Whoa! Best Hog Hunting Tips!

I have hunted traditional game all my adult life. Traditional game such as deer hunting, Elk hunting you get the picture. But I thought I would walk on the cutting edge and try my hand at hog hunting. Hogs are becoming very popular these days to hunt. I want to share with you some sure fire hog hunting tips that will make your hog hunting trip a major success.

1) Locate wet areas

That’s right if you locate wet areas like water and areas covered in wet mud you will find your pork. Hogs have no sweat glands so they need to cool off in wet mud or areas that contain water. They will roll in the mud to cool off and to keep pesky insects away. When you come to muddy slicks give them the nose test, smell for manure or urine. You smell either scent you have found the hog’s wallow.

2) Tracking the Bacon​

You need to know how to track hogs to be able to kill them. They are a good-eating meat. Or if you are hunting to diminish the hog population this is a good reason to hunt too. Start by adjusting your hunting trips to nighttime. Hogs have adjusted to the traditional hunter’s methods of hunting by day light. They will now feed through most of the night.

Rooting tracks are a sure sign the hog has been in the area. Hogs use their powerful snouts to uproot vegetation, fine food and dirt (for worms) looking for food. They will uproot wood to in the search for termites. You will find hog hoof prints in the mud along the trail you are hunting. Look for tracks that look like deer tracks but they are wider and rounder.

3) Food that Hogs love to Consume​

Hogs eat a wide variety of foods. Termites and earthworms are common food sources for them. So when you go hunting for hogs you will find them in a variety of habitat where these foods will be found. Look in low lying wooded areas that have a healthy portion of wood undergrowth. Hogs like to travel in these areas looking for termites and other insects. Look in melon patches because melons are one of the hog’s favorite foods. They will eat the young of larger mammals; they will also consume the eggs of reptiles and ground –nesting birds Hogs will also eat the young of reptiles. So look for these indicators as well.

4) Bow Hunting for Hogs

I found you cannot use a light arrow when hunting hogs. If you do the light arrows will not penetrate the skin of this animal. It’s imperative you hunt hogs with heavier arrows. You will not have a lot of chances to shoot a hog because they have small kill zones on their bodies. Their skins are very tough to penetrate. The older the hogs get the tougher their skins become.

I shot a hog a long time ago and I made a very surprising discovery. There was half and arrow and an entire mechanical broad head blade in its body. This is why you need a strong arrow with a heavy blade attached to it, because hog’s are very hard to bring down. You really need to shoot accurately there is not a lot of room for error when you are trying to shoot a running hog.

5) Hog Hunting Using a Rifle​

You need to add a light to your rifle for starters. Remember I said before you will do your hunting in the evenings. You also need a rifle that will house a bullet strong enough to kill the hog on the first shot. I found using traditional rifles with standard bullets weren’t enough to stop the hog.

I used my AR-15 with these types of rounds: 223/5.56, 300 Blackout, .458 SOCOM, 6.5 Grendel, and 6.8 SPC II. All these rounds will effectively stop the hog but I found the 223/5.56 bullet was the best bet to kill the hog with the first shot. You have to remember that hogs can weigh over 200 pounds. You need a bullet powerful enough to bring these imposing animals down.

Ideally, you will want to shoot the hog either between the shoulders or break its shoulder to stop it. Make your shot count because a lot of times the hog will be running.

6) Hog Bait will bring the Pig In​

You can put some corn in a feeder and place it near the hog gathering place and you can hope it will attract hogs to the feeder. But I know a better way to attract a hog so you can kill it. Make yourself a hog bait. Hogs, if they smell food will just think its food and likely won’t spend a lot of time investigating the feeder.

Get yourself a five pound bucket and fill it with 15-20 pounds of corn. Next, mix in yeast and fruit drink or Kool-aid mix. Let it sit in your garage for 3-5 days and your food bait is ready to go. Hogs will stay longer around your hog bait because they love sweet smelling scents.​

7) Simple Clothing for Hog Hunting

Hogs have poor eyesight. So you really don’t have to overdress when you go wild hog hunting. You do want to be sure you don’t move quickly because they will see rapid movement. I usually wear insulated or non-insulated boots. It just depends on the weather conditions. But I like to make sure my boots are snake/water proof.

You only need to wear a simple baseball cap nothing elaborate. You want to wear brush pants but definitely camouflage colored pants. You can wear gloves insulated or uninsulated depending on weather conditions. You can wear an orange pullover jacket. You need to wear long underwear for the cold nights.

​8) Consider the Hog’s senses when You Hunt

Hogs can see human figures 100 yards away but their eyesight is still considered poor. You need to be aware they have very keen smelling and hearing senses. So you always need to hunt down wind of them because otherwise they will smell you for sure.

You should remember that when it is moist outside that hog’s sense of smell is even sharper. This is because they have increased moisture inside their nostrils. Also, you must be very still when hunting hogs because their sense of hearing is so acute. I have another tip for you. Don’t ever set a trap for hogs because they will smell a human scent for days. They won’t come near the traps.

9) The art of Hog Calling

I’ve found the most effective way to call hogs (especially female hogs) is to make a sound of distressed squeals like baby pigs make. The most sensitive time to call the mother pig is when her babies are in tow. She will respond to a dire baby squeal call in record time. The best timeframe for this is late winter to the middle of spring. Mother pigs are very vulnerable to these types of sounds.

You can really work sows and boars into a frenzy with distress calls. Generally pigs will most likely respond to distress calls from other pigs. You need to buy an electronic caller full of distress calls. The electronic caller will keep right on running while you prepare your gun for the kill.

Let’s Call it Quits

Did you find this article on hog hunting tips enjoyable? I hope you did. I wrote this so you will apply these tips on your next hog hunting trip. These tips are truly useful and they have done wonders for me on my hog hunting expeditions.

I have never failed to bring home a wild pig when I used these valuable hunting tips. So keep these tips in mind the next time you go hunting and you will bring a hog home for dinner.If you have enjoyed reading this article please leave a comment or two. Go ahead and share it with your fellow hog hunters.