Looking for a Hog Hunting Mentor

[idunno]

I'd love to tag along with someone on a dog hunt. Have been once to 3 Rivers/Red River WMA's and 2 more times with someone who had dogs, but he was hunting some questionable areas. I stopped going with him. Really want to keep things legit. I know once deer season shuts down completely, many will start taking out the hog dogs.

 

[barbarossa]

I'm still looking for somebody who can help me learn about finding and stalking hogs. Been out on my own quite a bit, but no success.

Anybody going hog hunting who would let me come along?


Thanks, barbarossa

 

[sandman7925]

Trial and error dude. Just get out there and get dirty. Success won't happen every time but if you try you will have luck.

 

[Nolacopusmc]

Spanky is our resident Hog chaser...but she hasn't taken any alone YET

Has anyone done hog hunting with dogs and a hog knife?

i know a guy that does it, and from what he says, the dogs pen them and you literally jump in and kill it with a knife.

If true, that is some serious ****.

 

[KellyAsh]

I've been hog hunting for about 5 years now in Texas and can help you out with info on them. I do not have any land here in Louisiana but I do have access to 4,000 acres in Texas and can take you on a hunt there.

If someone around Shreveport has land, I'd be more than happy to help you set up a feed and rub station, a figure six trap, or whatever else you wanted to get done.

You can learn enough about it here online to be able to get started and learning the rest through trial and error on your own.

Do you have any specific questions in mind right now or do you just want a post with as much as I can recall at the moment?

 

[KellyAsh]

Has anyone done hog hunting with dogs and a hog knife?

i know a guy that does it, and from what he says, the dogs pen them and you literally jump in and kill it with a knife.

If true, that is some serious ****.

"Doggin" as they call it is a friggin blast! You have what they call "finders" which locate the hogs and alert the other dogs, and the handler, as to where the hog is. Then you have "bay" dogs who's job it is to get the hog to stop running and keep him there until the "catch" dog gets there. The "catch" dog holds the snout or ear, or whatever he/she can get ahold of and hold the hog until you get there. Most handlers grab the back legs and strecth the hog out so he can't move very well, some folks literally jump on them and wrestle them down. Then, the actual hunter, comes up with a knife and sometimes even a damned spear, lol, and sticks the pig in the heart and sometimes cuts their throats to let them die faster, which helps protect the dogs.

 

[Nail Gun]

I'm still looking for somebody who can help me learn about finding and stalking hogs. Been out on my own quite a bit, but no success.

Anybody going hog hunting who would let me come along?


Thanks, barbarossa

Looks like I'm good for Saturday.

 

[barbarossa]

I've been hog hunting for about 5 years now in Texas and can help you out with info on them. I do not have any land here in Louisiana but I do have access to 4,000 acres in Texas and can take you on a hunt there.

If someone around Shreveport has land, I'd be more than happy to help you set up a feed and rub station, a figure six trap, or whatever else you wanted to get done.

You can learn enough about it here online to be able to get started and learning the rest through trial and error on your own.

Do you have any specific questions in mind right now or do you just want a post with as much as I can recall at the moment?

Well, unlike most of you guys here (I'm guessing), I didn't grow up here and didn't get into hunting as a kid. I'm still new to this game and pretty much on my own, as in I have no hunting buddies, at least none that hunt WMAs. So when I'm out in the woods, I still lack the basic skills of identifying signs of hogs and tracking them down. I have shot hogs sitting in a stand on private land, on a feed plot, but what I'd love to learn is to actually hunt them.

Specific questions?

How to identify signs of hog activity?

How to track and find them where they are bedded down?

How to be reasonably safe doing so? I know they can be aggressive and even dangerous, but I need to see it first hand to know what I'm getting myself into, and hopefully have someone with experience with me the first few times.

How to kill them, and get them out of the woods (I don't want to just kill them, I want to eat them)?

How to clean them in the woods, identify diseases and parasites, know which ones are safe to eat, which ones to discard?


Noobie questions, pretty much...


Thanks for any help.


Nail Gun, give me a call.

 

[sandman7925]

I recently lost access to the private land I hunted on. I hunted plenty of hogs there. So if you're looking for somebody to go with you on a WMA let me know. I've never hunted public land so it will be a transition for me but right now I don't have any other choice. I have an ATV as well in case you don't.

 

[Nail Gun]

Call made I'll answer as many questions as possible. No telling if we'll get anything but hopefully you'll walk away with enough knowledge to help out.

 

[KellyAsh]

Well, unlike most of you guys here (I'm guessing), I didn't grow up here and didn't get into hunting as a kid. I'm still new to this game and pretty much on my own, as in I have no hunting buddies, at least none that hunt WMAs. So when I'm out in the woods, I still lack the basic skills of identifying signs of hogs and tracking them down. I have shot hogs sitting in a stand on private land, on a feed plot, but what I'd love to learn is to actually hunt them.

Specific questions?

How to identify signs of hog activity?

Tracks: hogs have a split cloven hoof, very similar to a deers but the toes are spread out on a hog and close together on a deer

Scat: hog scat looks like a fat 13yr old ate too many seeded berrys. It's not the reg firm type you see with yotes or cats but more "loose". Kinda hard to give an accurate description ont he internet. Im sure you could google an image of it.

Wallows: near any water source they like, you'll see where they've been laying down and rolling around to get the mud on them.

Rubs: They will rub up against telephone poles and cedars to get the resin off them which helps keep the bugs off them.

Sight and Sound: Sound being the more reliable becasuse hogs usuaully aren't real good about being very quiet. They can be, don't get me wrong, they just don't travel very quietly usually and they sure as hell aren't wuiet when they find food.

How to track and find them where they are bedded down?

Tracking them isn't real reliable unless you get really fresh tracks or are really good at tracking. They just travel too much for tracking to be reliable as a standard method of finding them.

How to be reasonably safe doing so? I know they can be aggressive and even dangerous, but I need to see it first hand to know what I'm getting myself into, and hopefully have someone with experience with me the first few times.

The first line of defense for me is my main weapon but I also carry a concealed sidearm (in Texas because I have a CHL; illegal otherwise there) but I'm not sure about your laws regarding hunting with a sidearm so make sure and be up to speed on that. I also wear snake boots, not just for hog hunting, but for most all my hunting. Armoring up the lower body will help if they hit you, which is very unlikely. It's the more loner type boars and the mommas with babies right with them that are most likely to attack you but anyone of them can be dangerous.

How to kill them, and get them out of the woods (I don't want to just kill them, I want to eat them)?

Shooting them through the ear is the best way. Barring that shot, shoot about 2 inches about the breat bone just behind the front leg. Hogs hearts sit right on top of the breast plate so the kill zone is much lower than for that of a deer or most other critters.

Cleaning them should be done with gloves and do not inhale any blood spray or splatter, or let the hog blood get into any open wounds on you. On the link I sent you, they should go into some of the disease you might run into, with brucelosis being the most prevelent in my experience. Don't let the disease part get to you though. With thourough cooking you'll be safe even if the hog is infected. There is no way to tell a hog has it by just looking at it.

I like to hang them up by their back legs and skin it first. Once I have access to the meat, I take the backstraps, the front quarters, and hams and leave the rest for the yotes. This way I don't ever have to open the gut. You can't really get to the tenderloins without opening the gut but they aren't good enough to warrant messing with the guts. Not to me anyway.

How to clean them in the woods, identify diseases and parasites, know which ones are safe to eat, which ones to discard?

When you do kill one, start trying to smell it from a distance. If you smell it from more than 10 ft away, don't touch it. The meat will taste like it smells and would be much better as yote food instead of people food. If it has ticks or any critters on their skin, it will not affect the meat, just skin it and the problem is gone.

Noobie questions, pretty much...


Thanks for any help.


Nail Gun, give me a call.

Have fun ya'll and take some pics for me if ya'll get anything.

 

[KellyAsh]

Sorry man, I forgot to tell you how I got about finding them from the time I leave the truck. The first thing you need plan for is going out in the afternoon and staying as long into the night as possible. The second thing you need to understand is that they are nomadic, BIG TIME. Hogs do not stay on any pattern more than a few days...unless they can't find ideal conditions anywhere else then they will but it's forced and they won't stay around for long even then. Finding them in the same are from day to day is usually hit or miss, baring unusual circumstances.

When I first look at an area, I want to determine the time of year it is and what food and water sources are availble to the hogs. If there are acorns on the ground, they'll usually stay away from feeders until they're all gone...usually aound feb/mar/apr it really depends on where you are and the seaons.

This time of year the hogs are going to be ALOT harder to find, esp if they have any pressure on them. They have plenty of food still on the ground and plenty of water around so they don't really have to travel much. Also, they will very, very easily go nocturnal on you and you'll hardly ever find them moving in the day time. When this happens on public land, get ahold of the game warden or the rangers for the corp office, if it's a Corps of Engineer Lake and ask them if they'll let you stay overnight there to hunt them. I've been granted permission to do just that and to use ammo that wan't listed as legal in the book. Otherwise, you probably won't be successful.

After I look at an area and determine where the heaviest cover is, I focus on those areas and just start walking quietly like an indian...step once, listen seven times. You will hear them snorting at each other and grunting as they're moving. If they're layed up, or layed up scared cause they know somethings there that scares them, you're going to have to kick them to get them to move or make noise. I stay as inocuous as possible. My goal here is to only locate them, not necessarily kill them right now since you never know what set of circumstance you might find them in. Plan on finding them then backing off and setting up an ambush for them once they get moving. If you can kill them where you find them, by all means, kill em. It's just that if you don't have the best shot possible and you miss, they might disappear from an area for a month or more. So take all the care you can to not push them at all.

I also look for well travelled game trails with hog tracks on them and set up on these after they start moving. You can hear them moving in the night and set up according to their path of travel. They will, usually, follow the path of least resistance and the most familiar.

If you're going to be hunting the WMAs during the day, be prepared to do ALOT of walking. 5 miles aint much with this kind of hunting. It's just one big ass hide and seek game, lol.

 

[barbarossa]

KellyAsh, thank you for your detailed reply. The info is much appreciated!

 

[barbarossa]

NailGun took me out hog hunting yesterday, and I learned a ton of stuff. How to read their tracks, where they rub on trees, where they tear up rotten logs looking for grubs, how to read which direction they were going, and much, much more.

Like, hog stalking is hard, and they have all the advantage. We got close enough to hear them, but they held the cards. The hogs won this time.

NailGun and I looked like we fell of a motorcycle. I pulled briar thorns out of my eyedlids. My pretty, fancy rifle is all scratched up.

I'm hooked, I will be back.

Thanks!

 

[barbarossa]

http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=2&f=209&t=196044

Now THAT looks interesting.

Yeah, but from what I understand not legal in LA. You may hunt at night here on private land, but not with that kind of gun.

 

[Nail Gun]

NailGun took me out hog hunting yesterday, and I learned a ton of stuff. How to read their tracks, where they rub on trees, where they tear up rotten logs looking for grubs, how to read which direction they were going, and much, much more.

Like, hog stalking is hard, and they have all the advantage. We got close enough to hear them, but they held the cards. The hogs won this time.

NailGun and I looked like we fell of a motorcycle. I pulled briar thorns out of my eyedlids. My pretty, fancy rifle is all scratched up.

I'm hooked, I will be back.

Thanks!

I'm glad you enjoyed yourself! I'm also sorry I took you into the thicket we ended up in and got that beautiful T-Bolt scratched up. At least you learned a synthetic stock makes a suitable machete. It may be a good thing we got skunked. I confirmed those weren't deer rubs we saw. Those trees were shredded by a boar, a large boar.

Folks, I've gotta say this guy is not afraid to bulldoze through 1/2 a mile of unholy briars and is an absolute sponge for info. But don't expect him to tell you the area we hunted.

 

[wadepat2]

Sounds like a fun trip.

 

[Storm]

I needed this information too!! It's been a big help. My son and I are hoping to get on some private land in Mississippi this month to try and take a few hogs. I've never hunted them before, so I'm really looking forward to it!

 

[Yrdawg]

Good info, thanks

As to being sneaky I can give it a yes. I live in the middle of hundreds of acres of deer leases, we can find deer much easier than hogs,

What is the possibility of making a hog friendly area in the woods...near water, hanging burned oil cloth, maybe planting some food...I'm considering this b/c I can't walk the distance it takes. IMO it would be easier on my sorry ass leg ( surgery due in July ) to make an area thats " hog friendly " and sit on it and wait for Mr Pig

Any suggestions and info welcome...oh, and I have eaten a few of these local hogs with no bad taste or sickness. We cut them up and ice 'em for about a week, leave drain open on ice chest and add ice as needed. The meat comes out clean and ready to go.