Ronny, great photos!
I don't know why, but it just makes me chuckle to think of a bunch of Norwegians munching on salsa,chips, and tacos-though lutefisk, the dish you asked me if I'd tried before, now makes me understand why you would like tacos- that stuff is scary just reading about it!!!!
I think the biggest thing new visitors to our camp can do to help themselves is in learning to spot and stalk animals.
Practice sneaking up on squirrels in your yard would be a good thing to do.
At our place, its very flat. The wind swirls often. You MUST learn to carry a puffer bottle (like a sinus spray bottle, filled with corn starch) and "puff" it frequently, to make sure youare working either upwind or crosswind at all times.
A hog's nose is 5 times BETTER than a deer's nose. His eyesight is as good at picking up movement as any critter out there- stationary objects they have trouble with, but they're not stupid and if you're within 50 yards and standing out in the open, you're going to get picked off.
You need to learn how to move fairly quietly- using the toe/heel step, raising your foot at the knee rather than dragging it through leaves like you'd walk down the street- if you put your toe down on a stick- you can pick it up and move it- if you place your heel down first you're committed to completing the step and cracking the branch.
Only pigs, deer, and people crack branches, and the hogs know that. Hogs have a higher order of brain than a deer- in my opinion- and they REMEMBER stuff.
These pigs are WILD pigs- not turned loose farm stock. There's no floppy ears on Hog Heaven....these pigs are wired for sound baby.
The only reason you kill turkeys is cause they don't use their nose- the only reason you can kill wild hogs is because they're gluttons.
Practice walking less, and standing still more. Listening, and using your ears and also your nose believe it or not, to smell where they've been recently will pay dividends.
Look at sign- pigs turn over and root stuff. Learn to tell the difference between yesterday's rooting and this morning's rooting- yesterday's dirt will have a 'crust' on it- this morning's will be fresh and likely still moist.
Listen for sound- hogs make tons of noise if they are moving. If they're laying up- use your optics to pick up dark spots in the distance around stumps, logs, trees, and in depressions taht might be bedded up hogs.
If you stick to the ridges (sometimes only 2 feet higher than the surrounding ground) you can use that height to see into the far distance to pick up pigs before they pick you up...and move quickly after checking the wind to get in front fo them...letting them work toward you....inside 50 yards is the toughest and you need a little luck and a steady breeze to help you close the book on them....but it can be done.
If a 55 year old overweight blind deaf guy like me can kill them I know YOU can!!!!! On Sunday's hunt I saw 20 different hogs- including 8 I could have shot- while four hunters had difficulty catching up to them all weekend.
Sometimes its a feast- sometimes its famine. The most successful hunters we've had have been guys who hunt Sika deer on the Maryland coast- where its coincidentally very thick and close quarter hunting- which it often is at our place.
Topic: I had a great time at HogHeaven (Read 895 times)
