We have effectively taken 34 hogs off of our lease in Beauregard parish since the end of deer season. Using multiple techniques including snares, box traps, corral traps and good old fashioned carbon and lead we have managed to remove most of the smart ones. That being said it is getting a little easier to get on the remaining sounders. There is a group of orphaned piglets around 2 months old and another group of 2 previous sounders that joined together to form one smaller group after we took our taxes out of them early on. This group is made up of pigs 4-5 month old. If you know anything about hogs you know they're a ticking time bomb. At 4 months they become sexually mature and ready to multiply... rapidly! This particular group is high on the hit list because of their age.
I have an On-Time Tomahawk feeder set up with a solar light on the side. This has made for multiple successful night hunts eliminating the sow and older boars from the group. Lacking all adult supervision the pigs are now much easier to hunt. Today for instance, I drove to the property and arrived around 5:30 pm. As most of you already know I can't walk very well, and not very far from a treestand fall last summer. With South winds in the 25 mph range I decided to ride within 60 yards of the feeder and sit on my ATV. I draped my camo cover over the front to hide the bike and wore my Scentblocker Beast ghillie suit. Not 30 minutes after I cut the engine the pigs began to gather under the feeder. I waited for them to bunch up and fired my 3 1/2" 000 buckshot into them. One dropped immediately and the rest scattered like underage drinkers when the cops arrive. I was able to recover 1 while at least 2 others managed to get deep into the briar thicket that was the 5 year old pine plantation.
When it comes to managing pigs I tend to put my bow aside. The more you can kill in one hunt the better. Research shows that in order to keep your pig problem from growing you must kill an estimated 73% annually! That means you have to hunt them all year long. If you feed, plant food plots, or just want to see deer in general you must join the fight against the feral hogs. We need a few good men and women to join us in this fight. Will you?
- Justin Lanclos / info@louisianabowhunter.com