A More Efficient & Fun Way To Bait Hogs – It is no secret food is the quickest way to a hog’s heart—and that baiting is the best way to find hog-hunting success. The usual mode of operation involves a timed or roller feeder dispensing shelled corn, and waiting for the arrival of greedy hogs while occupying a strategically-positioned blind. This approach is certainly productive, and in better hog habitats, all too predictable. I’ve certainly done my share of this kind of hunting, without complaint—but if I lived in hog country and was able to hunt them more often, I wouldn’t want a steady diet of it.
When I visit Texas and my amigo Steven Tisdale, especially when looking for nighttime thermal action, we go about things a little differently. We call it circuit baiting, laying down a trail of corn along a circle of ranch road, along the edges of ultra-thick swatches of cover, or along a property boundary to lure hogs into the open (or onto our side of the fence), and returning later to investigate. This mode also produces excellent daytime hunting opportunities in areas where hogs haven’t turned completely nocturnal.
These hunts start by driving a pickup along ranch roads, sitting on the tailgate during warmer periods to trickle a thin trail of whole corn. During the cooler hours of dark morning, especially under freezing temperatures, we usually set a bag of corn in our laps and toss handfuls of corn out the truck windows, volume increased at known hog crossings or thicker draws.
For daytime morning hunts we arrive well before daylight to create our bait trails, occupying a deer stand during prime time and returning late in the morning to see if any hogs have lingered. We kill many hogs in this manner, and it provides exciting spot-and-stalk opportunities. This works especially well in cold weather, when hogs are more apt to await warming sunshine to go on the prod. Hogs aren’t partial to cold…
For evening thermal-imaging hunts we generally “corn roads” before climbing into evening deer stands, hunting until nightfall before beginning our investigations. In all honesty, these nighttime forays are generally outright culling missions.
Of course, our bait circuits are far from random. The favorite approach on one huge property we hunt is to drive a large loop of ranch roads, something that works on that place because we have 38,000 acres of rolling mesquite and blue berry junipers at the base of the Caprock escarpment to roam by truck. That huge West Texas ranch allows laying down miles of dribbled corn that keeps us busy well into the night.
On a smaller West Texas property we hunt, hogs are concentrated around a 250-acre playa lake choked with weeds and jungle-like salt cedars. The place is impenetrable to humans and serves as a hog refuge. We dibble corn around the parameter to lure hogs out of the nasty brush and mud. That ranch also has oil-well roads bordering neighboring properties, where we trickle corn to lure them to our side of the fence. Hogs can detect the aroma of dry corn from seemingly miles, especially when the wind is in their favor.
Choosing the right habitats can also be dictated by weapon choice. In some cases, we bait rougher or rolling country that helps set up spot-and-stalk hunts with short-range handguns. In other cases, we choose long, straight stretches of oil-field-access roads where we can make long-range daytime rifle shots. We have a couple spots where we bait a lower road, and back off to a bluff edge to test our extreme long-range skills with a flat-shooting rifle, turreted scope and carefully assembled ballistics chart. For nighttime hunts, baiting lower roads we can observe with thermal optics from well above, or slightly rolling roads that allow watching ahead through thermal binoculars or a monocular, serve best. Understand, in all these cases we are operating behind locked gates in country seeing regular oil-field, wind-turbine and general ranch traffic, so hogs become accustomed to nonthreatening truck traffic. In areas where hogs are spookier, an electric cart or e-bike would make for stealthier approaches.
A More Efficient & Fun Way To Bait Hogs – During the average daytime hunt, broken topography including breaks, ridge points and road twists, or swatches of thick vegetation, provide an advantage when working out of a truck or UTV to cover more ground. This allows creeping around corners or stopping on rises to investigate country from a distance while seeking feeding hogs. We also regularly park behind vegetation, road bends or rises and walk ahead to investigate proven stretches of habitat. This gives us the drop on daytime hogs, or screens headlights during nighttime gigs.
Admittedly, one of the big attractions of annual visits to Texas is the fabulous deer hunting. Circuit baiting allows us to fully concentrate on that, while also getting in plenty of hog hunting. Circuit baiting allows enjoying a morning or evening sit for whitetails while the bait trail you have laid earlier works its magic. If nighttime hogs are your only concern, circuit baiting also allows laying down a bait trail and catching a quick nap before the all-night festivities begin.
Nighttime hunts proceed a little differently because vision is obviously restricted. There is much less parking and walking, with nearly all operations based from the truck. On one West Texas ranch we hunt, which sees maintenance crews visiting power-generating wind turbines and oil wells daily, we run with the headlights on. While plying the larger property we hunt, which sees conspicuously less human traffic, my friend switches off the headlights (pushing the emergency brake in one click allows this, my own truck not allowing running without headlights) and navigates with my military-grade night-vision goggles.
On warm nights I stand in the truck bed, scanning ahead with thermal binoculars or monocular, or the weapon unit itself, tapping the roof when “hotspots” appear. On cooler nights I hang out the passenger window with the heater running full blast, resting the thermal-equipped rifle over the rearview mirror.
A More Efficient & Fun Way To Bait Hogs – Nighttime hunts allow hunters to get away with sloppier stalks. Hogs become much calmer under the cover of darkness, believing they are safe. Crunching gravel or snapping twigs don’t seem to concern them at night like it would under full sunshine. They seem also to become blind. Your only real concern is human scent, which means carefully minding the wind, even while approaching areas in a vehicle. Keep the wind in your face, checking progress through the thermal occasionally and moving slowly forward until hogs seem to grow antsy. Closer is always better, even if shooting a cartridge capable of some reach. The problem is thermal technology—at least more affordable thermal units—often fail to fully reveal brush or grass clumps. My 6.5 Grendel and 6.8 Remington SPC AR-15s easily reach to 250-plus yards, but I shoot most of my nighttime hogs from 50 to 80 yards to avoid bullet deflections.
I’ve used all manner of firearms during nighttime hunts. I once attached Sig Sauer’s compact ECHO1 Thermal Reflex Sight to a Pic rail attached to my .30-30 Winchester-barreled Thompson/Center Contender pistol—which proved deadly effective. I also once mounted a high-tech thermal unit to the Picatinny rail of a Marlin Model 336 Dark Series .30-30 Win—which also proved a hoot. Be that as it may, if culling is more important than sport, an AR-15 is the answer. Chambered in something like the .224 Valkyrie loaded with 90-grain Fusion bullets, 6mm ARC with 103-grain Hornady ELD-X bullets, or especially the 6.5 Grendel or 6.8 Remington SPC loaded with 123/120-grain Hornady SST slugs, these are the most efficient hog-hunting weapons possible.
ARs, with their Picatinny rails and M-LOK slots are ready made for attaching nighttime gear such as thermal units, weapon lights and lasers. ARs allow faster follow-up, not only because of the semiauto action but also reduced recoil. With a suppressor installed, I’ve laid down five to six hogs in a single approach. Adding 10 inches of suppressor to a 16-inch rifle barrel becomes a hassle when getting in and out of a vehicle but the inconvenience is offset by additional shots on large sounders of hogs, as well as saving your hearing.
My favorite nighttime hog rig is a parts-build 6.8 Remington SPC AR-15 with 16-inch threaded barrel. The SPC edges out the Grendel slightly at close range (6.5mm bullets running away from the SPC’s 7mm slugs at longer ranges due to superior ballistic coefficients). I chose a skeletonized forearm with Picatinny rails on four sides, allowing the addition of a thermal unit, green- or red-filtered weapons light (Streamlight TLR-1 Game Spotter or Cyclops VB250 Varmint Light), and laser. The light ensures I won’t trip over cactus or fall into a hole in the dark, the laser used for administering an up-close coup de grace on a wounded hog. Take it easy with the light, keeping it pointed to the ground during approach, as hogs will react to shadows created even by filtered light.
If you have access to a large piece of hog-infested property, give circuit baiting a try. It is not only effective, but offers much more excitement and variety than guarding a bait station. It is also the deadliest nighttime thermal approach possible.
Read the March 2023 Issue of Inside Firearms at insidefirearms.com