Rod Pinkston and his crew are professional hog killers. There is no other way to describe this group of retired military soldiers with over 110 years of combined military training and active service experience. They know what they are doing.
Jager Pro’s Foundation
Established in 2006, Jager Pro’s mission is to eradicate wild hogs from farmer’s crop lands in the Columbus, Georgia region. To date Pinkston’s reputation has secured a large network of farmers with over 150,000 acres over five counties. This year is their 7th year in business. They hunt roughly 100 nights per year based on past experience of which time frames of the year are likely to be the most productive in terms of their night hunting strategies.
In terms of success at what they do best, consider this: during the 2011 season they harvested 1058 hogs. The meat is taken by their hunting guests as well as donated to local churches and families. Jager Pro has earned a 100% success rate on their 2-night hunts during the past four years.
Jager’s Hunting Strategy
“Our guest hunters are successful because we concentrate our efforts only during strategic times of the year when hogs are creating the most crop damage. We focus our hunt dates around winter food sources, spring planting, and fall harvest seasons outside the full moon. Farmers call us each morning with new reports of overnight crop damage,” reports Pinkston.
“Jager Pro harvests an equal number of hogs during the September/October fall harvest dates as during the March through May planting seasons. The only difference is our fall hunt dates tend to be warmer with more insects than spring dates. Feral hogs move their food source from harvested corn fields in late August into standing peanut fields. The peanut vegetation is short enough to scan, spot, and stalk effectively using our thermal spotting scopes.”
Pinkston continued, “We stop hunting each year in mid-October when all the peanuts have been harvested. We don’t hunt hogs at night from October 15 to January 15 during the Georgia deer gun season. First, the hogs are in oak bottoms eating acorns instead of feeding in the open fields. This renders $250,000 worth of thermal technology useless when you can only see 100 yards in the woods.”
Truth is, hog hunting during the traditional deer hunting seasons in Georgia simply creates too many issues from conflicts with wildlife officials trying to catch poachers at night plus the fact that many farmers also lease their farmlands to hunters for deer hunting. Jager Pro recognizes this fact.
Hunting with Jager Pro
Jager Pro has three full time guides who take three hunters each for a maximum of nine hunters per night. The guides will hunt three completely different locations for optimum shooting success and safety. If you have more than three hunters, more than one guide will have to be deployed. Open hunt dates are listed on their web site calendar.
Pinkston’s Jager Philosophy
“A feral hog is not a game animal in Georgia. It is a pest and no different than a rat, termite, or cockroach except a hog tastes better. Jager Pro is performing a hog control service and not hunting for sport. Our guest hunters are expected to kill every hog, even the juveniles. Georgia farmers expect us to kill every hog in his field before they destroy his biggest investment, which are his crops,” states Pinkston.
“My ultimate dream is to put a bullet in the last remaining feral hog in the United States,” claims Pinkston. I’d say he has his work cut out for him. If you might be interested in being a guest hunter at Jager Pro in Columbus, Georgia contact Pinkston at 706-718-9789, Ext. 101 or 706-322-1451. Check out their web site at www.jagerpro.com.
