What kind of concoctions are you fellas mixing up to bring em in other than just corn? Got a pen around my feeder to keep em out but they travel in the trees behind the feeder and I’m heading down next week to try and drop a few more.
Make the area you intend to hunt as 'attractive' (as a whole) as you can..... and you will have hogs.
Hogs go to certain spots for a reason (food, water, bedding, ease of travel, little hunting pressure,etc). Find or provide as many of these as possible and you'll have plenty of hogs.
Lots of money wasted on supposed 'attractant' products.
Old Stony has it right. If you want the scent to carry farther just add water. If trapping I add Almond milk and use crimped steamed corn, it soaks it up better and the little guys can't resist it!
Just like Jesus, sometimes you gotta kill some hogs. Lone Star Mesquite . com RattleSnake Dan's Shredding Service
Hogs will eat a myriad of things, except pumpkins. Four years running I never got them to touch a single pumpkin. Beyond that, I have yet to see any attractants that actually perform noticeably better than corn. If they all worked so well, that is all that we would be using, but strangely we seem to all be using corn, just plain corn. Some "attractants" have more smell than corn and supposedly the smell will carry farther, but will the hogs come from farther away to get to the smell. Given a hog's sense of smell, soured corn should be discernible by hogs for several miles down range. This guy says they can smell stuff from 7 miles away and 25 feet underground. However, there doesn't seem to be much indication that hogs will come from several miles down range and they won't dig 25 feet underground to get a mushroom either. https://www.hogmanoutdoors.com/blog/feral-hog-hunting-weaknesses
Hogs will eat a myriad of things, except pumpkins. Four years running I never got them to touch a single pumpkin. Beyond that, I have yet to see any attractants that actually perform noticeably better than corn. If they all worked so well, that is all that we would be using, but strangely we seem to all be using corn, just plain corn. Some "attractants" have more smell than corn and supposedly the smell will carry farther, but will the hogs come from farther away to get to the smell. Given a hog's sense of smell, soured corn should be discernible by hogs for several miles down range. This guy says they can smell stuff from 7 miles away and 25 feet underground. However, there doesn't seem to be much indication that hogs will come from several miles down range and they won't dig 25 feet underground to get a mushroom either. https://www.hogmanoutdoors.com/blog/feral-hog-hunting-weaknesses
X2 on pumpkins. I have taken after halloween both carved and uncarved pumpkins to the lease to dispose of them. I have even had ornamental pumpkins I dumped grow into a nice little patch of pumpkins the next season. Nothing ever eats them. They just rot away.
We have done well concentrating hogs by using "The Mix" which is nothing more than corn, water, and yeast allowed to sour in a bucket. Sometimes with strawberry jello added to the mix. I have used a post hole digger to dig a deep hole to dump the mix into. Makes the hogs have to work harder for it and stay around longer. You could try this outside of and away from the feed pen. The mix works for catfish too. As for something easier, you might try placing a pig pipe outside your pen with just plain ol corn. With only two or three holes in the pipe, the cows can't get it. Same concept as the post hole to make the hogs stick around and work for the corn, but with less damage to the ground, less work for you, and refillable.
I’ve definitely got an ideal spot. I’ve got a decently wooded area that has a levee that they travel pretty heavily. Just want to put something back there that will get them to stop for a minute so I can squeeze a few shots in.
I'm running a little experiment - I got suckered into, er, bought some snake oil...I mean Pig Oil. The hot weather has got them off the property I hunt (plus killing a whole resident sounder helps) so not much to report but I will post when I have some results (or not)
The funny thing about hogs is that every place can attract hogs for different reasons. I have caught a bunch of hogs using...Pumpkins, yes pumpkins as the only bait in the trap. So they will work but I can tell you on one property I caught hogs using cattle pellets and just down the road they would not touch them. Cherry kool-aid has a powerful smell and some places they fight each other over it and another they want nothing to do with it. Same with dog food, surplus breads/sweets etc.... they are funny animals and hard to figure out but the one thing they all seem to like as some have said is corn, they all eat plain old corn.
Just like Jesus, sometimes you gotta kill some hogs. Lone Star Mesquite . com RattleSnake Dan's Shredding Service
they are funny animals and hard to figure out but the one thing they all seem to like as some have said is corn, they all eat plain old corn.
Yep, and if you want to keep hogs on a certain spot longer (with less feed) buy 'Cracked Corn' if you can find it. It takes them a lot longer to pick it up and you can use less. Broadcast it, don't pile it up.
Birds will swoop down on it...but they don't eat much.
Doesn't the feed store store have it? The one I use here by the house asks when I tell em I want x numbers of bags if I want whole corn. I assume they also have cracked.
I use plain corn mostly. Sometimes I'll dig a post hole about 18" deep and put the corn in that. It seems to really hold them in the area because they're, well, pigs, and will work to get every last kernel of corn.
If I want the "soured corn" smell without the fuss, I'll just pour a shot or two of George Dickel's Sour Mash Whiskey No.8 on the corn hole. I got a big bottle of it for Christmas a few years ago. Can't stand the smell or taste of it. Smells just like sour corn.
"I have no idea what WW-III will be fought with, but WW-IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
The only 'scent' related thing I do for hogs....is occasionally spray tree trunks with a mixture of Kreso Dip. They like to rub on it...and it makes the place generally more attractive to them. You can put it right on the ground too (if you have no trees, telephone poles, fence posts) but they like it best if they can rub against something.
I never bother souring corn. If hogs are in the area to begin with....they will find plain old corn just fine.
I'll be headed down to the woods this weekend and will retrieve it. I work near Bass Pro, let me know when you (or anyone) will be coming for it. PM from this point on I suppose.