It is a good opportunity to showcase the effects of environmental imbalance and what happens when you put predators back in the picture. Since we have generally wiped out all predator species in the US feral hogs are out of control, by allowing unlimited hunting of them we can show that hunters are part of the solution to habitat destruction. Shows us in a good light.

Any reports of hogs getting into towns and cities?

It wasn't a problem in Ohio until a few years back some hogs got loose from the game preserve they were on and started to spread like wild fire. Now there is no closed season on them and you can use whatever weapon you want to hunt them. People are now starting to see how they negatively affect the habitat that the rest of the animals use for cover.

Alaska, no hogs are not native to North America, they came here with Desoto in the early 1500's. Feral hogs have been a scourge ever since.

I despise them and take great pleasure in eliminating every one I can. As a biologist friend of mine says, "kill'um before they breed." Their endless rooting causes erosion and destroys habitat. What they don't eat they bury. They will eat anything including ground nesting birds and thier eggs. They wreck farm crops and pastureland. I always laugh when I hear a hunter say I wish we had hogs...

Hogs are a bad thing, they reproduce like nuts, destroy native plants and human crops. Hogs will also destroy turkey and waterfowl nests. They are a menace when it comes to the natural environment. But with all that being said i wouldn't welcome them in but i would do my part hunting them if they did come in.

I would agree that hogs are not going to do native species any good. Question, would a .243 with 100gr or larger bullets be good for taking down a hog?

when I lived in South Carolina The ranch I worked for kinda sorta had a hog problem, then the nieghbor had about 30 potbellies get out, then we had a full blown hog epidemic, made worse when they started to get rabid couldn't go outside unless you were armed, I agree with the sentiment that controlling feral hogs could be really good for our image, just wish there wasn't going to be all the damage caused by these creatues before people realize that there really is a problem.

Good for hunters, bad for land owners!

There is the problem the marketing of them. Rooting hogs cause a terrible amount of damage. It's like the marketing of bow fishing for Asian Carp. They are horrible in the state of Illinois and are getting into every river. I don't care to see all the "whooo hooo's and nice shot dude" when you can't motor a boat down a river without fish flying out of the water. I'm sure farmers and landowners don't care to see crops rooted up by evasive species.

hog hunting is good the hog itself is bad for the environment and as far as weapons go to take them down it all depends on your shot if you try and shoot em in the shoulder you going to need something bigger than a 243 as their skin is really thick and tough due to the briars they commonly run through

Feral hogs have resently been added to the list of huntable game here in Michigan. Only need a big, or small, game license during normal hunting seasons.
I had e-mailed out DNR dept a few years back about this issue,a nd until farmers made a stand against the hogs, they were considered federally protected! We have our fair share of game ranches here, and hog has escaped into the wild, but the law required them to "off limits" to hunters until 10 days after being reported as lost by the owning game ranch; then they could be killed as general game animal(this law still applies today with exotic deer, buffolo, or any other non-native game as it relates to game ranch species)I think the largest hog killed in MI to date( I should say reported!) was taken by a farmer on his land in the lower pennisula weighting in at alittle over 400lbs.
Hogs are a funny animal years of domestication is thrwn out the window once they go wild; teeth(tusks), and thick body hair begins to grow again.They also grow to enormous size!