3 days and 1465 posts later....
Flint,
A story and then a question as it relates to my experience with hogs. Earlier in this thread you and another gentlemen were talking about being as scent free as possible and the other guy was talking about how he makes no effort to be.
What I have found when I go to set corn out for hogs is that they relate to two things, sound and scent. I did a little experiment over several months with my trail cams and found that if I'm loud and not scent free that the hogs will show up very shortly after I leave. I whistle in the woods, slam my truck door, urinate (when I needed to go) by the corn, even and especially smoked when setting corn out. What I was trying to test and the experiment showed (at least here) was I could condition the hogs to associate the sounds, and smells of me being in the woods, to food.
When I first spotted the hog sign I went home, grabbed a 5 gallon bucket of corn, diesel, koolaid and beer that I had mixed up about 6 months earlier, and headed back to the woods. Set my trail cam up and broadcast spread the corn out over a large area and sat down for a smoke. It took 4 days before I saw any hogs on my trail cam. But they absolutely tore that place up.
The next time I went out, I just used some brew I had made a week earlier. It was hot and it's quite a walk to get to this spot. When I finished setting the corn out a got a few big drinks and sat down to cool off and had a smoke. Well the water hit me about 10 minutes later and I had to "go". So, I went. That night I had hogs. Coincidence? Maybe so, I thought.
4 days later same routine. Except I get a call while I'm in the woods. It's a good friend of mine and I sat and BS'd with him while I was setting the (just plain now) corn out. Had another smoke, relieved myself. And reset the cam. 2 hours later I had hogs.
Long story just a little bit shorter. I switched from broadcast spreading to burrying the corn. And it got to the point that I could literally go through the routine, walk 100 yards away, walk back, and there would be hogs feeding. I don't think that's a coincidence. I think they had been conditioned to associate my sounds and smells with food. FYI: "They" were several different sounders and probably 7-10 different boars that I conditioned. They never all came at the same time, but other than a couple boars, they would show up different days.
So do you think this would work in your area also or are your hogs to transient and high pressured? Our hogs get quite a lot of pressure in spring and fall, but not much in the summer.
Also like almost everyone else on here, I really enjoy this thread. Thank you for starting it and continuing to contribute to it.
