I've just gone through and reread everything posted so far. I must admit that I now feel like we've only scratched the surface of all we need to talk about. I suppose we'll talk a bit about where to find hogs now. This will be the hardest of the subjects due to Geographic differences between your area and mine.
Im a South Texas hog hunter. Here in south Texas the lay of the land is almost featureless. My hunting areas are generally flat with the only elevation changes being along creeks, streams , and rivers. It is here where these elevation changes occur that I seem to find the more piggy sign.
Hogs are just an animal not unlike many of the other animals in the woods. They need the very things that every other animal needs and in many ways act the same in their daily/nightly routine. Eat, drink, sleep, and breed. Pretty simple isn't it? Not really!
Bedding areas: I find the greatest majority of the bedding areas in the cool, damp environments just out of the river bottoms and around the high edges of pond banks. Generally the bedding takes place along a ridge adjacent to a water source or wetland area where the pig can stay cool and still have the vantage of the best wind. These ridges may be a 5' rise in elevation a 100 yards away from water or a ridge 10" from the water. It doesn't have to be a big ridge, just a high point. Of course, if you've got a 50' ridge running parallel to a creek and is in close proximity, I think you will find bedding sign along it. The ridges that have an East facing direction will be your #1 choice in the entire area. This is going to be especially true in the winter and in areas where cold weather is dominant. Hogs generally feed at night and are quite cold by morning. They wish to lounge in the warmth of the rising, morning Sun.
Another type of bed is the dry dirt bed. I spoke a little about them earlier. You'll find these type beds as well as the moist beds. The dry beds are areas where the pigs are dusting themselves for parasites. They look quite similar to the moist beds but will be a bit harder to spot.
Feeding areas: This can be any natural or manmade food source including crops such as beens and corn. Also in some regions the hogs will forage grasslands, The grasslands look like an unlikely spot to you and I but under the ground will hold tubers which hogs will root for and feed on. Fruit and nut trees will also draw hogs. The areas with one or two fruit trees are only going to be a Snack Bar along the route. Hogs will hit them but with much less frequency than areas of greater food sources. What you are looking for is an area with a vast support system of food. Something that will easily support a group of hogs and not one or two hogs. This of course will also be a regional thing.
Water sources: These are likely spots to ambust hogs but can vary in results depending on the amount a water available within the region. If there is little water and it is far between, water is an amazing possibility in hunting hogs.
Sign posts: Hogs leave sign posts everywhere the travel. Once you've taught yourself what you are looking for you will find that hogs have been leaving you tidbits of information all over the place. You must adjust yourself to start reading the sign. Hogs bed generally in one direction. Here you can see which way the have been facing so that you may approach the bed properly next time. This is especially true of dominant, lone boars. Hogs scratch on trees and make sign posts. You can tell how tall the hogs are and what direction they are traveling by watching the bases of the trees and seeing which side they've been rubbed on. Hogs leave mud here and will sometime polish trees to a glossy sheen if they are used often. Feces will also tell you the direction of a hogs travel and how long its been since he was there. If the feces is still moist and warm, Id say you are relatively close to a hog! LOL!
Breeding: This is the least of your worries when hog hunting. It happens at all times of the year and never ends. There is no way that I know of to pattern hogs around breeding. I would consider this a secondary issue when hog hunting.
My overview in a nutshell: If you have an area where cropland in divided my a creek or river, you will certainly want to hunt along the brushy areas there. Hogs will be laid up in the heat of the day and will be bedding here. In the late evenings and at night, they will generally hit a water source and then continue on to feed in the fields. Of course there are so many variations on geographic and regional changes that I cannot even hope to cover a small percentage of these. You'll have to do some of your own foot work here and implement some of what we have talked about such as scents, baits, etc. to locate your quary. I cannot stress enough that hogs will bed on the East side of hills and ridges in the mornings. I've seen this over and over. I've also flown over bedded hogs on many occasions while flying with a friend. I see hohs bedded on open, desolate hill tops where I would have never looked. Don't overlook the obvious due to your extreem concentration on other things. Cover all the bases. The other thing I will say is that hogs in many, many areas are nomatic due to lesser food sources and less conducive areas to inhabitate. If you can't find a hog on any given 500 acre tract of land in your area, you do not have a hog overpopulation problem. You instead have huntable numbers but not an epidemic. Here in South Texas we are experiencing an epidemic and I fear that someone is going to start trying new measures to erradicate the species. Im gonna take a break now. Any questions or input? CK
Topic: Super Duper Hog info thread (Read 48386 times)
