How to Hunt Hogs at Night?
A Comprehensive Guide
Over the years, hog hunting has gained much popularity among hunters and farmers. This is largely due to the increasing population of hogs, their destructive nature, and the fact that hogs are not protected by wildlife laws. Many farmers and hunters have taken Hogs hunting as a means of controlling the population of hogs. For some, hunting hogs is something they do just for fun and has nothing to do with the ever-increasing population or destructive nature of hogs.
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With a lot of life-threatening hunts from farmers and hunters towards hogs, this animal has become smarter and wiser. Hogs have adapted to the hunters’ and farmers’ hunting behaviors by becoming nocturnal. They only come out at night in search of food and stay hidden all day just to protect themselves. With hogs’ new survival techniques, hunting of hogs is now best done at night, when they would be out of their hideouts.
You would agree with me that hunting at night is not so friendly. It comes with various challenges that make it a bit difficult for hunters. So, if you are hunting hogs, you have to be sufficiently prepared for the task ahead. These challenges have raised questions like ‘how to hunt hogs at night? And in this article, we have attempted to do justice to that question. Here are ways one can successfully hunt down hogs at night.
How to Hunt Hogs at Night
Scout for the Best Location
When hunting for hogs at night, it is best one plans ahead. One way of doing so is by sourcing for the best hunting location. All you have to do is take out time to familiarize yourself with your hunting site during the day. Scouting the hunting ground well enough before embarking on your hunt, keeps you a step ahead of your prey. You should start by looking for areas where hogs are highly populated. Then scout around for the usual walkway of hogs around there. This helps you know where you would find them at no time.
Hogs are consistent animals and are used to coming back to a particular spot even after being shot. While scouting for the best location, also select for the best standpoint position for hunting. Look out for standpoints that provide you with good visual sight, this would help to make your hunting experience easy. If you intend to use baits for hunting hogs, make sure you get a clear spot for that. This would allow you to have a very clear vision from your standpoint. However, if the ambush is your hunting strategy then you would need a good hideout location and a camouflage location.
Use Baits
Hogs are nocturnal animals and hence they come out to eat at night. Since food is one of the essential things that draw hogs out in large numbers at night, then you can bank on this fact as a hunting strategy. Baits give you an added advantage as the hunter. It helps in luring out the hogs in large numbers. Although this does not equate to the killing of the hogs. Generally, hogs are omnivorous animals, hence they can eat almost any crop. This feeding habit of theirs opens them up to various options of baits. Baits like corn, peanut butter, beer, jello, and many others make good bait for hogs.
Grains are better options too when it comes to baits for hogs. Hogs love corn, especially the dry ones. To maximize the high number of hogs to your hunting baits is to use baits with a strong, sweet aroma. This helps to lure them even from afar. When making baits for hogs, food combination goes a long way. A blend of corn with any other high-scent food helps more. it helps to increase the scent of the food, which also lures them out of their hidden places. You can blend corn with vanilla, beer, peanut butter, or any other strong scented food.
Use High-Quality Firearms
Hunting with high-quality firearms keeps one at an advantage when hunting, and hunting hogs at night makes no difference. A quality firearm is a big key to successfully hunting hogs at night. When hunting hogs, consider getting a very good firearm that allows you to target your prey from afar. When choosing a firearm for hunting hogs at night, consider also getting a firearm with good optics. This helps to give a clear and bright target view of the hogs at night. Firearms with flat rails also go a long way.
Using such firearms makes it very easy for you as a hunter to mount your scope fast and easily. Rifles and firearms with semi-automated capability are better for hunting hogs. They allow you to shoot multiple shots at once without any issue. This puts you at an advantage when you are around a group of hogs. With this, you are sure of shooting at least one hog dead. When hunting hogs at long range, you would need to fire a precision shot. Try getting guns that can help you with precision shots. With such guns, you can shoot more than a few hogs from a distance at a time.
Hunting Gear and Wears
Camouflage is very important when hunting at night, especially when hunting a nocturnal animal like hogs. As a hunter who has a goal of catching at least a hog, you need to be well concealed. The darkness is not enough concealment for you. Light and bright clothes are very visible in the dark, these are easily detected by animals. One needs to be properly hidden when hunting. Dark gears and wears are better for night hunting. This is very important if one intends to achieve camouflages. When hunting out of blinds, black clothing gives one the right amount of concealment needed in the dark. The hogs won’t be able to detect you at night when you wear dark clothes. With this, you can hunt with much confidence in being invisible to hogs.
Good Source of Lighting
Hunting Hogs at night could be a bit challenging because humans are not nocturnal beings. You would find it a bit challenging to see in the dark remember? That is why it is very important to get a good source of lighting during your hunt. You might want to ask about natural lightings, like that from the moon and the stars, well the news is that you cannot rely on that. If you have good eyes, using a powerful night vision scope would allow you to see clearly on a bright night. For proper lighting, feeder lights are effective and cost-effective too. A low-cost feeder is used to illuminate the whole hunting area. When using artificial lighting one should be careful of overly bright lighting colors. This is major because bright colors have a way of scaring Hogs.
The goal is to illuminate the hunting area enough for proper vision, and not to scare the hogs away. So it is advisable to use light colors like, red and green. These two lights are not bright enough to scare away hogs, and they are enough to illuminate your hunting area for proper vision. Another source of artificial light that can be used for hunting hogs at night is Night vision binoculars or monoculars. These are quite expensive but more effective. I would recommend this, over a feeder light if you can afford it. Using this form of lighting helps to remove traces of artificial lights from your bait. This makes it hard for hogs to detect any form of foul play around your bait. This light source doesn’t scare Hogs away, therefore making the jogs an easy target.
Ambushing
Aside from laying bait for Hogs at night, one can also hunt hogs by ambushing them. This could be a bit difficult, but it has proven to be an effective means of hunting hogs at night. Hogs are known to come out at night in search of food. One needs to be well prepared when using this strategy for Hog hunting. You would need to take notice of hog pathways around your hunting area. look for pathways that are regularly used by hogs when in search of food and water. You should lay an ambush around such areas. This makes it easy for you to shoot a few of them down without being noticed by them.
Know Where to Shoot
Understanding the anatomy of hogs is very important when hunting hogs at any time of the day. Hogs are very very strong animals and are built in such a way that protects them from arrows and bullets. Hog skins are not like that of humans or some animals that can be easily penetrated by bullets and arrows. Their skins are very hard and this protects them. This is why it is very vital to know where to target your shot when hunting a hog at night.
It is advised to target and shoot a hog in the delicate parts of its body. Hogs can attack humans, so it is better not to miss a target. When hunting a hog, don’t aim at its leg or its body, try to target its heart or lungs. This can guarantee you a fatal shot if gotten. But before you do this, you must be familiar with the anatomy of the hogs. The heart of a hog is located above its elbow, while its lungs are behind the shoulder. You can also aim for the brain which is behind its ear.
Tracking
After hunting at night, it is not advisable to leave your catch there till the next morning. A lot can go wrong over the night. Hungry wild animals can come and feast on your catch and the sight of a dead Hog can scare other Hogs away from passing through that walkway. It is important especially if you intend to hunt Hogs using that path again. Try to track down your catch as soon as possible after shooting it down. Some hogs don’t die at the point of shoot, try tracing it.
Hunt Only at Legal Locations
Many states are yet to legalize the hunting of hogs at night. Before setting out to hunt hogs make sure that night hunting is legal in your state of residence. Many states give the right to hunting Hogs at night in the United States. Hunting hogs at night should only be done in these states. States, where this right is restricted, should be avoided for night hunting of hogs. Some states like Arkansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, Texas, Georgia, and Florida give rights to night hunting. You can easily hunt hogs there without any restriction, as far as you have a hunting
FAQs
Important Note:
Any activity using a firearm has the potential to be harmful and can lead to death, serious injury, permanent disability, or property damage. Only general educational and informational purposes are served by the advice, graphics, photographs, videos, and information found on Ballachy firearm reviews. The knowledge provided about guns, gun handling, tactics, training, legal issues, and marksmanship skills on this page is the author’s opinion based on his experience and education. This knowledge, which includes advice and training methods, is applicable only in a given set of conditions that the reader cannot precisely recreate. The author disclaims any liability for improper use or incorrect interpretation of the information on this website. Use of this website as a replacement for training or any information found on this website is not legal advice of any kind.
Hogs are known to come back to the sites where they are shot. Sometimes they do that immediately, some minutes later, or some days later. But they come back after being shot at.
Important Note:
Any activity using a firearm has the potential to be harmful and can lead to death, serious injury, permanent disability, or property damage. Only general educational and informational purposes are served by the advice, graphics, photographs, videos, and information found on Ballachy firearm reviews. The knowledge provided about guns, gun handling, tactics, training, legal issues, and marksmanship skills on this page is the author’s opinion based on his experience and education. This knowledge, which includes advice and training methods, is applicable only in a given set of conditions that the reader cannot precisely recreate. The author disclaims any liability for improper use or incorrect interpretation of the information on this website. Use of this website as a replacement for training or any information found on this website is not legal advice of any kind.
Hogs are nocturnal animals and are known to come out mostly at night. The twilight hours are the best time of the night to hunt hogs. This is because this is when they come out to eat the most.
Important Note:
Any activity using a firearm has the potential to be harmful and can lead to death, serious injury, permanent disability, or property damage. Only general educational and informational purposes are served by the advice, graphics, photographs, videos, and information found on Ballachy firearm reviews. The knowledge provided about guns, gun handling, tactics, training, legal issues, and marksmanship skills on this page is the author’s opinion based on his experience and education. This knowledge, which includes advice and training methods, is applicable only in a given set of conditions that the reader cannot precisely recreate. The author disclaims any liability for improper use or incorrect interpretation of the information on this website. Use of this website as a replacement for training or any information found on this website is not legal advice of any kind.
Yes, hogs can be hunted at night, provided you are in an area where hunting at night is considered legal. In fact, nighttime is the best time to hunt hogs.
Conclusion
Hunting hogs is not as easy as many think it is. Hogs are night animals, and hunting at night could be a bit challenging. This is why it is smart for a hunter to prepare himself well enough before going out on a hog hunt. With these hunting tips on Hog hunting, hunting hogs at night should not be a problem if properly followed. Also remember, you are to hunt hogs at night only in states where there is no legal restriction against night hunting. So guys, go out there and hunt down a hog tonight.
Author Profile
- Gabriel Tackett is an experienced shooter and hunter for over 15 years with a degree in Engineering from the University of Minnesota. He is also a certified National Rifle Association (NRA) officer for 10 years And his passion lies in teaching others how to safely enjoy the hobby by recommending the best practices & products in the gun industry.
