Big Boar Patterns
05-19-2015, 12:15 AM
#1
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Jacksonville, FL
Posts: 516
Big Boar Patterns
I got into my own hunt club and have been feeding for about 2 months. They are about 4 or 5 big boars that come, but out of the time frame they came for about 2 weeks total. A sow and about 10 50lbers come daily. Is there another way to get the big boys coming on a better pattern? I'm not sure what else to try.
05-19-2015, 04:43 AM
#3
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Germany/Calif.
Posts: 2,664
After around 18 months or so the Boars are mostly solitary, sometimes in brother pairs. It often seems they avoid the established sounder. Sows will attack them if they show up and she has squeakers, she may attack them anyway. I've seen what appeared to be epic battles between a lead Sow and a Boar, not much blood but a lot of action and noise. My conclusion is if you have a sounder regularly visiting your feed, the chance of a Boar showing up, if she isn't in heat, is reduced not improved.
If the Boar have a good natural food supply, no real reason for them to visit the feeder. Juveniles (1-2 years) are the exception and may drift in and out of a sounder some and are in transition from group animals to solitary adults.
Most times when I've seen big Boar it was maybe half an hour after the sounder showed up and started feeding, some times longer up to 2 hours. And most times the sounder circled up and the lead sow drove him off. In other words, they trailed the sounder and tend to show up late. If you shoot at the Sounder the old Boars aren't going that way
Best guess is if you get a shot at an old Boar it will be a one time thing, unless he is really hungry or trailing a Sow in heat.
Code blue (Sow in heat urine) may get you a shot.
I've had the best results putting up a scent cone and hoping a Boar gets a whiff of it. I've used chicken bones and leftovers from Kentucky fried or road kill, in a bucket and hung off the ground in a bush. I've also had good luck spraying down a bush with Nuc Mom (Vietnamese fermented fish sauce). Nuc Mom is to be handled like toxic waste. I had one leak inside my Jeep, it stank for a year. I'd put up my bait away from the feeder, but still close enough for a shot. My cousins favor Corn soaked in Beer, they save the last inch or so of every beer and dump it in a trash can half full of cracked corn. Protein seems to work best, it is in short supply in the wild.
Been my experience, unless there is a Sow in heat, Boar (over 2 years old) kind of show up when they show up and aren't real predictable.
Another tactic you can try is following a Hog trail after it gets hot out (mid morning), Slow and quiet. Look for brush piles or brush filled drainage ditches, or hollows. The Boar sometimes trail the Sounder (a half hour or more behind), the Sounder is headed for their favorite bedding area, the Boars find a likely spot half way and bed down somewhere near the trail. Be prepare for a quick shot.
Remember the Boar tend to be rear end Charlie and trail the sounder by quit a bit, if at all.
And my standard disclaimer, there are no real rules, just tendencies.
If the Boar have a good natural food supply, no real reason for them to visit the feeder. Juveniles (1-2 years) are the exception and may drift in and out of a sounder some and are in transition from group animals to solitary adults.
Most times when I've seen big Boar it was maybe half an hour after the sounder showed up and started feeding, some times longer up to 2 hours. And most times the sounder circled up and the lead sow drove him off. In other words, they trailed the sounder and tend to show up late. If you shoot at the Sounder the old Boars aren't going that way
Best guess is if you get a shot at an old Boar it will be a one time thing, unless he is really hungry or trailing a Sow in heat.
Code blue (Sow in heat urine) may get you a shot.
I've had the best results putting up a scent cone and hoping a Boar gets a whiff of it. I've used chicken bones and leftovers from Kentucky fried or road kill, in a bucket and hung off the ground in a bush. I've also had good luck spraying down a bush with Nuc Mom (Vietnamese fermented fish sauce). Nuc Mom is to be handled like toxic waste. I had one leak inside my Jeep, it stank for a year. I'd put up my bait away from the feeder, but still close enough for a shot. My cousins favor Corn soaked in Beer, they save the last inch or so of every beer and dump it in a trash can half full of cracked corn. Protein seems to work best, it is in short supply in the wild.
Been my experience, unless there is a Sow in heat, Boar (over 2 years old) kind of show up when they show up and aren't real predictable.
Another tactic you can try is following a Hog trail after it gets hot out (mid morning), Slow and quiet. Look for brush piles or brush filled drainage ditches, or hollows. The Boar sometimes trail the Sounder (a half hour or more behind), the Sounder is headed for their favorite bedding area, the Boars find a likely spot half way and bed down somewhere near the trail. Be prepare for a quick shot.
Remember the Boar tend to be rear end Charlie and trail the sounder by quit a bit, if at all.
And my standard disclaimer, there are no real rules, just tendencies.
Last edited by MudderChuck; 05-19-2015 at 05:56 AM.
05-19-2015, 02:11 PM
#5
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Jacksonville, FL
Posts: 516
I was actually thinking the same thing about the sows running the big boars off. Now that you mention it, your claim about the time they show up before and after the sounder is pretty accurate now that I think about it. I will get a bottle of that spray and try that to. I use a timed feeder that goes off @630am and 7 pm for 7 seconds. I use the sun slinger set up. The pictures are pictures taken from my phone but you can see he's a big boy. I tried the corn soaked in beer and it actually stopped the hogs from coming in a different club. Coons liked it though.
Last edited by JGFLHunter; 05-19-2015 at 02:16 PM.
05-19-2015, 03:10 PM
#6
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Germany/Calif.
Posts: 2,664
The only real rule is there aren't any rules.
I use what I call a clock box. A wooden box with a rock weighted lid. A big rock so it takes a big hog to move it. A couple of handfuls of corn around the box and a few handfuls in the box. Copper strips make contact when the lid is on and the cheap electric clock runs. I sometimes wet down the earth around the box a bit.
In other words, I time when the Hogs tend to show up and read the tracks to see who shows up. Old school, but it works. If somebody (earth first types, plain old vandals or dope growers) smashes it or steals my clock, I haven't lost much.
I use what I call a clock box. A wooden box with a rock weighted lid. A big rock so it takes a big hog to move it. A couple of handfuls of corn around the box and a few handfuls in the box. Copper strips make contact when the lid is on and the cheap electric clock runs. I sometimes wet down the earth around the box a bit.
In other words, I time when the Hogs tend to show up and read the tracks to see who shows up. Old school, but it works. If somebody (earth first types, plain old vandals or dope growers) smashes it or steals my clock, I haven't lost much.
05-19-2015, 03:41 PM
#7
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Germany/Calif.
Posts: 2,664
I was actually thinking the same thing about the sows running the big boars off. Now that you mention it, your claim about the time they show up before and after the sounder is pretty accurate now that I think about it. I will get a bottle of that spray and try that to. I use a timed feeder that goes off @630am and 7 pm for 7 seconds. I use the sun slinger set up. The pictures are pictures taken from my phone but you can see he's a big boy. I tried the corn soaked in beer and it actually stopped the hogs from coming in a different club. Coons liked it though.
This is one reason you avoid shooting the biggest sow, she is really the brains of the outfit and is the only real thing that makes them predictable. You shoot the lead sow and the sounder is likely to scatter, the younguns may attach themselves to another sounder or if your lucky one of the older, but lesser sows, will take over leadership and establish another routine. But it usually takes quit awhile for them to get into a routine again. That's why I shoot the middle, 1-2 year olds, better eating and it tends to upset the sounders routine less.
I'm fairly lucky, two of the four leases I hunt have a good bit of human traffic through them, Mushroom hunters, nature lovers whatever and man scent doesn't spook them much. the other two have seldom human traffic and man scent seems to spook them more. Different lead Sows, different reactions to strange odors, it all depends on what they are used to and the whims of the lead Sow.
05-19-2015, 05:26 PM
#8
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Jacksonville, FL
Posts: 516
That spot that I posted the pictures at, I could care less about the hogs because they ran off all the deer. Before the hogs found the corn I had 5 different deer coming for 3 weeks straigh. 3 of the deer were bucks. I have another spot in the same club where there are just hogs And turkey. I need it to be my deer spot, so I am going to start hunting this weekend if wind is right.
05-19-2015, 08:14 PM
#9
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Germany/Calif.
Posts: 2,664
I don't hunt Deer much anymore, Deer are dumb, the challenge just isn't there. Hogs can be smart and a lot harder to hunt.
Especially if they get older, over 3 years or so. A six-seven year old Hog is a smart Hog and much less likely to make many mistakes that will get themselves killed. They can be way canny and are smarter than most hunters.
Me and a buddy once shot 21 Deer in three days, on a contract from the County. They built a road right through the middle of a bedding area, a feeding area and a mineral patch. They decided after three people died, the Deer had to go. I guess they never heard of the six "P's" prior, planing, prevents, pizz, poor, performance. They actually built that road through a swamp and have had to redo it every two years since.
Maybe it is time to forget the Deer and hunt Hogs.
Pretty much the same reason I like to Hunt Fox, they can be smart and hard to hunt, challenging. One farmer had a couple of hundred Ducks, a Fox was slowly killing them off. I lent him a shotgun and I spent many hours trying to bag that Fox. The closest I ever came was driving home from a bar one night and that sucker ran across the road. Fox two hundred, farmer and hunter zero. You have to respect something that canny.
Especially if they get older, over 3 years or so. A six-seven year old Hog is a smart Hog and much less likely to make many mistakes that will get themselves killed. They can be way canny and are smarter than most hunters.
Me and a buddy once shot 21 Deer in three days, on a contract from the County. They built a road right through the middle of a bedding area, a feeding area and a mineral patch. They decided after three people died, the Deer had to go. I guess they never heard of the six "P's" prior, planing, prevents, pizz, poor, performance. They actually built that road through a swamp and have had to redo it every two years since.
Maybe it is time to forget the Deer and hunt Hogs.
Pretty much the same reason I like to Hunt Fox, they can be smart and hard to hunt, challenging. One farmer had a couple of hundred Ducks, a Fox was slowly killing them off. I lent him a shotgun and I spent many hours trying to bag that Fox. The closest I ever came was driving home from a bar one night and that sucker ran across the road. Fox two hundred, farmer and hunter zero. You have to respect something that canny.
Last edited by MudderChuck; 05-19-2015 at 08:25 PM.