Hog Hunting from a Hot Air Balloon

[alamo5000]

"Shooting feral hogs and coyotes from hot air balloons may soon be legal in Texas.

Last week, the Texas Legislature approved a bill to legalize hunting those porcine marauders and those depredating dogs from giant balloons provided one obtains a permit. The bill now heads to the desk of Gov. Greg Abbott for his signature."


https://www.gunsamerica.com/blog/death-from-above-hog-hunting-from-hot-air-balloons-may-soon-be-legal-in-texas/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=20170602_FridayDigest_124&utm_campaign=%2Fblog%2Fdeath-from-above-hog-hunting-from-hot-air-balloons-may-soon-be-legal-in-texas%2F

[alamo5000]

I think this is a pretty good deal. I don't know how much a hot air balloon costs to run but I am sure it's a lot cheaper than a helicopter. I am sure there will be pros and cons of both.

[Joelski]

No Coriolis effect shooting from an elevated platform. Should be like shooting fish in a barrel. Literally!

[alamo5000]

No Coriolis effect shooting from an elevated platform. Should be like shooting fish in a barrel. Literally!

I don't really know how to drive a hot air balloon but I would guess you can stay up there for a lot longer while still being a whole lot cheaper. The shooting platform would be a lot more stable as well.

On the flip side I don't know if you can run down a bunch of hogs in the same way. I would imagine it would be effective just a bit more stealthy. Get some binoculars, then float over and you and 4 or 5 buddies can open fire from a few hundred yards out.

[Joelski]

When was the last time you saw a hog gazing at the sky? They're so busy tearing the shit out of the ground, you can get right on top of them from above! 70'-80' of altitude ought to be pretty stealthy. It'd be fun to see how low you can get and be able to sneak right up on them.

[loktite]

How is good/poor is their hearing? I'm wondering just how close you can get before a burner blast would scare them off?

[alamo5000]

How is good/poor is their hearing? I'm wondering just how close you can get before a burner blast would scare them off?

They have [relatively] poor vision but really good hearing and sense of smell. Most of the time what scares them is sound or smell.

Hunting from the ground you can still get pretty close to them depending on how things go. Just like deer hunting. Scent, wind direction, etc. A lot of people around here go sit in deer stands and just shoot em. With the balloon thing though you don't have to worry so much about the wind carrying your old spice towards the pigs. On the ground I have gotten really up close to them in the right conditions, close enough to get kill shots with pistols.

I can't speak for other parts of Texas but where I'm at you can't get too low because of the tree canopy. It's really forested here but you could still cover a lot of turf with something from the air. Now throw in there suppressors and possibly thermal...and it could get interesting. I don't know how good thermal is about detecting heat through brush though.

At the end of the day in areas where they are a really big problem in order to truly be effective you have to have multiple methods to get them. Trapping them is really effective but the big traps that can catch 20 or 30 of them are expensive and sometimes you need multiple traps. Now throw in there all methods of year around hunting in addition to the traps and it's a bit more effective.

This balloon thing is just one more method to be able to monitor or shoot from the air. I'm sure we will hear reports back soon enough of the pros to doing it this way.

[alamo5000]

Also too with the balloon you can get above the property and pretty much have a picnic up there. You can just camp out sort of like a predator drone. You also have the luxury to be able to move around from clearing to clearing. I would imagine the most effective shots would be probably 45 degrees or less. I don't imagine a sound from 100 feet up in the air will spoke them nearly as much as hearing or smelling an ATV drive anywhere near them.

[alamo5000]

When was the last time you saw a hog gazing at the sky? They're so busy tearing the shit out of the ground, you can get right on top of them from above! 70'-80' of altitude ought to be pretty stealthy. It'd be fun to see how low you can get and be able to sneak right up on them.

As I was saying earlier, at least here that depends on where you're hunting. The last thing you would want is for your balloon to get tangled up in the trees. Also trying to hang out the side of a balloon and shoot 90 degrees straight down might be hard. At least around here this balloon thing might be very effective at patrolling the tree lines and various fields. You can see a lot of area with some binoculars and being up that high.

I'm sure people will come up with some effective techniques for balloon hunting.

[gatordev]

Contrary to popular belief, hot-air balloons are actually very noisy, which is what loktite is getting at. They also don't hover. They move with the environment, so if you have a huge property, you may stay over the property long enough to see and possibly engage hogs. The smaller the property, the shorter the hunt will be.

As for the Coriolis effect not taking effect at altitude, that's completely incorrect. Whether it actually matters is another discussion.

[alamo5000]

Contrary to popular belief, hot-air balloons are actually very noisy, which is what loktite is getting at. They also don't hover. They move with the environment, so if you have a huge property, you may stay over the property long enough to see and possibly engage hogs. The smaller the property, the shorter the hunt will be.

As for the Coriolis effect not taking effect at altitude, that's completely incorrect. Whether it actually matters is another discussion.

I have never done a decibel meter reading on a hot air balloon but you are correct on all accounts. The direction of the noise of one of those blasts is a whole new thing to me. A gas blast from 200 feet up and 200 yards out hell I don't know.

I know one thing for certain.... I don't know how to drive a hot air balloon so I can't speak to much of that part. Hell for all I know they just might anchor the balloon to the ground and go straight up and straight down.

Apparently somebody thought this was a good idea because it made it all the way through to the governor's desk...ummm wait... hang on... maybe that's not such a good analogy...never under estimate politicians or stupidity.

[Joelski]

It's been pointed out that hunting from a balloon would logically have to be done as a tethered platform. If you don't tether, your hunt might be extremely short. This is why I stated Coriolis Effect would be basically nil. Bobbing, pitch and yaw are a different story; it certainly wouldn't be like shooting from a scaffold. In a way, shooting from an aircraft would perhaps be more stable as the variables can largely be accounted for.

[gatordev]

It's been pointed out that hunting from a balloon would logically have to be done as a tethered platform. If you don't tether, your hunt might be extremely short. This is why I stated Coriolis Effect would be basically nil. Bobbing, pitch and yaw are a different story; it certainly wouldn't be like shooting from a scaffold. In a way, shooting from an aircraft would perhaps be more stable as the variables can largely be accounted for.

Your logic still doesn't make any sense. If you're tethered to the Earth, then, if shooting to the north or south, the Earth is still moving under you from time of trigger squeeze until impact. Being at altitude doesn't change that. Even if untethered, the Earth still moves under you.

Again, I'm not arguing any of this actually matters at the range you'd be hunting wabbits, but the science doesn't change if you're in a balloon, stand, or magic carpet above the surface of the planet.

[alamo5000]

I would think the distance of the shots will make that discussion moot. Shooting from an unstable platform though is a different subject. You as the shooter will be moving around and your target won't be stationery either. Those two things are much bigger concerns in my opinion.

[alamo5000]

Shooting from an aircraft on a moving target ain't easy. Bring extra ammo. Full auto if you can afford it.

Forward momentum in an aircraft would make the whole thing way more hard. Try riding in the back of a pickup truck and tossing a baseball into a barrel while moving. The science of forward momentum and all that makes even my nerdy head hurt.

Shooting from anything moving is not easy even on a stationery target.

[Joelski]

That's why they buy a lot of tracer rounds.

Gator: I used incorrect terminology.

[alamo5000]

Another idea is they might even tie the balloon to the back of a truck and slowly inch along. I'm curious now as to how this works in real life now.

[KW900A]

Another idea is they might even tie the balloon to the back of a truck and slowly inch along. I'm curious now as to how this works in real life now.

Yeah I'd like to see that too. I don't think a hog would hang around long with a truck idling by. Although if they scattered and driver gave chase, that would be amusing to watch.

I'd think since balloons basically move with the currents, you have to go into it with the "let's go for a balloon ride, and maybe shoot some pigs" mentality.

[Aragorn]

You know what makes my head hurt?

The term "Balloon Pilot".

[alamo5000]

Yeah I'd like to see that too. I don't think a hog would hang around long with a truck idling by. Although if they scattered and driver gave chase, that would be amusing to watch.

I'd think since balloons basically move with the currents, you have to go into it with the "let's go for a balloon ride, and maybe shoot some pigs" mentality.

I am just trying to imagine how this could function. I wouldn't imagine they would go give chase LOL! That would be a death sentence on somebody.

If the balloon was 100 yards up in the air and the truck stayed 200 yards away from the actual pigs that would make the shot about 225 yards at a downward angle. If they stayed 300 yards away that's about a 315 yard shot again, downhill. I don't think you would spook the pigs at those distances especially with cover but I could be wrong. The people in the balloon could have a walkie talkie and if they see something they could tell the driver to stop or whatever. From 100 or 200 yards up you would have a pretty good line of sight for quite some distance especially with binoculars or whatever.

I literally have no idea how this kind of hunting would function in the real world. I am just sitting here trying to figure out how they will do it all. All of this is news to me.

[alamo5000]

I just did some google fu and according to the people at Google if you are 100 feet up considering good conditions you can see for 12 miles. If you are higher up than that you can easily look downward onto the property. So let's say they just staked you out there in one spot in a balloon and you went pretty high up say 1500 feet you would have a pretty decent sight radius to look down on the property. In theory considering you had a .308 or bigger gun with the right optics you could effectively cover a circle about 1000 yards to 1400 across and still have very plausible shots of between 500 and 800 yards which is easily within range of a .308.

Those shot figures would be 'maximum'... but I would guess it's better if they wander up closer.

[alamo5000]

For the cost difference you can do a 2 hour hog hunt by helicopter for about $2500 per person with the max of 2 people. One of these balloon hunts would probably cost you a few hundred bucks plus some per person. Even being generous and calling it $500 that's still 1/5th the price of a heli hunt.

[gatordev]

I just did some google fu and according to the people at Google if you are 100 feet up considering good conditions you can see for 12 miles. If you are higher up than that you can easily look downward onto the property. So let's say they just staked you out there in one spot in a balloon and you went pretty high up say 1500 feet you would have a pretty decent sight radius to look down on the property. In theory considering you had a .308 or bigger gun with the right optics you could effectively cover a circle about 1000 yards to 1400 across and still have very plausible shots of between 500 and 800 yards which is easily within range of a .308.

Those shot figures would be 'maximum'... but I would guess it's better if they wander up closer.

Nobody that I'm aware of shoots from 1500 feet unless it's an aerial intercept. Even at 300 yards, people are very small. Crew-served slant ranges are going to be somewhere between 500-800m, with an altitude much lower. Precision fire is usually done at 100' or lower altitude for about a 100 y/m slant range (the Dutch do it a little higher, but it's not substantially higher).

My point is that while being higher will help being more covert, I'd argue it's going to significantly reduce your ability to both find and then engage the hogs. I can neither confirm or deny that I've chased hogs at 150', so I can neither confirm or deny that they are not large targets, especially when moving.

[alamo5000]

Nobody that I'm aware of shoots from 1500 feet unless it's an aerial intercept. Even at 300 yards, people are very small. Crew-served slant ranges are going to be somewhere between 500-800m, with an altitude much lower. Precision fire is usually done at 100' or lower altitude for about a 100 y/m slant range (the Dutch do it a little higher, but it's not substantially higher).

My point is that while being higher will help being more covert, I'd argue it's going to significantly reduce your ability to both find and then engage the hogs. I can neither confirm or deny that I've chased hogs at 150', so I can neither confirm or deny that they are not large targets, especially when moving.

I was just throwing random numbers at it to see what the possibilities are. I don't have the foggiest idea about real world application. I do find it interesting that you do know some of this stuff though. LOL!

Just based on what little I know this stuff is going to depend a lot on what part of Texas they try it in. If you go to West Texas they don't really have trees. If you go to Central Texas it's hilly (hence the hill country name) and the trees are still not very big. In East Texas though it's giant thick pine forests. The amount of open spaces vs cover (and what kind of cover) varies substantially. Floating along at 100-150 feet in some parts of Texas would be no problem but in others big problem.

Regarding the confirming or denying part, don't worry. I won't put you on the spot about it [BD] Since we are talking theories and all *wink wink* we will just continue to speculate.

You know what else I think? I think in Texas we need to be able to hunt from a small blimp.

[gatordev]

I was just throwing random numbers at it to see what the possibilities are. I don't have the foggiest idea about real world application. I do find it interesting that you do know some of this stuff though. LOL!


Well, it is what I've done for multiple deployments and numerous training evolutions. That said, the blimp idea is probably the best of both worlds, although they're also pretty damn loud.

[UWone77]

Balloon? Blimp?

You guys have it all wrong...


https://youtu.be/yv7jud7mVbA

[Stone]

That's more along the lines of what I was thinking except its a drone with a mini gun attached to it...

[Joelski]

What's wrong with a hellfire rocket???

[SINNER]

Shot hogs for 8 hours straight off a 60' water tower. Different packs passed by pretty much the entire time as far as you could see. From almost directly beneath us to just about 1000 yards out we killed pigs.

As long as the wind patterns are accounted for, I'd bet a balloon would be a success and a hell of a lot of fun too.

[Joelski]

I'd take the water tower all day long. No bouncing or dynamic shit to worry about. I'm not shooting a hog from 1/2 a mile away, so rotation is as big a deal for me as it is on the ground.

[fledge]

Shot hogs for 8 hours straight off a 60' water tower. Different packs passed by pretty much the entire time as far as you could see. From almost directly beneath us to just about 1000 yards out we killed pigs.

As long as the wind patterns are accounted for, I'd bet a balloon would be a success and a hell of a lot of fun too.

The water tower sounds like the perfect location for a meet n greet.

[Stone]

What's wrong with a hellfire rocket???

Not a damn thing. They are just hard to get, military is hoarding them all...:P

[Joelski]

Dammit! Stoopid rules!