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Old 06-30-2018, 11:23 PM
  #9  
MudderChuck
Nontypical Buck
 
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Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Germany/Calif.
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Originally Posted by Double Naught Spy
I hunt a little bit of everything except deserts. I like to hunt crops, but most of my places are simply cattle pastures or wooded areas.
The only thing we have here is woods, crops and Hay fields, very little pasture.
My most successful hunts were right at dusk. I find an area the sounder has been raiding/feeding at recently and lay in wait for them to break out of cover (woods or brush) and catch them on the way to food. The vast majority of my shots are a pair of adolescents that broke away from the sounder, they tend to let hunger overcome their common sense and break cover early.
The rest of the sounder usually shows up in full darkness, the little ones and the mature females. The Boar are usually the last to show up if at all, except in mating season. In mating season they tail the sounder a lot closer.
Sure there are exceptions. If I pick a spot they feed at second or third they may show up a later. Sometime during the night they most always show up at a wallow.

I've found another good spot to set up is on a forest road. I find a spot where they cross the road and/or turn over the grass center of a logging road looking for worms and set up there.

I have sneaked up on them sleeping in the daylight. Usually a single Boar in thick brush. A hard shot, they break from cover or take off for the hills quick, you have one shot, an instinct shot, no time to aim.

There senses are a lot more attuned to their surroundings than yours are in general. And they have many eyes and ears (the sounder). I've found stalking them to be a low percentage undertaking. Maybe I'm just not very good at it.

This year is going to be different than most. Most of the grain crops are stunted because of drought and the farmers are harvesting months early.

We've had some fun sending the dogs into a mature Corn field and setting up around the edges. Not a sure thing. As often as not the Hogs stick to cover (in the Corn field) and run the dogs ragged.

Hogs can be hard to see in a mature grain field, You may see their backs, but the vital areas are below the grain tops. the lower the angle the more grain your bullet has to pass through. And/when if the Hog eventually dies, no telling where it's at. I've tramped through grain fields for hours trying to find a downed Hog, even the Dogs can have problems. The Hogs sometimes run in circles after being shot in a grain field, Dogs can have a hard time sorting out the scent.

I shy away from the bedding areas so I have a chance at multiple shots over successive nights. If I bust into a bedding area they are likely to head for the next county. Bedding areas are low percentage anyway, usually in thick brush and again with many eyes and ears.

Last edited by MudderChuck; 06-30-2018 at 11:26 PM.
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