“I quickly found that hunting in the daytime, the traditional way, I wasn’t very effective… I saw how effective thermal technology was in combat, and from what I see, farmers and ranchers are at war with feral hogs in the United States. So, it just made common sense to me,” said Rod.
Wow, this is cool. What do you get when you combine a combat veteran, thermal night vision equipment, military grade weapons, and cutting edge hunting methods for guided pig hunts? You get one hell of a hog eradication service, and that is what this country needs right now.
Enter Jager Pro Thermal Hog Control out of Columbus, Georgia. This company is not only brutally efficient in eradicating these things, but they are also in the business of taking folks out on guided night hunts to turn a profit. Just imagine if Jager Pro became a franchise and these guys were able to take this concept to the next level? (they do day hunts as well)
Feral hogs are a huge problem and I have talked about this in the past. Even here in Idaho there are sightings of feral pigs in the south and this state’s game officials are concerned about their possible growth here. In Texas and the rest of the south, they are really bad and it is an all out war to eradicate these things. The amount of damage to crops and land they do is costing millions and the reproduction rates of pig are worse than rabbits. It is often referred to as the ‘Pig Bomb’.
The other thing that jumped out at me was the concept of the ‘Judas Pig’. Basically this is a strategy derived from a method of eradicating goats in Hawaii back in the eighties. The way it works is they strap a locator beacon on a pig and let them loose in an area. Because these animals are social, they tend to look for their fellow pigs or goats and graze or mate with them. If hunters want to find their prey, they just follow the Judas Pig (usually a young female pig or gilt) and then kill her new found buddies. It is a method that is being employed all over the world with excellent success.
Does this sound familiar guys and gals? Pseudo-operations is what this is, and this is a very simplistic example of how effective it can be when applied to hog hunting. The trick for warfare is finding that pseudo operator (s) that will lead you to the enemy–either willingly or unwillingly. Which is an interesting question? I wonder if any Judas Pigs figured out that they were causing so much death and purposely avoided contact with other pigs? hmmm.
I was thinking what would be really cool for this deal was to combine the Judas Pig concept with a geo-locating mobile app for smart phones. That way hunters could participate in following the various Judas Pigs that have been released into the wild, all by pulling out a smart phone and seeing what lights up on their GPS enabled map. Jager Pro could offer this app to customers on a subscription basis, or use some other method of monetizing the thing. Each Jager Pro pin on the map could have different types of information, like if it was a female or male, or how many pigs have been eradicated by using this pig. It would be one way of making it easier for hunters to do their thing out there, and quicken the eradication process.
Also, in Texas I am told that you can sell wild pig meat. But the animal has to be alive when you sell it. They want to test the pig for diseases and whatnot before slaughtering it and selling the meat. But still, that would be one way of making a little coin off of this deal. Very innovative, and Rod Pinkston of Jager Pro definitely gets a thumbs up from FJ. –Matt
Link to Jager Pro website here.
Facebook for Jager Pro here.
The War On Wild Hogs Using Military Tactics
Using thermal-imaging technology to put the crosshairs on feral hogs.
By Drew Hall
June 2008
It’s 0100 hours and pitch-black dark as my team and I await our target’s arrival. We’d been briefed just hours before of the mass amount of damage our targets have caused. These beasts have destroyed other’s means of life, they’ve taken hard-earned crops away from farmers and they’ve had little to no regret about any of it. At least, not until tonight. For most of them, tonight will be the end. And for those who survive the assault, they won’t be returning to this area any more.
We lay in silence — waiting. Our team leader whispers the targets should be arriving any minute, their nightly routine rarely changes much. Little did they know, their own routine would be the death of them. They spend the heat of the day hiding in the swamps and thick woods, then they leave the safety of the swamps to devastate the land around them.
Suddenly, we spot a group of targets at more than a half-mile away. Our thermal-imagery optics allow us to view the presence of heat at extreme distances. We decide to start the stalk instead of waiting them out. We need to complete the mission quickly; we don’t have time to wait. After an hour-long stalk in a tactical formation, we are within 50 yards of our targets which have no idea anything is amiss. We spread out in kneeling and prone positions and take aim. The first shot rings out as muzzle fire exits our leader’s rifle. A barrage of rifle fire follows as all but a few of the targets fall to the ground. Some manage to escape, but the chain of command has been broken, and they won’t return.