High Winds, but 18 Hogs Down! Lots O' Piglets

Of all the weather conditions that affect hunting hogs, high winds seem to have the most negative impact on good hunting in my experience. The hogs just don't seem to be out and about as much. I have come to expect to come home empty handed when the winds are high, but once in a while, things turn out well despite the winds. We hunted a bunch of properties, but only saw hogs on three. Of the three, we got busted multiple times during the night on the same property, three of those times before even entering the field. The wind was not in our favor. The first time, I thought it was a fluke to have the hogs bolt with us over 250 yards away. We came back later and it happened again. So we tried different entry points on the last two attempts, but got the same result. We had no way to make entry from down wind.

One the first property where we got onto the hogs, we could drive in quite a ways behind a small hill and enter the pasture from down wind. With the high winds and lack of a moon, the hogs weren't going to hear us and weren't likely to see us. Heck, we couldn't hardly hear each other, LOL. On the second place where we got onto hogs, we could enter the property far enough west to circle around behind the hogs to come in down wind.

Another downside to the wind was getting buffeted while trying to shoot. On top of that, we were both shooting light 90 gr. Speer TNT bullets. My partner has been using them handloaded for a while and has been happy with how they perform. I was shooting Federal American Eagle factory loads which chrono'd @ 2800 fps from my rifle. At the distances we were shooting, they seemed to perform well. When shooting with a crosswind, well, that made things pretty challenging.

Bang bang bang flop , great video as always.

Dave sent me the pics a day or so ago, was waiting on the vid. Well done Brian!

Great shooting
you could never run out of backstrap

I think you are right on the wind in general. They feel less secure because some of their primary defense mechanisms are severely affected...hearing and smell.

Flip side, we were working a charity hunt Thursday night with very high winds. Right after dark a large sounder came to a feeder we have in the middle of a large pasture (~200 acres). We stalked to within ~60 yards and we took 4. Despite the wind, they were there.

It is a generality, but not an absolute. On such nights, just as DNS, I prepare to go home empty handed.

Yeah, they have to be somewhere. A lot of folks think that hogs and other animals will hole up until the X weather passes and I really don't think that is the case. I am fairly certain hogs aren't going to miss any meals because the weather isn't to their liking. After all, the live outside all the time anyway. I would be inclined to believe that they may be less apt to venture into unknown areas or areas they don't feel as safe during such conditions as high winds, however.

Great shooting under brutal weather conditions. Nice to know that the hogs keep on "makin' bacon" even in the howling wind!

I’m surprised the little 90 grainers weren’t severely impacted by the wind

Looks to me like you held standard leads such as for your 123 grain loads...

Nice job on the kills

Good hunt Brian

Thank you, sir!