Hunters use helicopters to target nuisance wild pigs on Florida ranch

The helicopter hovered low over a thicket of cabbage palms, its rotor whop-whop-whopping, rattling the fronds and flattening the grass as two men sitting in the passenger seats fore and aft pointed shotguns out the open side. Suddenly, a wild hog darted out of the brush and began to run across the pasture. One of the hunters aimed and pulled the trigger, knocking the animal down with a load of buckshot. The chopper rose and continued west across the 5,000-acre ranch, seeking more targets. By dusk, five hunters flying in two chartered “pork choppers” had shot about 20 hogs in 2 1/2 hours. Two ground-support crews in pickup trucks recovered two carcasses and killed a third hog that ran in front of one of the trucks. No one was certain how many of the animals had been killed, wounded — or simply stung by pellets. “A bloody testosterone fest,” hunter Bob Diwozzi said afterward. Added Steve Polanish: “It was neat. It was different. There is a sport to it as far as leading and they’re running. They have the advantage with the cover out there.” The five hunters and a friend who rode with the ground crew each paid $1,000 to hunting guide Jeff Budz of Okeechobee, who lined up the helos and secured permission from the rancher. Budz said his aerial hunting parties have taken about 125 hogs from the ranch in the past five weeks. “This is the new norm,” he said of “pork chopper” hunting...more

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