Need Help with Hog Hunting Methods...Any Advice Welcome.

[NalaJr]

I made a mistake and titled the thread that was supposed to ask this question with something that didn't apply.

This is what I meant to post in the first place.....
Sorry for the mixup.




Hey all,

I am preparing to start hog hunting here in Texas for the first time. I don't know much about it down here other than what I've read and heard others describe. I'd like to ask a couple questions and get some advice if you don't mind.

I will be bowhunting on WMA land. I haven't figured out which one, probably the one that's closest to Spring, Texas.

I am primarily wondering how you all bowhunt them. When you go into the woods do you walk around all day looking for hogs, signs of hogs or evidence they are close and then stop to set up on the place and wait for them?

or

Do you get into the woods and walk until you find a good spot that has seen a lot of activity or you know is a good spot that they will likely return to and then simply sit and wait them out until they show or don't show? Do you bring one of those small stools and secrete yourself as best you can while you wait for them?

or

Do you have a treestand or a blind that you set up in a good location and wait for them?



I don't think there is baiting allowed in the WMA's that I am looking at, but you all would probably know more about that than I would.

I know that getting out there and checking things out tells you a great deal and you can't simply plan a hunt without seeing and knowing the area you are going to hunt. If you were counseling someone like me that has never been in any of the WMA's that I am going to go to on how to be successful bowhunting hogs, what tactics would you suggest I try and use?
Is the most successful method to try and see the hogs or hear them and try to put a stalk on them and get close for a shot?


Any advice or help you can give would be appreciated.

Nalajr

[NalaJr]

I am in SPRING.

I haven't figured out which WMA to hunt on or whether there is any other public land in Spring that can be hunted. I have heard different stories about this. I would like to go to the closest one to me which would be Sam Houston I guess. If there are others that would be better, please post them so I can start reading up on them.

Any other info you need, please ask and I'll answer.

Thanks for your time.

Nalajr

[Oliver]

First find out for sure if baiting is allowed or not. Corn is the best way if allowed. If it is allowed, find a good spot and feed it for several days. If there are hogs, they will find the corn.

[E.TEXAS4LIFE]

Walk down preferably deep into a creek bottom. Hogs love the wet ground where they can root it all up. Look for good hog sign (rooted up areas), a nice kind of open area, and intersecting trails. If baiting is allowed where you go then corn will do the magic! But I know for sure in the Sam houston and davy crockett national forest you cant not bait. Otherwise, find that spot, set up in a tree stand preferably.. and wait it out.

[LeanMachine]

Miles on boots is how I hunt pigs on wma. They travel with no real pattern. They just go wherever they feel like. We have spent a fair amount of time walking through the woods and also staying on trails. We have gotten on pigs both ways but have gotten on a lot more just wlking the trails. Its quiet and fast travel. We typically will hear them first but will sometimes spot them first. Travel into or across the wind when possible.

[Bowyer]

Lean Machine gives good advise.
My 2 cents is to do what he says after deer season.
I can't count how many times I have been hunting a good deer trail and someone just walk by ruining my hunt.
This is one reason I no longer hunt wma's.

[Limbwalker]

Closest WMA to you will be the Sam Houston National Forest, but I don't think they allow baiting - even for hogs - even after the deer season. And as Bowyer says, you can stir up a bunch of deer hunters if you wander all over the place during deer season.

I think a person could be successful just hunting the shoreline of the lake, and creek bottoms on the SHNF, even without bait. Just find some fresh sign and stay with it.

Somerville WMA is about an hour and a half to 2 hrs. NW of you, and they allow baiting after deer season is over, but that's a long way to haul bait and maintain a feeder. I'm only an hour from there, and I'm not mad enough at the hogs to even try that from an hour away.

If I had to kill a hog tomorrow, I'd hunt the shoreline of Lake Conroe on the National Forest anywhere I could find fresh sign.