Tips for getting close to HOGS Please

[chopx2]

Because you can apparently not have too many hog threads in the summer...   :D  

I've seen lots of discussion and tips about shields, shot placement, baiting, broadheads, poundage etc. Seems to me (or I'm looking in all the wrong places...again) there isn't much discussion about how to get close (other than wind) and how to draw undetected, ground blind effectiveness etc...

The more tips the merrier! I can use all the help I can get!  

[Ragnarok Forge]

Same as every other animal, downwind, move slow, shoot when their not looking at you.  The hog pro's will weigh in shortly.

[Biggie Hoffman]

I'll go the other way on this....I've always done best by moving in quickly and taking the shot IF IT PRESENTS ITSELF. If it doesn't or you spook em, back out and circle around in front ofthem and try again. IME, the longer you are there the better chance they have of smelling you.
So, spot them, get the wind, move in and shoot! It doesn't hurt to make a little noise as if they're in a group, they won't pay mch attention to shuffling. You can't break a limb or anything but a little crunching won't hurt a thing.

[The Vanilla Gorilla]

Move as quick as you can to get into position. They don't hang around long usually. Try to get ahead of them if you know their route. Also waterholes and feeders are good to stalk em at or set up a blind.

You can also put the sneak on them in their beds if you can find them, which is a blast, but once they are busted snoozin they almost never bed down in that area again, in my experience.

[Battle_shaft]

What biggie said.

It's been my experience that you trying to sneak up on them sounds like something trying to sneak up on them. Pigs are not stealthy. I think that if you're just moving along they think you're another pig on it's way over.

Also, my trick I've found is that when you get close to them or are in a blind and they come in close, close one eye while you're looking at them. I think they identify 2 eyes as a predator while one eye is just a funny looking leaf or something.

[rastaman]

Also, my trick I've found is that when you get close to them or are in a blind and they come in close, close one eye while you're looking at them. I think they identify 2 eyes as a predator while one eye is just a funny looking leaf or something.

You are kidding, right?  

[Bill Skinner]

Spot them first.  When you move in, watch out for the little bitty pigs, them running around all over the place is usually busts me, one will get down wind and that will be that.  Try to get in front of them, wait for them to move up to you.  Pigs never stop moving.  The wind at ground level may be going in a different direction than the wind on your face.  Bill

[Sean Butler]

i like what Ray told me in SC: "don't walk like something that's trying to be silent - you can't.  Walk, instead, like something that lives in the woods.  Take a few steps, stop and look around, then take a few more steps and stop again."  Sage advice that ended up with me on top of two hogs, but the brush was to heavy to shoot.

[RC]

I believe every minute that goes by after you spot pigs under 50 yards your chances go down.If they bust you because of some noise you made you can get on`m again. If they bust you from the wind your done and in the swamp the wind never stays steady.Move fast and try to get in front of where they are headed.RC

[chopx2]

This is great stuff! keep it coming!

[Bill Turner]

All of the above sounds great but you gotta find them first. Use your eyes, your ears and believe it or not, your nose when stalking heavy cover looking for hogs. I will normally hear or smell hogs before I see them. Once you smell them you'll know just what I mean.

[Apex Predator]

Lay in the road and make corn noises!  I just had to use that one, because I still think it's funny.

What everyone else has already said.  I will add that you need to cover lots of ground in order to find them sometimes.  I have started hunting faster, and seeing more hogs.  If you still hunt like you would for deer, you just ain't gonna cover enough ground to routinely get the shots at hogs.  RC taught me that, and it's taken me several years to see the truth in it.    

[lpcjon2]

Apex, I will do one better Go to Wallmart!I can't remember who wrote that a while back. I wish south eastern Jersey had 4legged hogs to hunt.I hear they are moving closer from the west.

[Gary Logsdon]

Tie a Wensel to a tree with a fried chicken leg dangling in front of him just beyond his reach.  When he starts squealing like pig have an arrow ready and let-r rip at the first approaching porker!!

[Margly]

Nice ideas keep`em coming    

Margly

[chopx2]

Let me see if I can boil all this great advice....

Run past the hogs, lay down in the road with one eye closed while making popcorn noises and when they come in to eat me hit them with a chicken leg...or was that a Wensel, which one Gene or Barry?

Do I have right now?
 

[Don Stokes]

I once attracted some spooked javelinas by crunching down on some hard candy. I didn't lay down in the road, though. Can't shoot well from that position. I found a broken Wensel arrow under one of the bunks in the cabin, so I guess the peccaries had been conditioned to the sounds.

[joebuck]

hog still ,i'm still..hog move, i move..like RC says it should happen fast or it probably won't happen.

[Gatekeeper]

I agree. Be aggressive with your movement and always be aware of the wind. Tie a feather to the tip of your bow with a piece of dental floss, have a puffer bottle handy at all times and it wouldn’t hurt to carry milkweed seeds in a plastic bag to check wind currents. You can’t check the wind enough.

I had a hog follow me in Texas this year as it tried to wind me.  The hog saw me but didn’t recognize me as a threat. I was on the up wind side but the hog hadn’t crossed my scent stream yet. So I started walking away from the hog and cross ways to the wind. I wanted to get down wind, out of the hogs line of sight and then circle back in on it.

 This was cool! The hog and I were on the average about 30 yards apart most of the time. The hog began to follow me and was trying to cut down wind of me. It wouldn’t let me out of its sight. I started out just walking figuring the hog would lose interest, but n-ooo that hog was very curious about me. So I began to jog and the pig picked up its pace and continued to close the gap between him and my scent stream. Since that wasn’t working I started to run and began to aggressively cut down wind and the hog again picked up the pace and out ran me. When it got my wind it tore out of there never to be seen again.

They are a blast to hunt, mainly because you can be aggressive with your movement. Spot them and go after them and if your in Texas do some night hunting… what a rush!

Good luck!

[chopx2]

Great story