Jay Cantrell manages the Webb Center (James W. Webb WMA) and Palachucola WMA. Cantrell said that special dog hunts for wild hogs are scheduled for the weekend of March 2-4 on both WMAs, but it's hard to predict whether there will be hogs to hunt at any given time. "Even though we're right here in the middle of hog country, we have 10 or fewer hogs killed in a year," he said. "We get most of our hogs moving through here in April after the adjacent properties take up their corn for turkey season. When we start planting corn, that's when the hogs show up."

Still, if someone wants to come down and hog hunt during that first weekend in March, Cantrell said to come on down. Even though this special hunt is specifically a dog hunt, he said he wouldn't turn away a still-hunter who was hot to trot to find a hog. Note that all hunters must check in at the Webb Center before hunting, and any harvested hogs must also be checked in.

It's pretty much the same story down at the Donnelly WMA near Green Pond. In years past, Donnelly was known for producing quite a few hogs, but the hog numbers are way down. Only seven hogs were taken in the dog hunt at Donnelly last year. The special party dog hunt for hogs at Donnelly WMA is held the same weekend as the one at the Webb Center, March 2-4. Hunters must sign in before hunting and other special regulations apply. Check the WMA rules and regulations brochure before planning to participate in this hunt.

Several other special hog hunts, mostly party dog hunts, are worth checking out. Crackerneck WMA in Aiken County, the Waterhorn WMA in the Francis Marion Hunt Unit, Santee Coastal Reserve and Bear Island WMA all have party dog hunts for hogs scheduled for spring of 2006. Still-hunts are scheduled for Marsh Furniture WMA and for the Great Pee Dee WMA. Suffice it to say that there are ample opportunities for someone looking to hunt hogs on public land after the first of the year.

Now, let's suppose that you can't work in one of these special hog hunts on public lands, but you have a craving to go hunt wild hogs. Well, there is good news for you, too. Much of South Carolina is covered up with wild hogs, mostly on private land. The good news is you can hunt wild hogs on private land year 'round with a big-game rifle in all regions of the state, with the notable exception of Game Zone One, in northern Greenville, Pickens and Oconee counties. That still leaves a heckuva lot of territory to pursue the wary wild boar.

Anyone with access to private land along the lower reaches of one of South Carolina's major river corridors almost certainly has access to wild hogs. Wild hogs have been roaming and rooting in the woods of the Palmetto State since the first Spanish explorers made their way up the Savannah River in the 1500s. Most of the wild or feral hogs in South Carolina today, however, are the progeny of hogs that have been released into the wild in modern times. For a century or more, farmers have turned their hogs loose in the woods in the fall of the year to fatten up on acorns. Some of those "hogs gone wild" evidently never returned to the pen. Others have been released intentionally by hog hunters who wanted to get hogs established in regions where they could hunt them.

Hog hunters should take note that a new South Carolina law prohibits trapping, and releasing into the wild, any wild hog from one county to another. Note also that in all the public-land hunts described earlier, no live hogs may be taken off any of these various and sundry wildlife management areas.