Checked my cameras last Saturday. No hunting since my last boar, and have had one boar irregular and at all hours of the night. But finally 5 days in a row between 915 and 930. Got to the place about 745 and set up a bit elevated and away - dude is skittish. 810 he rolls in. My backdrop is the treeline so dark is dark. I hit him with the green light and he skedaddle. I wait until 930 and figure hes gone. But I know what hes up to - comes in right and away from the camera after dark and feeds, then circles and gets the thrown corn. He is also coming in slow enough to not trip it. Anyway, Sunday PM comes in and I tuck into my normal spot. I'm at the same elevation now so I have weeds and grass to look across. Anyway 845 he rolls in from a different path and moves to the feeder. I spot him and he acts like he spooks. After 10 minutes I hit the light...nothing. every 5 minutes or so I hit the light. After about 30 total minutes I do it again and look through the scope. It's a dark backdrop mind you and a dark hog has no contrast with a green light. But I notice a very small part of the trunk of the tree is blocked. I study through the scope...that's part of his head, and I recognize his back barely showing a love the grass. Essentially head down, and all I see is part of his neck and the top half of his shoulder. Fire in the spot right behing his haunch. No running, and I walk up and see him DRT. Still alive, blinking, breathing heavily. Sounded like he had broken glass in him and I finish him. Couldn't find my entrance wound, no exit. I drag him about 75 feet away from the feeder on his impact side. Rolled him over and saw a little blood. Coundt get my arrow shaft in him for a trajectory pic. Pic below wishes the twig in the entrance wound.

Real nice boar, and a great shot.

When I was just getting into hog hunting I had a cheap (but fairly effective, especially for the dough) NV monocular and used a green Wildlife Technologies kill light mounted to my rifle. I had a similar experience in that I'd look up and see a hog at the feeder with the monocular, but every time I lowered the green light on him he'd disappear. It happened four or five times over about a half hour or so, but finally when I put the green light on him I could see him. I don't know what was going on, but I did manage to put him on the ground.

I went from the green kill light to DNV and then on to thermal. I don't think anything escapes detection with the thermal, but then again that would be hard to prove, wouldn't it?

Where are you hunting, more or less? It sounds like you're running out of hogs---at least, temporarily.

Congrats on the kill.

TY. I hunt a small farm in suburban DFW - in city limits but >50 acres, surrounded on 3 sides essentially by houses. There is a creek bottom that runs up from a large Corps lake. Been hunting it 6 years ~ 100 hogs to date and I've earned my keep. When I started the hogs were living on the farm. Now, I probably hunt on less than 10 acres of it - about 1000 feet of frontage to the creek and my feeder is only 20 or so yards from the treeline. I shoot only into the creek bottom. Last fall I was picking off a sounder but the adjacent neighborhood trapped about 20 of them. Then some dogs started running the creek bottom and all the deer are gone too. I do bow hunt the Corps land at times, tagged one earlier this year near this neighborhood.

But yah, I've been effective. There is at least one sounder in the creek as I've seen it nearby but not on this property....yet.😬

NIce going. Another good hog down.

Like RR I started with just a rifle, then got a digital scope, then a low-end thermal monocular. The monocular made a lot of difference. There were occasions where, before sundown, I'd scan a field visually, then get binoculars and reschan, but see nothing. Then I'd pick up my thermal monocular and spot something. Go back to binoculars and see nothing. Get the thermal and closely identify the location, then look through the binoculars again and I could spot the top of a hog's back just above the weeds. Quite a few times I'd see something with the thermal monocular that I would have totally missed because of partial obscurity or distance.

Now I'm running a thermal weapon sight and the hogs are definitely at a disadvantage.

Thanks for posting. I really enjoyed reading about your experience.

Well, other than birds I never really hunted much before I got access to this place. Started with my iron sight 30/30 there, upgraded to a Tikka T3X Lite, missed too many "scattered sounder" opportunities in .308, so I bought a Sig AR-10 in .308. For lights started with a hand-held spotlight I could hold with the 30/30. A few years ago I bought the Nitecore light I use now, mounted on the AR. I've looked at IR and thermal options, just not heavily as I cant justify the $$. Not an affordability issue - just can't justify it. If I was hunting more places with lots of acreage, probably would have one. I've toyed with the idea of a monocular but Havent found one (IR or thermal) that closes the $ vs need gap enough. A lot of the cost goes into features I don't care for. I've looked at some of the basic FLIR units and not impressed. Id rather spend the $$ for quality and better results. I am 1000% open to suggestions though.

It sounds like your opportunities are pretty restricted. I think I'd be looking at it all from a vantage point pretty close to yours but I'd sure be looking for better opportunities. Maybe you'll get that chance before long.

At my current place in life it works out OK. Im pretty busy with work and family so my time is very limited. Its 20 min from the house, landowners are great, I pay nothing to hunt there, only run through about a bag of corn a month. So my cost is minimal. I've had many 5 minute hunts, so the time commitment is minimal. The only thing that sucks is I have been too efficient. 😬 Now, should the opportunity arise to hunt other places, I'm in. I do bow hunt on Corps land when I can - different kind of hunt that's a blast.

Well, that sounds pretty ideal for you then...except the running-out-of-hogs part. That can and surely will change at some point, though. Hopefully for the better.

I have 24-7-365 access to a property near San Saba and it's loaded with hogs. Unfortunately it's about 200 miles from home, but since I just retired that's not a real problem since I can stay three or four days (I'm in the process of getting the wife conditioned to WANT me to stay down there longer...LOL) to make the trip worthwhile. I do wish it was more like 50 or 60 miles, but it's just a couple of extra hours and a few bucks more in gas money.

Good luck on your next foray.

TY. More time for these adventures is not far off.

Always happy to "help" with the hogs. Still looking for my first!