Deer Season is over and Hogs are on!

snake284-1

Well, I'm rigging up the lights for two feeders and will try them out this weekend, that is my grandson and I, will go out this weekend at about 6 PM, turn the feeder lights on and hunt till they go dim. I figure they should last 4-5 hours. That should give us time for hogs to show up. I'm making a bucket of sour corn as we speak. I just put about a teaspoon of baker's yeast in a five gallon bucket with warm water and corn. I figure it will kick off by morning and sour real nice. This will draw the hogs, if they even need drawing, because the feeders have been going for weeks. The fermented corn is only a little insurance. The worst thing is that it's too cold outside for it to ferment so the bucket is in the laundry room. Pew!!! What a smell!

Anyway, we'll see how good it works Friday night.

Edited: It's been three days and the corn soaked up all the water. Now I got another 5 gallon bucket and divided the corn and added more water to both buckets. The liquid is bubbling and working niceley. I think it''s gonna have a nice odor by Friday. The lights use four AA batteries so I'll take some extras.

Razorbacker

Good luck buddy. Ya'll tear 'em up, need pic heavy report.

snake284-1

Razorbacker wrote: »

Good luck buddy. Ya'll tear 'em up, need pic heavy report.

Yeah, I've got my camera in my bag that I carry. Now if the piggies will only cooperate.

I'm also looking at some coyotes too. We have a lot of them. Some days I'd see 8 or 10 while sitting in the blind waiting on deer.

snake284-1

It's been drizzling and raining on and off since yesterday. I also am not feeling 100% because I've been out in the cold so much. But one thing that is good is that there's no season on the Porkers so I'm not in a big hurry. When it dries up I'll be ready. I've almost got the lights ready to hang on the feeders. This will be a nocternal venture. Also, not a lot of walking around involved. Just go sit in the blind and wait. Gonna take some food and drink and a wee wee jug, LOL!!! I figure to go about 5:45 PM and turn the light on on both feaders and relax. I'm going to take my lawn chair though because that damn stool in the blind will ruin your back. I think my wife wants to go with me. I broker her from hunting a few years back because she said she didn't like it. She said she didn't like being that quiet and that she couldn't even fart!!! Don't tell her I told you that, but it's the truth.

timc

Go gitem snake! Good luck bustin some porkers. Pic-pics-pics!

snake284-1

timc wrote: »

Go gitem snake! Good luck bustin some porkers. Pic-pics-pics!

Yeah man. Something about shooting porkers I love.

sherwood

Question for you. I have heard people say that you can and can't eat the wild ones. Which is true?

snake284-1

Never heard that you couldn't eat them. However, I have seen a few that you wouldn't eat. Some big boars get pretty strong. But there's a lot of factors in this. What the hog eats and his age are two that come to mind. My youngest sone killed a big ol boar about 18 years back that had little cyst like knots all through the meat. We ended up throwing it away. However, I killed a big bore a few weeks ago that is fine. It smelled to high heaven before I skinned it, but the meat smelled very good.

timc

sherwood wrote: »

Question for you. I have heard people say that you can and can't eat the wild ones. Which is true?

Some of the best and healthiest pork you can get! I stay away from the boars, especially the big ones but a nice sow anywhere from20-200 pounds is absolutlely awesome eating!
You can eat the big boars too but with so many of them I can afford to let the big ones go to the coyotes.

snake284-1

timc wrote: »

Some of the best and healthiest pork you can get! I stay away from the boars, especially the big ones but a nice sow anywhere from20-200 pounds is absolutlely awesome eating!
You can eat the big boars too but with so many of them I can afford to let the big ones go to the coyotes.

I almost left that last one for the coyotes because i couldn't get the massive thing in my car. I have plenty of upper body strength, but my legs give out when I'm lifting. I had to wait for help to come to get him in the car. I normally don't shoot boars. But that one suckered me into it. Now since that one turned out so well, I'll shoot any of them. If it's too tough or smelly, I'll leave it for the Yotes, they gotta eat too!!!

NN

snake284-1 wrote: »

so the bucket is in the laundry room. Pew!!! What a smell!

Anyway, we'll see how good it works Friday night.

You gonna wash it first?

Jermanator

snake284-1 wrote: »

She said she didn't like being that quiet and that she couldn't even fart!!!

That probably explains why I didn't get a deer in the fall.

Buffco

You're not supposed to fart while hunting?

I'll sacrifice a lot to get a deer, but I don't know if I can hold back 3 hours worth of farts.

Jermanator

No kidding. I thought that is how you are supposed to call them in.

Buffco

I think my body waits till I go hunting or I am in the presence of a beautiful woman to release my yearly allotment of methane.

breamfisher

So... your wife is in constant peril?

Buffco

cpj wrote: »

Im a resourceful guy, I can "modify" a grunt call for you. It will be hands free.

You will need to take some measurements. Maybe do a plaster cast. See you at the shoot.

snake284-1

Buffco wrote: »

You will need to take some measurements. Maybe do a plaster cast. See you at the shoot.

I got this here Deer Call from an organization I belong to. I's the Knight and Hale Grunt Call. I spent hours practicing to get the sound exactly as is on a CD that came with it. I have used calls similar to deer calls for various species and never had a problem. But when I tried the call out here, everytime I never saw deer that day. OK, that Knight and Hale call was made somewhere up north or in the deep south. I'm here in South Texas. Different accents. I think the deer suspect that the call has either a deep Southern DEER accent or a yankee accent, and they ain't suckerin' in to it for no amount of corn...
:roll2::roll2: :roll2::roll2::roll2::roll2::tooth:

Jermanator

...make sure to bring plenty of plaster.

snake284-1

Buffco wrote: »

You will need to take some measurements. Maybe do a plaster cast. See you at the shoot.

You guys may be on to something here. Make the cast and formulate a mold. Then....:jester:

snake284-1

NN wrote: »

You gonna wash it first?

Lots of truth to that Ned. I don't know what boars do to get their hide so smelly. Maybe they do like some dogs and go lay down on their back on something dead and roll in it. Whatever, but I think I'm going to start taking them to the car wash. The hair smells like they laid in Pooh. It's important to be careful when skinning. What i like to do with any hog is take them home with guts intact. Then hang em up and skin em. Then gut em. That way the smell of the hair AND the hair itself doesn't get on the meat or in the body cavity. In cool weather this is no problem, however, in the warm months you have to do it fast. We actually have a single tree and block and tackle out at the barn on the lease. There's also water and electricity. So in the summer I'll skin and gut the hogs before I bring them home. In fact I may do it anyway. That way I can feed the coyotes too.

snake284-1

Anyway, here it is Friday almost midnight and I have yet to go hunting. Just had many things to do and little time to do them.

The corn is now Sour Mash and fermenting nicely. I think the trick here is to get them drunk. Then they pose for their picture, LOL!!!

snake284-1

We went out last night and turned on the feeder lights at about 10:15. We saw some wildlife that resembled hogs, but upon further investigation wasn't big enough to be a hog. I shot at one but I shot over it. I think it's coons we saw. Anyway, the lights lasted about 3.5 hours before they went out. Actually, a cold front finally blew in at about 2 and when it got cold that's when the batteries died.

Zee

snake284-1 wrote: »

We went out last night and turned on the feeder lights at about 10:15. We saw some wildlife that resembled hogs, but upon further investigation wasn't big enough to be a hog. I shot at one but I shot over it. I think it's coons we saw..

Wait. You shot at something you couldn't positively identify?

snake284-1

Zee wrote: »

Wait. You shot at something you couldn't positively identify?

No! I'm saying I positively identified something wrong (I think). Big difference, at least as far as good judgement is concerned. I do know SOME THINGS about it. I know it wasn't a dog, it wasn't a cat, it wasn't a person, it wasn't a cow, It was a small to medium wild animal, either a small Hog, a ****, or maybe an Armadillo. However, I haven't seen an armadillo out there yet. Of course, I've also yet to see a ****. But that doesn't mean they aren't there. They are really everywhere down here.

Zee

So, you don't know what it was. But, you know it wasn't an elephant.
;-)

snake284-1

Zee wrote: »

So, you don't know what it was. But, you know it wasn't an elephant.
;-)

Now I think your hitting on something! Yes, I mean no, I mean it wasn't an elephant. Nor a cape buffalo, :yesno: :bang: :roll2: :rotflmao:

Arnold, the guy with me says I'm crazy, that it was definitely a small hog. I just didn't think it was big enough after I thought it over. However, thinking further, under the feeder there's a low spot just inside the feeder legs so that could have have helped make it appear smaller, or shorter, and it could have been a small hog. One thing's for sure, I'm going to find out because I'm going back out tomorrow night. I thought about tonight but after shooting last night I figure I'll give it a rest for a night. Besides, it's really cold tonight and the wind is whipping it up pretty good.

Also, when I do go back, I'm taking the .257 Ackley IMP. because it has my best scope on it, the VX-3L 56 MM Obj. 30 mm tube. I'm also going to measure one foot up on the feeder legs and mark it with something that will show up in low light. This will give me some size reference.

Something else I'm thinking about, these lights have 4 AA batteries each. They lasted right at 3 hours. Maybe the drop in temperature helped with their demize, but one things for sure, this time of year it's usually pretty cool so I better get use to that if it's really part of the problem. But I wonder if I can rig up more batteries in parallel if it might make them last longer. It should. If so, another thing I might try is buying some AA Rechargeable batteries. I have a charger that I use with a camera I have. I could rig each light up with say 8 instead of 4 batteries and get the rechargeable ones to keep cost down. I know they would cost a lot more than regular Energizers, but going through 16 AA batteries a night ain't cheap either.

One more trick I failed to try last night is that I kept the scope on the bottom power magnification because that helps with low light. But I've been thinking, the feeder lights are not that dim and by easing up the magnification slowly, I can optimize the magnification versus the light transmission of the scope and probably improve my sight picture and animal identification process.

I mean, who woulda thunk it?

snake284-1

They're a little GE fixture I bought at Wally World. They have two 6 inch fluorescent bulbs and use 4 AA batteries.

Teach

Four dry cell batteries of any kind, AAA, AA, or even D cells probably produce 6 volts when they're connected in series. (1.5 volts each). How about just using a 6 volt wet-cell motorcycle battery and recharge it once a night? Since you're not walking around with it, why not just use a full-sized 6 volt car battery?

Here's one:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/71-Honda-C70M-Yuasa-Standard-6-Volt-Battery-6N11-2D-/230870922676?hash=item35c0fab5b4&item=230870922676&pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr

Jerry

Jermanator

For a given light, LED's are going to give you more output using less power. You can use them for floundering too.

snake284-1

I've thought about a motor cycle battery, but wasn't sure if it would work. But I bet it would last all night. OK, I'll give it a whirl.

Ya know, those four AAs were bright up to right before they went dead. I thought they were going to last all night for awhile. Then when the front blew in, it wasn't 10 minutes and they were half what they had been. Then another 3-4 minutes and they were out. At first I thought it was getting foggy because I looked up and the light was real dim. Didn't take long. I think it was a combination of 3 hours of being on and then the cold. You know batteries and cold. Heat is energy's friend. Cold is its enemy. Oh well, Heat IS energy.