Any tips/recommendations on finding hogs would be much appreciated

Background:
-2 years ago we counted 40 or so hogs on the property with help of a small plane
-850 acres high fenced
-hogs don't come to water
-only seen them at blinds twice...once in morning after sun up and once 15 minutes after sun down.
-Ran into a few while spotlighting a few times

Nothing consistent AT ALL with these things....don't come to corn, don't come to water, no holes in perimeter fence

What else can we try?

Hog wild.

Or don't look for them. Thats when I find em. When I dont want too.

You have any creek beds or draws? If they aren't coming to the ponds, they might have some wallows somewhere else

Don't waste money on Hog Wild. You can do the same with a $.30 jello packet. Fill a 5-gal bucket with corn, several cups of diesel, a pocket of jello, and top it off with water. Stir it up, put a lid on it and let it sit for a couple weeks. Either put it in a trap or out in a field. If you put it in a field, throw another bad of corn out with it to keep the pigs occupied for a while. I've killed hundreds of pigs this way. Not only does it work great but it's as cheap as you can get.

Hire a helicopter to fly you around while you murder every pig that moves a muscle.

With the home-made concoction - do you just pour it on the ground? I have heard some dig a hole and kind of bury it?

Some dry Creek beds but no water anywhere else

Peanut butter.

Trapping is more effective.

Same question....How long will they come to this? Any amount of time it takes for them to typically find it?

Not intending to trap them....if I'm not using a trap peanut butter just on the ground really work?

Describe the property more as a previous post asked scout creeks or draws. Are there any heavy brush such as whitebrush thickets so dense that humans cannot get into them?

If you can daytime walk hunt in or near those thickest areas ... go slow, use the wind, and you will eventually hear them or even smell them because that is where they are spending their days.... mostly sleeping.

Game cameras could be called cheating but they will tell you everything you need to know.

Or you could use an old method... dig a small hole and put in some corn and cover with heavy rocks... bowling ball size at least if you have them. Check the hole daily and place at least four holes on your 850 acres. You said they aren't coming to corn but they will eventually turn over the rocks since they are the only animal that can do it except bears.

These holes, or game cameras will help you figure them out. You may not be able to pattern them perfectly but you can pattern them in a more general sense. The rock covered corn saves the corn for only the pigs and they do begin to respond. The one thing that makes them lazy is a bunch of deer feeders giving them all they want. Then forget bait and just go walk hunt.

For aerial looking use a good quality drone.

You will see trails and rooting damage.

My go to attractant is :

Grape Kool Aide poured over deer protein feed in a 5 gallon bucket.

Get your post hole diggers out and dig about 18" down.

Fill hole and wait.

They go nuts for the stuff.

I've tried all the concoctions listed and found the Kool Aide to be the most consistent.

Hogs do not pattern at all. The just move in and out of areas. You can't think of a hog as you would a deer.

What county are you in?

When I am doing a hog hunt cold, or trying to do a quick assessment of the hog issue in an area (typically what I am doing), peanut butter is what I use. If I want them to sit there awhile and work on it, I'll dig a hole and drop about a 1/3 of a jar in there. Or if I'm being lazy, I'll just lob ~6 spoonfuls around the area.

Keep in mind when it is hot (so not now), they have to go to water somewhere. They can't physically thermoregulate for heat.

step one: see if they'll come to a routine feed source. best bet is to set up a timed corn feeder. get them used to it.

step 2: after step one has worked, set up a trap around the feeder. leave it open for weeks. get them comfortable with it. monitor with game cams.

step 3: trap em and murder em

attractant works but it's really inconsistent. it's like fishing. if you really want to get rid of them, you have to trap. and use a big trap to try to get the whole sounder. it's really not as hard nor as expensive and you think.

Yes, some white brush thickets and lots of cactus where we cant/don't walk or drive through

In Atascosa county

Have atleast 6 feeders always going...they don't come to corn

that's strange. perhaps try throwing in a lot of grape koolaid powder into the corn next time you fill a feeder.

Aggie369 said:

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Yes, some white brush thickets and lots of cactus where we cant/don't walk or drive through

In Atascosa county

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Okay, that's it. Atascosa county is next to me in Medina. The whitebrush thickets are their favorite. Anywhere you could possibly break into those thickets you will find an unreal amount of pig sign.

Find a place downwind of those thickets and slowly, quietly walk the edge as best you can. You will hear them or smell them but you have to move slow because they are just laying in there and they will hear you. If you have more than one person, spread out to increase the chance of one person running pigs by the other. Be sure to have pre-determined your locations so you don't shoot toward each other.

Lots of folks here have far more experience at this than me so listen to them, but I've never had much luck getting pigs to come to bait. Almost all the ones I've killed were spotted while walking or driving around and shooting them. And the majority of those were during the day.

Wild Pigs are like politicians who "grew up poor". Once they get a taste, their greed consumes them... And greed is predictable and repeatable.

Whatever you do, don't do a live hunt thread for them on here. Those never go according to plan.

Shot these two yesterday. One at 5pm and one at 5:45.

Why not get some dogs?

It's high fenced. Nothing is leaving

Dogs didn't find them

Headed back out there!

I know about souring the corn for attracting hogs, but what does the diesel do? Wouldn't that poison the corn and anything that eats it?

You really just need a shot glass full of diesel on top of a half full 5 gallon bucket of corn, covered in water with kkoolaid added... To keep the deer off.

Won't hurt a thing

Best we've used is 5 gal bucket, 15lbs of corn, 6 pack of malt liquor, 1 packet of yeast, duct tape lid shut, set in sun, forget about it for a month, dig hole, open lid, dry heave for 2 mins, pour bucket in hole. We had hogs in 15 mins.

...sadly we didn't do this on this weekends trip.

this might be a dumb question, but if you only have 40 hogs on 850 acres of land - how much damage are they actually causing? or are you wanting to shoot them for fun/food?

I can tell you that 3 can completely root up an acre of golf course overnight.

I'd love to hear more about this peanut butter. My aunt used to work at a bar and my uncle would take all the beer that was not finished and put it in buckets. He would sour corn with some of it and the rest he would out in water troughs next to wear he would dump the corn. The pigs would eat the soured corn and then drink the old beer and then just lay on the ground "drunk", or so I was told as a kid

230Ag said:

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this might be a dumb question, but if you only have 40 hogs on 850 acres of land - how much damage are they actually causing? or are you wanting to shoot them for fun/food?

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A dozen hogs can make a pasture undriveable over night. And it's the fact that if he doesn't knock those 40 out they can easily be 150 by this time next year.

giddings_ag_06 said:

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230Ag said:

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this might be a dumb question, but if you only have 40 hogs on 850 acres of land - how much damage are they actually causing? or are you wanting to shoot them for fun/food?

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A dozen hogs can make a pasture undriveable over night. And it's the fact that if he doesn't knock those 40 out they can easily be 150 by this time next year.

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interesting.

Get a cattle feeder and put some really expensive stuff in it, they won't be able to stay away