I have hogs on my land, and they are a problem animal here in Texas that are allowed to hunt day or night, with any weapon, and you can use spotlights. There isn't a limit on them, and you don't even need a hunting license if you are a land owner, or the land owner gives a person permission to hunt their land.
When I lived in California, a few buddies and I would hunt for hogs on public land with very little success. California has a bunch of regulations for hog hunting that made it harder to hunt them. Hogs are mostly nocturnal, so finding them out and about during the day is rare. They cannot cool themselves, so they rely on staying still all day long when it's hot out, or laying in water and mud to stay cool. In winter, they are more active during daylight, but night is still their favorite time to be out. The cold has no affect on them, they can survive in Siberia, so they can handle anything that winter can hit them with easily here in the US.
Just about everyone that I know who hunts hogs is a lot more successful hunting them at night with thermal scopes over bait. The guy who shoots them at my place, has killed over 200 since the Covid Lockdown. Right now, it's too muddy out, but he needs to get back here because they are tearing up my land every night.
Can you bait hogs there? Can you use game cameras? They don't pattern like deer do, they can be in one place for a week before moving off, or they might just be there one night or two before moving off. The boars tend to remain alone while looking for receptive sows. Sows group up in pairs with three generation of piglets between the two of them. I've seen groups over 30, but a dozen to 20 is more common. For a very short time, when the oldest piglets break off from mom, they might remain together for a bit, but once the boars reach maturity, they don't want friends, they only want to eat and reproduce.
I've had luck just listening to them. Or I should say that while I was in my woods, I've heard them making noise and I've been able to sneak up on them and get one.
I've shot two with one shot before, and I've shot three in a group before, but usually after the first shot, they spread out and disappear pretty quickly. The guy with the thermal can usually get 3 or four out of a group because his thermal shows them through the brush at night. He's also stayed out during the night after shooting a few, and another group will come to the feeder and he'll get a few more. One night with his brother, they shot 14. They have also shot 12 in one night several times.
I saw four feeding along the offramp to my house just before dark last night. I thought about going for a walk to see if there where any out on my place, but I had to do some other things.
Hogs are not stupid, but they are not brilliant either. Their tracks are round and wider then deer tracks. After it rains, you can find fresh tracks and sometimes follow them to where they are tearing up the ground. Rain seems to make them more active for some reason. They can't see very well, and they make so much noise, that they don't seem to care about other sounds either. Smell is their strong point, so if you see or hear them, use the wind to your advantage.
I used to get excited about hog hunting, but now it's a pain. I just want to fence them out and never have to deal with them again.
