The "Next Hunt"

   

       A short time after harvesting anything I begin to plan for the next hunt, thinking of where and when I will go after the next hog or dog. I get calls and messages twice a week from new land and decisions have to be made. This Saturday will be my next full night hunt and a fresh property has messaged me. I want to write a short blog on my thoughts on the always present "next hunt".


   My thoughts on this next hunt think back to the most recent hunt and the group that feed by before taking the boar and sow. They came through around 10 PMish so that is a possibility. They like the area and if I slide in for part of the night if the trees are still dropping I believe I can take one of the group or a loner. I also got an eye on another good boar the same night as my last double so he may wander by.

     Cameras on another property tell me the two fat hogs pictured are coming between 11 PM and 2 AM but rely solely on the corn pile and is only a 40 acre track. All eggs are in one basket on that deal but it may pay off especially if I feel like sitting for a few hours surfing the web on the phone and relaxing.


    New property hunting with someone is always iffy. I generally ask what times are the hogs coming in just to get a general idea. If I can at least get a four hour window I can sit it out but if I am confident on any spot, especially if a jumbo has been spotted , I can all night sit it if need be to take out a good tusker.


   Farmers that have fresh damage- These spots I will hit multiple times a night to at least check for my land owners. They see the damage and check their fields daily so it just is a matter of hitting that right time. I alternate my times here generally in two hour windows. The sign is there I just have to catch them at the right time. 

    I also always have go to spots to check. I pull in and walk to a scanning location and will generally sit an hour or until I hear coyotes. Also I keep in touch with a few landowners with feeders. They tell me the times on their cameras and I trust them  to get me on the hogs they want gone.


   Lastly is my lease.... Too many corn piles right now for a pattern so I will wait until mine are the only restaurants open to sit on them. Once the deer hunters are gone I will have it all to my lonesome.


    I will factor all of this in and come up with a plan that probably will be finalized the hour or so drive to my hunting areas after work Saturday.. Having confidence in your sightings and specific spots on your lands make it easy to keep going after them. Don't leave it to chance or luck. Luck is for Lepricans and I ain't green.

I deliver blog begins today.11-28-17 harvest

    I saw a blog and liked it so I thought I would start one first of all to keep some notes on my deliveries from year to year. Secondly, maybe someone can get a pointer or two from these notes and increase their numbers.

   Property H is loaded with swine but I was in a new part of the property mainly after coyotes for the land-owner but I always watch for Mr and Mrs Piggy. I bait 0 spots on this property so it is 100 percent all natural movement. The county is the best kill/acre county in the state for hogs. A huge field with cattle bordered by oaks with some very old trees that are much higher than the surrounding trees and also a creek border the field. When time allows, watching the hogs even if you don't get a kill will provide you with knowledge that will produce big later and in years to follow. I was forced to watch these hogs the previous two times out because of the livestock. I purposely hunted this area at two totally different times previously , once at 3-4 am and 8 pm the second time. Hogs are creatures of habit until I whack a few and they change it up so I try to remember early and late time areas.
I noticed these pigs liked four particular huge oak trees hundreds of yards apart. Two of the trees I saw pigs under on both hunts and could hear the acorns dropping. They acted as feeders and the pigs raced from tree to tree much like you see at a corn feeder. The trees they were under at 8 pm and again at 3 am were the spots to be I believed.

   The third hunt had me right back at the closest tree to my parking space but I could not shoot until
I located the livestock and when the hogs left that tree I had an idea where they would go. I located the cows and got a live recording of the two hogs heading to the other trees. I stalked through the cows and watch two groups of two fight and feed right by the cows.They would leave and come right back. A group of 6 came from another direction and again went to the same tree so I slowly stalked within range of the tree rather than the hogs. The new group left but I spotted the boar a ways off and before long he came right back to the food source where every hog I had seen  traveled .
Woods are not the best for video so the window to shoot was small and he fell in the oaks.
Within nine minutes his sow came toward the same tree and I dropped her within 60 yards of the boar.

   If you see hogs eating in the same area multiple days at different times that is a great spot those times of year. I see hogs in a 250 acre field go eat in the same two acres area time after time. Knowing these areas pays off when it is hard to find hogs.
At this location , those four trees when dropping acorns is hot and I know will produce again in following years. Once the acorns are all gone, I know I will have to hunt this area a little differently.