Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

CNN Examines Using ARs for Hog Hunting
Petersons ^ | March 26, 2013 | Eric Conn

Posted on 04/04/2013 5:55:29 PM PDT by SJackson

If you had to pick the single most controversial issue in America the past few months, the AR would no doubt be at the top of that list. And if you had to characterize the media’s position on the subject, it would without hesitation be unfavorable.

Given those facts, it was surprising when CNN ran an exclusive online video on March 22 with a semi-positive focus on the use of ARs for hog hunting in agrarian Georgia. The segment ran on Anderson Cooper 360 and featured interviews with Jim Pritchard, a Georgia farmer, and Hal Shouse, owner operator of hogSWAT, a local hog hunting outfitter that utilizes ARs and night vision optics.

As the segment points out, feral hogs number around 5 million in the U.S. and do an estimated $1.5 billion in damage each year. Farmers encourage outfitters like Shouse to host hunters on their property to help alleviate crop damage done by the rapidly multiplying hordes of wild hogs. With nightly hog hunting excursions for paying customers, Shouse said the use of ARs and standard 30-round magazines are a practically useful tool.

Victor Blackwell, the host of the segment, asked Shouse why the AR is at the center of such a heated issue: “When you say AR and 30-round magazine, that’s a political hot button.”

“Sure it is, because people have decided to make it [an issue],” Shouse explained. “Tragedies happen, but the weapon didn’t create these tragedies. Sick individuals used this weapon, this tool, and they did something destructive with it, something ugly. That’s all you can say about it.”

Blackwell also asked, “Who needs this weapon outside of the military or someone who wants to kill someone else?”

“You know ‘need’ is a big word. You don’t need a lot of things that you choose to use because they make your job easier. I could do this with a single shot weapon, sure, I just wouldn’t be nearly as effective. But I don’t want to. I’m a legal, responsible gun owner, I’ve evaluated all the different weapons out there and I decided this weapon is what makes sense for me and my company,” Shouse said.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: guncontrol; need; secondamendment
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061 next last
To: BenLurkin
Wouldn’t you want a beefier cartridge for hunting hog?

AR-10.

>.308

41 posted on 04/04/2013 9:19:24 PM PDT by Doomonyou (Let them eat Lead.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: reed13k
interesting I’d always heard hogs/pigs had an extra bone in their forehead that deflected lower powered cartridges. So I wouldn’t have expected a .22 to do the trick.

I raised a few hogs is high School. Come butcher time, the guy came out, started his trough of boiling water and grabbed his .22, put two shots (with shorts) right between the eyes from five feet. The pig just stared at him, he loaded up a LR and that put it down. When he halved him we poked around the 1/2" thick skull and found the shorts just flattened out on the bone.

42 posted on 04/04/2013 9:26:27 PM PDT by Doomonyou (Let them eat Lead.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

Lots of people use .223.

I wouldn’t.


43 posted on 04/04/2013 10:05:42 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously, you won't live through it anyway)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

58 years ago?

LOL!


44 posted on 04/04/2013 10:35:23 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously, you won't live through it anyway)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: Vendome

WOOPS! 48 YEARS AGO!

It was 58 years ago when the US army started giving it’s soldiers better arms than the citizens! Up until 1956, the average citizen had a better choice of rifles than the US military!


45 posted on 04/04/2013 10:55:58 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (The murals in OKC are destroyed.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

A few years back, I visited the closed for the winter local Scout Reservation. When I left, I stopped to open the gate and a man in full camo carrying an AR15 with scope startled me.

He was hunting coyotes. He had a permit to be on the camp grounds that also supports large deer and turkey populations


46 posted on 04/05/2013 4:22:18 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 .....History is a process, not an event)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

I had the pleasure of shooting an AR, recently. What a sweet weapon. I can’t wait to get one. When I told my husband I wanted one for our Anniversary present he asked if I wanted it in pink - pfffffffft! Camo would be nice, I said :-P


47 posted on 04/05/2013 4:29:55 AM PDT by liberalh8ter (The only difference between flash mob 'urban yutes' and U.S. politicians is the hoodies.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RoosterRedux; SJackson

I have a Jewish friend who has discovered bacon in the last couple of years and is really into it. He didn’t get any growing up.

“Bacon” is going to be a full chapter of his book “Why We Jews Are Not The Chosen People”.


48 posted on 04/05/2013 4:31:52 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: mylife
Lots of guys use the AR for hogs here in TX.

If one goes hog hunting, are they obligated to clean and eat their kill or can they leave the carcasses for the vultures and coyotes?

49 posted on 04/05/2013 4:38:47 AM PDT by Hot Tabasco (This space for rent)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

Though personally the .223 is a bit of a controversial cartridge for hunting the platform in its simplicity is wonderful with the near minimal recoil.
I would love to have both the .458SOCUM or .50 Beowulf and also the new 30 BLK (30AAC Blackout) as it mimics the 7.62x39 but with a better magazine profile instead of banana curved ones, and its not hard to make the case from a .223, plus you can use .30 hunting bullets.

My biggest pain is literally the pain of recoil, especially when using a big game cartridge.
Now realistically the whole cry and furor is fundamentally because the AR15 realistically is a threat to enemies both foreign and domestic, enemies who have control of America.

People and groups with an agenda of power control, and the simple presence of millions of armed Americans with an AR15 is very disturbing to them, so all the more reason to get a loan, raid the piggy bank, eat beans for a month all so you can get your AR15, because numbers don’t lie, the more Americans that are armed the longer we can pursue liberty and live by it.


50 posted on 04/05/2013 4:43:40 AM PDT by Eye of Unk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

“If you had to pick the single most controversial issue in America the past few months, the AR would no doubt be at the top of that list.”

The AR is not the ISSUE. The actual issue is the attempt to infringe on unalianable rights.


51 posted on 04/05/2013 5:11:33 AM PDT by CSM (Keeper of the Dave Ramsey Ping list. FReepmail me if you want your beeber stuned.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Hot Tabasco

The big ones I leave for the yotes and buzzards anthing under 70 lbs gets butchered. Hogs hit the big ranch about 4 years ago and I soon found out my little 243 bolt action just wasn’t enough firepower when you run into a sounder of hogs. Spent a little money and bought a Panther Arms LR 308, with 19 in the mag and one in the chamber it made a heck of a difference. First day out with it and I ran into a sounder of 8 and 7 of them didn’t make it to the brushline.


52 posted on 04/05/2013 6:01:40 AM PDT by Dusty Road
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin
Here is a partial list of caibers available for a standard AR15 lower.

6 x 45

7 x 40

357 Mag Rimless

300 Whisper / .300Fireball / 300-.221

6.5 x 40

.30 Coyote (30 x 45)

.17 Remington

.17 Mach IV

.20 Tactical

.19 Calhoun

5.7 FN

.204 Ruger

6.8 SPC

30 HRT

338 Spectre

10 mm Mag

35/40

219 WASP-C

7.62 x 40

5.45x39

7.62 x 39

.338 x 39

6 PPC

6.5 Grendel / 6.5 AR / 6.5 PPC Improved

22 PPC

7 sCAR

30 Carbine

5.45x39 / .21 Ghengis

7 BR

6.5 BR

300 Sabre

8mm (belt fed upper)

458 SOCOM

44 Mag

440 CorBon

44 AMP

.475 Tremor

50AE

499LW

50 Beowulf

.50 BMG (single shot)

.50 Blackpowder (1 made)

9mm

45ACP

32ACP

22 LR

17 HV

10mm

7.62x25

224 BoZ

7.62x24

9x23

.357 Sig

.357 Auto

40S&W

223 WSSM

243 WSSM

300 WSSM

.30 RAR

53 posted on 04/05/2013 6:57:11 AM PDT by Durus (You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality. Ayn Rand)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Hot Tabasco

Most just leave them.


54 posted on 04/05/2013 9:25:45 AM PDT by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: Hot Tabasco
You wrote: "If one goes hog hunting, are they obligated to clean and eat their kill or can they leave the carcasses for the vultures and coyotes?"

You're not obliged to do anything. Feral hogs are a nuisance animal that causes terrible damage to crop land. You're allowed to kill them anytime any way you can. You can bait them, trap them and drive them. You can shoot them anytime of the year.

People seem to prefer the smaller - less than 150 lbs or so - pigs and leave boars and big hogs for vultures and coyotes. If you're hunting in hot weather, it may not be possible to field dress them, haul them out, then rough butcher them and get them on ice before they turn.

If you've shot them a couple of miles from your vehicle at night in hot weather, its best just to leave them.

55 posted on 04/05/2013 12:31:59 PM PDT by TomMix
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: JRandomFreeper
I hope somebody makes scrapple out of the leftovers. Head cheese I could do without.
56 posted on 04/05/2013 12:51:35 PM PDT by kitchen (Due to the increased price of ammo, do not expect a warning shot.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: TomMix
You're not obliged to do anything. Feral hogs are a nuisance animal that causes terrible damage to crop land. You're allowed to kill them anytime any way you can.

If that's the case, then I can see where Texas hog hunting would very well be an outfitter's gold mine......if the price is right.

57 posted on 04/05/2013 2:38:38 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (This space for rent)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]

To: Hot Tabasco

Outfitters all over and the prices are cheap If anybodies interested in coming down to TX and do a little hog hunting give me a PM I know a bunch of them. All you need is a 5 day temp licence and I think it’s less than 50 dollars. can set you up with a cheap hunt or an all the frills hunt. Rifle, Bow, Spear or Knife.


58 posted on 04/05/2013 3:57:09 PM PDT by Dusty Road
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | View Replies]

To: Dusty Road
All you need is a 5 day temp licence

That sounds like a pretty fun thing to do. Is it open season on hogs or can you only shoot them during a specified hunting season?

59 posted on 04/05/2013 4:25:04 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (This space for rent)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: Dusty Road
Is it open season on hogs or can you only shoot them during a specified hunting season?

Sorry, I spotted the answer above..........

60 posted on 04/05/2013 4:55:55 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (This space for rent)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson