Beginning September 1, for about $500 an hour helicopter hunters can fly over Texas ranchland, rifle in hand and shoot as many hogs as pass through their scopes. While hunting from helicopters was previously outlawed, the “pork chopper” law makes it easier and more cost effective for land owners to fight Texas’ wild hog over-population problem from the air where low-flying, fast-moving helicopters can keep up with the 400-pound animals, which can run as fast as 35 miles per hour, over terrain that is often inaccessible by vehicles.
“Just shooting them and trapping them onesie, twosie is not working very well,” said Mike Morgan, president of Vertex Helicopters, a company that specializes in helicopter hog-hunting.
Morgan said the almost 4 million Texas hogs cause about $400 million in damage to crops, homes and landscaping every year. After the wild beasts tore up a $10 million Dallas golf course the state Legislature began looking for ways to seriously address the over-population problem, he said.
So far about 95 hunters have signed up for Morgan’s safety course, a prerequisite for hog heli-hunting, because “flying below 50 feet at high speeds and shooting semi-automatic rifles from helicopters” is “inherently dangerous” he said.
Intro to Heli Hog Hunting Video with Vertex Helicopter
Live Action Video of Hog Hunting from a Chopper
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