I will start this off by saying we did not get any kills. But this was my first true out of state do-it-yourself hunting trip and well worth it. We had a blast. The plan was for me, my brother, and a friend to go down to Texas public land and kill some of the feral hogs that have been hyped up lately. We knew we were in for a tough hunt, having never been to Texas before and after all it was early June and 90 some degrees.
We left the great state of Wisconsin at 730 pm on a tuesday night and drove through the night, stopping only for gas and the Waffle House at 6am. We drove through Illinoise, Missouri, Arkansas, and finally we hit the Texas state line at Texarkana.
We went to the Army/Navy store in Lufkin, TX to get our licenses and permits and then got settled in at the luxurious Lufkin Inn. It was already afternoon so we headed out for the evening hunt/scout at Bannister WMA. The plan was to spot check various creek bottoms and wet lowlands for hog sign and to hunt accordingly to sign found. We did our spot checking throughout that night and the following day and with some tips from the helpful people at the National Forest visitors center we were able to find some hog sign. Just nothing really fresh and nothing that made us want to stick tight to one area.
Here are some pics of our hunting:
My brother in front of my truck, note the big empty freezer strapped into the back :(
The hog tracks look like a deer's hoof except the dewclaws are wider than the hoof and they are longer and sharper than a deers. Not to mention they are much bigger than a texas deer track. We saw some bucks with nice looking racks but tiny bodies.
A nice forest road:
We did find some sheds and some hog heads:
The last picture sums it up pretty well. My brother sitting out on a point that extended out into a big swamp. We didn't see anything but this was the second day and it was the best hog sign we had.
It was a good trip and we all learned a ton. I am not ruling out doing this trip again. It was relatively cheap and I think if we went again, we could do a lot of things smarter and more efficiently. If I had the time I wouldve stayed down there for a whole week.
Also-- The food down there was amazing! I don't think we had one bad stop!
Thanks for letting me share the story and pics.
Texas DIY Hog Hunt
- hunter_mike
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- Jackson Marsh
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Re: Texas DIY Hog Hunt
Nice write up Mike! I never knew Texas had so many trees, I need to visit there sometime.
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- hunter_mike
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Re: Texas DIY Hog Hunt
Jackson Marsh wrote:Nice write up Mike! I never knew Texas had so many trees, I need to visit there sometime.
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Thanks. East Texas from what we saw is very forested, humid, and rolling terrain with huge pine plantations and thick creek bottoms. And water moccasins. It was cool to see.
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Re: Texas DIY Hog Hunt
If you go again, there are a ton of hogs on public in Arkansas, the regs are a little screwy but there is a ton of public compared to texas which I think is only like 3% publicly owned. Once you get on to pigs one time you'll be hooked.
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Re: Texas DIY Hog Hunt
Looks like it was a fun trip.
- hunter_mike
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Re: Texas DIY Hog Hunt
Redman232 wrote:If you go again, there are a ton of hogs on public in Arkansas, the regs are a little screwy but there is a ton of public compared to texas which I think is only like 3% publicly owned. Once you get on to pigs one time you'll be hooked.
That is cool, i never considered arkansas. I think i will check into that. 5 less hours of driving sounds tempting.
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Re: Texas DIY Hog Hunt
The problem with AR like most other SE states is public land hog hunting is only allowed during open hunting seasons & you can only use the legal weapon for that open season. This eliminates all spring & summer public land hog hunting. I know AR, LA, MS, & AL have the same public land regs, but I'm not sure about GA or FL. We have great public land hog hunting here in LA. You might want to look into a Jan - Feb hunt after your deer season, but before ours closes.
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Re: Texas DIY Hog Hunt
Yep that's part of the screwy regs I was talking about. There a few options though, some WMA's offer special feral hog season after deer season closes and before turkey season opens. Some national forest properties allow hog hunting year round. I would also suggest going earlier int he year, cooler temps, less undergrowth and less food so hogs are more concentrated. Pre green up is ideal because a lot of the time those suckers will let you walk right on top of them or past them before they bust out. The first few weeks of March has been great for us in N. Alabama, usually highs in the 60-70 degree mark with night time lows in the mid 40's.cbigbear wrote:The problem with AR like most other SE states is public land hog hunting is only allowed during open hunting seasons & you can only use the legal weapon for that open season. This eliminates all spring & summer public land hog hunting. I know AR, LA, MS, & AL have the same public land regs, but I'm not sure about GA or FL. We have great public land hog hunting here in LA. You might want to look into a Jan - Feb hunt after your deer season, but before ours closes.
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Re: Texas DIY Hog Hunt
Im hoping to do another hog hunt this winter
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Re: Texas DIY Hog Hunt
Sounds like a good time. Better luck next time.
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Re: Texas DIY Hog Hunt
cool picks thanks for sharing !!!!!
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