Depredation permits are issued to farmers that demonstrate crop loss, etc due to hogs. same applies for Deer, the landowner usually has to fill out some forms, and demonstrate that earlier deterrent methods/efforts are not working.
Once the permits are issued, you can use any legal firearm to hunt them. I've hunted deer in July/early August at night (in the 90's), with a spotlight and high powered rifle riding in the back of a full sized truck, shooting across the cab. You drive into the field with the headlights off, get in position, flip on the spotlight, and have to shoot REALLY fast!
That time of year its WORK.. does not get dark until 9 pm, and you're not done skinning until after midnight most nights. You try to take multiple deer in an evening/minimize the damage as much as possible, so that means the skinning goes well into the AM.
The night vision would have improved the success tremendously, but back then, we were Low-Tech Red-Necks ;-)
After too much pressure, hogs go nocturnal, so the ONLY way to get them is to either trap them, or hunt them at night. On our farm today, the full moon must have had them a little off-timing, as a group of hogs came out in daylight and lost one of its porcine members.. One of the hunters managed to get it at 5:30, in the waning daylight.
If I were ever to shoot Depredation permits again... It would have to be NightVision, Suppressed... Those deer figured out the spotlight game WAY too fast...
SC