Help me out Hog Hunters.

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SomeDude

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A couple buddies and I are looking to hunt some wild hogs. We prefer getting dirty and working for our meat. No hunts over bait or from stands. No canned hunts. We're out of St. Louis so looking for something within one day's drive, no more than 600 miles. Hunting with rifles or revolvers. Thanks in advance.

Dude
 
In Alberta we just got wild hogs spreading recently. What I understand pigs like to rub and wallow. Either walk along a creek until you find a muddy spot they wallow, or walk along some telephone poles or such and find one they rub against. Then follow the tracks. Heard emptying a can of fermenting corn on the trail can get one to pause long enough to take a shot.
 
Actually, they'll COME to that corn. At night, it does work well. Heat of the day, they hole up in heavy cover. Early morning, late evening, and night are the best times to hunt 'em. That's all legal here, YMMV.

Dang, they're makin' their way north that far? How long before they're bear food on Kodiak Island? LOL!
 
They escaped from game ranches in the last couple years, the story goes. But there are sightings 500+ miles apart. They weren't supposed to survive the winters. Right now it's a novelty, people who know for sure where some are don't tell. But that won't last long.

About the corn, good to know. About the bears, they're hypothetically a greater threat by eating food of other critters.
 
There are wild boar in Europe, Russia. The winters get pretty cold there. I don't know how well the cold will work to kill 'em off. Heat will kill 'em if they can't find shade to hole up in or a wallow to cool off in. They can't sweat, what keeps 'em out of the sun during the day. I don't set my trap in summer. They will die if you can't check it every morning and I have to drive 25 miles to check it. Only do that twice a week in the winter.
 
they can stand cold for sure. we have them here in the mountains of N. Carolina and it gets to zero sometimes minus a bit (doesn't last long though) and COLD-WET SNOW.
I've never dogged 'em but it is legal here. may as well plan on takeing 'em over or near bait that's the only way I can get 'em here. I've taken 'em (2 actually) with cap&ball revolvers. and my Marlin Camp .45acp.
 
Honestly, then you better get a spot light, because they prefer night time, although they are seen during the day. They like water, so look in river beds and wallows.
 
I was on another gun forum recently and a guy posted a picture of him with a wild hog he had killed. Now, I'm an old farm boy who raised and tended to hampshire pigs for years. That wild hog this guy paid to hunt looked like a damn farm pig to me.

I asked him as polite as I could if it was a wild hog or a farm pig and he replied that in the area he was hunting the farmers has just let domestic pigs loose to populate the area for hunting. He said that some of them still exhibited a resemblence to domestic pigs. I guess I would want to be assured before I went hunting I would not be stalking porky pig.
 
Goggle Wilderness Hunting Lodge in TN and give them a try, about 1300 acres and they keep plenty of hogs. When there I spot and stalk them with a bow, they turn on you sometime which makes it more fun for me.
 
To tell you the truth, there's no great difference between wild hogs, regardless of their parentage...except perhaps flavor! Escaped or released domestic hogs a couple of generations in the wild are just as wary and hard to hunt as a native domestic razorback. Pigs are just naturally not nice, friendly animals. They interbreed quickly, so most are mixes. Most native hogs are marginally edible when they get to about 200-lb...but descendants of Russian black boars tend to have better flavor in the large sizes.

Many shooting preserves purchase larger domestic pigs in prospective trophy sizes and let them loose to go wild and breed. Same for elk and other trophy animals. There's an industry in farms growing prospective trophys of all sorts of animals, selling them to the preserves, and then the preserves selling trophy hunts. That's not all bad...

I'm not a trophy hunter...I hunt for the meat, and I don't shoot animals I don't intend to eat. For example, when I have a choice of shot, I'll take a nice, fat doe anytime over a small buck...I think they simply taste better!:p
 
I've eaten dozens of deer, and am absolutely convinced that adult, mature bucks have more flavor and better meat than any doe and far better than yearling bucks. Any deer must be shot and handled properly, aged correctly, cut and wrapped correctly, of course. If all that is done right, and done equally -- three to five year old buck are quite a bit the better eating than any young males or females of any age.

I much prefer the flavor and texture of venison to beef, so that may play a role in my preferences:D.

On my pig hunt, I only kept meat from 75-125 lb dry sows, and it's quite good. These were true wild hogs in Texas; all black with razorback configurations. We shot them over bait, by spot-and-stalk out in the pastures, and by drives through brush. It was all good...

Dennis
 
I hunt hogs 12 months of the year in weather that often exceeds 100 degrees F. IME: Much of the "strong" hog meat is caused when someone let the meat spoil. When the temperature is over 80 degrees a person has about 4 hours max to get the hog in a cooler or cooled down with ice. Faliure to do this will result in meat that is not fit to eat.

Hanging does not improve wild pork. Last winter a friend left a big sow at the meat processor. The guy let that hog hang in the cooler for about 15 days before he cut it up. The meat was not fit to eat. The sausage even tasted rotten.

Have killed several big wild boar hogs. One domestic/Russian boar cross tipped the scales at 352 pounds field dressed. With one exception every male hog I have ever killed was good to eat. That one exception was a very old Russian boar that weighed 302 pounds on the hoof. Yes, there are male hogs running around that are not fit to eat.

After you shoot a hog, hose it down with lots of water before gutting it, if possible. Most of the stink of a wild male hog is caused by their peeing all over themselves and wallowing in everything that stinks.


If it has big floppy ears is is not a purebred European/German/Russian boar.

Foot-pounds of energy don't kill anything. Broken body parts kill things.
Click to expand...


Excellent!!!! Bullet placement is nearly everything. Every year I track a dozen or so hogs, elk and deer that were wounded by others. Nearly all are gut shot.
 
Years ago I was asked to help with a feral hog problem that was making a MESS of several ajoining farms in rural West Kentucky. Seems these porkers had no respect for fences, crops or property lines. We hunted for two weeks (daylight only) without dogs or bait. We quickly found these pigs to be smarter, faster & sneakier than we first imagined. We eventually succeeded only after we asked a senior citizen Pig Farmer to join us! Lesson of the story? You & your buddies may have hunted/killed deer, quail, squirrel, rabbit, elk, moose & coyote. But if you wanna' kill hogs - you best find someone to tag along who knows...hogs. BTW, a .44 mag Marlin carbine with solid (hard cast), heavy, lead bullets works very well on big tuskers. Have Fun!
 
Yeah, we are looking for an outfitter/guide. I have no doubt that I we would fail without some sort of guidance. We usually do a group fishing trip but decided on hunting this time.
 
If you decide to hunt in Texas....I would strongly recommend you change your position of NOT hunting over "bait".

Baiting hogs is probably the best method to harvest one (in most regions).

Not only does it increase your chances of seeing them, it also holds them in one small area long enough for you to "select" a suitable animal and a good shot angle.
 
Here in east mississippi and west alabama the wild boar are thicker than fleas. You don't need bait or dogs, just river bottom land to hunt on.

I normally don't have to walk more than 200 yards into the woods to find a 200 lbs boar to shoot. That's good eating!

Look for mud wallows and acorn and hickory trees near swampy water.
 
Yes, wallows are always good “sign” as are “rubs” on trees such as these…where they attempt to remove parasites after covering themselves in mud.

Hog_Rub.jpg
kreso_tree.jpg

Also, any fence post or telephone pole that has been treated with creosote will be favored by hogs too.
 
I agree with hunting them over BAITED areas. Unless you have a lot of time, your chances of seeing one without baiting is slim. But this also depends on the area and if they have experienced any hunting pressure. If you want action packed, give hog with dogs a try.

My last hunt I went to a free ranging/DIY type of place and baited where there are fresh hogs signs. Sounds easy but it was a challenging hunt and we only ended up seeing hogs just once the whole weekend.

n16709768_39959963_5482467.jpg
 
you can hunt into the wind and smell them, i have even used drives like you would for deer, if its hot look for water, head shots work for me csa
 
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