Hog Hunting in Texas

It appears the dissection continues. Sometimes it seems I should just stay out of discussions like this as I guess I mention things that can be controversial, or at least can be interpreted as such.
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A group of people continually in full agreement isn't a discussion, it is--well, I don't know what it is. Maybe a group singalong or something similar.

Worthwhile discussions virtually always involve at least some level of controversy. And dissection is not a bad thing, in fact it's an important learning method. Pulling things apart to see how they work, or looking at situations in detail to isolate differences and their possible effects, can be very enlightening.
Bottom line is.....it's hot here (without comparison to other years!), I don't find hogs moving much out of the cover in this heat, so they are harder for me to find at this time.
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If someone shot many times more hogs last year than that same person was able to shoot this year even hunting over the same area and in the same heat then it sounds like there's at least one other factor involved.

Obviously, anyone interested in hunting hogs will be very interested in being able to better predict when they will/won't be moving. Along those lines, can you think of anything else that might account for the significantly reduced movement of the hogs this year as compared to last?
 
Buffalo, Texas here and area here is half oak trees and other half fields. Yes it's hot here and you can catch hogs coming into open areas just before dark and usually around 7 am or so they usually head back to the woods. And hogs In Summer usually don't stray more than 1/4 mile from a creek.
If you like spotting and stalking in daytime hours you're better off in woods close to creeks. Night time get out there in them fields, especially that bottom land where it stays moist.
 
That makes perfect sense. I think it's a given that hogs like to stay near water when it's very hot. It also seems reasonable to assume that hogs would move around less when its very hot.

That makes it all the more interesting that, based on your comments and the weather data for the past two years, we have two periods where the heat was similar and the hogs were actually moving around MORE during the period which was slightly hotter.
 
Dunno access details, but there are a lot of hogs in the Guadalupe River bottoms below Cuero. Same along US 90 between Castroville and Uvalde.
 
JohnKSa, I may have a bit too much heat on the noodle while here in Texas but in order for your second paragraph to make sense perhaps you could add factual data to your rhetoric?
 
I'm sorry you had difficulty understanding the paragraph/sentence.

The sentence referenced two different data sets.

The first one was Old Stony's observations of hog movement this summer vs. last. I took that information at face value and have not made any attempt to either verify it or call it into question. If that is what you are asking about, I can't help you. For whatever it's worth, I do not doubt Old Stony's claim about his observations of hog movement this summer vs. last summer, nor can I think of any good reason to doubt it. It seems reasonable to me that you should take his observations about hog movement as truth.

If you're asking about the temperature data, perhaps I can help you there.

Since we haven't been provided with any location more specific than "East Texas", I looked up temperature data for June and July of 2016 and 2017 for the DFW area (I stated that in my first response on that topic) which is considered to be northeast TX. The results showed that 2016 was slightly hotter than this year which agreed with my recollections/impressions. I didn't record the specific website which I found on the 25th, so I can't provide the exact link.

Double Naught Spy stated that he did a similar type of comparison for a number of East TX towns (I believe he said 5) and found similar results--2016 was about the same or slightly hotter than 2017.

I can provide some links which provide historical temperature data for the northeast/east TX area in case you're having difficulty locating a resource like that. I can't verify that either of these is the website I initially used, but here are a couple websites that provide temperatures for northeast/east TX during June/July 2016/2017.

https://www.weather.gov/fwd/dmotemp

http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/tyler/texas/united-states/ustx1383/2017/6

If you wish to find other similar sources, I'm sure there are others out there--it was very easy to find these two.

Hope that helps.
 
I went back and read post number nine once again, the only mention of temperature is that it is hotter during our hunts today than a year ago. It should also be noted that last year the hunting was during April and May.
I am confused as to your obsession with the mean temperature between last year and this as the point of Stoney's post was physical cover and location simply noting temperature as a contributing factor. I have found the cover here in E Texas to be quite dense compared to other parts of Texas I have visited. If a person were traveling here to hunt hogs without land to access they may not be terribly successful.
Hopefully as the dawn breaks today I will be able to face a few of your porker critters and up this years tally allowing me to joyfully report back to all. If not, back to the drawing board! But most of all I thank the Great State of Texas for the opportunity to join in the removal of feral hogs from their quest of destruction.
 
I went back and read post number nine once again, the only mention of temperature is that it is hotter during our hunts today than a year ago. It should also be noted that last year the hunting was during April and May.
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The fact that you hunted last year in April & May vs. your midsummer hunt this year is useful information indeed as it provides critical context that immediately explains what otherwise appears to be a contradiction.

I do agree that it should be noted. In fact, a simple reply to my initial comment, noting that fact, would have cleared up the confusion immediately. Instead...well, instead the confusion was exacerbated by a number of oddly uninformative responses on a variety of topics except, of course, the single point of confusion.
I am confused as to your obsession with the mean temperature between last year and this as the point of Stoney's (sic) post was physical cover and location simply noting temperature as a contributing factor.
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1. I'm sorry about your confusion--there seems to be a lot of that going around. By way of explanation, my comments were not about the mean temperature of 2016 vs 2017--which is a good thing--it is impossible to know the mean temperature of 2017 since it's still in progress. I can see how your thinking I was talking about the average temperature of 2017 would be confusing. My comments related only to the average temperatures of the assumed timeframes of the hunts for both years. The time periods which the post in question referred to and implied were different in temperature.

2. I suppose that being interested in "a contributing factor" which seems to be generally accepted as being important to hog movement could be referred to as an “obsession”. I suppose that being interested in hunting in general or being interested in other specific factors (such as cover or location) likely to affect the success of a hog hunt could also be considered to be an obsession.

3. I’ve made no claim as to main point of Old Stony’s post, nor do I disagree with your characterization of it. I only commented about one aspect of the post about, as you call it, "a contributing factor" to hog movement. I tried to make it clear which part of the post I was referring to by quoting only that portion and I'm sorry if you got the idea that my comments/questions were an attempt at summarizing the post in question or making claims about what its point was.
 
Very interesting y'all.

I'd say if you want to come to Texas to kill hogs for fun, go with an out fitter. Expect to spend some money. I'm very lucky myself in the fact that I have friends with access to lots of different places to hunt. I also have a couple Thermal units and suppressors. So having good equipment goes along way in who get to hunt with. However you choose to do it, keep in mind to hunt where the pigs are. For example, where the crops are being harvested or natural food sources that the pigs will be hitting at the time of year you plan on going. Depending on what part of Texas you go to, corn is being harvested. In standing corn you won't find the pigs no matter how many are in there. Afterwards you'll see them everywhere in the open fields for a couple weeks. At least till that food source is gone. Wheat and milo fields are the same way. Come the fall acorns and pecan groves will be full of hogs. I have 101 confirmed hog kills this year alone, compared to 70 all of last year. I'm pretty much hunting the same areas too.
 
I didn't record any data, but hot dry years=less hogs. Less hot and more wet = more hogs.
The exception being that it could be hot and dry and you see more hogs, if this is the case you are in a migration path of hogs desperately seeking a wetter place.
 
Ibmikey has managed to snag 18 of them so far on this summer's visit. Still pretty slow in the hog dept. around here, but there is still hope for more. I am seeing a little more movement in some of the areas we hunt....while some of the otherwise normally productive areas are still very quiet. Still a few more weeks for him to drop some more though.
 
Pigs should be moving out in the open this week/weekend at night. Hot weather during the day and waning moon to almost no moon at night means the pigs normally move into the open fields. They seem to feel safer. We killed 6, close to Meriden Texas, and 2 more down by Hamilton Texas this past weekend. Hope to do better this week. However we're taking some folks hunting who have never hunted at night with thermals before. number one is for them to see pigs and number two is they shoot at pigs and last but certainly not least, they kill a pig.
 
Here in central Oklahoma we are going to try the green light at a feeder approach to night time hog hunting.

Can't afford the thermal scopes or night vision gear.
 
We have had a break in the weather along with rain. The hogs are moving around more. My grand-daughter shot hogs on the 4th and 6th of August: Hogs came to a feeder after sunset.
 
04L.....Don't bother with super expensive lights, you can buy solar powered porch lights at Harbor Freight for about 25 bucks that work just fine. I use a bunch of them at different feeders and have shot a lot of hogs under them. They come with motion detectors as well...
 
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