Feral Hogs in Northeast Texas: Hunting, Trapping, and Protecting Your Acreage

Fall on Northeast Texas acreage means acorns, and where the acorns drop, the feral hogs follow. Texas is home to an estimated 2.6 million wild hogs, in all but one of the state's 254 counties, and Lamar County knows them as well as any place along the Red River. A little know-how keeps them out of your garden, turns a nuisance into a full freezer, and is part of honest rural land management in Arthur City country.

The Texas Rules for Hogs, Made Simple

Start with the good news: in Texas, feral hogs have no closed season and no bag limit. You can hunt or trap them year-round on private property with landowner permission. Since 2019, no hunting license is required to hunt or trap hogs on private land, though hunter education still applies, and public land needs a license plus daylight hours only. Night hunting is allowed on private land with permission, with a courteous heads-up to the local game warden. That freedom exists on purpose: hogs multiply fast and a sounder can do real damage.

"On the Red River, hogs are part of the deal. Manage them early, and the rest of country life stays easy."

What a Sounder Does to Your Acreage

A sounder of hogs can turn a clean pasture into a torn field in a single night, rooting for grubs and acorns. They push under barbed wire more often than they test it, which matters at 6260 Farm Road 197, where the existing pipe and barbed-wire fence leaves the bottom few inches open. Where you keep a garden, chicken coop, or orchard, add a strand of hot wire low, or bury the bottom of woven wire a few inches deep. Keep feed bags indoors and harvest on time, and hogs lose their invitation to dinner.

Hunting and Trapping the Red River Country

Fall and winter are the best seasons to act: acorn drop pulls hogs into the timber, and cool weather keeps them moving in daylight. Deer hunters heading out for the youth weekend October 30 through November 1, or the general opener November 7, are already in position to read hog sign: rooted ground, rubs along fence lines, and trails out of creek bottoms between Arthur City and Paris. For real control, corral traps remove a whole sounder at once, and Texas Parks and Wildlife and Texas A&M AgriLife publish free trapping guides. Wild hog pork is fine table fare when processed cleanly.

A Base Camp That Fits the Life

A place like 6260 Farm Road 197 is the base camp for all of it: open pasture in front, mature trees behind, sandy loam that drains well for garden beds, and room for chickens, a small herd, or a future shop. Managing hogs is just one more sign you live on real acreage, and it comes with the best trade in country living: quiet mornings, wide skies, and a wrap-around porch with the whole view.

Interested in a property like this? Contact the Shannon Miles Group at (903) 785-2005 or visit shannonmiles.com