Where to hunt...., I mean WHERE do we hunt?

[marineimaging]

Let me start by saying I am not a newcomer so much as a RE-newcomer. As a teen I hunted the Sabine and Neches river areas and northward to Lumberton up to Dam B, over to Newton County so what I am referring to is 40 years later and 100 miles further west.

For the past 4 years I have been hunting in and around the Sam Houston National Forest (SHNF) near Lake Conroe and over to a separate segment near Coldspring. Horse riders have told me stories of sounders that didn't even spook as they rode by on their horses. I have stalked them so closely their piles were still steaming. I have heard them circle me and my grand kids only to disappear across the pipeline or under private fences where I had to stop. I have followed miles of disturbed uprooted earth and trees. Yes, they have outsmarted me and in 4 years I have not so much as seen one. So, what is the difference? The biggest is that the woods I have paid to hunt in do not permit hunting at night. Even if they did I do not own a night scope but If I did find such a place where I could hunt at night a reasonable priced scope might be in the works. Maybe. I have another idea.

I would like to find out if anybody knows where to hunt at night where we can set up a scent drip and set up a low intensity light to softly illuminate a spot we can step off 100 yards and set up with a safe backdrop to pound them with .308 or .30-06 as they gather around trying to find that sweet nectar dripping out of the sky? Somewhere with a few hours of Houston? Somewhere that doesn't charge me to help make the state a better place to live and have a green lawn? Somewhere that farmers and ranchers appreciate our sense of professional safety? Anybody? Because the product of our meeting was to end back at square one being that each individual either has to own 20-300 acres, or has to know someone personally and has promised their first born to sacrifice in exchange for the privilege of giving them $200.00 a night to hunt and guarantee to pick up the dead even if they weren't going to be cleaned and processed..., which mine are.

 

[TEXASLAWMAN]

First I would set up a pig pipe or barrel instead of a scent drip. Second If you are getting close enough to hear them run off and they run off you have been winded or made too much noise.

For the land its all who you know or how much money you are willing to spend. Yes hogs are a nuisance species that do a lot of damage but farmers and land owners aren't going to just let you walk on their property. There are many reasons for this one they do not know you and many farmers have been burned before by irresponsible hunters, two they have other hunters willing to pay to hunt (I would take the money verses free also), and three they are looking for an eradication person who can take care of their problem not just a few hogs.

This is how I did it your results may vary. I had one friend with a ranch that had a hog problem, they had trappers and dog hunters on his property for years catching 10-20 a week. I showed up with my rifle and killed 47 hogs in the first hour of the first hunting trip and the rest is history. That ranch manager talked to other ranch managers and word spread my hunting areas grew as a result. So it just takes that first break through that first spot and then you need to provide real results not just 2-10 hogs a month.

Night vision and suppressors also open doors that would not be open before. People want to see the stuff and know how it works so they will invite you just so they can play with the toys.

Other than that just be a fun person that people want around the more friends you have the more chances you will find someone with a hunting spot.

Last but not least I hear the going rate for a hunting lease is about $1000 a year.

 

[theblakester]

........... What he said

 

[Brian Shaffer]

There are no "places" where you can do what you want to do that aren't your own land because the issue isn't one of place. The issue is one of people. You have to have the relationship to get access to such places and nobody here can give you a relationship with a 3rd party landowner. That is what you have to make happen.

Somewhere that doesn't charge me to help make the state a better place to live and have a green lawn? Somewhere that farmers and ranchers appreciate our sense of professional safety?

Nobody is charging you to make the state a better place to live and to have a green lawn and that isn't why you or anybody else here is hunting hogs on another's property. We hunt hogs because that is something we want to do, love to do, and/or because we enjoy the meat. If there is any benefit to the state by an individual hunter, it is incidental at best. If there is a benefit to a landowner, it is temporary unless the hunter hunts the property regularly and most hunters simply do not do that. Hunters have real lives, obligations, etc. outside of being recreational hunters. So the landowner knows you are not really there to help the landowner, otherwise, you would have shown up and asked to help mend fences, paint the barn, shovel out stalls, etc. Nope, hunters don't show up and ask to help do chores. They show up to hunt!

So nobody is charging you to make the state better or to make lawns greener. They are charging you because you are one of the guys who wants to recreationally hunt hogs and that makes hog hunting a commodity.

Especially if you aren't very close by, landowners know that you aren't going to be there to protect their property consistently and reliably. If you are hunting their property for free, they know you are going to dump them or pay less attention to their problems just as soon as you find something closer, better, more productive. This isn't a comment about "you" as an individual, but "you" as in a generic recreational hunter who shows up and wants to hunt.

Until you have a developed relationship of some sort with landowners, they don't know that you are safe or even reliable. They don't have a clue as to whether or not your activities will be beneficial to them. What they do know is that you will be a liability risk and one that may be more costly than whatever benefit you may provide. They know that you say you will be safe, but any hunter trying to gain access to somebody else's property is going to make that claim and may even believe it, but that doesn't mean it is an accurate claim. On top of that, many landowners have already been burned by recreational hunters in the past who turned out to be more of a nuisance than a benefit.

We all want cheap or free places to hunt and we aren't alone. YOU have to develop the relationships with landowners in order to gain access. I dare say that nobody here knows of any lands where YOU can hunt for free or cheaply on your own terms as you have outlined above, where the landowners are willing to give you carte blanche access to their lands. Chances are if we already knew of such places, we would be hunting them ourselves.

 

[FrankT]

I have found it is all about personal relationships, feed and seed stores, country bars, Veterans organizations, LEO's, FWC, people you meet and know who know people with land and a hog problem. As in life it may not be about your ability but WHO you know to get you in a particular door. I have walked up to a farmer/ranchers house to approach them cold calling about hunting the area, the first thing I ask is if they have any chores they need done in trade for hunting privileges...90% of the time since they do not know you the answer is NO.

Also as stated before, the method you describe above is not the way to go about it and if they are around you that many times and you never see them they are smelling you or hearing you. Try to get an experienced hog hunter to take you out, you without a gun and tag along w them to learn.

 

[marineimaging]

Thanks for your answers. This agrees with what we talked about at the greet and meet so I am now about as versed on what it takes as I can be. I keep thinking that I might have to just pay the additional 48.00 and hunt the WMA's by doing a lot of scouting and talking with others who do also. In the meantime I plan to be who I am and make friends as I go. If it happens, it happens.

As for the issue of them working me rather than the other way around, I can pretty much cover a bet that they got me on the smeller. I walk pretty quiet when I am hunting but as a human I stink like most humans do.

 

[theblakester]

"I can pretty much cover a bet that they got me on the smeller. I walk pretty quiet when I am hunting but as a human I stink like most humans do"

Play the wind #1! My dad is an old school basic hunter---throw corn, sit in a blind and wait.... Well I am learning from experience that keeping the wind in your face as muh as possible yields better, more consistent results, regardless of other variables. I'm also more surprised almost every time at how quiet u don't actually have to be. I used to think that they could hear me breathing from 75 yards away.. But really im finding out that they're smelling my breath when the wind is hitting me in the back of the head, not hearing it.
For example, I took a buddy hunting a month ago and he shot a hog. So we were high fiving talking and being pretty loud walking back to the truck so we could load up the hog. sure enough we both noticed some dark spots moving around under the moonlight about 30 yards in front of us and quickly stopped in our tracks. Turned out to be 3 hogs that didn't even know we were there and we were not using our inside/12 inch voices. Fortunately the breeze was in our faces and a couple minutes later we had 2 more hogs down... Seems like they like to show up right out in front of u when you're being the least cautious and quiet and not expecting it. But the one common denominator that I'm really starting to notice is that the wind is always in my favor when that happens.... The only other theory that I come up with is that they don't show their faces unless you are holding your tongue right. ;)

 

[FrankT]

Playing the wind is the single most important thing and scent control products may help but I prefer hog scents, not to cover me up but make me smell like them.

 

[TEXASLAWMAN]

I would rate a hogs defenses in this order.

1). Scent

2) Sight

3). Hearing

Now on a lone boar you may have to be more careful with sound, but sounders make so much noise their own noise will mask yours.

 

[Brian Shaffer]

Also, a lot comes down to the hog's perception of a threat. The same will go for deer and many other animals. They often do know you are present, but do not perceive you as a threat, hence they don't run away.

 

[rob072770]

I have a question? I don't live TX any more but. If you put up a deposit against let's say against say damage. I have no idea what that would be would the land owners be friendlier to your purposal?

 

[FrankT]

Rob, I think you would be better off trading your work for the hunting rights. Or know someone, they need to know you or your family. deposit for a cow? $1500-2500? I have always been referred, only way I have ever gotten in.

 

[EGarza04]

The deposit thing may help but the biggest fear I hear from land owners is getting sued for someone getting hurt (Hunter) or for someone (Hunter) doing something either intentionally or unintentionally that gets them sued by someone else.

In addition to having issues with livestock possibly getting shot, most landowners I talk to feel like this happens all the time and think they might lose the ranch because of it. In reality there are certain things that have to happen for a landowner to be liable for what a Hunter does on their property but many of the laws are written in a way that is hard to understand so many people error on the side of caution.

This is why you have to earn their trust before access is granted. They are trusting you with an investment that usually costs $100,000 or more.

 

[marineimaging]

I agree with all of you guys.