My Father and I will be headed to TX sometime the end of February / first if March to do some hog hunting.
Should I be trying to go during a full moon phase or not? Or is there another phase that is better? Or should I not really concern myself with it, because it really doesn't matter?
Any insight on this would be helpful. Not sure if weather and feed and other factors come in to play rather than moon phases. The reason I ask, is that is seems the last time I went hog hunting the hogs came to the feeders after it turned dark, and I would like to avoid that again if possible.
Not saying it was or was not due to the moon, but thought I would see what kinda light you guys with experience could shed on the subject. I belive last time we went it was not during a full moon phase.
Thanks alot!
:)
Jake
Remember You can hunt at night in Tx. I play the moon phase as often as I can, But I sure miss hunting at night...
I am not sure about the moon phase hurting or helping hunt, but like was said before, you can hunt at night for hogs in Texas. The full moon really provides a lot of light if there is no cloud cover.
Hogs that are hunted regularity will tend to be nocturnal, so it will not matter necessary what the moon phase will be.
At least where I hunt, the pigs are almost exclusively nocturnal, regardless of the moon phase. You have to know where they go during the day to sleep and intercept them on their way to and from. There have been exceptions, but that's pigs for ya.
That was our experience, night hunting that is, and I don't mind hunting at night, but the darkness really seemed to mess with my shot and perception. The feeders were lit fairly well, but it was still an issue. I am thinking that we may try to plan around a full moon to have the most light possible.
I like to roam and look for them, look for the thickest cover and you will find them and they will bed behind pond dams and trails near rivers, I enjoy this type of hunting hogs verses feeder hunting and they do move during the day but may not come to feeder until night
The movement of the hogs at my grandparents place seems to be dictated mostly by hunting pressure and heat. If no one has been down there hunting em for say 4 or so months, then well see them at crazy hours like 9, 10 AM rooting 50 yards or so from the house. Once somebody starts shooting guns at em from the deck (my cousins,not me) the hogs will go back to showing up at 9PM,10,12PM, 4/5 AM in more remote locations away from where they last got shot at. The late movement seems especially true in the hot summer months.
I'm not hunting em over feeders right now but when I was, they were always more likely to come in just after legal shooting hours. The sound of hogs rushing in is always a trip. I now do extra long sits over a caliche road (white rock reflects a lot of the moonlight) at or place, in a full moon w/o cloud cover I have enough light to shoot them (if I'm lucky enough to see em) w/o any artifical light.
Have you tried practicing with your bag in the darker hours of the evening??
Good luck.
Fishnhunt
I have practiced some, but not alot. In fact before the last trip I did not practice as I did not know we would be hunting at night so much. I will be practicing alot more this time. Also I know the feeder was only about 16-18 yrds away, but at night it looked closer to 25-30, just had a tough time getting used to it.
Thanks for all the thoughts guys, keep em coming.
ttt for the weekend hog hunters!
Thanks guys!