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davidu
Well-Known Member
Good advice
Also
Wear rubber or plastic disposable gloves. Double gloving isn't a bad idea
Hogs carry several bad transmissible diseases
Like brucellosis, tularemia, pseudo rabies ( mad itch)
Learned this stuff 45 years ago in vet school. It's not internet bs
Also
Wear rubber or plastic disposable gloves. Double gloving isn't a bad idea
Hogs carry several bad transmissible diseases
Like brucellosis, tularemia, pseudo rabies ( mad itch)
Learned this stuff 45 years ago in vet school. It's not internet bs
DoneNOut
Well-Known Member
I'm gonna rattle off some things I thought about. No particular order of importance.
Things I do now. Some lessons came way faster than others:
Use a replaceable scalpel blade knife to get through the hide, so I didn't dull my processing knifes. Hog hair is some edge ruining stuff!
Use a 308 WIN semi auto rifle. I used .223/5.56 AR15 first couple years. The round will kill, but if one don't hit perfectly, they'll think they missed them. I was all confident on the first few hogs I shot on the run with one-shot drops, until I found a hog 1/2 mile away bleeding out all its natural orifices and 7 .223 bullet holes. 308 will anchor them or drastically slow them down, even if the shot is off vitals. (I say 308 WIN, but really something bigger than 5.56)
Use the shot placement illustrated by Zen Archery video. I shot at shoulders for 20yrs. I got lucky I think 90% of the time shooting on shoulder. I used 155gr Amax. I switched to 168gr Amax to reduce the low yield nuclear explosions the 155s were making. LOL
Drop the hog I'm shooting at before moving onto the next. No "flock shock" as they say in goose hunting. (Spray & pray)
Use a suppressor. However, I haven't to date because I can't own one in IL. Couldn't convince my partner all these years to buy some just to use in TX. I wear electronic muffs. Sordin Pros
Wear a lightweight pack with zip lock bags to store backstraps/loins from hogs hit miles from camp.
Bust brush and canyons with a zero-magnification red dot or use iron sights (Nothing with a magnified eye box)
Bring a rifle when blood trailing. (Hint, my video)
Understand a hog can cut through thick brush in the blink of an eye, and a 300lb hog can remain hidden at 5yds away in brush
Keep a tourniquet and first aid kit in the pack. If that sow that charged me didn't kill me, I could at least try to survive the wounds.
Use little GMRS radios for communication. Cell coverage not everywhere.
Take more videos! LOL
Be aware of the truck antennae shooting out the passenger side...
Keep a pistol as backup and keep it in an enclosed holster to keep dirt/mud from creeping into after a week in the field.
know that hogs like to follow fence lines and use prominent terrain features for navigation.
Understand I can't chase down a 5lb wee little piglet. Just get tired or bit. LOL
Itinerary
Mornings - Hogs are nocturnal and screw around all night in the fields. I hunt a field edge with tree line at my back, or with the canyon at my back with a LR 300WM rig. 07:20, where I hunt, is the witching hour! Apparently, that is when the height and angle of the Sun clicks in their brains and they go trotting back in a line to the brush or canyon for shade and water.
Mid Mornings/Early afternoons - Kit up for brush or canyon busting.
Evenings - Do a 180 degree turn from the morning hunt and wait for them to come out the canyon or bush. Truck hunt the perimeter.
Nights - Drink beer, ponder the cosmos, and talk about how cool it would be to have NV/thermal, and how we are too poor to buy them! LOL
That's my experience with hog hunting and how I go about it. LOL
Things I do now. Some lessons came way faster than others:
Use a replaceable scalpel blade knife to get through the hide, so I didn't dull my processing knifes. Hog hair is some edge ruining stuff!
Use a 308 WIN semi auto rifle. I used .223/5.56 AR15 first couple years. The round will kill, but if one don't hit perfectly, they'll think they missed them. I was all confident on the first few hogs I shot on the run with one-shot drops, until I found a hog 1/2 mile away bleeding out all its natural orifices and 7 .223 bullet holes. 308 will anchor them or drastically slow them down, even if the shot is off vitals. (I say 308 WIN, but really something bigger than 5.56)
Use the shot placement illustrated by Zen Archery video. I shot at shoulders for 20yrs. I got lucky I think 90% of the time shooting on shoulder. I used 155gr Amax. I switched to 168gr Amax to reduce the low yield nuclear explosions the 155s were making. LOL
Drop the hog I'm shooting at before moving onto the next. No "flock shock" as they say in goose hunting. (Spray & pray)
Use a suppressor. However, I haven't to date because I can't own one in IL. Couldn't convince my partner all these years to buy some just to use in TX. I wear electronic muffs. Sordin Pros
Wear a lightweight pack with zip lock bags to store backstraps/loins from hogs hit miles from camp.
Bust brush and canyons with a zero-magnification red dot or use iron sights (Nothing with a magnified eye box)
Bring a rifle when blood trailing. (Hint, my video)
Understand a hog can cut through thick brush in the blink of an eye, and a 300lb hog can remain hidden at 5yds away in brush
Keep a tourniquet and first aid kit in the pack. If that sow that charged me didn't kill me, I could at least try to survive the wounds.
Use little GMRS radios for communication. Cell coverage not everywhere.
Take more videos! LOL
Be aware of the truck antennae shooting out the passenger side...
Keep a pistol as backup and keep it in an enclosed holster to keep dirt/mud from creeping into after a week in the field.
know that hogs like to follow fence lines and use prominent terrain features for navigation.
Understand I can't chase down a 5lb wee little piglet. Just get tired or bit. LOL
Itinerary
Mornings - Hogs are nocturnal and screw around all night in the fields. I hunt a field edge with tree line at my back, or with the canyon at my back with a LR 300WM rig. 07:20, where I hunt, is the witching hour! Apparently, that is when the height and angle of the Sun clicks in their brains and they go trotting back in a line to the brush or canyon for shade and water.
Mid Mornings/Early afternoons - Kit up for brush or canyon busting.
Evenings - Do a 180 degree turn from the morning hunt and wait for them to come out the canyon or bush. Truck hunt the perimeter.
Nights - Drink beer, ponder the cosmos, and talk about how cool it would be to have NV/thermal, and how we are too poor to buy them! LOL
That's my experience with hog hunting and how I go about it. LOL
Wrestling Mania Association?
Buckys
Well-Known Member
OP, I would anticipate that the WMA biologists consider the hogs to be problematic and will be rooting for your success. As such, a phone call or an offer to buy lunch might yield a lot of useful info. Definitely want to find out if baiting is allowed.
Sam Houston and Davy Crockett national forests are big and the vegetation is thick and hence challenging. The pigs may find you before you find them. They don't always run away and they will charge you. Get yourself some good boots and maybe some chaps as well - you don't care to find out what their tusks will do to your legs without protection.
Sam Houston and Davy Crockett national forests are big and the vegetation is thick and hence challenging. The pigs may find you before you find them. They don't always run away and they will charge you. Get yourself some good boots and maybe some chaps as well - you don't care to find out what their tusks will do to your legs without protection.
Look around deer feeders.
DoneNOut
Well-Known Member
That is some brilliant advice. Network a little. Engineer your environment through HUMINT.
hydehunter
Well-Known Member
a friend went to Texas last year and when he got there the land owner said where is your night vision? that is the only way we get them at night he said he never saw one pig in 3 days the during the day. he would have not gone if he had been told he need night vision I say scam by the land owner for not giving the correct info but maybe he should have asked more questions
bassassassin104
Well-Known Member
Lots of good advice already posted. I have not hunted them in east Texas, but have hunted them in eastern Oklahoma and southwest Oklahoma. I will reiterate, they have an EXCELLENT sense of smell. They pattern well in some places and not at all in others. Learn to differentiate pig tracks from deer tracks. They are similar. Use bait of legal. They find it quick. Educated pigs will only come in to bait at night. Use your ears, they will squeal and snort from time to time. Low magnification and an AR10 chambered in 308 is my preferred weapon. I have never seen one charge outside of one in a trap. I would not say they were aggressive, but will definitely defend and fight if trapped or cornered.
DoneNOut
Well-Known Member
Yeah buddy!
I live in east Texas, I've hunted hogs here for years. You don't stalk them, they will typically bust you. They are very smart. They don't see well but their sense of smell is impressive. They are easily distracted when in feeding frenzy, walk right up to them. If one goes down, the others may turn on it and tear it to pieces. They smell blood very well and react like sharks LOL.
The hind very well as is noted. Last bit, large boars are often solitary, if you hear a clicking sound in the thicket... back off!!! They are lighting fast. They click their tusk together as a warning.
Momma pigs are by far the most dangerous! Have fun
The hind very well as is noted. Last bit, large boars are often solitary, if you hear a clicking sound in the thicket... back off!!! They are lighting fast. They click their tusk together as a warning.
Momma pigs are by far the most dangerous! Have fun
captain_nemo
Member
Seems like there are a lot of stories behind these...
