What Got You Into Hog Hunting?

bfriendly

Bigfoot friendly
Growing up my parents never hunted, even though it seemed all my uncles on both sides did…….my mom did take me fishing. But lucky for me, A neighbor kid I went to high school with, lived with his mom and step dad. He had guns and a pit/cur dog named spike……spike was a bad dude and a sweetheart all in one. My friend Clint took me with him and Spike, when he started driving and got his first truck…….it was a gold freshly painted ‘63 Chevy with 3 on the tree.
First time I went we walked for miles and nothing til on the way back. We heard spike barking and Clint said “he’s got one!” We ran to him and in a small clearing, Spike was latched on a big ole boar. Clint raised the .22 lr he had and put one in the pigs forehead…..dropped that pig in its tracks! I hope I never forget that day as it had an enormous impact on my life. I have a phot of that pig in the back of the truck somewhere I need to find it.
 

dfurdennis

Senior Member
Went on a spot and stalk hunt with some buddies on a wma during a small game hunt. A group was flushed and one big male came my direction. He got within 10 yards before I saw him and there I was with a 12 ga with some bird shot. Clearly I did not know what I was doing, but shot it pretty much point blank in the face and dropped him. First hog 165 pounder close range with a shot gun, been hooked ever since!
 

georgia_home

Senior Member
When we were starting out on our property in OGL, I was doing a scouting walk. unarmed. Pre season.

the creekbed was dry. near a hair pin bend, i jumped down in and started walking. Came around the turn and there were maybe a dozen hogs. 2’that looked like bigger females and the rest little piglets.

saw deer, turkey, and some other things too.

on the first hunt, with muzzleloader they day before rifle opened, I was walking the edge of the swamp and had 2 or 3 100#’s. Didn’t shoot, not wanting to scare the deer for the opening morning.

a few weeks later, on the marsh edge, the first hog can out and I dropped it. Even liked it better than deer meat. I was hooked. My hunting partner at that time was hooked too.

and to cement things, the first time I got into a group of them and dropped several in a matter of seconds, that was the capstone. hooked ever since.
 

Ihunt

Senior Member
Long story. Here it goes.

While in the Air Force in 1988, a military buddy got excited and wanted to go kill a hog. Was going to book a hunt somewhere and I said, why pay? I have friends that run them with dogs and tie them up. Being from Missouri, he gave me the stank eye, called bull baloney, and said take me. I made the call and took him where we caught 2. A small one about 40-50lbs and a monster 270lber with huge cutters. He got it mounted. From that point on I was hooked.

I got out of the AF in 1991 and started getting a few dogs of my own. Work took me to Atlanta in 95 and I didn’t make it back to middle Ga. until 2000. I promptly got me some dogs and wound up with some very good ones.

My son was born in 2005 and trying to balance work, family life, and dogs became too much. I also got a little burned out on the dogging so I sold them and all of the gear. The problem was the farmers kept calling and many had become friends so I felt like I was letting them down.

Rod Pinkston had just started JAGER PRO a couple of years earlier so I contacted him about night vision scopes. He was very helpful, sold me a bunch of equipment, and helped me get started with shooting hogs at night with new farmers as well as my old ones.

I did that for about 10 years and before it ended I was running one of the JAGER traps also.

Last year, 2020, at the end of February I gave it all up. At 51, I was getting too old to work all week then stay up all weekend shooting hogs. On top of that, my son went into high school and is very active in his ROTC Raiders which is a competition physical fitness competition against other ROTC teams.

I sold all of the gear except my trunk gun safe and now get to sleep all night on the weekends. Very seldom do I miss it. It was a fun ride that off and on lasted over 30 years. Maybe one day in the future…….
 

thumper523

Senior Member
My buddies and I would go on parent/child hunts to various WMA's and we went to River Bend outside of Dublin once and saw hogs. Came back in Feb during small game and after a few hit and misses we finally figured it out. I like the meat better than venison. Joined a club in Twiggs County and started wearing them out. I killed 2 hogs over 300 lbs.
 

HogKillaDNR

Senior Member
Long story. Here it goes.

While in the Air Force in 1988, a military buddy got excited and wanted to go kill a hog. Was going to book a hunt somewhere and I said, why pay? I have friends that run them with dogs and tie them up. Being from Missouri, he gave me the stank eye, called bull baloney, and said take me. I made the call and took him where we caught 2. A small one about 40-50lbs and a monster 270lber with huge cutters. He got it mounted. From that point on I was hooked.

I got out of the AF in 1991 and started getting a few dogs of my own. Work took me to Atlanta in 95 and I didn’t make it back to middle Ga. until 2000. I promptly got me some dogs and wound up with some very good ones.

My son was born in 2005 and trying to balance work, family life, and dogs became too much. I also got a little burned out on the dogging so I sold them and all of the gear. The problem was the farmers kept calling and many had become friends so I felt like I was letting them down.

Rod Pinkston had just started JAGER PRO a couple of years earlier so I contacted him about night vision scopes. He was very helpful, sold me a bunch of equipment, and helped me get started with shooting hogs at night with new farmers as well as my old ones.

I did that for about 10 years and before it ended I was running one of the JAGER traps also.

Last year, 2020, at the end of February I gave it all up. At 51, I was getting too old to work all week then stay up all weekend shooting hogs. On top of that, my son went into high school and is very active in his ROTC Raiders which is a competition physical fitness competition against other ROTC teams.

I sold all of the gear except my trunk gun safe and now get to sleep all night on the weekends. Very seldom do I miss it. It was a fun ride that off and on lasted over 30 years. Maybe one day in the future…….

That's a very awesome story and thank you for your service.
 
I walked outside the house one afternoon and caught a bunch of the bastids eatin' my pecans-in broad daylight! Then a cousin's husband got me into it hardcore a couple months later. Crawford county back then was flat 'eat up' with them! This was just about the time DNR began allowing them to be hunted over bait and using lights. But it seemed the more we killed the more they bred. It got so bad in the bottom below my house you could not walk around without stepping in pig poop!
We tried the corral trick-it worked one time then the rest got wise to it. Tried smaller traps-caught a few once or twice then same result. I stupidly got down out of my stand one night and went walking down a trail. I don't know what I was thinking but when what seemed like a whole herd went running past about 20 feet behind me, I quickly thought different! Scared the bejeezus out of me! I then realized I needed something more than a bolt-action .308 and went out the next day and bought me an AR-10.
Cuz's hubby had access to nearly 1000 acres of old farm and pasture land and we still whacked a couple most every night we tried. It then got to where you could not give one away and after I found that weird parasite in one, I quit eating them. Finally, we heard that a local commercial farmer got so fed up with his crops being destroyed he put out LOTS of poison and snares. Suddenly, within a couple weeks, all the hogs were gone. You might see one every so often but it was nothing like it had been. Things slowed way down and got boring. I got married and cuz's hubby took up drinking again and they split up. Dunno where either of them are now. I moved away, got old and my night vision is now gone. But I enjoyed the **** out of it and got some great memories from it. Don't wait if you wanna try it-you'll get old too if ya live long enough and then you'll wish you had.
 

HogKillaDNR

Senior Member
I walked outside the house one afternoon and caught a bunch of the bastids eatin' my pecans-in broad daylight! Then a cousin's husband got me into it hardcore a couple months later. Crawford county back then was flat 'eat up' with them! This was just about the time DNR began allowing them to be hunted over bait and using lights. But it seemed the more we killed the more they bred. It got so bad in the bottom below my house you could not walk around without stepping in pig poop!
We tried the corral trick-it worked one time then the rest got wise to it. Tried smaller traps-caught a few once or twice then same result. I stupidly got down out of my stand one night and went walking down a trail. I don't know what I was thinking but when what seemed like a whole herd went running past about 20 feet behind me, I quickly thought different! Scared the bejeezus out of me! I then realized I needed something more than a bolt-action .308 and went out the next day and bought me an AR-10.
Cuz's hubby had access to nearly 1000 acres of old farm and pasture land and we still whacked a couple most every night we tried. It then got to where you could not give one away and after I found that weird parasite in one, I quit eating them. Finally, we heard that a local commercial farmer got so fed up with his crops being destroyed he put out LOTS of poison and snares. Suddenly, within a couple weeks, all the hogs were gone. You might see one every so often but it was nothing like it had been. Things slowed way down and got boring. I got married and cuz's hubby took up drinking again and they split up. Dunno where either of them are now. I moved away, got old and my night vision is now gone. But I enjoyed the **** out of it and got some great memories from it. Don't wait if you wanna try it-you'll get old too if ya live long enough and then you'll wish you had.

I've been trying during the morning and evenings. Hopefully I'll get one soon and didn't realize it was this difficult, on public federal land.
 

Big7

The Oracle
I try my darned best to kill every feral pig I see.
They ravage the ecosystem causing major damage to native animals a destroy untold $$$ in crops.
That's what got me into killing pigs.

Same for flatheads and striper, no mater how big or small I don't put them back. Eat the eating size, feed the small ones to the turtles. ?
 
I've been trying during the morning and evenings. Hopefully I'll get one soon and didn't realize it was this difficult, on public federal land.

Being on public land they have most likely been shot at enough to go strictly nocturnal. You may have to invest in a thermal or night vision set up.
Had I remained in central GA I would have gone that route but up here in the mountains I doubt I would use it enough to justify the cost.
 

HogKillaDNR

Senior Member
Is there even a season right now? I didn’t think you could hunt at all right now on public land.

We're able to hunt during the day on Public Land, in Alabama. Also, some federal property allows nighttime coon hunting with dogs.
 
Last time I checked(which was back in '05-'06) the DNR had lifted most all regs on feral hogs. No closed season, able to hunt over bait and at night using 12 volt lights (which we stretched just a wee a bit) it was pretty much open season 24/7/365. Now, we were never on public land, so we were able to night hunt a fair amount. One of the perks of being somewhat related to half the residents in the county helped in having access. We'd pick out a spot, rig the lights, dig a hole, put some bait in, cover it up, then sit in the old school bus camper or a ground blind, or even on the front porch (pecan trees surrounded my house) and wait for the lights to come on. It usually didn't take long for several hungry hogs-and hogs is always hungry-to show up. Pick out the biggest one and whack it. It was hard to double up as they tended to get gun shy real quick but the younger ones were still kinda dumb. Same thing with white light so we went to red and the green. It all worked rather well.
I really miss those days and nights...
 

Heath

Senior Member
Is there even a season right now? I didn’t think you could hunt at all right now on public land.

You can’t, there isn’t an open season for anything on public land during the months of June and July. I’ve hog hunted all my life. It’s amazing how many people there are that do not understand the law differences between public and private land. At least once a month someone asks me if I’ve caught any hogs, I say “it’s closed”. Then they inform me that there is no hog season. I use to explain it to people but now I just go on about my business. More people talk about hunting than actually hunt more than a handful of days a year.
 

ditchdoc24

Senior Member
Being on public land they have most likely been shot at enough to go strictly nocturnal. You may have to invest in a thermal or night vision set up.
Had I remained in central GA I would have gone that route but up here in the mountains I doubt I would use it enough to justify the cost.

This is what I ended up having to do. Thermal scopes and suppressors are the ticket for killing hogs at night in middle Ga. Only problem is they aren't cheap.
 

Stickemdeep

Senior Member
Got into killing pigs after dealing with the damage on our property, for years we kept them to the east and north of us but since making it onto our land its been game on. we run them in rzrs with a guy in the back and passenger side on a AR platform gunning and a driver. its a pretty deadly combo, run them like cattle and get them moving and in a herd then start at the front and rear of the group working to the center. best we did last year was 36 on a group but it is a never ending battle
 
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