Tips and Tricks for a Successful Hog Hunting Trip

When I was a kid, the only hogs we knew of were helping pay for kids’ scholarships through the local FFA or 4-H program. Many years go by and suddenly we start hearing about the feral hog outbreak where wild pigs are rooting up and tearing apart farms all across the U.S.A. Still in disbelief, we never expected to actually see them on our farm.

Another couple years pass and we are out spotlighting for coyotes and run up on a group of 20 wild hogs running down the riverbank. We couldn’t believe our eyes, but this started what became one of our favorite methods of farm entertainment.

Fast-forward many more years and now we’ve gained a lot of experience on feral pig behavior. Whether you are hunting by yourself, with a crew, or even with dogs, these tips should help you increase your hog hunting success.

Tips and Tricks to Feral Hog Hunting

No matter what you are hunting, you need to know your target species’ key attributes. Know their strengths, weaknesses, tendencies, and behavior so you can exploit them to know where to aim and hunt smarter instead of harder. 

Feral hogs can smell better than deer

Feral hogs have very keen sense of smell. They are able to smell even better than deer and are usually able to pick up on human scent left behind on a nearby trap. A good tip for hog hunting is to be conscious of what you touch, and do your best to not leave scent behind. Fragrance free clothing is a plus. On the flip side, using quality hog bait attractants can help put their excellent sense of smell to your advantage. 

Hogs have poor eye sight

Comparatively speaking, their eye sight is not their strong suit. We have stalked hogs with wind in our face (eliminating the scent aspect) and worked our way to be within 10 yards of them without triggering an alarm. Not to say they can’t see past 10 yards, but it is not an aspect they primarily rely on. A good hog hunting tip is to walk and stalk closer to where the hogs are if you can't pull off a good shot. 

Dead silence while hog hunting is not an absolute necessity

Another sense that hogs lack is hearing. Wild hogs have a very poor ability to hear. A lot of the times they are constantly snorting, so I’ve always wondered if their snorting is the reason they can’t hear over themselves. If they stayed quiet all the time, maybe they could hear better!

There was one instance when we were hunting hogs that I was changing clips in my pistol and I literally dropped the clip on the floor of the deer blind and it made a loud THUD! I was worried the hogs heard it (it was REALLY loud)...but they didn't! I couldn't believe it.

Hog Hunting at Night

Hogs turn nocturnal as summer’s heat approaches or as hunting pressure intensifies. We regularly track our local hog behavior on game cameras and have documented hogs coming throughout the daytime when they aren’t pressured. As soon as we start hunting them, we notice they only come out at night, usually 1-2 hours after the sun goes down. Keep this hog hunting tip in mind as the hunting intensifies. They probably won't be coming out until later on in the night and eventually it will be 1:00-2:00 AM before they come out in real high pressure areas.

The Most Successful Hog Hunting Method

The most successful method for hunting hogs is using trained dogs to track them down, bay the hog up, and then a catch dog such as a pitbull or dogo argentino will be released to hold the hog down until the hunter gets there.

Most hunters aren’t able to hunt with dogs, so they rely on understanding hog behavior to track them down. Hogs are always on the search for a consistent food source.

Another Great Hog Hunting Method

Other highly successful methods of hunting hogs include mounting a Red or Green Outrigger Outdoors Hunting Light to your feeder, put a couple pounds of corn underneath the feeder, mix in some apples or apple-scented attractant or similar if available, and sit and wait. This tried and true old-fashioned method has been proven to work time and time again. 

These hog hunting lights are able to make the most of the hogs poor eyesight by utilizing colors they are unable to see. Easily dim the light down until hogs are seen gathering under the feeder. Once the hogs are in sight, slowly increase the brightness until it is bright enough for you to comfortably take a shot. Whether hunting with a gun or a bow, you are truly hunting smarter instead of harder.

Day Time Hog Hunting

Another method for hunting hogs, particularly in the daytime, is to walk dirt roads, trails, and edges of fields into the wind. Hogs will establish definite trails and often leave signs of rooting and tunnels in thick vegetation, leading to their home turf. When you see these signs, a good tip is to keep your trigger finger ready as you may be close to your next sounder of swine.

When we track on foot, the trick to finding hogs seems to be finding water sources such as creeks, rivers, and ponds or food sources such as fields full of crops. Our highest pig yielding crops seem to be alfalfa and corn. They will also hit cotton and grains hard but it seems alfalfa and corn always give us the “best” results (“best” depends on if you’re asking the hunter or the farmer, farmers generally hate wild hogs). 

Thanks for reading along! For more information on night hunting, check out our Outdoor Tips. To get started hog hunting, check out our selection of hog hunting lights.

Outrigger Outdoors is a designer and manufacturer of purpose-built hunting lights. If you're looking for a light that can shine over 1,000 yards in a true-red wavelength output that is hard for hogs and predators to see, look no further than the Predator Cannon Hunting Light Bar. Adjustable intensity and unrivaled brightness are two of many reasons these lights are the most sought-after light for hunting vehicles and high racks.