1st night time hog hunt: advice seeked

[ccoker]

will be doing a night hunt first of March at Reeds Ranch in Texas
it will be in a stand over bait I am pretty sure...

I have plenty of deer hunting experience and have shot pigs during deer hunts..
but I have not done a night hunt so I am seeking some advice from experienced guys and have a few questions:

Mainly it has to do with lighting and I am sure there are different schools of thought...

Do you prefer to have light on at all times or flip on at the sign of activity?
color?
etc..etc..

any feedback would be appreciated
thanks in advance

[Graybeard]

I've hunted at Jim's ranch twice and yes it will be over bait. Remember all his hunts are for free ranging truly wild hogs and there is no guarantee you'll even see one much less kill one. But his ranch is a really nice place and we had fun each trip even tho we took only one hog in the two trips.

If you'll be there during a full moon or near full moon time assuming it's not too cloudy you might not need a light at all. Again this depends much on which stand Jim puts you on. If you have a really good scope it might be entirely adequate. For the second hunt when my wife was hunting (she didn't hunt on the first one) I put a Bushnell Elite 4200 1.5-6 scope on her rifle and even tho we were hunting on a moonless period it was almost enough. Had there been any moon light it would have been plenty with no light in the area we hunted as we were on the edge of a open field sitting just barely back in the woods in one of the high stands that Kevin Ryer of www.texasboars.com had made for Jim.

I do NOT recommend leaving the light on all the time UNLESS it's one of those bait lights that cast only a dim light that is placed at the bait site, the hogs will be used to that if it's in use. I think Kevin is making and selling those now but am not 100% sure of that so Jim maybe using some.

It's handier to have the light mounted to your gun and just switch it on when it's time to shoot. Less chance of spooking the hogs and you don't have to try to hold a light in one hand while shooting with the other. I did that using a handgun and that wasn't good. I got the job done but it wasn't pretty.

Tell Jim Graybeard and Ms. GB says hi.

[ccoker]

thanks for the response
the hunts are supposed to coincide with the full moon according to the website
it will be me, my 9 year old (who got his first deer this year!), my dad and brother
all of us are experienced hunters, dad has the most time hands down at night (used to do a lot of varmit and gator hunting years ago at night)

We all have very good scopes on our rifles
I was wanting to try my 41 mag if the shots are under 50 yards but will have the rifle setup with me, my son would be hunting with me with a light on his gun and I would probably have my rifle setup as well..

with the pistol I am playing around with various light setups, I can mount a very bright light on my pistol, flip it on with my left hand and aim well, or, I might do a head mount (we use some very bright lights for mountain biking very hard terrain at night)

so, if it's going to be turned on at the last second, does color matter?

[Graybeard]

If you're hunting any of Jim's blind over feeder set ups the shot will likely be 50-60 or less. The shot I had was about 60 yards but it had been set up for my wife and she was using a rifle. She didn't want to hunt the second night, it was way colder than expected and she didn't have the clothes for it and her knee was hurting badly. She had fallen before the hunt and messed it up big time. So I was alone in the blind down near Horn Lake and it was a bit long for me under those circumstances but worked out OK.

I'd be real reluctant to use a handgun with a head light and if it's scoped I think that would be a real bad idea. Try it at home before going on the hunt to be sure the bright light doesn't cause you to lose the view thru scope especially and of iron sights as well. Mounted on gun is much better if you're alone rather than having someone to handle the light for you.

No color isn't as important but if white be sure to have it pointed a bit high when turned on and slowly bring it down to where there is just enough light on the critters rather than having the full brightness of it on them. Under a full moon you might not even need the light.

[ccoker]

thanks
I plan to do some testing before I go out there....

[elmer]

A friend of mine and I will also be at Reed Ranch for the March hunt. Look forward to meeting ya'll. I have hunted hogs there five times and take three hogs there.

I use Leupold binos, Bushnell 3200 scope and a Hawglite mounted on my rifle. With the binos I can see pretty well if there is any light. When I see a hog or critter with the binos I get on it with the scope. When I think I'm ready to take a shot I hit the Hawglite and have a couple seconds to take the shot or not before the hog reacts.

March 9th is not going to be a full moon, but according to this site (http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/cgi-bin/vphase-post.sh) it should be about 3/4 full. If the sky is clear you probably won't need a light. You may want to practice checking out things with your scope under a 1/2 to 3/4 moon before hand to see how well you can see. However, in March you never know what the weather will be. You can also work with your child as a team. One hunts and the other spot lights.

Jim and the rest of the Reed family are good people and I think you will enjoy your stay.

Graybeard,

Are any of the photos on the Reed Ranch website of you?

[hardertr]

I use THIS for night hunting:
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/item-link.jsp_A&_DAV=&id=0006362224761a&navCount=0&podId=0006362&parentId=&masterpathid=&navAction=push&catalogCode=IH&rid=&parentType=&indexId=&cmCat=netcon&cm_ven=netcon&cm_cat=Google&cm_pla=hunting%20spotlight%20scope%20mount%20optronics&cm_ite=netcon&hasJS=true

The hogs get a little spooked by the white light, but these lights have a flip-down red lense filter.  It mounts right on top of your scope, and is attached to a batter pack you wear on your belt.  There is a switch you mount to your gun forearm with a velcro strip and it works GREAT.  Mine will burn for about 3 hours if I leave it on all the time.

You will probably be able to hear the hogs coming in to the feeder well before they get there.  If they do happen to sneak in, they will make enough noise fighting for the corn for you to hear them once there there.  Then you can flip the red light on to find the pig you want.  At 50 yards, it will probably put out a wide enough beam for 2 people to hunt over.

[Graybeard]

Graybeard,

Are any of the photos on the Reed Ranch website of you?

If he still has some old enough on his site they will be. I've not looked at Jim's site in a long time to be honest but he used to have photos of us on there. Look for photos of the BHO's or Bigh Hog Outings. There were two of them and we were at both. These were invitation only hunts at no charge before Jim started charging folks to hunt hogs there. You might say we were the guinea pigs for setting up his hog hunting operation. It was a lot of fun. Faye and I slept in the little cabin on the left as you face the entry side of them when we were there. Some other guys bunked in the one on the right and some slept in the barn and some in their vehicles and trailers they brought.

[elmer]

Here is the photo I thought may be yours.

[Graybeard]

That would be me with the Gray Ghost Whumpus Hog. I'm the pretty one. Oh and I'm also the one holding the pistol. That's the S&W 657 Mtn. Gun which is all I had that morning to finish off the wounded and pissed off hog when Kevin found him down in the swamp at Horn Lake. I'm here to tell you a .41 magnum and 210 XTPs really weren't the proper medicine for that job but I got it done eventually after emptying it once and reloading and about doing it again. I finally slowed him enough to get a standing shot to the brain from a few feet away and it finally put him down for the count. See that hole just to the side of his eye that is bulged out? That's where the bullet went in and that's what bulged the eye out.

[oso45-70]

Gray Beard

Tell us the rest of the story, Did you feast on the beast? I guess this is a long time ago but surely you can remember how he tasted. Sounds like a great place to hunt hogs. That's some thing we don't have much of here in the south west. We do have a few but not as much as Texas, Thanks for the picture,good luck sir ...........Joe.......

[Graybeard]

We did bring the meat back as I recall but I think I gave it to my brother. He was out of work and flat broke and needed the food more than I did. I do regret not having it mounted as it's the only gray one I've ever seen any one kill.

[ccoker]

arg
the hunt got booked before we got the money to him
looking at going in April

I have a smith 657 with a 7.5" barrel, it will be loaded with the Federal 250g castcores as they are very accurate out of the gun and should do the job. 

The pistol is open sighted now, have toyed with the idea of a red dot or a 2x28 scope
I also have a scoped 243 and a Benelli 12g that shoots slugs very well out to about 75 yards

been researching light options

it'll be fun for sure

[rickt300]

I have a light that mounts on my rifle and have used it several times but now that Ihave some experience using handheld spotlights I prefer them. Walmart sells one made by Brinkman that is streamlined a bit better than most and has two light levels available. I hunt both from box blinds and stalking at night under a full moon. Our lease has sandy roads and under the feeders is usually a light sandy background where you can see the hogs pretty well on. Practice a bit with the spotlight so that when you turn it on it hits where your crosshairs are looking and do this when you are lined up on the hog. Practice at night in your yard on whatever suits you. The gun mounted lights aren't all that handy to me.