In many areas of the state, protection has been removed from feral swine by an executive order of the director; however, to increase the efficiency of eradication efforts, protectio may be applied to townships or counties where eradication trapping operations are funded and being actively conducted. Please refer to our websight for specific details on townships or counties that may have restrictions on incidental shooting of feral swine. Firearm and archery equipment are restricted to lawful arms and ammunition identified in the Game and Wildlife code Sec. 2308: http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/pgc/cwp/view ... 51077#2308

In other words, if you see them you can shoot them. The only thing that isnt clear to me is the hours we can hunt them. I'm trying to find out if they can be hunted at night or if its only legal during the daylight hours.

I will post whatever I find out.

[Little Eddie]

What did I see, Outlaw?

Did Pennsylvania now open up hog hunting year around?

-- Little Eddie

[PAoutlaw]

Yes, they have Little Eddie. Though no one can tell me where they are seeing any other than in southwestern PA, I've heard stories of them being in the northeastern part ( which is where I'm from) and I wont give up looking for them. I think I've seen sign of them, but I dont want to get too excited until I see flesh and blood proof. I've seen tracks that look like deer but are wider and shorter ( more round instead of triangular), places that had plants ripped out to the roots, and what I think was feces, but am not sure since I never saw pig feces except in a book. The local people are of no help, of course, not even the farmers want to talk to anyone about hogs running around wild. So I've been looking at satelite photos and maps and spending at least one day a weekend up there looking and walking and glassing and finally I think (!) I'm getting close. So when I find them I will be sure to post it and hopefully pictures of one in the back of my truck.

P.S.- Of course, the better half is about ready to declare me insane because as she says anyone who would get up and leave the house at 4 am and drive 2.5 to 3 hours, spend all day sneaking around marshes and creek bottoms in 80 to 90 degree heat carrying a rifle and about 12 lbs of stuff in a backpack ( 100 oz hydration pack, knife, rope, flashlight and peanutbutter cookies) and then drive home and say it was a good day even though your emptyhanded, must be nuts. She doesnt hunt, never did nor does she think she could, but she doesnt tell me not to. She just shakes her head and goes to do girl stuff like shopping! Ya gotta love an understanding woman!!!

[PAoutlaw]

Little Eddie, if you have Google Earth on your computer you can see where I'm looking for hogs. Just search for Warren Center PA and move about halfway between town and the NY border ( app. 2.2 air miles NNW from the town). The crossroads that I start from are at the coordinates 41° 52’ 02.68”N by 76° 11’ 47.54” W, I scout to the southwest corner of the crossroads.

[PAoutlaw]

Litle Eddie,

just found out from the Game Commission that about three weeks ago they put a ban on all hog hunting in the area (3 surrounding counties) that I was in until the end of April. Luckily no fines came out of it, but they told me that I need to go somewhere else or just stop hunting for them. They want to try to trap them out instead of hunting them, they say when they're hunted, the hogs will run clean out of the area and move miles away! Does it sound to you like they talk out of two sides of their mouths? First they want to "eradicate them" then they want to "count and trap them". I think they want to see how fast they reproduce here and see if they could make money on this with another tag. We'll see what the future holds...


P.S.-- I wonder if you shoot one with a handgun, if it counts as self defense? They didnt say I couldnt go scouting and its perfectly legal for me to carry the .44 mag Super Blackhawk.

P.P.S.-- What do you think about the eradication efforts of our Game Commission?

[PAoutlaw]

Little Eddie,

Another part of the Game Comm. plan is they aren't the ones doing the trapping, there are certain members of the PA State Trappers Association that are allowed to "voluntarily" trap the hogs and in return for their services they are allowed to keep a percentage of the hogs for their own use while the rest goes for testing to see what parasites and diseases they might have. So they can fill their freezers but the rest of us that are interested in hunting hogs can't touch them. The best part is that there are 4 main places in the state that hogs have been seen -- the northern section where I hunt, theres an area south of here, the southwestern side of the state somewhere, and over on the western edge somewhere, and ALL of the places have been placed under this hunting ban over the last year. I think I can see where this is headed, you dont stop the hunting of something if you want to eradicate it only if you want it to proliferate. I'll keep the updates rolling in...

[Little Eddie]

Outlaw,

My the ways of human bureaucracies!!! Do any of them make progress toward the goals for which they were origanized at their inceptions?

Do universities primarily educate students?

Do governments serve the citizens?

Do the organized denominational churches save the lost and fight against human suffering?

Do game and fish departments fulfill their obligations to the wildlife and to the hunters and fishers who pay their salaries?

Does anyone not recognize the four questions above as being unnecessary to ask -- totally rhetorical?

We live in an evil and confusing world, Outlaw. But the adventure and the battle and the loves of our lives make it all rather exciting in our quests outside the normal worldly values and schemes -- living beyond and above "the popular."

-- Little Eddie

P.S. Aren't wild hogs extremely dangerous? If I were in your situation, whenever I went out into the woods (and I would go out as frequently as work and invention and time and responsibility to family allowed) I would carry my 44 Magnum revolver and kill all of the devils I could before they got a chance to chew off my laigs!!!!! I ain't; but if the game and fish folks asked, I would say that I shot in self-defense because I was ascairt. Juries tend not to believe the "self-defense argument" unless the shooter is willing to say, "I shot because I was so ascairt for my life!"