Originally Posted By: doublecheeseAgree again, but sometimes the wind changes direction and they spot you immediately.
In my tractor experience wind was another story. Probably those hogs have been hearing the tractor noise all the time and they get used to it.
For example, next week we have holidays and will goto my wife's parents' home town. In that area now is chesnut season and all the trees are just near the roads. The hogs are used to cars by now and locals are telling me all I have to do is to get out of my SUV's sunroof and shoot while somebody else is driving
Right... In many places hogs are used to the signs of human presence and it usually doesn't constitute a threat such as on a farm, ranch, near roads with mostly non-hunter traffic or in places with human presence that don't allow hunting.
Where I hunt is on a 750 acre planted pine forest surrounded on all sides by miles and miles of similar hunting leases where the hogs are pursued 24/7 by hunters using dogs, ladder stands, permanent box stands, food plots, baited corn piles etc. and the only time they see, hear, or smell humans or thier vehicles it presents clear and imminent danger.
They're so finely tuned to any indication of human presence that they often bolt without hesitation at even the smallest indication that the fearsome hunter with his thunderstick may be nearby. It used to be that they had very little fear at night but it didn't take but a few to be shot at night and now they're quite wary at night as well, often hanging up downwind of the bait for a long time before cautiously approaching and bolting at the slightest sound or errant smell. My game cams show them running off and slowly returning several times per hour where it used to be they would come and stay for as long as it took to eat all the corn we had put out.
Successful hunting techniques can vary widely from location to location and if you don't adapt and try to understand the pressures and attractions presented to your quarry, you will come up empty handed and clueless... Of course... Luck always plays a part in it as well.
