We run around 50 baits on these ranches, probably a few more this year with the additional 30 sections we are adding along the Pecos river. There will be all kinds of setups at these bait sites. Some tripod stands, double bull blinds, pit blinds dug into the bank of the ponds, and brush blinds made up of piled up mesquite or whatever else is handy. There will likely be more than one blind to sit at your bait, it is up to you to figure out which way the wind is blowing and pick a seat that is downwind. Sometimes it might even be better to not sit in the blind. If you can back away from the feeder a 100 yards or so and still keep the feeder in sight you can watch the hogs as they come in to eat. Sometimes they will circle the bait site (and the blinds) several times trying to pick off a hunter before they commit to start feeding. Once they let their guard down to come in to the bait and you can hear them start cracking the corn you can slip in on the bare sand, keeping downwind from them and get within comfortable shooting distance. When they get preoccupied with finding the corn you have a much better chance of shooting them.
A hog is every bit as wary as an old whitetail buck. He has big ears that allow him to hear everything and a nose capable of smelling a worm a foot underground or you from 100 yards away if the wind is right. Don't be fooled that they can't see either. A hog has an eyeball that looks eerily similar to a humans and has as good of vision as you or me, not as good as a deer but they aren't blind either. I suspect they probably get nearsighted as they get older but don't depend on it. I would recommend that you don't wander too far and wide or you will scare away more hogs than you see. We put a lot of effort into keeping the hogs coming back to the baits and not running them off the ranch. I have to ask how many big old whitetail bucks you have killed stalking whitetails in ankle deep dry oak leaves. Probably zero. Texas is pretty dry and if you are not sticking to the bare sand (which is not practical or possible in a lot of places) you will be making way too much noise to have any expectation of being successful in stalking up on hogs. If you are wanting to do some spot and stalk hunting you should probably hunt down along the Pecos river instead of the bait sites we cultivate.
We have to hunt Javelina during the daylight hours. They are a game animal, no night hunting and no dogs, game and fish have rules about that. We will corn the roads in areas where Javelina are known to frequent or you can sit blinds at waterholes in those same areas and will have a decent opportunity at getting one in the daylight. Hogs on the other hand are not subject to the limitations of such rules. We bait them, trap them, hunt them at night and use dogs on them. They are frequently nocturnal, more often than not. While we have guys that kill some hogs during the day or evening before dark there will be much more action after the sun goes down. Go hunting prepared to stay out a couple hours after sunset. A bow mounted light will help. A red filter or green filter will diminish the effect of the light on scaring the hogs. A good technique to use is to point your bow towards the heavens when you turn the light on and lower it to focus on the hog. Hogs don't tend to notice this as much as just pointing the light at the hog and turning it on. When the light comes on abruptly most of the time the hogs will blow out of the area from the light coming on pointed at them. If it is slowly lowered on to them they do not hardly seem to notice. Get yourself a bow light and practice with it.
Hog hunting can be a lot of fun. There is a learning curve however. Some folks are better at it than others. Most of our clients are regulars that have been hunting with us for a long time, some of them for 10 years. The guys that keep coming back to hunt with us year after year are kind of hooked on it and keep on thinking of better ways to kill hogs on their next trip. They also tend to kill more hogs than the novice hog hunters do. You have to start somewhere I guess. We will try to give you every opportunity to get on some pigs, and we hope you enjoy the trip. We do have a lot of birds (doves and quail) in west Texas. If you are interested in some bird hunting we can send you to the fellow that has the lease for the bird hunting. Everything is leased in Texas.
Send me a PM or post here if you have more questions.
Topic: Hogs and Javelina Tradgang hunt. (Read 14858 times)
