Before I post this first tip I think it's necessary to mention that the hog has a scenting ability purported to be seven times greater than that of a whitetail. You just aren't going to beat a hogs nose no matter how much scent free soap or shampoo you use! Hunting the wind is the most crucial thing you can do when choosing a stand location. Use the aerial maps we have posted in the kitchen building or guest house when choosing a stand. The maps show where the ground blind and the ladder stand is located at each location so you can hunt the proper wind. If you're sitting in a stand where the wind is blowing from you toward the feeder....you're not going to see pigs, period. No matter how many times we say this, there is always somebody who hunts stand number (#) because that's where they want to sit, despite the wind blowing right toward the feeder.
The next most common mistake we see is getting out in the stands too early. This is especially harmful in warm, calm weather or on warm days with cool nights. Hogs are nocturnal critters so prefer to move at night. By the use of feeders that feed twice a day, we have the hogs patterned to come into the feeders to increase your chance at a shot. If you go out to the stand and sit there for several hours before the feeder even goes off, all you're doing is contaminating that area with human scent while the hogs are still bedded; Then at prime time when the hogs start moving and coming to the feeders best, your butt is sore, you've polluted the area with scent and you get bored because you're not seeing any hogs. This happens every.single.week! Do yourself a favor and don't get out into the stands until a half hour to an hour before the feeders are set to go off. That last hour of daylight is the golden hour and you want to be in your stand and ready for a shot, not walking around to get the cramp out of your legs.
Also, if a hunter wants to spot and stalk a hog, is it allowed. I would assume you have a large track of land.
When we were in Oklahoma hog hunting in January past at another ranch, I was surprised at how spooky they were. Not as easy as I thought it would be. We did a S&S hunt. We did connect using bow.
Our next hog hunt will be with your ranch, we just have to work out our schedule and hope it fits into yours.
Thanks, Chris.
Hogs are very spooky animals, and don't like unusual odors or objects in their dining room. They're not curious about strange odors- they're spooked by them! When you come into their territory and start spreading jello all over the ground , you're basically insuring that you won't have any hogs come into your stand for the next day or two. Attractants may work after the hogs have had a chance to become acclimated to them, but when you're here on a two day hunt you are only shooting yourself in the foot.
The same goes for earth scent, acorn scent, hog estrus scent....we haven't found a single one yet that doesn't run the hogs off of the feeders the first time they smell it. That little black wafer may smell like earth somewhere else, but it sure doesn't smell like anything we have around here!
If you want to attract hogs, then use something they are used to- and here at Shiloh Ranch that's usually corn. Not "corn flavored" stuff, and not apple flavored corn...just corn....the kind we feed them every day. That's why we have little bags of corn here in case you want to buy some- because it's the best attractant you can use (unless the acorns are falling- but we'll address that later). Leave the funky smelling stuff at home cause it's sure not going to help you kill a hog here!
Pat- these are just a tiny sampling of stuff we've found in the trash here....along with several HECS suit packages. I really need to get to work on a patent for some kind of gimmick so we can retire . P.T. Barnum was right.
This is the worst thing you can do if you want to shoot a hog! Not only do these animals make good decoys that will give the bigger hogs a sense of security, but they help attract hogs when they hear the crunching corn. Hogs often stage up in the woods out of sight, "testing the waters" so to speak, before they commit to coming in to the corn. The minute you move or make a sound, you've effectively shooed off any hogs that were in your area.
This is another reason we have small bags of corn here for you to take out to the stand. In the rare case another animal actually eats all the corn, you'll have some extra to throw out after they leave.
I know this sounds elementary, but this is another one of those things that happens almost every single week.
Great info here, and that goes for hunting at any ranch or with any outfitter, listen to their suggestions/recommendations.
First and foremost, we always like to talk about shot placement on hogs no matter how many times you've hunted them. A hogs vitals lie lower and further forward than other North American game animals. What would be a perfect double lung shot on and elk or deer would be a gutshot hog. The diagram above shows exactly where the heart and lungs lie as I did a cut down on a dead pig and then colored in the vitals so there is no guessing where the exact boundaries are. Also, hogs are much like humans in that if you injure one lung, the other lung will continue to function. What this means is that if you only hit one lung, the hog can keep on running on just one lung. We have killed many pigs with just one functioning lung.
Since the lungs lie so far forward, it's very difficult to get a double lung hit if you take quartering shots. I know there will be a dozen different people who want to come on here and argue because they killed a hog by taking a quartering shot. Yes, you can still get lucky by hitting the heart, aorta, femoral, carotid, etc. , but for the money shot, you want to wait until the animal is perfectly broadside and aim directly above the elbow and in the bottom one third of the chest. An inch behind the elbow is paunch and halfway up the chest is backstrap. We hear "but I got a pass-through" all the time. It's all about what your arrow passed through! A muscle hit bleeds profusely, but not enough to result in death.
One of the most common mistakes we see is when folks pass up hog after hog while waiting for that big one in the brush to come in. You just have to be willing to eat tag soup when you do that.
What? People wait and pass on broadside hogs? How long has this been going on? I just don't understand, but then again, I'm a weak man.
Mrfox16- we will post some more trail cam pics once we get our cameras back off the traps we're currently monitoring with them.
RK
Your stories sure have gotten a lot of mileage around our place. You still need to come up here and share a campfire sometime so we can repay the favor.
