First Hunt Ever Advice

[DeNinny]

I'm now all set for my first hunting trip ever. It's a bucket list thing for me, and it's a hog hunt in October. It will be with a hired guide. I have reloaded and factory 123gr SSTs all ready and will zero my scope at 200yds with the best reloads in a couple of weeks.

Any advice or tips?

Thanks!

[Happy2Shoot]

Super cool! Congratulations. I would also like to go on a hog hunt.

Is 200 yds the max range you are likely to shoot? You may want to game out an intermediate zero range using a ballistics table with your muzzle velocity and 123gr SST BC.

I usually end up at 3/4 max range for a zero, but not always.

[Happy2Shoot]

Dupe

[Happy2Shoot]

Range (yds) 0 50 100 150 200 250
velocity (fps) 2500 2416 2333 2252 2173 2095
energy (ft.-lb) 1707 1594 1487 1385 1289 1199
trajectory (in) -1.5 0.5 1.1 0 -2.8 -7.4
come up (moa) 0 -1 -1 0 1.3 2.8
come up (mils) 0 -0.3 -0.3 0 0.4 0.8
wind drift (in) 0 0.1 0.4 0.9 1.6 2.5
wind drift (moa) 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.7 0.9
wind drift (mils) 0 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.3

[EastTNHunter]

[DeNinny]

Thank you Happy2Shoot for all of that. I think max range is ~400 yds. And I chose 200 yd zero to be at half that. 300 yds could work too.

[DeNinny]

Thanks EastTNHunter. It is a meat hog hunt for sure! I already have a butcher lined up to process the meat.

[Double Naught Spy]

I have several suggestions.

On zeroing, zero where you like, but unless you have heard differently from your guide, chances are you are going to be much closer to your hogs than 200 yards. I would zero at a more reasonable distance, such as 100 yards.

Again, opinions will vary, but don't waste your time and money for a butcher if all you are killing are mature boars. Generally speaking, better eating will be from sows and ideally immature females 80-120 lbs. As noted above, take your time with your shots and pick out the better eating hogs if your goal is meat. It can take a lot of prep and time to make a stinky old boar taste good, FYI, and they usually smell terrible when cooking as well.

Most of all, have fun!

[oyster]

Totally agree with DNS. You can either have your trophy on the wall or in the pot. Unfortunately hogs rarely do both well unless the boar has been cut earlier in life. Sows you can get away with on the large side but for general taste and tenderness less than 125# sows down to 20# er's.
Good hunting
Jay

[GREYBUFF]

Best advice I could give is HAVE FUN. It's all about the comraderie and the chase......

[DeNinny]

Thanks everyone! Great input by all.

As an update I have 3 hog targets that I will practice with at 100, 200, and 300 yds. I'm still leaning towards a 200yd zero and with the targets I will get an idea on how much to adjust dope or use "Kentucky windage" method as the distance changes from 200.

I also got some game bags.

Next question is - do I absolutely need camouflage? I have earth color clothing (brown) and I'm cheap. Sorry if this is a no-brainer.

[Double Naught Spy]

Next question is - do I absolutely need camouflage? I have earth color clothing (brown) and I'm cheap. Sorry if this is a no-brainer.

Yes, you absolutely need camouflage. How else will you project the correct hunting prowess?

Seriously, no, you don't need camo. I wear some camo to hunt hogs and a lot of earth tones. I have hunted with people in bright white or neon green shirts before that would do better for pedestrians crossing traffic and wanting to be high visibility to not get hit by a car, and who were still successful.

HOWEVER, and this is a huge point, I believe (that is the sum total of credibility for this statement) that camo and earth tones work in your favor. It is just something that helps give you some advantage and may be critical in wide open fields in daylight or at much closer range in low light. Hogs actually see pretty darned well and their limited FOV binocular vision in front is about as good as humans, only more narrow. They DO see better at night than we do. Their side views are with less detail but they can see something like 330 degrees around them, so I would have to believe if they see a brightly colored object moving in their periphery that they are more apt to take notice than something that doesn't stand out.

Along similar lines, noise discipline is important as well, though I have hunted with folks who were nearly deaf and who spoke way too loudly and yet the hogs didn't run off that time. I have had a guy stumble and fall in front of me, his gear noisily clattered to the ground and him cussing, and not had hogs run away at 80 yards. I have accidentally clinked the leg of my shooting sticks against my partner's shooting sticks, not very loud, but that one clink was enough to cause the hogs to immediately bolt at over 100 yards.

I think light discipline is important as well in low light, but hogs won't always bolt if they see lights.

Odor discipline, also important, but again, not 100%. I have had hogs down wind of me that took off running, RUNNING before I ever got into range (inside 300 yards) and I have gotten to within 40 yards of hogs down wind of me that didn't run.

All in all, I think the impact is cumulative, but nothing is 100% detrimental or effective to helping your hunt.

Lone boars can be awfully skittish whereas the same approach used on a foraging sounder might not even get a head raised from the ground.

In sounders, there is commonly one or more sentinel individuals that do security checks. They will typically be the individuals that you see that stop, stand still (freeze), and more often than not, raise their noses in the air. They are basically doing a "Stop, Look, Listen, and Smell" for situational awareness. These will be the hogs that will most likely bust you from a distance. If they detect a threat, they may start trotting away and then grunt or grunt and start moving off. If they just start to run, one or two individuals (or all their piglets for a Sow) may go with the runner, but if the alarm grunt is given, they will all go into motion. If you see hogs doing security checks and you are within shooting distance, then be prepared to shoot at all times lest you may lose your opportunity in short order once the alarm call is made.

Lastly concerning their behavior/capabilities, there are a lot of things hogs tend to do or tend to not do, but hogs are very individualistic like people as well. For every common behavior, you can find (often numerous) exceptions. Expect the unexpected and be happy if you aren't surprised.

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On Killing Hogs...hogs have a great reputation for being "killed" and reanimating almost immediately to up to 20 minutes later. If you ever have any doubts about how well a hog has been shot, just go ahead and shoot it again, ideally with a well placed CNS shot.

True story, my old partners Dave and Alex were hunting the pecan orchards and had killed 7 or 8 hogs. The hogs on this property have to be collected and taken to a disposal area. They drove the truck around and collected the hogs, piling them in the back. They arrived at the collection area and started unloading. Alex said he had just tossed his 2nd hog onto the ground when he turned to grab the next hog....that was standing up and looking at him. The hog then turned and jumped out of the side of the truck. After recovering from the shock of what he had seen, Alex took off after the wounded hog, pistol in hand and run it down after 80 yards or so and killed it again.

[DeNinny]

Thank you Double Naught Spy for all of that. Appreciate the effort!

[DeNinny]

I plan on taking a side shot at the area between the heart and lungs. If I miss the heart, then hopefully I'll hit the lungs or it will hit something else that incapacitates it. Is there any other scenario/shot to consider? Like is there a condition where taking a headshot is better?

[Clintster]

You might find this video interesting. Note the 'smell' conversation about cooking starting around 6:05 minutes.
I've never used a guide but suspect they will put you on 'em. Have a great time!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-BmX-3Qqa4&list=PL0et1cMOo0BAHUK6AQysYydwDeDnDcnnt&index=1