where are the hogs?

[oxygeneater]

My best friend and I are looking to take my step son hunting for the first time and want him to get a kill. I know most of you would give up you wife before your hunting spots but can you at least point me in a general direction.

 

[FrankT]

would help to know where you are. Oh and it is highly unlikely to take someone out one time and get a kill unless it is a canned hunt. I would rather teach the gun safety, have range time and the spend a lot of time in the woods teaching them tracking and sign as well as how to be quiet..

 

[SAWMAN]

Yes sir I can. The "general direction" is Escambia River WMA,Blackwater River WMA,Eglin AFB. You did not put up your general location so I will just assume that you do not live and hunt in El Paso,Texas.

Best of luck in your hunting endevors. ---- SAWMAN

 

[oxygeneater]

Sorry. Cantonment is where we are

 

[Dragonfire21281]

Frank and sawman, he is a great guy just new to hogs. I'm surprised people on here are starting to act like pff frank I know you know your stuff. Any helpful guidance? Like areas that hogs are heavy?

 

[FrankT]

Dragonfire, nothing like PFF, re-read his post and how it sounds to an experienced hunter. I thought I was as polite as I could be considering the limited info he posted, just being honest. Then Sawman told him where to go once he posted where he was.

I got a lease because I don't like public land. Then there are canned hunts for a kid and a guarantee kill for them. Otherwise you are not taking a kid out on his first hunt and get a kill that is why they call it hunting not killing.

Hogs are wild and free, they really move a lot so there is no such thing as hog heavy, there today gone tomorrow. If you can read sign and know what you are doing where SM told him are as good as it gets.

 

[SAWMAN]

Sorry Dragonfire ......... seems that you know the gentleman personally,where he lives,what type of equipment he owns,what his level of training and experience is,what the level of his personal motivation is,and what days he has off and able to hunt.

Sooooooo ...... I will gracefully back off and allow you to help your friend. --- SAWMAN

 

[Dragonfire21281]

Sorry Dragonfire ......... seems that you know the gentleman personally,where he lives,what type of equipment he owns,what his level of training and experience is,what the level of his personal motivation is,and what days he has off and able to hunt.

Sooooooo ...... I will gracefully back off and allow you to help your friend. --- SAWMAN

Sawman you have spent a good time talking to him also. I do get what both you and frank are saying he gave very little information about the things you posted. Saw he is the guy that came with me to your house for the molly coated 308 he is just around the corner from ya.

Frank. I know you hunt on private land just hoped to get the best ideas to help get the best chance of a kill. It's like fishing . Like if I were asked the best place to find sheephead I would tell him check pilings or under bridges and the love fiddler crabs. Just looking for mentoring both of us are very new to hunting. Sorry did not mean to upset anyone just trying to learn.

 

[FrankT]

Sorry Dragonfire ......... seems that you know the gentleman personally,where he lives,what type of equipment he owns,what his level of training and experience is,what the level of his personal motivation is,and what days he has off and able to hunt.

Sooooooo ...... I will gracefully back off and allow you to help your friend. --- SAWMAN

Mee too, sorry I even tried to help. I believe you will find info I have provided in previous posts/topics concerning calibers, roll barrels, lights, cleaning and hunting hogs.. Just search and read, no need to type it 10 different times. If he has an interest reading is the best method to get ahead.

 

[Telum Pisces]

Unless you have a lease or private land with them and keep it baited up, it's going to be pure luck on most of the WMA lands. But the yellow river and Escambia River WMA sites are your best bet to bag a hog. And a boat is needed to get to the spots.

Even on private land with bait etc... Hogs are very hard to pattern or don't pattern at all. They run around on their own schedule and are constantly on the move for new food etc...

 

[SAWMAN]

Rcv'd your PM ...... will respond with more info. If you want a Esc Rvr WMA hunt,I will gladly show you a couple of places that I used to hunt and have taken hogs. These are park your car/truck and walk in hunts. You will need a Fla hunting license and a WMA permit also.

PM inbound. --- SAWMAN

 

[Daezee]

Even on private land with bait etc... Hogs are very hard to pattern or don't pattern at all. They run around on their own schedule and are constantly on the move for new food etc...

I consider myself a toddler when it comes to hog hunting, but I say AMEN to the above that Telum Pisces wrote. But at least I'm no longer a baby at hog hunting. At least around here, based upon my experience, hog hunting is much harder than the TV shows or YouTube videos would have you believe (unless it's a "canned" hunt inside a fenced area) (on some of the shows and videos I've seen fences in the background that I believe the videographer forgot to not get in the camera frame). To me, deer are easier to successfully hunt, and I'm using the ultimate on hogs...thermal.

I was fortunate to meet via GCGF a gentleman, who, after meeting (we did not meet about hog hunting) and talking with me (and knowing I had the equipment needed for night hunting), and talking safety safety safety, offered to take me night hog hunting (he offered; I did not ask him), and was true to his word. On our 13th trip, I got my first hog. If I did not have the equipment for night hunting, I may not have been asked. It can be real boring at night, not being able to see when you don't have the proper equipment...ask my brother who's been with me...since corrected. I consider him a friend now, and we'd probably do most anything for each other's families now. I've even sat on his couch and watched TV and chatted with his wife while waiting on him.

In all my day trips helping him load and put out bait, digging holes, scouting areas for hogs and coyotes, learning tracks and sign, getting stinky bait on me before I knew better or standing down wind when working with stinky bait, I've only seen 1 hog in the daytime. It quickly crossed a dirt road, and I just happened to be looking in that direction (no time to shoot).

I further lucked out when trying to help another GCGF member, giving him what hog and night vision knowledge I have, with it turning out that he was only 3 miles from me. I know he and his wife now trust me to follow their rules on animals and safety and invited me to hunt, when my goal was just to help the GCGF member with his questions and equipment. While I have permission to go on his property, it's not my place to give permission to others. I believe he told me a co-worker asked to hunt, but when asked what he planned to doing with a hog if he got one, had no idea...that's a No No, especially with his wife's views on harvesting animals, and that person has not hunted there (hope I got the facts straight on what I was told). He's been trying to get a hog himself and has fermenting corn out for several days/nights now, and hogs have not touched it, yet we know hogs have been in the area at night. Hogs sure can be picky. Around his place hogs are going after peanuts now (FWIW, hogs, possums, deer, and coyotes are going after peanuts...saw all those species eating the turned peanuts last night). Sorta funny, his wife said coyotes weren't around their place, but I've seen and heard them on/around their property...she now knows they are everywhere, and she saw one just this last week. Yet just 3 miles away around my little hobby farm, there are no hogs and haven't been for a few years. Both my farmer neighbors and other neighbors know to let me know if hogs start showing up. I do have all their permissions to shoot coyotes. If I had the property, and enough hunting population to make it worthwhile, I'd let some folks come hunt from time to time, as that is they way others have treated me throughout my 66 years. No deer on my property since my goat's pasture fence went up. Not many squirrels either, as the grand kids and I love to eat them; only get about 3-5 on my property each hunting season.

Anyway, the above long winded experiences have led me to believe that it isn't as easy to harvest a hog, in general, as one would believe. Luck has a lot to do with it. I've never seen one eating any of the bread, squash, corn, stinky stuff we've put out, yet they manage to do it when you aren't looking. A number of hogs are killed each year by deer hunters. Just the fact that they are out in their deer stands for hours at a time means you might see one in the day hours.

I'm not always lucky...been turned down for hunting permission too.

 

[Chaps]

Yes to all the above. Ive seen many hogs tracks and rooting but figuring out how these little piggies pattern is difficult. I guess there is always one constant and that's food. Ive trapped a few and seen a few during the daylight but I am definately a begineer. The ones I've trapped were regulars to my property for over a month before I built it. I really didnt realize at the time, that all though a nuisance animal, there were a lot of people interested in hunting them. I do have the fortune of living next to farm land that is backed up by mostly wooded land that borders a creek to the east.

Bruce has openend up a whole new world with his night vision capability. If I didnt have so many other hobbies, I would invest in a thermal unit. I purchased a night vison scope but I am still limited on sight distance. My hope is eventually get them to come to a feeder at night and target them there. Good luck in your search