May 20, 2015
By Game & Fish Staff
If you're planning on chasing pigs this year, you'll want to gear up with a few tools that will help you get the job done. Whether you need some night vision for hunting during the pitch black of night, or an illuminated reticle that will get you on target quicker, success is all about preparation.
Following is some great hog hunting gear that will make your job a lot easier.
Evolved | C More Hogs So, you've got feeders on your property, all your stands are set up, and all the maps are marked. You're dialed in. If you're going to go that far, might as well add a little
Evolved C More Hogs attractant to the mix.
The smell of this sweet, irresistible liquid wafts through the timber, grabbing the attention of hungry pigs. Soon you'll be able to bring hogs back to old wallows or create your own, by adding this red slime.
There's not a whole lot of places that you can't squirt this stuff. Bare soil, old logs, and feed piles can all be enhanced by eight to ten ounces of C More Hogs. Trust us, it smells so good, you're going to want to have a taste. Just try your best to refrain, we've lost a few good interns that way.
MSRP: $9 Prograde | Hog Grade Ammo Hogs are tough. You need a tough bullet designed for penetration to take down the biggest, baddest porkers roaming the woods.
Prograde's new Hog Grade ammo line is designed to do just that, fitting the needs of hog hunters from California to Texas. The new line spans both magnum handgun rounds and rifle cartridges.
Pelican | LED Flashlight We've already covered the need to be prepared for low-light situations for hog hunting. By now, you know that you can never have too many lights.
Add the
Pelican 3310PL LED flashlight to your pack and you're getting a unit that's lightweight (6.2 ounces) and durable (it's made of an indestructible polymer material).
MSRP: $34 Moultree | Hanging Feeder Before you buy a feeder for your hog hunting efforts, make sure you consider three factors: durability, portability, and affordability.
The Moultrie 15-Gallon Pro Hunter Hanging Feeder holds up damn well in all of these categories.
With a weather-proof ABS plastic hopper and full 1-year warranty, it should deal with Mother Nature without a problem and take any beating you can dish out. Use a rope or chain capable of hoisting up to 100 pounds to hang it just about anywhere, which should eliminate time-consuming setup problems.
Once you're ready to roll, you can schedule up to six different feed times a day, and the timer can be programmed with ease. Your hogs will be fat, happy, and eventually dead with this best-in-class feeder.
MSRP: $70 SOG | Bladelight Hunt Normally, we hate products that try to solve problems that don't exist. When we first saw the
BladeLight hunt, we assumed it would fall into that category. Why can't you just carry a headlamp and a knife? Well, we were wrong.
The BladeLight lights it up with its six slim LEDs mounted in the bolster, three shining down each side of the stainless-steel blade. The 3.8-inch fixed blade comes attached to a nylon-reinforced handle that provides rugged toughness and a great grip.
When you're gutting or skinning a hog in the dark (or by the dim light of the garage), this SOG offering eliminates tricky shadows and allows you to slice and cut in places you might have otherwise avoided. It comes at a pretty low pricepoint, too. Bottom line: The BladeLight definitely solves a real-world hog-cutting problem.
MSRP: $92 Weaver | Compstrike Pig hunting requires quick reflexes and even quicker target acquisition. There aren't many shots tougher than a hog running full speed. Enter
Weaver's new 3X CompStrike red dot sight.
Mount this bad boy on your AR and let the 30mm objective lens provide a killer field of view wide enough to track any fleeing pig.
MSRP: $320 Alps | Outdoorz Quckdraw Hog hunters have to be quick. Whether it's shouldering your rifle or busting through brush, the faster you move the better.
Alps Outdoorz's QuickDraw pack is made so you can easily slide the pack around to your chest to
access it without taking it off. It also features a drop-down weapon pocket, a quiver holder, and hydration bladder.
MSRP: $80 Bushnell | Lynx Night Vision Pig hunting at night is all the rage, and there are a ton of high-priced night vision units that will get the job done. But if you're looking for the quality-plus-cost alternative, check out the
Bushnell Lynx 2.5X 40mm night vision binoculars. They're light (17 ounces) and feature a built-in infrared (IR) spotlight that can be turned on or off.
MSRP: $600 3M | Peltor Sporttac To be honest, any hunter would benefit from the
3M Peltor Sporttac Not only do they protect your hearing (and enhance it), but the SportTacs also offer built-in two-way radio communication, an FM/AM receiver, and bluetooth capabilities. You need these.
MSRP:$425 Tenpoint | Venom Crossbow Crossbows and vertical bows that deliver sufficient kinetic energy and offer shorter axle-to-axle measurements reduce the chance of hang-ups with limbs, vines, and anything else the jungle can throw at you. Plus, they won't bump around as much in ground blinds.
Tenpoint's Venom is one of those crossbows. The light package delivers nearly 360 feet per second, but has a cocked width of only 16 inches. That's pretty tight for a high-powered crossbow. We tested this bow along with seven others in our annual test but this night hunt served as a more thorough field test.
I won't ruin the surprise, but it's safe to say that the TenPoint Venom was among the best of the best among the options we tested.
MSRP: [imo-slideshow gallery=312],719 Nockturnal | Predator Lighted Nocks We topped our arrows with lighted nocks that helped us keep track of the pigs after the shot. When I first started shooting
lighted nocks years ago, I was amazed at how much they added to the archery experience.
It's fun to see your arrow's trajectory, but the bright zombie-green light gives you instant feedback on whether your shot was on target, where your arrow is if you missed. On one of my shots, the pig was running left to right at 30 yards, and I saw by my nock's flight that I didn't give the porker enough lead. I shot way behind him. No need to look for blood or a wounded pig here. It was obvious it was a clean miss.
Take it from me, a little help knowing where that pig is and what state it's in, is worth its weight in bacon.
MSRP: $38 Rage | 3-Blade Rage's new Kore has a compact head with three blades mounted away from the ferrule. The stainless edges cut in six directions and have an open diameter more than 1.5 inches to increase the tissue damage and wound channel.
Rage replaced the rings with a solid polymer Shock Collar, which looks like it will be their new standard. The heads are reusable, although it's a good idea to replace the collars after each deployment to prevent them from opening in the quiver.
The 100-grainers held up to the tough hide and sinew of the wild pigs. I'd be interested to see if they come out with a 125-grainer for extra penetration on pig's leathery skin.
MSRP: $45 NAP | Apache Predator Hog LED Stabilizer NAP makes quality lights that stay lit even after getting knocked around and nearly pulled apart in the brush. I already had this stabilizer light for my bow, so I used an offset mount to attach it to my crossbow's Picatinny rail.
That way, my Trijicon ACOG Crossbow Scope sat in the middle of the rail, and the light was at a 45-degree angle. The LEDs bathe the area in an eerie zombie-green light, and the reticle's green chevron stands out in the field of view without dominating the picture. I stuck the remote switch to the right side of the crossbow, just in front of the trigger guard.
It made a cool-looking, tight package. NAP makes a crossbow light for $10 more, but their regular stabilizer light worked just fine with a ring and offset mount.
MSRP: $69 'Kill Light' | Feeder Lights We used
Kill Light feeder lights, a popular product in Texas and at MMK Outfitters near Cameron, Texas, where we hunted. These green LEDs provided a good 360-degree halo — the hog kill zone — underneath the feeder.
The Kill Light has an optional remote control switch that lets you light them from 200 yards away. And they come on slowly so you don't spook what might be there. You can also choose the motion-activated option. Like a trail cam, it triggers when there is movement; the light comes on slowly and you set it to stay on for 1 to 15 minutes. If the game continues to mill about, the light will stay on.
Make sure you mount your light to the feeder, away from trees and brush. Wind-blown branches make shadows on the ground that could spook pressured pigs. Many come with strong magnets and tap screws. It's a good idea to just keep the light on all night for at least three nights before you plan on hunting so they're used to it.
MSRP: $99
