Hunting hogs in FL

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AncientSword

AncientSword

Member
Sep 25, 2020
621
74
Florida, United States
So I figured I would start a thread so you guys can follow along in our hunting journey down here in FL. Hopefully this will end with lots of bacon and pork chops.
My brother and I got access to a property to hunt hogs on about six months ago. We put up a feeder and a camera and have watched it ever since. The first few months were very sporadic, with the hogs coming in at all kinds of various days and hours. We couldn’t get a pattern at all.

About a month ago we started putting some corn mash out there like once a week and we started getting the pigs to come in more regularly.

About a week ago, I shot a big sow but we couldn’t find her. The wind hasn’t been good since then, but we went back out there last night. We had a few pigs show up, but we couldn’t get a good shot. We think they were leery because we had to replace to feeder earlier in the day and smelled where we had been. We could have taken a bad shot, but we were thinking they would go ahead and come into the clear. There were branches and stuff in the way most of the time. Plus, we really didn't want to blow the spot with bad shots.


A couple of days ago, a big bore actually broke the box off the bottom of the feeder. He would sit under it and push on it with his nose. That’s why we had to replace the feeder. 
If you look at the left leg of the feeder closely, you will see the box broken off the bottom.

We put all three leg sections on the new feeder to get it up higher. We have the feeder behind a barbed wire fence to keep cows out. We made the first feeder short because it’s hard to fill a high feeder when you can’t back a truck up to it. We have to take a ladder in now to fill it but that’s ok.




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If is is like the part of Alabama that I am from there is not near enough hunting to keep hogs in check. In my opinion it is because most of the property is privately owned and in small acreage. Hunting is not allowed on a lots of this property or just to a selective few. So there is not enough harvesting & the hogs have now multiplied to a point to where they are extremely destructive. They continue to multiply and expand their territory at an alarming rate. Consequently more drastic management measures are now going to be needed to solve the problem. I know that a similar situation exists in many states. It is like harvesting does. It has been taboo in the past to harvest does and the culture among hunters, property owners, & politicians had to change. The only way was to have more liberal harvesting of does, extended seasons, etc. to keep the spiraling & destructive deer population in check. That is where Alabama and other states are at now. Not as much has been done from a conservation standpoint to manage hogs. The hunters, land owners, & politicians must get on the same page to solve the hog issue. Much research is being done by Auburn University & other universities throughout the south. At this point hunting & trapping with no closed seasons & no bag limit is only a small part of the solution.
 
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Wind has been bad the last couple days. My brother went out there to try and find a better spot for a North wind and bumped into a couple good sized ones today. He didn’t have a gun with him. We are thinking about putting up another feeder. He also saw one crossing under a fence in a different part of the property. Hopefully get out there this weekend maybe. This property is 250 acres but has a couple small lakes and some swamp to go with some forest.
 
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Wind has been bad the last couple days. My brother went out there to try and find a better spot for a North wind and bumped into a couple good sized ones today. He didn’t have a gun with him. We are thinking about putting up another feeder. He also saw one crossing under a fence in a different part of the property. Hopefully get out there this weekend maybe. This property is 250 acres but has a couple small lakes and some swamp to go with some forest.
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@ancientsword I understand much of what you’re saying. These animals have a good sense of smell so wind direction is important in addition to affecting our shots. 250 acres is a lot of area to cover and it seems like you have interesting and varied terrain. Are y’all on foot or ATVs? I worked less than half of that on foot and I’m a little sore today. 


Property lines are another issue. I tried tracking mine down to find bedding areas and ran into fences. Good luck with that swamp area. What are your temperatures like? Are you noticing more activity during certain times of the day or certain weather? Y’all be safe out there. Keep us posted. 
 
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We can drive through the property in a truck, but we usually drive in a little and then walk. I don’t have an atv anymore. I used to have a four wheeler but 3 kids later it was either get rid of it or get one for all of us.

Temps have been cool for us lately. Usually in the 50’s this month, but we’ve been down into the 20’s a night or 2 and into the 80’s for 2 days. 


These hogs have been hard to pattern, they are getting a little more consistent lately but they show up on camera at such varied times. They are mostly nocturnal though.

My brother put up 2 new cameras at different ends of the property yesterday so that we can try and get a better feel for what they are doing. 
 
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We can drive through the property in a truck, but we usually drive in a little and then walk. I don’t have an atv anymore. I used to have a four wheeler but 3 kids later it was either get rid of it or get one for all of us.

Temps have been cool for us lately. Usually in the 50’s this month, but we’ve been down into the 20’s a night or 2 and into the 80’s for 2 days. 


These hogs have been hard to pattern, they are getting a little more consistent lately but they show up on camera at such varied times. They are mostly nocturnal though.

My brother put up 2 new cameras at different ends of the property yesterday so that we can try and get a better feel for what they are doing.
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@AncientSword Between the weather and attempts to study their habits it seems we are in very similar situations. I too considered another camera. Are y’all using cellular cameras that alert you to their presence? Have you determined where they are coming in from? When you make a stand, are you guys in a blind? An elevated position? Do the pigs seem overly cautious to the point where they spook easily and bolt at the slightest sound?
 
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We are using spypoint cameras that send pictures at regular intervals throughout the day.

The hogs are not super jumpy, but they are wary when they can smell us, I’ve witnessed that several times now. 


They seem to be regularly moving between a couple bordering properties. I know a neighbor was complaining that there were “50” out tearing up his pasture. We haven’t seen near that many, but there are definitely more than a couple.

At the moment we have one stand setup. The one I shot two weeks ago that we couldn’t find, was shot as we were walking in. We might try some spot and stalk at night, with thermal. There is so much thick vegetation here though that I’m not sure how that will go.
 
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