Getting into hog hunting can be difficult as hogs are originally known to be tough to hunt down.
Is that all?
Well, there are ways to locate where even a wild hog is hiding, which could be simply following their tracks. The information in this post is concerned about all the information that has to do with how to get into hog hunting.
How to find wild hogs?
Finding wild hogs is not easy to achieve as they are tough and aggressive animals for hunters to catch, requiring precision. For this reason, there are several things to look out for when hunting a wild hog. This section covers that information for when you want to know how to hunt hogs.
Here is information on finding a wild hog:
Follow their tracks
Tracks show you where the hogs have been to and passed through before you arrived at the hunting scene. However, you also need to know how the tracks of a hog look for you to find it. The track prints of a wild hog take a shape that seems like it is squared. It is also shorter than that of a deer with a toe that seems blunt.
Watch out for their scats
The scats of a hog are also quite distinct for you to note if you search the tips for hog hunting. Scats in a wild hog do not usually have the ropy shape that you would find when tracking down predator cat-like lions and others in the category. However, with a wild hog, they take the shape of the scat you may find on a dog.
Identify the wallows
Heat is one thing that wild hogs do not like to deal with, so they always find a way to cool their temperature when it gets too hot.
During the summer, the heat gets too much for the hogs to handle, so they always look for any wet area to get them caked in mud. This would save them from the heat and protect them from the insects that may be biting them. They also chose clay because they are harder to wash off than sand.
Look out for rubs
When you find muds around an area, it means that hogs are around, which could help hunt them down. Apart from the ground being muddied, if you find trees, logs, fence rails, or even telephone poles with muds, then check out the area. The wild hogs would have left behind these rubs. When looking for rubs, ensure that the ones with a slay stain are highly preferable by the hogs as they stay longer to their bodies.
Check around rooting
Hogs are known to rip the ground to shreds while they get along with their activities. While ripping the ground, the wild hogs always search for any grub, acorn, worm, or even tender roots that they could easily turn up in the dirt.
Apart from helping you determine where the wild hogs have been late, the rooting would help you determine how old the hog is. With this, you can determine how strong and aggressive the wild hog would be when you catch up with it.
However, the hogs are known to roam to areas that are far while they are feeding. So, for you to find them fast enough, ensure that you do not spend too much time surveying a feeding area while you are out hunting.
Find their beds
When wild hogs want to rest, they always dig up shallow beds for themselves in the wild. The beds are always thick enough, and the cover of the bed is usually nasty. For you to locate this, you must check around water sources as it provides a cooler temperature for the hog. They could also be in open wood areas as well.
However, check out for places with a tunnel-like trail as an opening in all these areas. With this, all you would need to do is set a downward ambush. Note, you can also stake out the beds while they are out to set your traps for when they come back to hide. This would give you enough time to figure out the right places to set your aim and take your shots at the hog.
Where to shoot a hog?
Killing a wild hog does not take so much to do, as you can either make use of a hunting gun or a well-positioned arrow. Since you do not want to have even a marginal miss, then you need to know where to shoot the hog you are hunting.
The anatomy of the hog is quite different from that of a deer which most hunters are already used to. So, using the same hunting tips would make it hard to achieve a successful hit while trying to get the hogs. When you aim for the shoulder of a typical whitetail, then you would have a paunch hit.
However, in the case of a wild hog, the shots must be at a close range to provide maximum results. Several of the vital parts in the hog is placed to rest between the shoulders. All of this is done irrespective of the fact that the lungs of the hog extend just behind the crease of the shoulder.
Once you know where to shoot in the hog while hunting, you need to know how to make the right shot, they would be covered in the next section.
How to get the right shot when hog hunting
After finding the wild hog, it is not hard to kill the hog when you have the right technique. Your arrow needs to be well placed for the hit to do the right job and much preferable to having to recover from a miss. In this section are tips that would you in shooting a hog at the right spot.
Check them out below:
- Find the angle: Before you set the arrow, wait for the hog to get at least a quarter away from your ambush. The great shot angle for several shot angles for different whitetail hunters that use a bow is an immediate necessity when dealing with hogs. However, the angle does not have to be exact, and it just needs to be one step or two beyond the broadside.
- Go for the far side: It is important to get to set your aim at the opposite angle. When your broadhead exits, it is better that you get through the front area, which should be less than two inches or from the far shoulder. If the shot is behind it, you will most likely find yourself in the guts. When your shot hits the far shoulder, then you most likely have a double-lung shot, and this happens even if the arrow doesn’t go through.
- Hold it low: The heart of the hog is found close to the animal’s chest area and in tune with the bend of the elbow. What this does is to create a clean miss even when you miss low. However, if the miss is a little high in position, you would get the lung, which helps you get the hog.
Things to Consider When Hog Hunting
Just as can be seen when hunting down deer, it is highly effective to go on a hunt when it hits either first or last light. This is because they always love to travel in small groups and then leave several signs behind. Both of the animals are always interested in getting covered and even though the wild hog finds it okay to use open agricultural fields as well. Due to these habits, there are hog hunting basics that you should take note of. They include hunting methods with optimum results.
Spot and Stalk
Wild hogs originally come with a remarkable sense of smell and hearing, yet their sight range is poor. For this reason alone, it is usually the best option to stalk the hogs after they have been spotted. However, always monitor them from a distance on the road or on a ridge top not to scare them away.
Furthermore, the hogs can be easily be found on ranchland or an open agricultural country. But for this method to be effective, you would be needed to use a binocular or a windshield to monitor the hog until you are set to shoot.
With this, monitor the water sources that the hogs visit more frequently by day time, which would determine your move. Ensure that you go for the wild hogs before heading for the thick country when the sun gets high.
Try Stand Hunting techniques
Being a stand hunter is not usually the right choice for hunting down wild hogs, which is because of how inclined the hog is to wander. Despite this, the deer climber used in stand hunting is effective when dealing with wild hogs.
You can pull out the wild hogs into the open with the help of bait placed on the deer climbers. The baits could be timed corn as it comes to be accepted and effective in several regions when hunting wild hogs.
Also, ensure that you find all the wet areas as the pigs are always in search of cooler temperatures due to their lack of sweat glands. So, when it begins to get hotter, you as a hunter would need to check out the wallows that are around the hunting areas. The wild hogs would have their hides coated in mud to get rid of insects and keep cool.
Check for slicks that are muddy, and then you could run a sniff test. One way to sniff out if a wild hog has been in the wallow is by smelling their urine and dump that may have been mixed in the wallow. This is one of the easiest ways for you to locate the wallows that the hogs recently visited.
As has been highlighted earlier, wild hogs have a way of rubbing their muddied bodies against frames and then leave a track behind. So, check out for trees, logs, fence rails, and even rocks with little mud. The hogs always try to root the ground for food, and this is also a way to know how recently the hog passes an area.
Use Dogs to Hunt
When hunting for wild hogs, dogs could come in handy as well. However, this would require that you get yourself a guide. You also have to take caution as there are loose restrictions on hog hunting in different locations. This caution has led to some fringe techniques that go from killing them with a handheld knife to having to spear the animal after your dog pack has bayed them.
In this case, you would have to discuss with your outfitter before you decide to hunt the wild hogs with dogs. This would help you hunt the wild hogs without dealing with any legal problems.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How to get into night hog hunting?
If you want to go hog hunting during the night hours, then it would require different tactics than is used when hunting in the daytime. So, for a night hog hunting trip, you would require these five things:
- Reliable firearm: This is a necessary part of getting the wild hogs on a night hunt. With a firearm that is reliable enough, then you would have the right amount of confidence to take on an animal that is as aggressive as a wild hog. Several options are designed to be effective for hog hunting, like the AR-15 and AR-10 platforms.
- Hunting Lights: The hunting lights assist for you to see the wild hogs at night. This is necessary as they are dark-colored and could become harder to see in the dark. There are several good lights that can help in hunting hogs. They could be weapon-mounted lights, handheld lights, headlamp lights, etc. However, it is better to get green lights as they provide better contrast as a rule of thumb.
- Thermal vision equipment: This is similar to the hunting line, but it offers a different thing entirely. What this does is create an avenue for you to scan and spot the game before taking a shot with your gun. They are also a piece of sizeable equipment that you can carry around, and even with if as a beginner, this would still help you produce remarkable results. However, there are two types of thermal vision equipment on the market for hunting. There is the thermal riflescope and the thermal monocular.
- Dark-colored clothes: These kinds of clothes are crucial in hunting at night as they serve as a way of concealing yourself from the wild hog. However, if you get to make use of dark-colored camo to make the blend perfect.
- Set up a strategy: You would need a plan of you are going to hunt at night as hogs are tough to get past. This would enable you to see them on time and ensure that your shots are accurate at all times.
So, if you want to go hog hunting at night, these tips would help make that easier.
When are hogs most active?
Hogs are usually active at certain times of the year, day, and even when the temperature gets to a certain level. For this reason, you must go hunting during deer season, as they are the times that the hogs are majorly active. This is important as hogs always increase their activities in search of food around December to February.
For the time of day, they are usually more active by the first light (i.e., early morning) or last light (i.e., late evening). However, for the winter, they would be active even in the middle of the day as they would want to search for food.
For the temperature, when the weather gets cooler than usual, the wild hog would want to go longer and farther in search of food. A freezing temperature gets them in need of more energy, and then whenever it gets cold, they go out hunting. During this prime time, it becomes effective to go out in search of wild hogs. So if you need a reason for a hog hunting trip, their activity would help that decision.
Summary
If you want to go hog hunting, it will help you make a better decision. These spans from where you would find them to the tips that would help determine how to take a shot. So, for how to get into hog hunting, then this post has all of that covered.
