What is you hog hunting method

What I’ve learned about hunting hogs and pretty much anything else over the years, is that nothing works 100% of the time.

Personally I rarely hunt bait, I’m not a patient person. I can force myself to hunt wallows/water during extreme heat with my easy chair and lots of cool water to drink.

What I generally recommend to beginners with very little hunting experience. Learn as you go and acquire the necessary skill to hunt the way you want to.
1. Hunt feeders or bait
2. Hunt wallows
3. Hunt with a guide
4. Hunt at night with Night vision or thermal. This method takes Skill as well, but even an inexperienced hunter will stumble onto a hog from time to time. I started in the days when we used a spot light. Knowing where to look at night is the key and will come with time.

That being said here are my methods on new properties and old. Repeat all the steps mentioned so long as they are productive. Some of my properties I’ve hunted for 20+years. All of the methods mentioned continue to be productive do to the nomadic nature of hogs.

1. scout both on foot and with aerial photos. Make mental notes of: Local crops, bedding areas, thickets, crossings/trails, rooting activity, wallows and rubs.
2. Kill all hogs I can find in open areas while scouting {spot and stalk}
3. Locate bedding areas and sanctuaries if they exist on property.
4. Call bedding areas and sanctuaries areas with hog sounds. Try to pull them out either with electronic calls or grunt tubes. I usually start with grunt tubes.
5. Push bedding areas with more than one hunter.{this can be dangerous, Know the person you are hunting with}.
6. Hunt water sources in dry or hot weather.Water sources near comfort zones are very productive all hours of the day.
7. Night hunt
8. Repeat

I generally hunt over bait but a different way. My buddy and I will drive around the ranch and check feeders to see if there are hogs. Then we'll stalk up on them if we see them.

Once it gets dark we'll do the same with night vision and thermal. We'll also scan the fields but don't see them much out in the open as much at this ranch.

For years we tried the spot light method too but had little success. Either we can't find them through the scope or the hogs just book it after the light comes on.

I'll also bow hunt them at night for fun or run with dogs from time to time.

20 years ago they didn't run when the light hit'em. now I'd say the majority do!

enjoy your video's of hog calling. whin tried it years ago with home made casset tapes sound quality not near as good. an gave up to quick on the adjusting the reed on buck tube. high-tech has com a long ways since whin started hunting in the dark ages. go sit in dark were the hogs been terring it up. had ta creep up on em close, its easy whin they sleeping. theirs alot that may disagree with letting some hogs walk. thats cool i hunt public land guess should explain the hunting at night wasnt on puhlic land lease & were have my feeder. night vission & thermo does no good if dont have place ta use i t.

I've had luck hunting feeders with a red spot light.

just set timer on feeder ta go off in mornings, had em comeing in at dark-thirty whin it was warmer. cooler weather they move more during day few years back got hog this way. dogs keep em moving around here.

I usually hunt over bait with red lights. Success has been very hit and miss.

got some el cheepo celler lights at my feeder, Lows had some for $49.00 was to late. got green lazer dont need it real bright just able ta see.em. got cheep cam's it starts getting dark can't see nothing on pic's or could narrow down time, need my beauty sleep thinking hogs will move more during daylight since cold set in. what u thi.k guess , cold weather hogs move more during day? have had good luck on public land

Get call from landowner about his Hog Damage.

Meet Landowner/Farmer, ride the place and Google. Locate damage. GPS map the place noting roads and back stops.

Contact surrounding landowners/farmers to see if they want to have their places shot as well.

Contact Conservation and advise where we will be shooting.

Call Tony "Hitman", one of my regulars, and tell him we need to "Pop the Cherry" on a place.

Gear up and fire up the FLIR.

Good stuff.

Getting lazy in my older years. Don't specifically enjoy hunting for hogs and only hunt them on our property. I always carry some type of firearm on the tractor and truck. The hogs don't seem to be that alarmed at the sound of my diesel tractor, and often I can pull into a field and they don't get that excited. During the summer I prefer to mow pasture at night due to cooler weather. I have some quartz lights mounted on my ROPS bar that will turn night into day. In other words I don't really mess with them if the hogs are somewhere else and basically my system works for me on our land.

Still very new to hog hunting but the one experience I did have was over bait and the first night I didn't see anything. The second night they came right to the bait pile within 20 minutes of it being dusk, my white light didn't bother them or anything they were too busy eating the candy and sugar mix we put out. This coming trip we will be night hunting over corn feeders in hopes that something comes. It's a free range Texas property and there will be 7 of us hunting the stands so the probability of all of us getting something is very slim. As far as spot and stalk goes we will more then likely be doing that as soon as the sun comes up. In my limited experience I don't know any other way to hunt them.

My method of finding hogs, not necessarily killing them is as follows: get out to my stand just before the sun comes up and my feeder goes off. Plan on only going for big, mature bucks. Then watch as a group of hogs sucks up all the corn on the ground around the feeder then leaves. I have nicked named the hogs "corn vacuums" at my ranch.

How NOT to do it, spend a week letting some corn/water/whatever mixture sour. Put it out in an area you know hogs frequent. Go out at nightfall and sit in a blind waiting for them to come to the bait. Never works for me. It's ridiculous.

Dogs find em I ty them

We use the little bird & rain lead from above. 2 of our clients with a 300+ boar in Milam County.

lead poisoning.

As I become older, trapping 'em is a lot more fun.

However I can kill them. Prefer the bow but will take what I can get.

I tried a lot of different methods and couldn't get on them consistently before I started spot-and-stalk at night. At my property there's an easy-to-climb, forked pecan on a high spot on an old river bank that provides an excellent vantage point; I'll get up there a few hours after dark with a 5x digital NV monocular and scan. If/when I identify a sounder (or boar) I watch for a while to see where they are moving, then make my best effort to position myself where their path will cross mine within 100 yards, then stalk within 50 yards and take a single shot. I don't get on 'em every time, but it's pretty high percentage if I see them. I'll probably get a shot 9 times out of 10 when I spot them.

Simple really -

1. Find 'em
2. Shoot 'em.
3. Eat 'em.

We hunt over a feeder with a kill light, and we sometimes spot and stalk.

Not always my method but my favorite

1.saddle horse
2.load up dogs and horse
3.kick out dogs and ride along
4. Flip and tie hog.
5.repeat step 4

at the ranch the wifey plants flowers around the house and we shoot them with our coffee still hot in mornings!
pond never fails in central Tx in the summer.. corn feeders anytime at dark, blackberries bushes make it easy too!

Due to the land I have to hunt,during deer gun season I hunt thick east texas timber, stands are double bull
Ground blinds with feeders 40 to 60 yards shots hunt them like deer .when deer gun season is over get to hunt more open
Areas that have been timbered much bigger set ups feeders are 75 yards use two man tree stands ,can see coming better
Have many sneak spots that I hand corn ,,,,, Lots of fun
In short I have to have them come to me ,really like hunting fields ,get lot more. Follow up shots at them running
When I get good I'm going to call them up like guess does !,!,!,

this is a good thread. thanks

Trap!....Most I have had at one time was eight, all big hogs 160 to 80 lbs.

Great thread. I've done mostly bait and wait in areas I know they recently visited. Have had some success. Ready to try calling them in. I Need to read Guess' info first.

on thread, theirs alot of methods, main reason got on first lease, hogs 24/7/365 liked the odds, during deer season, just as happy ta take hog as deer. after season night hunt, during the dark-ages, strap on six shooter lights off, ya can hear-em threw the woods. solo hunt mostly, shots close, I dont recomend this. tride the calling, gave up to quick, & high-tech is better these days, enjoyed your video's.