First Time Hog Hunting...what went wrong?

[thegeneric]

Went to south Texas a few days ago to go hunting for the first time. The land my friend owns is about 2000 acres and 50 miles west of Corpus Christi.

First and foremost I'd like to say I know nothing about hunting and just did what the landowner told us to do.

What we did:

1. Drove around in an old Jeep just shooting cactus/yucca plants.

2. Drove to the other side of land and baited (corn) 4 trails (about 200 yards worth of bait on each trail).

3. Drove to a stand in the center of the 4 trails about 6pm. Waited for about an hour and saw nothing.

4. Decided it might be too hot/early for hogs, drove back to the other side of the land and shot random things again.

5. We get back to the stand around 7pm and wait another hour. We see one turkey... and give up and go home

The next day....

1. Wake up at 6am and drive to the same stand....see a deer..

2. Use the rest of our bait and hunker on the stand for about 1.5 hours. See nothing.... Give-up and left.



Landowner says we should have seen plenty of wildlife regardless...but nothing but one turkey and one deer. So i have a few questions:

1. Did the Jeep make too much noise driving the trails? Did we scare them somehow by shooting around the land?

2. I smoked two cigarettes while waiting, are hogs deterred by this?

3. Did we hunt at the right times? Should we have just waited longer?

NOTE: He has never been on that land when the temperature was this hot (around 95 I believe).


Anyway, from reading threads around here and such, I almost assumed there would be hogs all over the place. Kind of disappointed we didn't bag one, but I am excited to go again and try another time.

 

[nathan]

Luck plays a big part in hunting. Right now hogs dont come out as easily bec of the heat hitting 90 and above in Texas. Some would come out during theday but seldom unless they are bedded in creek beds and mudholes . Noise and strange sounds also scares them off. Windy days make them want to just stay hidden.

 

[KodiakBeer]

You spent an entire hour on the stand, talking and smoking after driving up in an old jeep? I can't imagine what went wrong...

 

[natman]

You spent an entire hour on the stand, talking and smoking after driving up in an old jeep? I can't imagine what went wrong...

Don't forget shooting up the countryside on the way in.

-----------------------------------------

Hogs aren't stupid. If you broadcast your presence and intent they will find somewhere else to be.

 

[MCgunner]

ROFL Shooting at yucca?????? Wow.

Yeah, hogs will die if they get too hot. I've lost 'em in the trap like that, don't run it this time of year. This time of year, look for the bottoms, the wallows. They stick to the shade in heavy cover. My land has oak mots all over it. They get in there and the only way you'll get at 'em is to sneak in on hands and knees scraping brush the whole way. Good luck on that and good luck if you meet one face to face. Dogs will chase 'em out. Otherwise, wait till night and hunt a feeder and save your ammo. Them yuccas don't fry up real good. This time of year, night hunting sour corn is what works. Need the equipment for it, good spotlight and I'm wanting a night vision monocle just to look around when it's dark and I don't wanna flip on the spotlight.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

I am sorry, but I had to laugh at the OP. I have taken my 8 year old daughter hunting with me twice and she showed considerably more patience than what was described in the OP.

I guess the only way to be sure to see hogs is to go to a hog farm. They will be easier to shoot as well, being corralled or penned.

 

[rondog]

Them hogs can hear the POPFFSSSH when you open your beers too, that'll scare 'em away.

 

[MCgunner]

Yeah, but they love Shiner Bock. They got good taste.

 

[thegeneric]

I'd like to reiterate:

"First and foremost I'd like to say I know nothing about hunting and just did what the landowner told us to do."

I figured a lot of what we were doing wasn't going productive to bagging a hog. If you re-read, we waited a total of 3.5 hours. Again, I don't know any kind of average time one needs to wait in any kind of hunting situation.

We are all city boys. Our parents didn't raise us on farms or ever take us hunting. I don't have a nice gran'pappy sitting on a rocker telling me tales or tips.

Anyway, thanks for whatever tips have been shared.

 

[Beaux Nehr]

Let the people crack jokes, generic; at least you're trying to learn, and it sounded like you had a decent time anyway.

There is a 19+ page thread somewhere around here about hoghunting, and it is full of information.

http://thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=449721&highlight=hog




P.S. I'm in Corpus Christi, and I've never been out to try hog hunting. I've been very close a few times, but never actual gone.

 

[Hunterdad]

Rotten corn and patience, patience and a little more patience. Try again and hang for as long as possible. Go in quiet and leave quiet. Good luck!

 

[KodiakBeer]

Sorry if I came across as a bit sarcastic.

I can't tell you much about hog hunting in particular, but hunting in general is about patience and silence. The rules don't change much no matter what species you're hunting.

Animals move and feed largely at night. I want to be where I'm hunting before dawn, and I wouldn't consider driving there - walk that last mile, in absolute silence from the downwind direction. Don't use a flashlight unless you absolutely must - you'll find that if you let your eyes adjust you can see quite well enough to walk a trail even at night. When you get to where you're going, then sit and listen in absolute silence until dawn. Then sit and watch and listen in absolute silence until at least several hours after dawn. Personally, I wouldn't hunt with more than just one other person. The larger the party, the less game you'll see.

Animals (all animals) depend on noise and scent for protection. So, hunt upwind - no matter how good your set-up is, if you get there and the wind is blowing from your hide to where you expect to see animals, then you're wasting your time. Have a back-up plan. Noise is an even worse thing. Tape up any metallic dangly gear you have. Don't speak. Don't whisper. Don't fiddle around with your guns and gear.
If you're still enough and quiet enough and wind is in your favor, animals will sometimes walk right up to you even if you're clearly visible to another persons eyes. It's like they can't see you unless you move or make a sound.

Anyway, good luck!

 

[rbernie]

Using bait for hog works, but only after the hogs figure out that its there. If you can't find the places that the hog normally go and bait there, then you'll have to repeatedly place bait in a certain location to get them used to going to the bait spot.

 

[W.E.G.]

You need to go out on that land and spend three of four days with the express objective of shooting nothing, being quiet, and paying attention.

Maybe then you will start to get an idea of the things you need to start learning to become a successful hunter.

There are places where you can pay a "guide" a whole bunch of money to take you out to where you can probably easily kill some critter. You won't need to know anything but your credit card limit if you want to "hunt" one of those places.

Otherwise, you need to learn the land.

 

[rondog]

I'd like to reiterate:

"First and foremost I'd like to say I know nothing about hunting and just did what the landowner told us to do."

I figured a lot of what we were doing wasn't going productive to bagging a hog. If you re-read, we waited a total of 3.5 hours. Again, I don't know any kind of average time one needs to wait in any kind of hunting situation.

We are all city boys. Our parents didn't raise us on farms or ever take us hunting. I don't have a nice gran'pappy sitting on a rocker telling me tales or tips.

Anyway, thanks for whatever tips have been shared.

Aw, we's just funnin' with ya! You know how greenhorns get picked on! These folks will tell ya how to hunt 'em, all I can tell ya is it takes a lot of patience, and usually a fair amount of time. And hunting isn't always productive.

 

[FLAvalanche]

In all honesty I'm having a hard time trying to find something you did right...

Unless the hogs are used to it, and those ones obviously aren't, just about everything you did from the start was wrong. The jeep and your shooting spooked them. What hogs that were actually dumb enough to stay in the same county were probably run off by your smoking.

If there is anything you want to keep written on the front of your brain about hogs it's this: You can't beat the nose.

I have sat in a blind, completely invisible, washed down with hunting soap, clothes washed in hunting soap and kept in a container full of corn, sprayed down with Scent Killer when I got out of the truck, sprayed down in the blind, and still have a hog come in and start feeding, take one big sniff and run.

But I'll take a hog over a dumb ole deer any day.

 

[nathan]

Try to be as quiet as possible getting into the hunting area. Avoid making ruffling sounds by steppiing on dry leaves. THe best is after a rainy day when the ground is wet and damp. It will mask your movement. Also avoid applying perfumes and other attractants that signal the game someone is close by. Move in slow motion like the US Rangers do. Open all senses, be one with nature.

If you want instant game , just go to a game ranch and pay . The hogs are fenced up and saves you time to see one. And bringing meat is guaranteed provided you hit them right.

 

[AStone]

ROFL Shooting at yucca?????? Wow.

Hey, yucca is the most dangerous plant on US soil.

Those little suckers can slip up on you in the middle of the night,
stick their pointed little leaves in your eyes, and blind you!

They need to be exterminated along with roaches and rattlesnakes.

 

[natman]

So i have a few questions:

1. Did the Jeep make too much noise driving the trails? Did we scare them somehow by shooting around the land?

2. I smoked two cigarettes while waiting, are hogs deterred by this?

3. Did we hunt at the right times? Should we have just waited longer?

NOTE: He has never been on that land when the temperature was this hot (around 95 I believe).


Anyway, from reading threads around here and such, I almost assumed there would be hogs all over the place. Kind of disappointed we didn't bag one, but I am excited to go again and try another time.

1) Yes. Yes.

2) Yes. Hogs can't see very well, but they have an excellent sense of smell. You light up and you might as well set up a flashing neon sign with a siren saying "HUMAN HERE".

3) Hogs don't do well in the heat, so when it's hot they hide where there's water and shade. That's where you should be looking. Bait can work, but you have to give the hogs a chance to find it.

Hunting is all about knowing where to look, being invisible to sight, sound and smell and above all Patience.

"Lord, give me Patience and give it to me now."

Thanks for being a good sport. You have to expect a little ribbing when you post a list of how to do everything wrong. That's how you learn. Best of luck.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

If you re-read, we waited a total of 3.5 hours.

Right, you waited a total of 3.5 hours over two days of hunting with your longest stint in the stint being 1.5 hours. Your total time isn't really relevant to what you were trying to accomplish.

So you spent 3.5 hours over two days. Just how many hours did it take you to drive to this ranch?

Given the commotion you were making going in to your hunt location, it would have taken a lot more time for the animals you spooked to think you left the area...assuming you were clandestine after reaching your hunting spot, which you weren't.

Again, I don't know any kind of average time one needs to wait in any kind of hunting situation.

There isn't an average time.

We are all city boys. Our parents didn't raise us on farms or ever take us hunting. I don't have a nice gran'pappy sitting on a rocker telling me tales or tips.

Right, but there are a variety of books and online sources that can tell you a lot about hunting, what you should do, what you should not do, etc. Even city boys have access to books and the internet like us out in the country. Google "hog hunting" along with other key words such as feral, Texas, tips, even the region of Texas where you were hunting and prepare to be overwhelmed with information, a lot of which you will start to see repetitively.

 

[thegeneric]

Here were our goals for the trip:

1. Introduce a friend of ours to shooting, he had never shot before. He is moving at the end of the month and wanted to do something with us before he left, hence the yucca/cactus shooting.

2. I had just bought a new carry gun and wanted to try it out. Also, I have never shot at anything other than paper. We had tons of fun shooting old trash, cans, and the yucca/cactus.

3. See some wildlife. The turkey we saw literally walked almost the whole length of one trail (about 200 yards) following the corn right to about 20 feet from our blind. It was amusing a frustrating because they are out of season.

4. Maybe find a hog or two to shoot. This was not our priority, not mine really. I do admit I was not well prepared at all. By the time we got to the deer blind we had run out of water and only had breakfast. Hunger definitely played a role in how long we could wait, esp since the closest stop to food was 30 miles from us.

We only had one afternoon/night and the next morning before we had to head back. We all have school or work or a combination of both.

Next time we/I will do better. Thanks for the tips

 

[buck460XVR]

thegeneric........Don't let these guys get to you. Many of them probably started out the same way you did and are not only laughing at you, but at themselves also. Ain't many of us that were "born" hunters. We either had experienced mentors to help us or we spent many years in the woods figuring out what works. Even then, there are many times when we too go home empty handed.

Any animal that has been hunted in it's life time knows all to well what the sounds of a jeep and the sounds of gunshots mean. Many times they are closer than you think and are only hunkered down and waiting till they think the coast is clear. Baiting is more successful if done for a period of time....i.e., days or weeks, before you plan to hunt. You have to give the animals time to locate it and get into a pattern of using it.

Hunting is a learning experience, regardless of how long you've been hunting. Animals change their habits, and terrain and landscapes change over time and or /distance. This is what makes hunting a challenge and why there is such a thrill when things come together and there is success. 'ell, if it were as easy as they show on TV, there'd be nuttin' left to hunt but those domesticated animals inside high fences.

 

[MCgunner]

Don't use a flashlight unless you absolutely must - you'll find that if you let your eyes adjust you can see quite well enough to walk a trail even at night.

I have a head lamp for hunting, new fangled LEDs with a halogen spot. It has a red LED in it. If it's absolutely pitch black, red won't spook game like a white light. I use a red spotlight hunting hogs at night, too. If you have to use a lamp, the moon ain't enough, red is best.

 

[doubleh]

Rule 1. The dumbest hog is smarter than the smartest dog.

Rule 2. That huge nose and those big ears work as well or better than anything else you will hunt.

Rule 3. They have excellent reflexes. Any thing out of the ordinary and they are gone, instantly.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Here were our goals for the trip:

1. Introduce a friend of ours to shooting, he had never shot before. He is moving at the end of the month and wanted to do something with us before he left, hence the yucca/cactus shooting.

2. I had just bought a new carry gun and wanted to try it out. Also, I have never shot at anything other than paper. We had tons of fun shooting old trash, cans, and the yucca/cactus.

3. See some wildlife. The turkey we saw literally walked almost the whole length of one trail (about 200 yards) following the corn right to about 20 feet from our blind. It was amusing a frustrating because they are out of season.

4. Maybe find a hog or two to shoot. This was not our priority, not mine really. I do admit I was not well prepared at all. By the time we got to the deer blind we had run out of water and only had breakfast. Hunger definitely played a role in how long we could wait, esp since the closest stop to food was 30 miles from us.

We only had one afternoon/night and the next morning before we had to head back. We all have school or work or a combination of both.

Next time we/I will do better. Thanks for the tips

WELL THERE'S YOUR PROBLEM! Your thread title said you went hog hunting. You didn't go hog hunting. You went for a weekend of blasting out in the sticks! Nothing wrong with that at all. It just doesn't dovetail real well with the notion of hunting skiddish animals.