Wild Hogs, Did You Know???

That when a sow gets ready to give birth, she makes a nest. Not like a bird nest, but will make one out of grass and weeds in a circle, about the size of a truck tire. I've found a couple of them in my time, but it's nothing I'm looking for when scouting.
This past weekend, I found another one, except this time it had piglets in it.
I was scouting out a place and ended up in a deep narrow slough with a thicket on both sides. The banks were steep and tall, about 15 to 20 ft high. I came to a point where I needed to climb out. I found a spot where the bank was a slope, so up I go. I get about half way up and on top, a small 40 lber stood up, then a 110 lb sow stood up, less than 10 yds away. At first, she huffed at me. Then I saw the little heads pop up, and my first thought was, "Oh boy, I'm in trouble now!!!"
You see, I forgot to get my gun out of the truck when I took one of my hog hunters to a stand. First thing I did was look for a tree I could shimmey up, but all I had close by were these huge cypress trees. Also, nowhere to run. Thicket all around me with small brush with vines all thru it.
Now, at this point, she starts growling at me. If you have never heard a wild hog growl at point blank range, all I can tell ya, it will raise the hairs on the back of your neck straight up. All I could do was start slowly backing up. I kept backing up till I was on the other side and she was still holding her ground. Once I got some distance between us, I cut thru that thicket like a bat out of hell.
With all that said, there's not anything down in that bottom that scares me, but buddy, that morning I was SKEERED!!!

LOL

so that's what i've been finding, thought had stumbled across a nest made bye Sasquatch.. if ya need some pics don't mind pudding one up? proof tis in the pudding

I've seen nests like that. I always thought that meant a boar had bedded there. Learn something everyday, I guess...

Yep, I've found a couple like that and when you grab one of the striped little squealers you will get a shot at a bigger one.

I don't think she was gonna give me time to take my cell phone out for a quick pic!!!

Good story

Wow ! LOL !

Haha. That's hilarious. I don't blame you one bit on the bein skeered part

After many stories, I still for the life of me cant figure out how in the heck someone can FORGET their gun in the truck.

I ALWAYS will at the very least have a pistol on me and when i the field a rifle as well. Its like grabbing the keys, phone, wallet etc....

That is a crazy story. it would have been nice if your had your GUN and popped momma and piglets for dinner.

LOL, been there. The best thing to do is back off slowly facing her or charge her yelling & flapping your arms. Be prepared to kick her in the nose if she charges. You have to show her who is in charge, it can be fun.

& oh, but wear snake boots....

Well, it's like this. I had some hog hunters out. I didn't want to carry my rifle while operating my 4 whlr with a hunter on board. So, after dropping one off at a stand, I decided to go check out this one spot before going back to the truck. Then, the rest is history so to speak!!

LOL, carry a side arm that you know how to use...& use it if you need to.

I had kind of the same deal happen to me once... big sow put me in the creek!!

If I remember correctly in the whole deal, at one point I screamed like a little girl!!

I can understand that but not admitting it on a public forum.

haha, i bet, probably good to have a shotgun when you do that

good info and story

photo of hog bed..

different area, short video of hog bed, their were two about 20ft apart..

Finding them before daylight with stick & string in hand is a weird feeling.

Shut myself in a trap one time cuz hogs came up when I was setting it after dark. Glad nobody got photo evidence of that.

I've seen clusters of those 'nests' in some areas. Think it is the way they bed down, and not a birth thing. Walked up on a pig actually delivering once in a rocky area by one of my water tanks.

whin came upone the big bed in the picture, thought Sasquatch had made it, didn't want to get laughed at an made fun of so took a pic.. am used ta getting made fun of..

Dang good story. I think I would have done the same thing. But I do think I would not have forgotten the gun.

That aint no chit.... never realize it untill you smell them and look around....

That's pretty good

Yep. Seen a few of those in Wise county where I hunt. Nice little 'huts' in the tall grass. We were on our guard when looking at them because some were obviously recently occupied and we didn't want a sow materializing out of the long grass at our feet!

especially when the small pigs think the noise you're making is their mama....and they sound like they're tearning the woods up to come see you. Had them little jokers follow me all the way to my 4wheeler one night.

bet mama wasnt too far behind and pizzzzed off!

If you ever watched the American Hoggers, you'd just grab her by the two back legs & turn her over.

Go ahead & try it....I'll watch.

I got chills reading your tale. When you got to "no gun", I almost peed in my pants. Great story!

Skeered is OK, it'll help keep you alive. I woulda' peed in my pants too.

And where was your gun during all of this? I seem to recall there was more to this story...

If you can get to the back legs then you got it made...hard to grab them without a pit latched on the ear though

glad that did not go the other way

[quote=sqiggy]That when a sow gets ready to give birth, she makes a nest. Not like a bird nest, but will make one out of grass and weeds in a circle, about the size of a truck tire. I've found a couple of them in my time, but it's nothing I'm looking for when scouting.
This past weekend, I found another one, except this time it had piglets in it.
I was scouting out a place and ended up in a deep narrow slough with a thicket on both sides. The banks were steep and tall, about 15 to 20 ft high. I came to a point where I needed to climb out. I found a spot where the bank was a slope, so up I go. I get about half way up and on top, a small 40 lber stood up, then a 110 lb sow stood up, less than 10 yds away. At first, she huffed at me. Then I saw the little heads pop up, and my first thought was, "Oh boy, I'm in trouble now!!!"
You see, I forgot to get my gun out of the truck when I took one of my hog hunters to a stand. First thing I did was look for a tree I could shimmey up, but all I had close by were these huge cypress trees. Also, nowhere to run. Thicket all around me with small brush with vines all thru it.
Now, at this point, she starts growling at me. If you have never heard a wild hog growl at point blank range, all I can tell ya, it will raise the hairs on the back of your neck straight up. All I could do was start slowly backing up. I kept backing up till I was on the other side and she was still holding her ground. Once I got some distance between us, I cut thru that thicket like a bat out of hell.
With all that said, there's not anything down in that bottom that scares me, but buddy, that morning I was SKEERED!!!


[/quote i wear huggies for moments like that, their extra exobernt

Good story and you never know what you'll run across. A gun of some sort will be with you next time, I bet.

I was hunting the King Ranch riding around in a big truck. Spotted a couple of big hogs in a field, stopped, & popped one. Continued driving around the field in hopes of killing another one.....I was in the back of the truck & finally noticed a bunch of little striped piglets following right behind us on the road. We stopped, they would stop, we drove on & they would follow right behing the truck. This went on for a while. I wanted to catch one but we didn't have time. They followed us for a while & we didn't look like their momma LOL.

This happened about 3 years ago when we had a lot more hogs than we do now.

I had a trap set up about 200 yds away from my bow stand. One morning as I was walking to my stand I could tell I had multiple hogs trapped. Knowing this I was a tad more cautious thinking there could be more hogs in the area. Since I already had my gear I figured I would go ahead and hunt till about 8am and deal with cleaning hogs after that. There was no moon this particuliar morning. I have a spot where I always stop and shine my flashlight under my feeder just in case there's a mama hog feeding with her piglets. When I shined my flashlight towards the feeder there was about a 100 pounder feedeing. He saw my light and bolted. Growling and raising hell the entire way. So I went ahead and walked over to my ladder stand which is about 20 yds from the feeder. I am very alert just in case this hog comes back. As I am clipping my bow to my pull rope I hear something behind the tree I am about to climb. i had turned my flashlight off while i was doing this so I couldn't see what it was. All I knew was that it was big and close. I grabbed my light and shined behind the tree to see there was a HUGE boar within 10 feet of me. I'm guessing he was in the 275lb range. Let me tell you, I looked like Spiderman scaling that ladder. Once I got to the top I heard him circling around my tree growling the entire time. He eventually got a good whiff of my scent and blew out of there. That's been my closest encounter yet.

Wow! Side arm, never leave camp without it.

LOL I can only laugh with you since I had simular situation and left my custom 270 in the truck while I was checking snares in creek bottom. I didnt think I could climb tree like i was a kid

Close call! That's why I always have my sidearm on my hip when Im out on my land.

I was up in the stand the evening before deer season opened a few years ago just to see what came up. I didn't have a gun with me because I didn't want it to look like I was getting an early start if the game warden came around. I had a pretty good walk back to my buddies pickup and I came across a good size boar. We both froze about 10 yards from each other. It probably lasted about 5 seconds, but It sure seemed longer than that. I told myself that I won't ever be caught on foot without a gun in pig country again.