Pig Drives?

Curtis

Senior Member
Over the past 5 years we have grown from zero hogs to taking about 5 - 7 a year off of our lease. We routinely see groups of 10 - 20 on camera. They will disappear for weeks at time, of course, but are becoming much more common lately.

We have about 900 acres with a substantial swamp (the pigs bedroom). Seven of us are planning a pig drive tomorrow. First time for us trying this. Will see how we do.

Anyone else have much luck with a multi-hunter slow stalk, drive for pigs on their property? I tried it a time or two on Ft. Stewart and we never had any luck. Think we actually hurt our chances by having too many people in same woods at same time.
 

antharper

“Well Rounded Outdoorsman MOD “
Staff member
Never done it personally but don’t see why it want work , good luck !
 

Hillbilly stalker

Senior Member
There is a certain WMA area that I hunt in SC for hogs. Every year near the first of the season, there are 2 van loads of Asians that come to hunt. They drop off around 12 guys on one end and around 12 on the other. They still hunt towards each and they slaughter the hogs. They get about 30 yards apart and stay pretty much in line pushing/ driving the hogs. They don’t get them all but they sure nuff work on them. This WMA is around 2700 acres and is long and mostly narrow. It’s bordered by a river on one side and a large creek on the other and makes it a topographical advantage for the men. Them Asians get after a hog....their like a beagle on a rabbit...they can find them and stay with them. Me and my buddies sometimes hunt together in a line about 30 yards apart and I will tell you a hog will hold his spot in good cover and let y’all walk past him on both sides....then bust out the back. They have nerve and are a lot smarter than a deer in my book. We kill several ourselves using this method. Mandatory blaze orange for us. Shots are fast and close like jumping a rabbit. Sometimes you gotta break them down before you can kill them. Good luck.?
 

sleepr71

Senior Member
They used to do the same thing on BeaverDam WMA. Once they all get in place on both ends of the drive… The drivers start walking towards The shooters...banging on pots and pans…?. It was awesome if you were sitting out there nice and quiet deer hunting…
 

Kestas69

Senior Member
Position shooters in a line. Preferably some type open line like gas/power line or road...Use topographic features like pinch points... to your advantage. Every shooter needs to know where his neighbors positioned and designated shooting directions. Drivers needs to be spaced out so they can see each over, hold the line, move fast and be as loud as they can be. They need to check every blow down tree, brush pile or anything suspicious for hiding hogs. Like Hillbilly said ” I will tell you a hog will hold his spot in good cover and let y’all walk past him on both sides....then bust out the back. They have nerve and are a lot smarter than a deer ”.
I witnessed this to many times on drive hunts in Europe.
 

Hillbilly stalker

Senior Member
We always tippi toe , try to be quiet. Hogs go from 0-60 mph in about 3 seconds.:censored:
 

georgia_home

Senior Member
The trick is knowing or anticipating how they’ll break.

also, make sure everyone knows the rules and shooting lanes. Drives require good coordination for safety.
 

Curtis

Senior Member
Thanks for all the tips and advice. We have all been in same club for over 20 years and several of us are LEOs so some pretty level heads. That being said we will go over some ground rules as per these suggestions. No pig is worth a careless shot.
 

bany

Senior Member
There is a bit of science involved with a successful drive. I’m a bit jealous, y’all should have a blast!
 
Exact same thing on the property I hunt. Not a drop of hog sign or pics to hogs everywhere in 2yrs. To me they are smarter than a deer also. Aside from hunting feeders, we’ve had some success with multiple hunters still hunting a bedding area from opposite ends. Like others have said, it’s tough shooting once they start running. My gun of choice for this is a shotgun w buckshot, but the areas we’re doing this in are very thick and the shots are 30 or less. Good luck.
 

hambone76

Senior Member
We always tippi toe , try to be quiet. Hogs go from 0-60 mph in about 3 seconds.:censored:
Yep. Keep the wind in your face, don’t make any human-sounding noises and you’ll literally step on their tails. I’ve gotten real close to several in the cane thickets or saw palmettos.
 

Curtis

Senior Member
Well we did 4 different drives on Saturday. And we learned some valuable lessons though we did not come home with pork.
We saw nothing in the swamp areas. All fresh sign and pigs were seen in the uplands and in the thick stuff.
The most action was seen on the first drive. We have a bedding area that is about 150 yards long by 200 yards wide, bordered to the north by open cotton fields and to the south by a field road and then another big block of pines with thick understory. Three "beaters" went in from the north and east while another 3 of us were stationed to the south, south east, and east. I was the south shooter and was facing east along the field road (12 - 15 feet wide). Once they were pushed we could hear them moving, but I did not want to get in front of them as that would have had me firing in the general direction of the beaters, and then all of a sudden they broke across the road. A group of about 15 black pigs in the 20lb to 180lb range. They were flat out running in groups of 1 to 3 pigs about a second or two apart. After the first bunch went through, a second group of about 6 went through all black and one blonde. Same deal, running flat out, just a little bit further up the road.
I tried to acquire a target but by the time I was on one it was out of sight. Just started unloading as best I could with my with my 30-30 Marlin lever gun. Six shots, no pigs. Must have grazed or hit one in the hams at it did a 360 spin but never left its feet.
Other drives pushed some deer and one other pig.

Lessons learned:
Guns - Yeah, a scoped 30-30 was not the best choice. We all had rifles or pistols. Shotguns with buckshot as Matt Lemmon mentioned above would have been the way to go. Next time.
Hunters - we split ourselves evenly between hunters and beaters. I think a couple of extra hunters would have been better.
Beaters- First thing is, we never said how the beaters should move, other than which direction. They were shouting and making racket. I think it would have been better for them to have eased in to the area and maybe the pigs would not have been so alarmed (until shooting starts!) and they may have even been able to creep up on them. Second thing is the ratio, I don't think you need that many beaters. We were working areas that were never more than 800 yards apart from the start to the finish.
Pigs - They came back! We flushed the pigs from the bedding area at 1pm. I went back the next morning at 7am and there was fresh rooting sign nearby and I posted up in a tree stand just of their bedding area. They were back in there. I heard some grunting a squealing for close to 2 hours. I kept waiting for one to show itself, but no luck.

We are going to try it again in couple of weeks. Before turkey season. it was fun and we will try it again.
 
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Hillbilly stalker

Senior Member
Pigs are really smart....you likely won’t run them out in the open like that again very many times.
 

Kestas69

Senior Member
Thanks for sharing results! I am missing this type of hunting. I think you did very well. You flushed the pigs. For up close shooting shotgun would work much better. Back in my drive hunting days if topographic features allowed us we where trying to duplicate this scenario. Never tried to flush the pigs without noise. Please share results if you try. 3A8B7F25-D841-40C8-BD68-97533E219A0C.jpeg
 

Hillbilly stalker

Senior Member
If you know the area well...what I would do is position a few shooters on well known escape trails, especially entering the nastiest areas of the swamps and thickets. Whoever is driving needs to have the wind to their back and use their scent to push the hogs. That way MAYBE you can slowly push them in the general direction of the shooters without scaring the bejesus out of them and have them running wide open like a scalded dog. I would have the drivers be quiet and just use their scent. Your gonna have to tinker with them, you will notice a pattern of escape.
 

sleepr71

Senior Member
Those Asians loved their SKS’s with iron sights. That,or a semi auto Shotgun with a tight patterning 00 Buck would be my choice ?
 

bfriendly

Bigfoot friendly
I’d like to participate.......have shotgun, will travel. Man this sounds like a fun day! Good luck next time!
 

georgia_home

Senior Member
I’d suggest watching some videos from Wild Boar Fever. I’d post a link, but the comments are a bit sporty.

they discuss drive shooting and display some serious shooting skills. Yeah it’s has some promo stuff, mostly aimpoint products, but the show is good.

the pigs learn that it’s best to cross open areas quickly, like roads and fire breaks. Anyway, take a gander If you have the time and inclination.
 
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