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There's a great reply-all on Feral Hogs: https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/n8hw3d https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/n8hw3d that explores the tweet:

There's a great reply-all on Feral Hogs: https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/n8hw3d https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/n8hw3d that explores the tweet: “Legit question for rural Americans - how do I kill the 30-50 feral hogs that run into my yard within 3-5 min while my small kids play.”

rkuykendall-com 6y ago
This episode was amazing. They use the tweet, which mostly just fueled a day of twitter memes, as a jumping off point into a really fantastic dive into the entire issue. The tweet author is also involved and it's so great.
regnarg 6y ago
An LMG sounds like a good choice.
rozab 6y ago
Strange how they didn't even address the main point, which is that if your young children are being swarmed by 30-50 feral hogs you probably aren't going to disappear into your house, unlock your gun safe, retrieve and load your gun then come back to their rescue 5 minutes later. That just seems like a gratuitous excuse to shoot 30-50 feral hogs. And yet, it sounds like this is literally what the guy did. PJ: Willie told me the reason his wife was scared is these weren’t like, barnyard pigs, they were feral hogs. They’re more like wild boars – some have big sharp tusks, they’re much bigger, with longer legs. They move really fast. And that moment, there was a bunch of them swarming around his 4 and 5 year old. It was scary. WILLIE: I went to my safe. I got my gun. I got my shells. Went right out on the back porch. PJ: And how were the hogs acting? Were they like moving quickly? Were they– WILLIE: Well, yeah. You know, they’re running all through the yard from the back of my yard all the way to the front. And then I pick out, of course, the ones that look the meanest. The one with the tusk. These are two or three hundred pound hogs. I’m not letting them near my family. PJ: Yeah– WILLIE: So, just for lack of a better term, I just start laying them down.
- 3633735324 6y ago
  Why would you not shoot them if they're overwhelming your property? We shoot deer all the time to keep populations in check.
  - dafoex 6y ago
    I don't disagree, but there was no mention of rescuing the children from the line of fire. Maybe that's obvious from context in the states, but it sounds like the guy went "wild pigs are attacking my kids, I need to shoot the wild pigs that are very close to my kids who may or may not be moving erratically and unexpectedly due to them being attacked by bloody dangerous wild pigs"
- bitcurious 6y ago
  The most likely explanation is that he wasn’t storing his guns safely but didn’t want to admit that on the record.
- omginternets 6y ago
  > [...] if your young children are being swarmed by 30-50 feral hogs you probably aren't going to disappear into your house, unlock your gun safe, retrieve and load your gun then come back to their rescue 5 minutes later. I may be misunderstanding your comment, but that seems perfectly reasonable to me. Retrieving a gun doesn't take 5 minutes. Let t be the time at which the hogs arrive. I can sprint from my basement to the top floor in a bit over 5 seconds. I can find something in a closet in about 5 more seconds. That's about 12-13 seconds to having a gun in my hands, but let's account for opening the gun safe and fumbling around for magazines. The clock is now showing t+30. Let's now assume the gun isn't loaded. I'm probably a bit stressed by all of this, but almost anyone can load a magazine-fed rifle in 5 seconds. t+35s. Now I have two choices: 1. Open the bedroom window (~3s), take aim (~2s) and fire. => t+40s 2. Sprint down to the ground floor (~3s), run out the back door (~2s), get into a shooting position (~3s), aim (~2s) and fire. => t+45s A conservative estimate has me shooting hogs in 45 seconds. If I live in a place where this is a problem, I'm also likely to take steps to prepare. I might keep the gun safe in a more accessible place (e.g. the garage). I might store the firearm in the gun safe with a magazine already seated in the well. I might keep my eyes open and notice the hogs at a distance, giving me the time to fetch a gun sans the frenzy. In some parts of the world, it's common to keep a rifle at hand when outside. I don't live in a part of the world where I have to deal with feral hogs, but this doesn't strike me as a "gratuitous excuse to shoot 30-50 feral hogs". Nor does it strike me as diagnostic of unsafe firearm handling, as others have suggested. -- EDIT -- The most worrying thing here is the idea of shooting in a place where little kids were running around/playing just moments ago. While this kind of situation can be handled safely, it's also where dramatic accidents tend to happen. A big problem with firearms handling is that it's a perishable skill. You forget. You get rusty.
setr 6y ago
given their apparent absurd capabilities (eats anything, breeds like rabbit, grows to absurd sizes) I'm not clear what stops them from overrunning any environment they exist in, including their native environments in europe? All of the natural predators coming up from googling seem to be fairly "weak" at population control -- alligators, cats, large birds (preying on the young) -- so it seems to be the wild hog has both the traits of an apex omnivore, but also comical rates of breeding; combined with their ability to eat just about anything (including each other), it almost as if the inevitable outcome should have been complete and total domination of the world centuries ago
- opportune 6y ago
  Wolves? I am having trouble linking it but Wikipedia says that wolves are indeed the primary natural predator of wold board

rkuykendall-com 6y ago

This episode was amazing. They use the tweet, which mostly just fueled a day of twitter memes, as a jumping off point into a really fantastic dive into the entire issue. The tweet author is also involved and it's so great.

regnarg 6y ago

An LMG sounds like a good choice.

rozab 6y ago

Strange how they didn't even address the main point, which is that if your young children are being swarmed by 30-50 feral hogs you probably aren't going to disappear into your house, unlock your gun safe, retrieve and load your gun then come back to their rescue 5 minutes later. That just seems like a gratuitous excuse to shoot 30-50 feral hogs. And yet, it sounds like this is literally what the guy did. PJ: Willie told me the reason his wife was scared is these weren’t like, barnyard pigs, they were feral hogs. They’re more like wild boars – some have big sharp tusks, they’re much bigger, with longer legs. They move really fast. And that moment, there was a bunch of them swarming around his 4 and 5 year old. It was scary. WILLIE: I went to my safe. I got my gun. I got my shells. Went right out on the back porch. PJ: And how were the hogs acting? Were they like moving quickly? Were they– WILLIE: Well, yeah. You know, they’re running all through the yard from the back of my yard all the way to the front. And then I pick out, of course, the ones that look the meanest. The one with the tusk. These are two or three hundred pound hogs. I’m not letting them near my family. PJ: Yeah– WILLIE: So, just for lack of a better term, I just start laying them down.

3633735324 6y ago
Why would you not shoot them if they're overwhelming your property? We shoot deer all the time to keep populations in check.
- dafoex 6y ago
  I don't disagree, but there was no mention of rescuing the children from the line of fire. Maybe that's obvious from context in the states, but it sounds like the guy went "wild pigs are attacking my kids, I need to shoot the wild pigs that are very close to my kids who may or may not be moving erratically and unexpectedly due to them being attacked by bloody dangerous wild pigs"
bitcurious 6y ago
The most likely explanation is that he wasn’t storing his guns safely but didn’t want to admit that on the record.
omginternets 6y ago
> [...] if your young children are being swarmed by 30-50 feral hogs you probably aren't going to disappear into your house, unlock your gun safe, retrieve and load your gun then come back to their rescue 5 minutes later. I may be misunderstanding your comment, but that seems perfectly reasonable to me. Retrieving a gun doesn't take 5 minutes. Let t be the time at which the hogs arrive. I can sprint from my basement to the top floor in a bit over 5 seconds. I can find something in a closet in about 5 more seconds. That's about 12-13 seconds to having a gun in my hands, but let's account for opening the gun safe and fumbling around for magazines. The clock is now showing t+30. Let's now assume the gun isn't loaded. I'm probably a bit stressed by all of this, but almost anyone can load a magazine-fed rifle in 5 seconds. t+35s. Now I have two choices: 1. Open the bedroom window (~3s), take aim (~2s) and fire. => t+40s 2. Sprint down to the ground floor (~3s), run out the back door (~2s), get into a shooting position (~3s), aim (~2s) and fire. => t+45s A conservative estimate has me shooting hogs in 45 seconds. If I live in a place where this is a problem, I'm also likely to take steps to prepare. I might keep the gun safe in a more accessible place (e.g. the garage). I might store the firearm in the gun safe with a magazine already seated in the well. I might keep my eyes open and notice the hogs at a distance, giving me the time to fetch a gun sans the frenzy. In some parts of the world, it's common to keep a rifle at hand when outside. I don't live in a part of the world where I have to deal with feral hogs, but this doesn't strike me as a "gratuitous excuse to shoot 30-50 feral hogs". Nor does it strike me as diagnostic of unsafe firearm handling, as others have suggested. -- EDIT -- The most worrying thing here is the idea of shooting in a place where little kids were running around/playing just moments ago. While this kind of situation can be handled safely, it's also where dramatic accidents tend to happen. A big problem with firearms handling is that it's a perishable skill. You forget. You get rusty.

setr 6y ago

given their apparent absurd capabilities (eats anything, breeds like rabbit, grows to absurd sizes) I'm not clear what stops them from overrunning any environment they exist in, including their native environments in europe? All of the natural predators coming up from googling seem to be fairly "weak" at population control -- alligators, cats, large birds (preying on the young) -- so it seems to be the wild hog has both the traits of an apex omnivore, but also comical rates of breeding; combined with their ability to eat just about anything (including each other), it almost as if the inevitable outcome should have been complete and total domination of the world centuries ago

opportune 6y ago
Wolves? I am having trouble linking it but Wikipedia says that wolves are indeed the primary natural predator of wold board