Hey guys,

Okay.. I have hogs.. lots of them. I have driven my ranch and seen 30+ of them just between two gates, within a half-mile stretch.

Once I get on my stand, however, I do not see the ones that show up in the cams. I shot one off my #1 stand at about 125 yards on opening weekend, but I never see the big ones that always show up on my trail cams when I am not there.

I am told that they can smell me. Well..heh.. what precautions do you all take, if any, to get them to come in?

I throw corn all over the place, I use some sort of liquid hog attractant (no.. I did not buy it, someone brought it.. heh).. I even gather all the old food out of the fridge for a week or two before I go out and save that and throw it on the ground....still nothing.

The weird part is, I can throw corn right outside my cabin and they will go out there that night. Perhaps it is just because it was deer season and they were spooked?

How about some tips for someone wanting to shoot some hogs?

Thanks!

R

Welcome to the addictive world of chasing hogs!!

Send me a PM with your phone number and I will do my best to offer up my experience hunting hogs. too much to type, but there are lots of things you can do to bump up your success rate.

Yes, I agree. Hog hunting is stupid addictive and I have seen people completely give up deer hunting just to hunt a big hog that constantly outsmarts them. My advice, scent control, scent control, scent control.

Are you using the wind? Pigs can smell way bettar than deer so being downwind is a must.

One thing you can also use to your advantage is the fact that hogs have extremely poor vision. We usually hunt at night anyways using green/red hog lights.

Id deffinintly hunt at night...your big boys wont come in the open durring the day unless heavy fog, chasing sows in heat or coming to water on a hot day....i kill all my big lone boars at night...just like a deer they dont get big for no reason

They spook way worse than deer. They can smell way better than deer as well. Set up a box blind or a popup upwind of a feeder and sit all night.

It has been my limited experience that so-called hog attractants work best at a location that the hogs are already coming to in the first place. Some such as Grip Reaper actually seem to repel the animals. While the hogs love sour corn, jello corn, beer corn, etc., they just like corn. What some of these variants of corn seem to do is to keep the hogs around a bit longer and they tend to eat up what is there more thoroughly because it is yummy, but I can't say that it actually attracts hogs.

You may read stories or see advertisements how a hunter put out this attractant or that food and hogs were on the scene within minutes. I like those stories and I feel compelled to believe them as well. The problem is that the hogs are on scene at a place where they have been coming regularly to feed anyway. No magical attraction has occurred.

In 3 years now, I have had hogs appear on scene within 10 minutes of my arriving 4 or 5 times. One night, I arrived, hiked to the stand, did a quick scan with my night vision before climbing up the 14 feet to my seat (which makes some noise). All clear. By the time I was up in the seat and ready for a long hunt, 5 hogs were under the feeder. They had to be close while I was walking in...

In September, I was expecting a sounder at my water hole around 4:00 am to maybe 6:00 am as had been their pattern. I arrived at my stand at midnight. At 12:05 I was calling the wife to tell her that I had gotten a hog. This hog was grubbing in the creek below my stand.

So maybe I am an attactant? Hogs sometimes show up right after I arrive.

I have given up on the smell issue at my place. I figure I have enough of my scent around the property that it is just part of the property smell. I do try to play the wind in my favor, however. I think smell is much more of an issue when you are a stranger to the area, however. One night, I had a hog come in on the same trail to the stand that I had taken maybe 20 minutes earlier. I have also had deer follow me in like that. I don't use anything special. I have found that my hunting success has been higher when I am wearing dirty clothes. By dirty, I mean clothes that I have been working in all day or clothes that I have worn hunting several times and not washed. I can't say that I have ever shot a pig after showing up wearing clean hunting clothes.

Sorry for the slow response, busy day today. Thanks for all the input, it is greatly appreciated. I know I have hogs, but I think a little bit of a lot of different factors have kept them away. They really come out a lot during the day, just not when I am there. I am going to do some more night hunting and I will work on my scent as well.

I also am going to turn a feeder pen into a trap so I can hunt while I sleep :p

No idea what I will do with all the hog meat if the dang trap is full heh...but I'll figure it out :p

Russ

Fill your freezer then just toss them after that...dont feel bad about wasting meat i promise there is plenty out there... i toss around a dozen to every one i clean... just too many

I've heard of hunters using pig bombs or fruit bombs to lure them in. Anyone ever use these and what were your thoughts on whether they improved your chances?

My best big boar success comes from using lots of scent killing products, baits that have a strong odor I know the boars have been waiting to come to, but my biggest ingredient to killing big hogs is patience. I've spent nearly all evening and all night sitting in a tree stand waiting for that one big boar to come back that I know was there the night before from trail cam photos. Get you some good gun lights, like the ones from www.sniperhawglights.com, or night vision and just watch the bait pile until that big boy comes in.