Hog hunting is fun, and on the right property, with a lot of hogs it could be the hunt of a lifetime.
    
I am blessed to live on a small piece of land “fifteen acres” that is surrounded by corn fields. For about five years I was overrun by hogs, and it would not be unusual to see ten to fifteen hogs any given night in my fields. This is when I started learning a lot about hog hunting. Now I’m not going to tell you that I know everything about hogs, but I would like to pass on what I have learned from personal experience.
    
If you are just starting out hog hunting, the best advice I would like to pass along is concentrate your efforts on beating the hog’s nose. A hog’s best defense is their sense of smell, then their hearing, then last their eye sight.
    
I had the opportunity to capture, raise and study wild hogs in a pen here at my home. These hogs were a mixture of Fowler and Russian Boar. What I found was that hogs often depend on their nose as their first line of defense. The hogs might then try and locate you with their ears and in few cases, search with their eyes to identify their threat.  Most of the time, however, a hog will not wait on their eyes to identify a threat. After a hint of danger from their nose they are out of there. So, if you can get past their nose, you may have them beat. Let me give you a few examples of what I’m talking about.
  
When I would capture very young hogs, or shoats, I would put them in a pen. At feeding time when I would bring the hogs their food and the wind was at my back blowing towards the hog pen, the hogs would meet me at the fence. If the wind was blowing the other way, I could often sneak up to the pen. Approximately ninety percent of the time the hogs would smell me coming with their food long before hearing or seeing me. Another good example of how good their noses are; one day while hunting a hundred yards off to one side of the hog pen I could hear my hogs grunting and chopping their teeth. So I picked up my binoculars and started glassing around. About four hundred yards up the pipe line that I was hunting over; I could see a group of hogs coming my way. My hogs had picked up the scent of this group of hogs long before they could see or hear them. I picked this location to hunt because the scent of my hogs would draw other hogs in. You can use their nose against them.  
      
If you're going to beat a hog nose, hunt down wind. Minimize your scent as much as possible by using a good scent blocker suit and/or a good scent killer product like Dead Down Wind. I prefer to use them together.
    
As far as a hog’s hearing, I would place it just below the canine group. I have walked up on hogs in the woods with hardly any effort. I believe that they use their hearing more during communicating between themselves then as a form of protection. Hogs will alert each other of impending danger by grunting. This is where their hearing would best serve them as a form of defense.
    
The eyes of a hog are at best good. I have found that if you don’t move when a hog is looking for you he will not find you. Many times while hunting hogs I have had them walk right by me like I was not there. But they can and do pick up on movement very well. The few times hogs have spotted me, was when I moved and alerted them to my location.
    
Just for the record, I’m not claiming to be someone who knows it all when it comes to the hog's senses. But I do believe, from all of my personal experiences, hogs depend on their noses more than any other sense. So whether it's your first time or you just want to try something new, put most of your effort in hunting down wind and you should find that hogs are pretty easy and a lot of fun to hunt. If you beat their nose their eyes and ears won’t be so alert! Good Luck and Good Hunting.

By John Thibodeaux

TalkHunting Staff Writer John “Cookin“ Thibodeaux, started hunting rabbit and squirrel at age sixteen.  Then while living in Texas for 5 years, whitetail deer became a great love to hunt.  John’s 1st wild hog hunt was in 2000, when he moved to Pine Grove, Louisiana.  John also loves to hunt turkey and dove right in his own backyard.  John has always loved going spear fishing in the Louisiana lakes and he became a certified diver about 5 years ago.  

John has been a member of Hard Luck Hunting Club for 10 years and now holds the position of secretary. The club implemented QDMA about 3years ago and it has been a great success.
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John is a sign technician and has been married to his wife, Stephanie, for 15 years.  He has been blessed with 3 wonderful children and 2 grandchildren.  He is very proud of each of them.