Hogs

[Flakjkt]

I have recently purchased some new land on the backside of our existing property. It is northeast oklahoma. We have a pay hunt ranch within a few mile that has been known to have escaped hogs. The new land has tons of hog sign on it rooting tracks feces, wallows in the pond bank and mud rub marks low on the trees, but it has been two months of fairly hard whitetail hunting and I have not seen the hogs that I know exist. Fresh sign has shown up often. Still no sign of them. The terain is very brushy steep ravines and open vallyes and ridge tops. What should I do to get one? Bait?

 

[JD338]

Flakjkt,

How about a timer based feeder. The hogs will hear it go off and will soon realize it is the dinner bell. You coold build a blind 100 yds away and smoke some pork. :grin:

Then you just have to invite your buddys here over for a BBQ. :wink:

Regards,

JD338

 

[Lou270]

Corn feeder/baiting is a good way to get them, but hogs can be very nocturnal. I had a lease in TX with a ton of hog sign that my lease partners and myself hunted hard during deer season and never saw a pig during day light hours. Another fun way is to still hunt them in the thick stuff, especially along creek bottoms / mucky areas very early in the day. Make sure to stay down wind and move slowly. Chances are you will hear them before you see them.

-Lou

 

[Reloder28]

I suggest you rig a light to your feeder. My timer has a light feature on it. It will turn on a small LED at whatever time I set it. The pigs don't care. They pile up under that feeder like fat puppies sleepin'. Makes 'em easy to shoot after dark. I don't get nearly as much time in the stand as I like. This affords me even more.

 

[gldprimr]

Here is South West Mississippi (a lof feral hogs here), our best way is either with live traps or dogs.... Hogs are extremely wary, typically nocturnal here and much harder to still/stand hunt than deer. I'd suggest bait.

 

[rick smith]

Hogs have a keen sense of smell, poor eyesight and good hearing plus they are intelligent. Baiting will work as will stalking as long as you approach from down wind. Never under estimate their sense of smell. The point of their tracks is more rounded than those of deer so if you bait you should be able to tell the difference. Find their approach to the bait and stalk them from down wind. They can be killed with a 22LR but if you are stalking them, I suggest a larger caliber. My favorite stalking rifle is my Ruger 44Mag carbine. I have killed them with a variety of calibers in rifle, pistol and shotgun(buckshot and slugs). I have not found them any harder to kill than any other big game animal. Just remember they take offense at a poorly placed shot and can be quite dangerous.Rick.

 

[FOTIS]

Let us know if it works out for you. I love pork chops!!!!
We shot a couple in TX last year!
:lol:

 

[rick smith]

Got to go Friday afternoon. Got four in one afternoon weights between 70-150lbs. Passed on one that would have gone 250+. Processor is now making several varieties of sausage, cured hams and pork chops. Used a ladder stand and corn piles. Head shots on all, distances were from 30-120yds. Used my old 30/06.Rick.

 

[Transvaal]

When the pigs are nocturnal you can also use 'mieliepap' (Afrikaans(my language) for maize/corn porridge) to bait them. Pigs love it and it's very cheap. Pick a spot which has a clearing with lots of bush surrounding it. Use a shooting lamp with a dimmer control and turn up the light slowly to not startle the pig. A red filter helps a lot. Don't turn the lamp to full brightness, only enough to shoot.

Use enough gun because following a wounded pig may be dangerous after dark.


Good luck!

 

[Bruce Mc]

Get you a couple of sacks of horse and mule feed, the stuff with molasses, and bury some near a stand. Spread some around to get 'em coming in. They'll root around for days on that one application. Works like a charm here along the Gulf Coast of Texas.

 

[FOTIS]

Got to go Friday afternoon. Got four in one afternoon weights between 70-150lbs. Rick.

Lucky !!!!!!!!! :evil:

 

[rick smith]

Took my son last weekend and he got one about 90lbs. I am now good on sausage for a while.
One trick we use to keep the hogs around is to use a post hole digger and make a hole approximately 10" deep, put a few inches of corn in the bottom of the hole. Then you may get to see just how fast a hog can dig it up. Doesn't work well in the swamps, hole fills with water.Rick.

 

[FOTIS]

sly move! I like it!

 

[Mark]

sly move! I like it!

I use around 24-36 inches deep so they can stay all night and the following night. The hogs can make a molehill out of a mountainhill out of that hole. They sure can dig down to three feet to the last kernal of corn.
The next couple of nights, I downed this estimated 400 pound hog with a 140 grn. Ballistic Tip out of a 7mm Mag under IMR 4350 to a modest velocity of 3025 fps. Never made a step. I used the 6.5 x 20 Leupy illuminated reticle, just turn it on and see the red reticle on black fur under a full moon on a green pasture. The contrast is pretty under a moon, you can see the porkers walking around and grazing in the green grass with a pair of binoculars and don't even need a light. Just make sure you lower the magnification on the scope to 10X-12X to see clearly and brighter.

 

[FOTIS]

Congrats on the piggie. How did that 140 BT do on the piggie (other than the obvious!)

 

[Mark]

First we got there and filled the hole with some soured corn that I had processed 2 weeks earlier, ew, smells bad though and left the area in the evening to go to Circle K for some drinks and returned after dark. Shut the headlights off and drove the truck very slowly to park about 200 yards from the hole and we were downwind. The hogs had been feeding at the hole for almost 10 days and they know where the food is, don't even need the wind to find it. ;-) We heard some angry bellows and fighting in the woods and lots of snorting and that told me that there is a dominant male or female in the area; scanned the moonlit field and woodlines and waited until 2 hours later and then I saw him come out of the woods at a slow pace towards the hole and a smile came across my face in the back of the truck. I took my time and drank some water and adjusted the Uncle Bud bullbag on the roof of my truck and placed the 7mm Mag facing the hole and rechecked the status again with the binos and he was feeding at the hole. I clicked off the safety and he was jittery and moving about around the hole and looking at the direction of the truck and waited. He trotted off about 150 yards next to the woods and left the area. So we waited about 20 minutes and he was back at the hole feeding . I checked the calibrations of the Leupy and it was set for 200 yards and I turned on the IM reticle and lined up the illiminated reticle between the base of left skull and shoulder which is the neck because he was facing at 10 o clock and I squeezed the trigger, boom, and he was down after we heard the smack of bullet on hide. We waited about 10 minutes and finished our drinks and packed all the stuff back in the truck and holstered my 41 Magnum 657 in case and drove over to the hole and walked up to it and by gosh, it looked huge and it was completly dead and the Ballastic Tip 140 grainer entered the neck about a few inches behind the base of the skull and penetrated the base of the skull, severd the cerebum and out through behind its right ear. It never knew what hit him. The two of us could barely lift him up and radioed an in law to meet us and helped us get the porker in the truck and drove to his house next to my farm for cleaning and on to the processing center to make some pork sausage to give away during the Christmas hoildays. I don't really eat the huge porkers, I like them when they are 50 to 200 pounds, juicy and tender.