Been feeding corn just down from the house - and I shot a few pigs since we moved in a couple of months ago, while I was sitting on the porch. Haven't seen a pig in daylight for a coon's age (might have something to do with the 104 degree temperatures and no rain in the Texas hill country for the last eternity). The trail camera shows a huge bunch (20+) about every 4 to 7 days - sometime between 9:30 pm and 4:30 am.

I put out a corn filled pvc pipe with holes as described in a post here a while back. I put an eye bolt in one end and chained it to a piece of re-bar. Trail camera pictures show the young ones lining up 4 across and pushing it in circles like a merry-go-round. I tried feeding corn soaked in beer and corn soaked in kool aid (in a hole in the ground) with mixed results.

I just haven't seen them with enough consistency to warrant sitting up and waiting on them (the nights I have sat up have been less than exciting to say the least). All I can figure is they travel over a large area and just make their way by me every few days. I know they know where the grub is - I have watched the herd break into a full blown sprint to the feeder from 100 yards - from upwind. It just seems like they would check it regularly once they find an easy meal.

Any suggestions on how to attract and keep them close long enough to thin the herd a bit? If it was just reducing the numbers, I know I could catch a few in traps - but where's the fun in that??

David

David, is there a water source nearby? Just curious. This heat will certainly limit their daytime movement if not curtail it completely.

Water? What's that???

Oh yeah, I remember now...

There were a few springs and creeks in the area but most have dried up lately. One of my neighbors had been nursing his pond along with an aerator trying to keep his catfish alive - but they all bit the dust (literally!) last week as the water level dropped too low to matter.

I've actually been thinking of burying a shallow water tank or creating a mudhole since there is plumbing run underground for a former corral just down the hill. Might be hard to explain to the missus as to why there's no water pressure for the morning shower!

Good hunting!

David

Water is likely the key to their infrequent stops. If that is indeed the case, nothing much is going to help short of you supplying some water for them.

One thing that may get them into a more regular pattern (though hogs are notorious for being unpatternable other than for a very short time) is Black Gold. Soak an old-style cloth feed sack along with a length of old rope in a quart of it. Wrap the sack around a tree trunk and secure it with the rope. They will find it and return time and again to rub against it. I'd also get another quart and pour it over a nearby stump. They'll rub until the bark is gone and hang around the area for lengthy periods, which should give you a better opportunity to put a few in the freezer .

Black Gold works that well? I have wante to try it, but now I might have to.

Marko-

I am generally hesitant and leery to try products like Black Gold, but at least over here, it worked like a charm. I haven't used it in quite a while now because this area doesn't need more hogs hanging around , but when I did use it, I was amazed at the results.

My primary reasoning then was to try and get them out in daylight, and it succeeded beyond my wildest expectations. They'd come out and rub several times a day.

When they go fully nocturnal and you want to hunt them, Black Gold is what I both turn to and recommend. Every time, it has made a notable difference.

Thanks, Bobby, I will pick some up for my next outing. I tried some scents this last time, but it was the cherry flavored KoolAid they responded to.

I too was going to suggest creating a water source -- they never stray too far.

Don't go to great lengths making a pig watering trough; they are notorious for demolishing anything mechanical. If you can set up a drip feed up off the ground (under a tree they can't knock over) you might create a real advantage during dry conditions. The real issue is they are so damn smart they'll detect any pattern in the hunting pressure right away and change their habits accordingly. Always good to set up multiple options to create a little confusion.

Where can you find this BLACK GOLD?

quote:

Originally posted by h kittle:
Where can you find this BLACK GOLD?

Right here: http://www.brutalboarcreations.com/black-gold.htm

Lot's of great suggestions.

Your biggest enemy in keeping pigs in the area on a regular basis(daily/nightly) is water.

Your second biggest enemy are the pigs themselves.

While some, perhaps many will dispute this, in my opinion, feral hogs are the most intelligent wild animal a person can hunt in Texas.

Shoot in to the herds a few times and they will change their habits completely, to the point of leaving an area, possibly for months, even though food and water are present.

You might be better off, especially if you are wanting to reduce numbers, by setting a trap with dieseled corn in it and trapping the things.

Pigs will eventually get trap shy, but it seems to rake longer than getting gun shy.

As far as water, go to Tractor Supply or some place like that and buy one of the 5 foot daimeter galvanized metal sheep tubs.

Then just get enough garden hose and fill it to over flowing every day/other day, and try to space your shooting efforts out to like once a week or once every two weeks.

As for the dieseled corn, I do not know what it is about the diesel but many folks swear by using it to get hogs into their traps.

As far as the Black Gold goes, it might be worth the effort, but you could probably achieve the same results, possibly cheaped by just using regular livestock oil that folks put on a similar rolled burlap rubbing station for cattle and such.

Best of Luck on your project.

I agree with the spacing out your shooting, but that is counter productive if you are trying to reduce numbers and limit pasture damage. I go to my feeder about once per week, and have killed one or more 5 of the last 6 weeks. Hogs still are coming regularly, but I have moved my game cam to my deer lease so I can't say about the numbers. Last time it was a big sow with her half-grown litter--7 total. I would have shot the sow but a friend had placed an order for a BBQ-sized piggie, so a 50-lb shoat bit the dust. I'll be back in my chair Sunday night, and I'd bet a beer that the pigs will be back too.

I am just going by what I have seen on places I have hunted and discussions I have had with other hunters.

A lot of it depends on the numbers of animals in any given area.

Even though much of Texas is heavily infested with the animals, some places still have fairly low numbers and if those animals begin receiving much pressure, especially from gun hunters, they learn to avoid the places where they are being shot at.

There are some variables with this situartion that needs to be looked at.

Acer stated that these animals, a group of about 20 or so, are showing up every 4 to 7 days.

Even though 20+ hogs seems like a lot, that many animals coming in at spaced intervals with no other pig activity apparent during those skips, leads me to believe that the hog population in that particular area is not very big.

From what I have seen from several folks game cams, from several different parts of the state if there are a large number of pigs in the area, there will be pictures on the game cams every night, no skips.

Maybe there will not be as many one night as there is another, but as long as there is feed on the ground or the possiblity of there being food a few hogs will visit every night.

Another thing, is no mention of the size of the property being hunted, that can make a difference especially, if the place is under 100 acres or so in size, it is easy to spook them off of a place with gunfire.

Another thing, has to deal with the possibility that the reason acer is seeing some activity right now, is that he may be the only one in that particular area feeding corn right now.

Some deer hunters are only feeding protein at this time, and depending on their set up, the pigs may not be able to get to that.

With the 4 to 7 day gap or however long it is between sightings, I think those animals have access to some other food sources and due to possibly lower overall numbers in the area, those animals are trveling a circuit of food locations, and depending on how large that circuit is or what some of the other food sources may be, that is another possibility for the gaps.

The one fact that does remain however, it that there is no effective way to control hog numbers to the point that they can be effectively managed as a game species.

In Texas, even though many folks including myself love to hunt feral hogs, deer is the number one cash wildlife crop in Texas, and feral hogs can and do affect deer numbers and movement.

Kinda goes against the grain of hunting but if you want to reduce hog number in a given area, one way is to spread cotton seed cake and/or the black asphalt clays. Hogs will eat both and get mighty sick. So sick they can die from it. But they go away and usually don't come back until a new generation needs to learn a lesson.

Back in the day we mixed small amounts of cotton seed with bulk deer feed to keep pigs out of trough feeders. Enough to train them to stay away but not enough to kill or chase them away. You would see little striped cantelopes rooting around in the troughs on occaision. That usually taught them a life-long lesson about the evils of deer feed.

That is the type quetion the individual landowner/hunter has to ask themself.

Is the price of having a hog to shoot every now and then, equal to the amoubnt of damage the critters can do, both to the land and the other species of wildlife using the property?