I would not say hunting to control populations is not impossible, but it is difficult. There are a series of facts/assumptions to that assertion.
- 1. Hogs are relatively intelligent. They adapt fairly quickly. If you hunt during the day, they will almost immediately become nocturnal. If you hunt a specific area, they will move. They will also adapt their diets.
- 2. Our rural populations have become less densely populated. The population is also less focused on self sustainability. There are not farmers/ranchers every 80 acres, looking for something to kill for their next meal. If they don't shoot a animal every few days, there is always the grocery store. Work schedules have less time for hunting.
- 3. A large percentage of land is privately owned. Hunters are not welcome to hunt everywhere. Going back to their adaptability. If they learn one plot is hunted, but 3 other's are not - they can easily move to places that are sanctuaries.
- 4. Hogs will self regulate their populations based on available feed. Given more feed, they will reach reproductive size quicker, have larger litters, have more frequent litters. We have been unsuccessful eliminating coyotes for the same reasons.
Our wild hogs are somewhat managed in Texas. We can control their numbers somewhat, but the control has to be ongoing. It comes down to cost benefit. If you reduce their numbers enough, the crop damage is minimized. Additional efforts are more difficult and have less cost benefit. Eventually they reproduce enough that it is necessary to control their numbers again. Tech - thermal and better traps add cost, but also make this easier to accomplish. Current best practices I have found are thermal hunts and remote controlled (with remote surveillance) drop traps.
I have some friends who operate a dairy and have a fairly substantial extended family. The dairy requires them to plant several thousands of acres of corn annually. They also have neighbors who plant several thousands of acres of corn annually. In the past, they have occasionally allowed thermal marketers to come in and do an irradiation hunt - the hunt being used for marketing videos (probably with those pictures of piles of pigs that show up on the internet). They are currently running 2-3 rotary drop traps. I think they harvested 60 or so pigs annually the last 2 years - which is enough to control their crop damage.
In my area - the single most effective method of hog control has been something that AR15 and virtually every other gun/hunting forum has deplored. Economics. About 25 miles from me is a "game ranch". They market hog hunts. Make it sound like their land is over run by feral hogs. They "gave" away hog hunts, but there was NOTHING free about it. You paid for bait, you paid for your guide, you paid for processing the hogs - it was strait out of Tin Men. It cost every bit as much as paying for the hunt. They seemed over run by hogs because they purchased and released hogs almost daily from local trappers. People trapped because it was profitable to do so. They payed between $5 for a pigglet to $100 for a large hog. Trapper could make $500 of beer money a week easy - and with enough trappers, the game ranch stayed over run by hogs. Only problem is the internet would expose them every few years and virtually shut the operation down. People got all pissy when they realized they were paying for canned hunts.