Pig Time

In my hunting career, there are few animals I enjoy hunting more than Pigs or feral hogs as they are more accurately known. Quite frankly I don't know what it is about them that are so appealing other than their taste. But they are an excellent quarry.

Here is South Carolina, like in many parts of the country they are proliferating at an alarming rate. Which I guess is great for the pig hunter. I for one am on the lookout for ways to access more and more land that has pigs on them. I even began searching for hunting leases that allow for only pig hunters. You can have your deer, leave me the pigs! I have found a few who swear that they want all of the pigs eradicated. Only to then tell me I can only hunt them from Jan. 1-Feb 28th. Well that makes it pretty hard to eradicate if you are only allowing 2 months of hunting. I'm not a professional mind you, so I have to hunt during my weekends, and spare time, but I need more access than two months out of the year if you are going to let me help you.....oh yea and they are charging me $500 to help them get rid of their pig problem.

Other clubs aren't so kind and simply tell me "no". So I hunt our game lands and some other property that I can find from time to time.

Hunting pigs is very similar to deer hunting, there are basically three methods. Stand hunting where you climb into an elevated stand or ground blind and watch a likely area - food source, trails, bedding areas, wallows etc. Some of this can be enhanced by baiting. Here is South Carolina, this is mostly done by using automatic feeders to disperse feed on the ground at set intervals. Often once the pigs get accustomed to the feeder they lay in wait for the sound of the feed being dispersed and they come running to the waiting hunter.

The other method used here in the south is stalking or spot and stalk. Pigs are not gifted with excellent eye sight but their sense of smell and hearing is excellent. But if you can spot a group feeding they will be distracted and sneaking into gun or bow range is very possible. This proves to be excellent practice for deer and elk hunters who prefer this method. Admittedly this is my preferred method. I like being eye to eye with them. On their territory and on their level and stalking into bow range.

The third level is using hounds to chase the pigs, baying them and then moving in for the kill. Most hound hunters in our area don't allow the use of firearms when dispatching hogs. They don't want their dogs getting shot in the ruckus. Opting instead for large knives or spears and sticking the pig in the heart once bayed. This dispatches the pig very quickly and adds more adrenaline to the experience. Quite frankly more than I personally want. I personally haven't been on a dog hunt for pigs but would love to try it sometime. Just to see how it works.

As deer season lingers into the distance a lot of hunters in our area turn their attention to hunting Pigs. Here is South Carolina and in many states there is no season on private lands and no limits, but a hunting license is required. Many of our state WMA's have special pig seasons throughout the year, with several occurring through the summer.

Pigs are a great alternative game animal and a formidable foe for any who want a challenge, and a different one at that. Pigs live in some nasty areas, and are by no means a slam dunk. They will quickly pattern hunters and change their behavior accordingly. Often moving miles away to avoid contact. However, if the terrain is good for them, they wont be gone long returning to their comfortable environs.

Search for rooting signs - obvious even to a novice - it looks like a chisel plow went through the woods......tracks (similar but more rounded than a deer's) and wallows where they lay in the mud to cool themselves and to coat their skin with mud to ward off mosquitoes. Find this fresh sign and the pigs will be close by. Move into the wind, slowly looking for movement, they are seldom alone except for the occasional big boar. But for my taste, I prefer the eighty to one hundred pounders they make excellent table fare and are much easier to get out of the places they live. Plus, if you kill the big ones, the little ones leave.......take the little ones and the rest stay around often allowing for multiple kills at one location.

Once you find pigs in the area, you have a haven for year 'round fun.

Summer scouting

Its hot here in South Carolina. I mean its hot! Not a particularly pleasant time to be in the woods scouting for deer. The woods are full of mosquitoes, ticks, snakes, spider webs.....you name it, there is little pleasant about being in the woods this time of year. Which is exactly why you should be there.

Deer this time of year are easier to pattern than at any other time of the year, which makes summer scouting important for that early season. Our bow season opens in early September so we are getting close to the opening day. Now is the time to be hanging stands, cutting shooting lanes, and checking cameras. Walking the areas and moving stands, or placing new ones. We are far enough away from opening season that trespassing into bedding areas wont do that much harm.

My area doesn't have places for food plots, we have woods, pines and hardwood ridges and drainages. There are very few places to place food plots, so that part of the equation is not relevant for us. We have to scout for natural food sources and enhance those.

Persimmons, muscadines, honey suckle, white oaks, red oaks, honey locust, and of course browse. Are all what we focus on. Instead of planting food plots, we fertilize the persimmons and the muscadines. we locate these succulent sources of food and place stands along travel routes to these foods. We know that in September, deer will beat a trail to the persimmons and in early October, just before the acorns fall, muscadines will be falling, and the deer move from the persimmons to the muscadines, and then to the white oaks which begin their decent in mid - late October.

Locating these trees and vines is critical right now, find them, place stands near them and cut the shooting lanes will prove to be an invaluable effort come September. Knowing when the deer are visiting these trees and vines will make your effort worthwhile when that deer shows on opening morning.

Late Season Scouting

This is the time to be in the woods. With the close of deer season over most of the country now is the time to put the boot leather to work and walk your woods. Rubs are readily visible, trails are easily spotted and bedding areas can be walked in without much fear of educating the big boy.

Walk the creeks, looking for crossings, rub lines, old scrapes. Search out current stand locations and see if there need to be any modifications. Limb up shooting lanes now, so when summer comes it will only require moderate trimming. Deer hunting is a year around sport and we must be ready. Scouting is the key to successful hunting, and never becoming complacent about your property. Always looking for fresh sign, and new spots that you have overlooked in the past. Regardless of how many years your old favorite stand has hung in the same tree, re-evaluate its set up and be willing to move it if necessary. Add more stands, clear out approach lanes and identify key areas.

Late winter is my favorite time to be in the woods, so too it should be yours. Do some small game hunting and scouting. Get out there.

Fighting through the tough times.

For some reason this season has been especially difficult for me in my traditional hunting grounds. Unlike the previous years, I am seeing very few deer. Last year by this time I averaged seeing five deer per hunt, and this year I have seen six all season and one of them was the same deer two hours apart. I have racked my brain to figure out what has changed and I have limited it to two factors that are different than in years past, with a third factor that could be a contributor.
1. There is a hunting club that boarders two sides of my land, this club has historically placed corn feeders (legal in this portion of the state) close to the boundary line to draw deer from my land onto theirs. I had stands between the bedding areas and their feeders. This year, they have stopped the corn feeding opting instead for planted food plots. The plots look good, but they seem to have not produced any deer activity yet.
2. Acorn crop. We are having a bumper acorn crop this year as opposed to years past. there are acorns everywhere, white oak acorns, red oak acorns, and others. There is food everywhere. This I believe is the main reason we are seeing less deer. They simply do not have to travel to find food. They can literally eat without getting out of their beds.
3. Predominate winds. Historically the predominate winds are N-NW so the majority of my stands are situated for N-NW winds. On several hunts this year we had S-SW and S SE winds. This completely blew many of my stands and I was forced to hunt areas I was not as familiar with. (There will be more options next year!)

One thing this has taught me is that I was getting complacent and lazy in hunting the same familiar stands and locations and I stopped scouting and searching for better locations on the same property. I have found some real nice locations for stands, and will be more ready next year. But I have not given up yet.

The cold weather is finally moving in, the acorns are getting more and more scarce, the NW winds are returning, so I am hopeful - Deciding to return to the days when I scouted more than I hunted. Which is key. As one person said, "if you have only three days to hunt somewhere, spend two days scouting and one day hunting." I completely agree, and this year has taught me not to get complacent with familiar ground, keep searching, while your spots may be good, they may not be the best. Keep looking for the best! So I have not given up yet, I am still looking for that buck that will make all of this frustration worthwhile. When I find him, you will be one of the first to know.
Good hunting.