Feral swine - eastern forests

[ligonierbill]

These guys have moved into Ohio, they're destructive, and there are few restrictions on hunting them. Looks like an opportunity for a retiree. But none of the local hunters I know go out for hogs. So I'm seeking some advice. The most favorable location for me seems to be Wayne National Forest in the southeast part of the state, heavily wooded. You can bait in Ohio, but on public land it has to be something not attractive to birds. No hog doggin' or spears, but just about anything else. What say ye?

 

[JERRYS.]

I haven't hunted in Ohio in two decades. can you use rifles yet?

 

[ligonierbill]

Weeelll...in the firearms deer season, you can use "approved" straightwalled rifle cartridges. And in that one week season, you can only carry an "approved" firearm. The other 51 weeks, however, you can carry your choice. I'm not concerned about the weapon, just about getting a pig in my sights. Ohio does have one of the longest deer archery hunts, to be fair. Opened yesterday, closes 5-Feb-2017.

 

[Wyosmith]

I would call the county agents in the areas you can go. The County Agents will know who is having troubles with wild hogs and then you can contact the land owners. If the hogs are damaging things I'd bet the land owners would love it if you'd kill the hogs for them.

Another place to find out are the Farm and Ranch stores in the area.
Ask the staff there if they know of anyone having problems, and also post a paper on the bulletin board asking for leads on problem hogs. The farmers may call you if you present yourself correctly.

 

[Art Eatman]

Never dunnit, but I've read that if you put some corn in a bucket and pour in some beer and let it sit for a few days, it gives off an attractive (to piggy) aroma. Dig a shallow hole, put the corn in; cover lightly. Hogs get to it before birds can.

I've also read that sprinkling anti-freeze over a small area is attractive.

 

[Dufus]

Don't do the antifreeze thing on the ground.

To an environmental entity, that is just as bad as pouring used oil on the ground.

If you get caught, you will be fined handsomely and will be responsible for footing the bill on a very expensive cleanup.

One reason the hogs are so destructive is they root the ground up looking for grubs. At least in these parts.

MIL's front yard looks like a couple hundred armydillers ran thru the yard digging every 6 inches, but it was a family of 2 adults and maybe 8 or 9 piglets.

 

[Gunplummer]

Beer and corn? Sure sounds like bear bait.

 

[Doyle]

Once you have found an area where the hogs are using, you can bait them easily.

Take a 5 gallon bucket and fill it about 1/4 full of corn. Add enough water to cover with about 3 or so inches to spare. Add a jug of the cheapest grape soda you can find plus one can of beer. Stir it around and put the lid on loosely (rock on top keeps it from blowing off). Let it sit for a week.

To deploy it, use post hole diggers to dig a hole about half the size of the buck. Put the corn in scattering some around. Hold your nose because it will stink.

 

[rodwhaincamo]

This sounds similar to the catfish attractant I was advised of as a kid minus the beer.

Maize in a bucket of water left in the sun a few days and poured into a large PVC pipe with holes drilled into it and placed on the edge of the dock. Brought all kinds of fish!

 

[kraigwy]

Beer and corn? Sure sounds like bear bait.

Sounds more like "hunter" bait to me.

Pig hunting is a pet peeve of mine. Lots of farmers are talking about how they are destroying crops and they want them gone.

Then want to charge you a mint to get ride of them. We don't have any in Wyoming and I'd like to hunt them, but not at the prices they want. That and the travel cost. If I got to pay that much to hunt, it wont be for hogs.

My MIL has a small farm in OK. She begged me to come clean out the hogs. I got all excited, called the OK Fish and Game about the rules or lack of rules for hunting hogs down there.

So I loaded up the guns, drove 1200 miles to find out her place hasn't seen any hogs in a year or more.

Maybe I'll just bite the bullet, shell out the money for a Texas Helicopter Hunt.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Hunter bait is more like the stuff that costs $30 a quart that you pour out on the ground as an attractant. It may or may not attract hogs, but it empties the pockets of hunters.

Wow, you got ripped off by your own MIL.

Yep, hogs are a trouble causing commodity.

 

[603Country]

I have hogs on our place. They come and go. They can really dig up my hay pastures, which really ticks me off. So I hunt them and trap them. Very smart critters and they learn fast. As for bait, plain old corn works about as well as anything, but the coons love it too. You can put diesel fuel on the corn, which seems to deter coons, but not the hogs. I just keep corn feeders running year round and hunt over them in cool weather.

Gotta say that the meat is really tasty. I'd rather have it than venison. My Dad told me once, "son, if deer didn't have antlers, I'd never shoot another one, and just hunt pig". Be sure and keep the ribs...Yum!

That mud encrusted hide on hogs will sure dull a good knife.

I'll be hunting pig in the morning. I hope you guys get to hunt them, and do bring enough gun. When wounded, they seem to find the thickest cover around, so knock them down quick.

 

[Guv]

I've heard of putting diesel with corn but have never done it. We make sour corn with beer, maybe a soda or two and about a week or so out in the sun out of reach, perking in a sealed bucket. Some say you can't eat "that big old boar" but I can tell you they are fine and we cut the back strap out just like we do on a deer. Soak those bad boys in some milk for about a day and batter them up and chicken fry'em! On Man!
We used to have to hunt them at night but probably due to human encroachment we see them much more often during the day now.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Diesel seems more about keeping other animals from eating corn than actually attracting hogs. Plus, you don't want to be eating hogs that are consuming diesel. I realize it is a small amount, but still best not to even go there. If other animals are hungry enough, they will eventually eat the diesel corn.

If you believe diesel is an attractant, don't put it on corn. Put it on a piece of carpet you nail around the base of the tree and let the hogs use it for a rub. People also do this with oil. People claim it works. We have a piece done up on a tree soaked in old oil. Never seen a hog rub on it and given the growth around the base of the tree, they aren't trampling down the vegetation to rub on it.

 

[Guv]

Well you won't catch me doing it. I used to work on Cummins, Mack and Detroit diesels when I was younger. Never could stand getting that fuel all over my hands, you couldn't wash it off. Some of it was really high sulfur test fuel, real stinkers!

 

[603Country]

Diesel is not an attractant. I tried just about every real attractant I could think of or read about, including cherry cool aide powder. The diesel was just to keep the other critters off the corn, and I just can't remember ever tasting diesel in the pig meat, so I wouldn't worry about it. That said, I don't use the diesel anymore.

If you want to bait pigs, just get a good varmint proof feeder and feed regularly. That's what seems to work best on our place. These days I have a few Stand-and -Fill type feeders. Built in solar panel and a good timer. The best thing I've found yet.

And....and...there were pig tracks all around one of the feeders I checked this morning, and not one remaining kernel of corn. That's a sure sign of eating sized pigs. Tomorrow I hunt.

Saw nothing this morning, but that may be due to the shoulder high Johnson grass on my power line ROW. So I mowed it.

 

[Saltydog235]

Get some night vision.

Better than beer and corn is old cooking oil and corn. They'll eat the dirt around where you dump it. Throw in some shrimp peels, half rotten fruit and veggies and you got hog bait.

Can't pattern pigs though. Right time, right place kind of hunt on the daylight aspect. They get active at night.

Two kinds of land, land that has hogs and land that's going to have hogs.

 

[reynolds357]

Hogs like diesel fuel and they love used oil out of diesel trucks. They knocked over a drum of burnt oil waiting to be collected sitting outside my neighbors shop. The wallowed in it and rooted in it. They kept coming back until he finally got it cleaned up.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Yeah, it is for rubbing on their skin, not so much for consumption, sort of like with creosote on telephone poles.

 

[Old Stony]

Many years ago I raised some pigs now and then for butchering. I hung some burlap bags along the sides of the hog pen, and would pour my old motor oil over them. The hogs rubbed it all over them selves, rolled in it etc... The point of all of this was to control mites on the hogs and I can say it really helped.
I have tried all kinds of attractants and have friends that have tried others as well. I finally figured out that plain old corn will work as well as anything else I tried. I've seen guys dumping sorghum and all kinds of stuff in traps...as well as corn soaked in kool aid or jello...but the hogs didn't seem to react any more than plain corn. I do occasionally let a bucket or two sit in the back of my pickup for a few days with water in it and let it sour a little as the scent will carry further...but it doesn't seem to make a big difference.