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Unexpected Pig Behavior - Opinions Wanted #4055564 02/15/13 02:10 PM
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I got my Valentine's pig just a few minutes before midnight last night, but it was an unusual hunt for me and I was curious to hear what y'all thought about this pig's behavior.

I spent about 5 hours in the stand with no luck and started on my long hike out, maybe a 1/3-1/2 mile, but through high grass and rough ground in some places. It usually takes 20-30 minutes to cover the distance in the dark, stopping to regularly scan for coyotes or hogs, but especially to avoid the numerous skunks at this place where I was hunting in Montague County.

On the way back to my car, I had one last pasture to pass through that appeared to have a lot of deer in it. Realizing no hogs, thinking my hunt was over, and hoping to avoid skunks, I turned on my headlamp for the last 200-300 yard walk out. This spooked the deer a bit and when I scanned the field again with my FLIR thermal scope, I spied a hog among the deer that I had missed earlier and had not expected. He was moving quickly with one of the deer on a course parallel to me and maybe 70 yards out.

I turned off the headlamp and got my rifle up with the Pulsar N550 Digisight and TNVC Torch Pro Illuminator and scanned the area where I expected the hog to be and he was gone. Thinking I was missing something, I went back to the FLIR and did a large scan of the field, finishing the sweep looking down the fence lined car trail I was on and the hog was on the car trail with me about 60 yards out. In short, he had circled around behind me.

By the time I got my rifle up again and lit up with the illuminator, the hog was headed toward me at a quick pace (but not running). I was able to drop him at 42 yards with an offhand shot to the side of the head. The .308 Nosler Accubond bullet went through the jaw and into the neck/chest and did not exit. The hog turned out to be a young boar of only about 130 lbs.

First I was surprised to find a hog amongst the field of deer. Second, I was surprised to have the hog obviously see me (or might lights) and seem to make a long arc around and then actually turn and quickly come straight toward me on the car path.

So would you interpret this sort of behavior as being aggressive, curious, or just maybe poor navigation skills on the part of the hog? Note that at no time did I hear grunting or teeth gnashing/jaw popping. When hogs know I am there, I am used to them moving away from me, not toward me and so this all took me by surprise.



Thanks,
DNS
Custos Zea mays

Last edited by Double Naught Spy; 02/15/13 02:12 PM.

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Re: Unexpected Pig Behavior - Opinions Wanted [Re: Double Naught Spy] #4055638 02/15/13 02:36 PM
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Maybe he was running toward that Angry Birds pillow? We all know how much they hate each other!

Sorry, bud, I couldn't help it.

Mike H.

Re: Unexpected Pig Behavior - Opinions Wanted [Re: Mike H.] #4055775 02/15/13 03:22 PM
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Probably curious and dumb. Even though pigs are "smart", and I'm using that term loosely as they are still animals... it's not always fight or flight with them.

I've been at deer camp with loud music playing while we set up everything and two separate groups of hogs and then javelinas just poked their nose out of the woods then walked in between us and our truck just to see what was up...

Re: Unexpected Pig Behavior - Opinions Wanted [Re: RanchoStarvo] #4055973 02/15/13 04:23 PM
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Several things come to mind. It's possible it wasn't the same pig, or he was never really spooked as bad as you thought. Sometimes something just makes them uncomfortable enough to move a bit, then they forget because they weren't truly 'spooked' and end up coming right back around. If he didn't cut and run, he probably wasn't really bothered much. If he was on a mission (they usually seem to be), he could've covered a lot of ground quickly without even running. I've done many a sprint in the dark to get ahead of moving pigs.

Not being a particularly large pig, I wouldn't assign any extra 'smarts' to it that it probably didn't have in the first place! They're smart enough to be educated for sure, but the young ones have to live long enough first.

Also I seriously doubt he was being aggressive. You just happened to be on the path he wanted to take. Now maybe you smelled like a valentine sow.....SQUEAL LIKE A PIG, BOY! LOL..


"Providence protects children and idiots. I know because I have tested it" -Mark Twain

Re: Unexpected Pig Behavior - Opinions Wanted [Re: pyledriver] #4056067 02/15/13 04:51 PM
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Sow in heat was in front of you! Watch out now. lol


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Re: Unexpected Pig Behavior - Opinions Wanted [Re: hook_n_line] #4056096 02/15/13 05:00 PM
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Were you wearing Aqua Velva?


Shhhhhhhh better to be quiet than remove all doubt..
Re: Unexpected Pig Behavior - Opinions Wanted [Re: TRIJI....WHAT] #4056223 02/15/13 05:53 PM
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you are right about it being unusual for a pig to be running with the deer at least in my experience , and as for the boar running to you , I once had a sounder of pigs come out of their cover to check me out...a young boar led them out into the open after i spooked them 3 different times following a feeder creek checking my cattle for newborn calves....i wasn't there to hunt and i was gonna leave them alone but that 120lb ish boar just started to walk to me with his buddies following...too bad for them i was carrying my Sig 556 and i got 4 of them...

Re: Unexpected Pig Behavior - Opinions Wanted [Re: TRIJI....WHAT] #4056341 02/15/13 06:38 PM
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Okay, cool, that is sort of what I thought, but didn't have enough experience to know for sure.

And it was Hai Karate, not Aqua Velva, LOL!

Last edited by Double Naught Spy; 02/15/13 08:23 PM.

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Re: Unexpected Pig Behavior - Opinions Wanted [Re: Double Naught Spy] #4056677 02/15/13 08:45 PM
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oh yeah....you got a cool rifle and set up there DNS...i like the Angry Bird up

Re: Unexpected Pig Behavior - Opinions Wanted [Re: IHateFeralPigs] #4056918 02/15/13 10:08 PM
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Thanks. I am really liking the TNVC Torch Pro Illuminator. It works very well with the Pulsar.

The Angry Bird is the patron saint of hog hunting...and was a good luck gift from my kids. clap


Hogdalorian - Si vis pacem cum sus, para bellum.
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Re: Unexpected Pig Behavior - Opinions Wanted [Re: Double Naught Spy] #4056976 02/15/13 10:33 PM
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Its not uncomon for us at all to see one hog in a group of deer. I would bet he didnt even know you were there, just wond up heading your way.


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Re: Unexpected Pig Behavior - Opinions Wanted [Re: redchevy] #4057121 02/16/13 12:00 AM
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If he didn't know I was there, then he was blind and deaf. This is really the crux of my query as I wasn't being stealthy at the time of the encounter. So I am confident he knew I was there, as did the deer because I was walking with my headlamp on for about 30 yards in close proximity to them and when I heard them moving around, turned to see the commotion, shining the headlamp directly at the animals before going to my thermal scope and scanning the group...still with the lamp on.

When the hog was coming down the car trail toward me, I had him lit up with the IR light. While it does not shine a visible light, it does produce a visible glow at the source that the animals can definitely see.

So I don't think it was random happenstance or ignorance that the hog was the only animal to approach me. It may not have been aggression, but it wasn't because he didn't know some big lighted moving thing was there.

Last edited by Double Naught Spy; 02/16/13 12:02 AM.

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Re: Unexpected Pig Behavior - Opinions Wanted [Re: Double Naught Spy] #4057177 02/16/13 12:33 AM
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He was dumb.

Re: Unexpected Pig Behavior - Opinions Wanted [Re: Oxxon] #4057208 02/16/13 12:49 AM
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I agree that it could have another hog. But you never know. Here the wind was swirling quite a bit after lunch. I headed into the riverbottoms with the wind in my face and just happened to notice three 150 +- lb hogs hit the thicket. Thought sure they spotted me. But a couple of minutes later they came out about 20 yards closer to me. I wasn't ready and didn't have time to check the background to take a safe shot. I could hear them milling around in the leaves on the other side of the creek.
I was getting ready to take a shot if they ran into the opening, when to my left, at the same spot the first bunch walked into, out came three little piggies. hammer
I was out of position both times because I thought there was only one group.

Re: Unexpected Pig Behavior - Opinions Wanted [Re: Big Orn] #4057242 02/16/13 01:08 AM
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The one thing that all pigs have in common is they are not predicable! Be nice to find out what really happened. Anyway; I'm glad everything turned out good and you didn't get hurt. Congrats on a really nice size pig.

Re: Unexpected Pig Behavior - Opinions Wanted [Re: bjankowski] #4057314 02/16/13 01:44 AM
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The most predictable thing about hogs "IS" they are very unpredictable. Sorta' like some people I know. I'm sure everyone has a friend or family member like that. Ha!Ha!

Re: Unexpected Pig Behavior - Opinions Wanted [Re: DDRam] #4057810 02/16/13 07:39 AM
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Buddy and me left emt school one night decided to go check the feeder started through the woods wind at our face couldn't hear anything when we got within 30 yards of the feeder we realized very quickly we had walked right into a big group of pigs we froze and could tell they were all around us we started clapping whistling and whatever else to spook them it didn't seem to bother the group we then sprinted to the tree stand where we sat for over 2 hours for the group to finish eating and finally move past us we had no lights no guns, we never go into those woods without a gun and light from now on

Re: Unexpected Pig Behavior - Opinions Wanted [Re: duckslayer1206] #4057851 02/16/13 11:26 AM
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I like the feeder stories, folks! Thanks for sharing. I too have a similar incident. I had hogs showing up at my place and had two feeders at the time. I had learned from a previous visit that if I got there and all the corn was gone, the sounder had already hit the feeder in the last few hours and would not return until the following day.

So it is a bit after 4:00 am and I stop by my feeder to see how much corn is on the ground and a sounder walked in on me, seemingly uncaring to my presence, maybe 6 adults and 15 shoats and piglets. I was truly scared at that point as a lot of pigs were within yards of me and things only got worse after the first shot and all hell broke loose. For a brief and intense time, pigs appeared to be everywhere. I felt like the nucleus of an atom surrounded by unstable neutrons. I never got a bead on a second hog despite having targets all around me at very close range, LOL.

duckslayer1206's observation jives with what I have seen several times now. Sounders seem to feel a level of comfort or security not seen be loners or pairs of hogs. Loners and pairs tend to be much more stealthy and skiddish.


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Re: Unexpected Pig Behavior - Opinions Wanted [Re: Double Naught Spy] #4057915 02/16/13 01:09 PM
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Hard to beat those old Remington 788's!!!! Nice set up.


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Re: Unexpected Pig Behavior - Opinions Wanted [Re: Double Naught Spy] #4058132 02/16/13 02:57 PM
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Happens all the time. Usually more than 1 pig in the field. Sounds like somebody has alot of highdollar toys in the field too.

Re: Unexpected Pig Behavior - Opinions Wanted [Re: Monkee] #4058143 02/16/13 03:01 PM
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Prlly thought you were a group of pigs and wanted some friends.... they wil be prety heavy in the pastures in the next coming month or so lots of bug and larva will be avalible soon. i see them with cows more than anything right now. think they just feel comfortable with them

Re: Unexpected Pig Behavior - Opinions Wanted [Re: Navasot] #4058375 02/16/13 04:54 PM
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Quote:
Prlly thought you were a group of pigs and wanted some friends.


I would have thought that mean if it wasn't so close to the truth. I am a big, but never have I been compared with a whole group of hogs! LOL.

Tough love is all I had to offer. Ahhhhh.

I have seen them with cattle as well, but only across the fence on my neighbor's place.


Last edited by Double Naught Spy; 02/16/13 04:55 PM.

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Re: Unexpected Pig Behavior - Opinions Wanted [Re: Double Naught Spy] #4059277 02/17/13 01:11 AM
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Who knows? With the deer around it , it may have felt safe with noise and animals around. No telling if it had a problem seeing. Made out something in the road and headed that way. He won't do it again laugh Maybe Cupid sent you some bacon?

Last edited by Hard_ware; 02/17/13 01:12 AM.

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Re: Unexpected Pig Behavior - Opinions Wanted [Re: Hard_ware] #4062714 02/18/13 03:39 PM
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Lol i just ment by the sounds of footsteps and whatnot.... or you didnt shower tha night before lol..... guess that did sound wrong lol

Re: Unexpected Pig Behavior - Opinions Wanted [Re: Double Naught Spy] #4062982 02/18/13 05:12 PM
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Originally Posted By: Double Naught Spy
If he didn't know I was there, then he was blind and deaf. This is really the crux of my query as I wasn't being stealthy at the time of the encounter. So I am confident he knew I was there, as did the deer because I was walking with my headlamp on for about 30 yards in close proximity to them and when I heard them moving around, turned to see the commotion, shining the headlamp directly at the animals before going to my thermal scope and scanning the group...still with the lamp on.

When the hog was coming down the car trail toward me, I had him lit up with the IR light. While it does not shine a visible light, it does produce a visible glow at the source that the animals can definitely see.

So I don't think it was random happenstance or ignorance that the hog was the only animal to approach me. It may not have been aggression, but it wasn't because he didn't know some big lighted moving thing was there.


Arent hogs known for being both of those?

I have nearly stepped on hogs that I walked up on in the dark several times. Sometimes you just dumb luck into stuff.


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