It's me or wild boars are difficult to hunt all around earth??
It's 4:30 pm and I can't move a finger after chasing these bloody creatures all the weekend in a sunflower plantation without success.

I also give them a try last wednesday with same results.

My success rate is aprox. 2 in 5 and most of the times sows and young males. Here the old padrillos (as we call the big males) speak several languages and seem to have certain kind of degree in mathematics

Just wondering how difficult it's outside there??

Thanx
LG

Hey Lorenzo,

Pigs are crafty wherever you go. There are areas where it is reasonable to expect 100% success on hunts and others where it is a hit and miss proposition.

I have a ranch where we have quite a few pigs, on and off throughout the year. I took one guy hunting who had never seen or shot at a pig. In one morning, he had no less than 4 chances at shooting a pig. Closest was at about 10 yards. Couldn't hit any of them.

A few months later you couldn't find a pig to save your life. They are migratory to a certain extent, in my area at least.

Lorenzo,
There is an excellent website for hog hunting, TexasBoars.com.
Most of the people on the board have had the most success hunting the hogs at night. If you look at the homepage of the site you'll see Kevin's LED - solar powered night lights that are set up over feeders and drippers.

This group falls into three catagories-
The hunters- gun & archery
The trappers- they set up all kinds & sizes of different traps with feeders & drippers.
The dog hunters- they run "bay" & "strike" dogs in packs to hunt down the hogs.
(note: a "BDO" outing is "Big Dog Outing" usually held every 9-12months- GREAT fun!- no guns or bows- just dog hunting)

The trappers & dog hunters usually keep their hogs alive in holding pens till they either sell them or slaughter them. Obviously the hunters clean & butcher for the freezer. Most all of these people fall into more than one of the groups.

They are a great bunch and an unbelievable wealth of knowledge. They make some of the best traps, drippers, night lights & pig pipe feeders you could image. Any info you need, just get on the hunting & trapping message board and ask away.

You wont believe all the information on hog hunting Kevin has on the front of the website.

Best of Luck...

Our best time to hunt pigs is at the end of the dry/start of the wet. Any water on the ground will bound to have few pigs on it. Usually the big boars are by themselves, but its not uncommon to come across a mob of 30 of all sexes and sizes. Then its a matter of having enough ammo! having said that....

I've been hunting a BIG boar on a property for about 2 years. Each time I've seen him he's out smarted me (not hard I suppose )The last time he ducked behind a bush and pushed a sow out. I shot the sow thinking it was the big fella, the boar then took off into the lond grass keeping the bush between me and him. Crafty bugger!

Bakes

I have seen it written where your average hog/pig/boar is more intelligent than a dog that's on the smart side. I believe it.

With that in mind, I think your success ratio is pretty good.

RSY

Hi Lorenso, My only experience with pigs was when I worked In Iran in the 70s. We mostly hunted them at night with spotlights. They were considered vermin in Iran and were not on the game species list. The first one I killed weighed 330 kilos. I was never able to top that in seven years of hunting. His tusks measure nine inches on the outside curve and the uppers are two and a half inches. The only other way we hunted them was by placing hunters in an area along a river where there was vegetation 100 to 200 meters wide in the desert, then making a drive to force the pigs to the hunters. There were times when we didn't see pigs for three or four hunts and then the next hunt we would kill five or six. I remember one hunt north of Tehran near the Caspian when three of us killed six, all over 200 kilos. I guess each habitat makes for a different method. I'm going to try pigs here in Texas with an S & W 44 mag with 8" bbl. Saludos,

I have read from folks that test this sort of thing (I'm sure they're on some kind of government grant) that a pig is just about the smartest of animals.

dem little piggies are Very Very Smart!
smarter than ANY dog I've ever worked with or hunted!

Lorenzo, I shoot anywhere from 20 to 50 pigs a year on average, and only one or two of those will be truly huge "padrillos, solengos, or big old boars...

We can usually shoot 3 to 6 pigs a day and that will include a couple of big bores, depending on the weather mostly....We charge $399. for two days and you have the well furnished lodge to yourself with a guide, do your own cooking and bring your grocerys.

Ray -- where is your pig-hunting lodge? Do you hunt year-round, or is it seasonal? I'm mostly interested in January-April -- looking for distractions when it's a little on the dark and wet side up here.

Lorenzo -- what are the opportunities for non-resident hunters in Uruguay? Not that I'm headed your way any time soon, but I read an article in a travel magazine on an interminable airline flight (it's a lonnng way from Alaska to Washington, D.C.) about your country. What an entrancing and beautiful land the writer portrayed! One of the places in the world I would like to visit sometime.

Oh, yes -- your question on your other post about .444's. I have two .444's, one Winchester 94 and one Marlin. They are both accurate and powerful. I've never killed a pig with one (or with anything else), but I will certainly consider one of the .444's as a top choice when I do go after the big swine.

Thanks in advance for the info.

Muledeer,
Thanks for your kind words about my country, yes indeed is a very nice piece of land to live on.
No problem for a foreign hunter, just drop me a line if you are interested.
I am in love with my new rifle, that 444 looks great!! I am sure it will do great in the bush.
Hope you shoot something soon with yours.
Any reccomended load???
LG