What is a hogs reaction to sounds (unattural sounds like me tromping thru the woods)?



How is their vision?



What is their range (day/week, whatever)?



Yes I am trying to "stalk them up".



Looks like there is at least two different groupings. A single big black critter with tushes and possibly a small group!



Corn with strawberry Jello is out there, no takers yet. Too cool to sour up good even with yeast added!



These are true feral hogs, no feeders, no feed stations. They are "woods roamin" feral hogs.



LouisB



Good web sites???????

Hogs have very good hearing and will vacate the area in a hurry if they hear you coming and associate it with human noises. Any strange noises will often lead to their flight. However, they make a lot of noise themselves and can be stalked quite closely if you can see what they are doing so as to time your movements.

Their vision is poor, but not as poor as some would have you think. They can definitely see movement and recognize shapes that don't "belong" at considerable distances, as I can attest to from personal experience. However, their nose is their first line of defense, they use it just like a birddog uses his and will even kind of come to "attention" and stick their snout up in the air to get a better whiff.

Range is hard to call, it depends on food availability and hunting pressure. I've "heard" and read that they can go as much as 15 miles for food and return, but I rather doubt it. They might move that far, but they'd stay in that area IMO. Hogs are usually either sleeping, eating, or moving. If I had to say in my area, I'd say the hogs stay within a 2 or 3 mile radius unless pushed by dogs or food supply. The saying around here is that a hog has no home, he's home where ever he is, however, they do have preferred resting areas and will repeatedly return to that general area unless pushed out of it by food or hunting pressure. Cane brakes or other thick stuff along a river are a good example.

The sounder's sows will run the boars off when they get larger (they have a tendency to eat the piglets, the mamas take exception to that), so you will often see a couple of young boars traveling together, possibly brothers. Older boars are mostly solitary unless breeding. They're the big old boy, trophy types. Groups will almost always be sows, piglets, and younger boars.

If they are not finding your corn, jello or not, you likely don't have it in a place they frequent. They WILL find it if they travel the area. If they are definitely in the area, try stringing some corn out in long thin trails running 50 to 100 yards across their travel lanes from you main bait spot.

Until you locate them more closely, look for their (often) well defined trails and stake them out starting in the late afternoon, especially if the trail is leading to a food source, like an old corn field or similar. Hog hunting synopsis #2.

The pig under my name was shot AFTER Gary and I got off the Quad, Gary and a dog walked down to the water to give the dog a drink all the while we were talking loudly. It was still asleep! We've walked up to alot of pigs and none were the wiser.

Thier range depends on if its a big boar or not or if there is lots of food and water around. Vision is week but smell is very good.

Bakes:

You're right about hogs sleeping hard, when they're asleep, they are really asleep, and can be approached easily if you know about where they are. But when they're awake, they're use their hearing and will leave in a hurry if they sense a threat. At least that has been my experience with hogs in the US, those Aussie hogs may be getting too much Foster's.

Oh great!
Tonight the black and reddish brown hogs I have been looking for were in a pasture about 1.5 miles from the house. I knew the colors of the from the bristles recovered from one of the fences they have been going under.

Boy the black one is a pretty good sized PIG.

LouisB

TC:

Bait them.....corn. If you're there every day, you don't need a feeder, just spread some out. Feeders do make it easier tho. Of course, I'm assuming baiting for hogs is legal in your state.

peanuts.. peanut butter... stinky cheese....

If you are stalking them, move SLOW.. relly SLOW... look for logs with a pointy end... if they are sleeping, it'll look just like a log, if the are laying down and awake... you'll see an Ear flag up... and if you see that, you better be ready to shoot. As one poster said, shoot him in the ear... and shot him again, to make sure he heard you.

BIG boars are almost always alone, they are king of the jungle... they have nothing to worry about except humans, guns, and cars.... and will eat anything...

if there's a running herd, like as not it's headed by a couple big sows, with some intermediate boars running... you can always tell the boars (not looking below) as they'll be taller and shorter (length) than the sows....

texas heart shots are common for stalkers...

they'll generally RUN 50-120 yards, stop, turn and look.... I've taken several when the spooked, and waited until they turned and looked at me.... a 376, 458 500, 577 at the head/side of head, aimed for the hams, will just drop them... even if you hit low, keep your eyes on where he goes... it wont be far, but those tough buggers will travel between 30 and 150 yards.... give em a minute to exsanuinate.

jeffe