Hog Hunting tactics

Id like to hear best practices for hunting pigs. I am hunting in east texas on some family land. I get to go about once a month or so, and theres pigs out there (tearing up the land all over the place). Ive killed a couple down there, but lately i've come back skunked. I have tried walking the land (conscious of wind direction and noise).. ive tried laying corn out with and without attractant... and i've tried sitting and waiting in the areas they are most often seen... But i want to improve my effectiveness. I am thinking I need to invest in a feeder, but have also heard that pigs dont consistantly hit feeders..

What are you doing that is working so I can be more productive? TIA

If you want to remove them, I think ultimately a trap is the best solution. A cost effective and easy trap solution is a model called the tear drop or figure 6, pretty cheap and I am sure many folks here and elsewhere use that particular type of trap. This lets you remove yourself from the property so you sort of eliminate the scent/human impact part of it. Downside is you have to go check the trap, or invest in a cellular camera to get updates. Other way to go is a feeder. Plan on sitting at night, invest in either a light mounted to the feeder or a light mounted to your scope. I picked one up off amazon for about 80 dollars and I can shoot out to 150 yards really comfortably. If you are going to hunt over a feeder, your best bet is to run a trail cam and try and determine a pattern. There always seems to be a lone pig or two hanging around, but the big groups pass through our property off and on. We have a couple sows with litters hanging around right now pretty consistently. If you can only make it out once a month, buy a feeder and start throwing corn. Pigs seem to be more active on our property as the moon is coming full, less active as it wanes. the couple nights before a full moon tend to be pretty good nights for us. It has been a lot of trial and error for us, if you look at my succseful trap deployment thread that is our first dent in the hog population other than one off pigs taken by the family with rifles. Either way, a feeder has been our most effective method of getting pigs in one area, be it in a trap or just shooting under the feeder.

https://feralhogs.tamu.edu/trap-design/

https://wildpigs.nri.tamu.edu/media/1130/l-5524-corral-traps-for-feral-hogs.pdf

https://www.amazon.com/LUMENSHOOTER...amp;s=gateway&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1

Thats great info.. i appreciate it. I am more into the hunting and shooting rather than trapping. Looks like i need to find a feeder.

Do you mostly hunt during the day? If so... I'm in the same boat as you. I see pigs on the game cams... but only 1 out of every 7 times or so in the blind do I actually get a shot at one. The pigs are there... I am just not getting as many opportunities as I'd expect for the traffic I see on the game cams.

I recently bought a thermal (though it's now at FLIR for warranty... lol). Hoping to see more pigs by changing my tactics and hunting at night more. Might be worth hunting at night to see if your experience changes. I had a pig on my thermal within an hour of taking it out for the first time (and an hour before it broke lol). Pretty neat being able to see it clearly at night. Would've taken a pig last Saturday when I saw a motion sensor light go off at a feeder. Saw a raccoon that set off the motion sensor... but later saw on the game cam that a big boar was eating at the same time I was BBQing about 200 yards away.

I'd bet putting out a feeder will increase your chances. I keep two feeders full year round for pigs. Most of the pigs taken in the past year have been from feeders with the exception of one who was eating "Golden Nuggets" (Record Rack) that I put out on one of the roads. The most pigs I've ever seen were when I put out the "Golden Nuggets" - might have been an anomaly. That stuff is so expensive that I haven't used it since, but thinking about giving it a shot again since I've been going on a month without shooting a pig.

Another big key to our success in hunting them vs trapping has been a combination of satellite maps, trail cam photos, and weather app, plus seeing hour our presence impacts them. Most of our pigs bed on one side of our property and eat on the other. The side they sleep on is also the side we sleep on. When we show up, we tend to see increased activity across the property. When we are gone, we see them less. Us cooking and cutting up just pushes them out a bit. All night sits tend to be fairly mandatory if your pig traffic is hit and miss, more hours equals more opportunity obviously. I haven't figured out a fool proof plan yet but we sit a bunch to get shots on pigs. A lot of guys that shoot lots of pigs seem to have hunting access to big chunks of land, so moving around is a lot more effective for those guys. I am on a little under 100 acres, so moving around essentially pushes the pigs off the place from what we have experienced.

Ive also heard that slowly bumping down the feeder time will have them coming out earlier and earlier. Start throwing at 10 pm, then 9:30, then 9:00, 8:30, so on and so forth until you are throwing during daylight hours. Supposedly it acclimates them. Pigs in our neck of the woods are also fairly nervous. Shoot one and the whole sounder will scatter and typically not reform. A few will hang around but the rest scatter, never to be seen again.

The sounders will reform. Older boars who are not actually part of the sounder may not be back, or may hang around, but the sounder will remain intact.

Older boars are not members of sounders, but are simply visiting for benefits.

My hunting buddy is also the landowner. We have several feeders going but I hunt in a blind over a dry pond. He puts out soured corn every day for me and actually all I have to do at night is pick out the one I want. We also have one hog trap that yields two to three pigs a week. I also like to use soured milo, it stinks a whole lot more than corn.

Since you are only going once a month, just set up a feeder. Set it to spin just after daylight and a couple times in the evening. I think you will see your odds improve greatly.

Right now they are bringing the youth out in the daytime. See them everywhere. Ol man down the road is gettin anialated by them. Haha, but not when he used to let me in. Now the new LA dooshes next door dont want me on his 400. Hmmmm the dummies wantit to themselves, but cant kill a fly.

I you don't want to invest in a feeder you can always build a pig pipe, they're cheap and work decently well. Big negative of them is that they can come and go as they please, you lose the convenience of having a timer.

Yea I wanna do a feeder bc i wanna shoot more pigs.. my pops doesnt want a feeder bc he doesnt want to attract more pigs to the land. I told him he already has a pig problem.. oh well... looks like i may be building a pig pipe. I appreciate the tips though.

Once the hogs figure it out, you won't be able to keep corn in it. We built some out of 6 inch PVC pipe, about 5 foot long. Would hold about 50lbs. of corn. Only had 4 holes total. They would roll that thing around all night long. Have it emptied in just a couple of days.

spend money on a couple game cameras before a feeder. Find our were and when they are moving.

-Z