Mannysilva

Hello everyone. I'm hoping some of you can help explain how rain effects wild hogs as it relates to hunting. I know most Hogs bed during day light esp when it's hot. Is it the same when it's raining? Also, when hunting in the rain, how is your sent effected? Can Hogs smell u just as well in the rain? Thanks in advanced

super_hunt54

They tend to stay under cover a bit more when it's raining hard. Just dreary drizzle na, they get out in that. If it's hot out, they will get out in the rain to cool off and find/make mud holes. As far as scent goes, the rain will knock down/cover your scent on the wind a little bit but not a whole lot more. But water will actually trap your scent on the ground. Hence why rabbit hounds track 100 times better in dew fall cover.

Double Naught Spy

If the rains are substantial like they have been here in north Texas the last 3 weeks, the rains will push the hogs out of the low area and really have them out and moving. During hot periods, rains may get hogs up and moving as well. Otherwise, the hogs operate rain or sun, night or day. Sometimes the rains seem to get the hogs to hunker down until bad weather is over and other times the hogs seem to be out in the rain, even heavy rains, like it wasn't even raining.

Can they still smell you in the rain? Sure, but not exactly. What hogs smell are literally bits and pieces that come off your body and from your breath. These pieces and molecules can be washed from the air (in part) by the rain much like rain helps wash pollutants from the air. So hogs would be less apt to smell you as readily.

JGFLHunter

I think rain can affect hog movement, we'll at least some hogs. One spot I hunt is in a real thick swamp with lots of palmettos, oaks, and pine cover. Rain has not affected movement and feeding times, at least not yet. Another spot I hunt is planted pines with some oak thickets. If it rains they don't feed or move in that area the same day. The next day they will be there though.

MudderChuck

If a wise old sow is leading the pack, I've seen them use the rain to raid spots they may normally shy from. Same way the wise ones use the moonless nights to their advantage. They get smart after a few of their relatives get shot and may tend to shy away from those places they deem dangerous. It can be a conflict for them, the places they get shot at may be the best feed. The adolescents are more likely to push the envelope, take chances and cut corners. The very young stick with the old timers and the old timers have survived for a reason, they tend not to be so impulsive.

Also depends on how they have been feeding, A rule of thumb is a Hog needs forty times it's body weight measured in calories a day. A hundred pounder eats 4000 calories a day. They have a lot of eating to do in 8-9 hours of darkness, depending on what they are eating. And how much they have been forced to move.

I like hunting in the rain, noise discipline isn't as critical, the rain makes a lot of background noise. And the rain can beat your scent down some, depending on the wind. They may also come out to feed earlier and head back to cover later in the morning.

Though I have to say, it works both directions, I tend to ambush them between their daytime lair and where they are feeding. I tend to hear them coming before I see them and have a little time to get set up and a likely direction. They are often on me and gone before I have a chance to react, in the rain. I don't take low percentage shots, if I can't get a good sight picture I don't shoot.

Feeders aren't allowed here, though small bait piles are. They stop and root for a few minutes but don't stop to seriously feed.

falcon

i like to hunt hogs in the rain. Hogs are energized by rain, especially after a long dry spell. They get out and rub on the utility poles. Rooting is much easier.

Right now our hog infested lease is inundated by West Cache Creek. It will weeks before hogs can cross that creek. The areas around my feeders are flooded and i can't get there. The hogs are on the high ground; many are stranded by the high water. Some are hanging around the wheatfields.

Not sure what is happening at our properties west of I-35. At our place east of I-35 the neighbor kid is catching hogs.

Tomorrow i will put a long range rifle in the truck and drive around looking for hogs.

BRUSE

I tend to see more hogs in the rain. When I lived in Georgia rain was a great sign the pigs would be moving. Good luck if you get a chance to get after them

mxrolo

I live on land near the Poteau river in oklahoma. Hogs on my place
are thick when they are there.Tthey move in and out and are very trap shy. When its cold rain in the mid thirties or lower they hold up. when its warmer and raining they move. Hogs dont have sweat glands so they stay close to water, when its hot put a blind near a field late in the evening when its warm and raining, and bingo its not hard, if they are in the area hpe this helps!!!! sqeal on hunta!!!!