Hunting Hogs At Night

Does anyone know a cheap method of hunting hogs at night? In previous years, we could go to our blinds in West Texas and about 1 out of 5 times hogs would come to the feeders about 15 minutes after sundown, sometimes earlier. This year though we haven't seen any hogs all year although there is still plenty of tracks and scat.

The last weekend of the special extended anterless & spike season (Jan. 14-15) we are planning on going hunting. I saw on Academy's website they have a light that can be mounted on your feeder desighned to run on an apparently seperate 6V battery than the one used for the feeder motor itself. (http://www.academy.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_10051_285657_-1?N=329212102e). This gizmo costs $50. Does anbody have any experience with these, or does anyone know of something that would work better if at around the same cost or cheaper?

My plan was to buy a couple of these and mount them this Friday night after sundown on our 2 feeders, then hopefully use them the following evening by hunting from say 3pm to 10pm for example, that way we could hunt for deer (antlerless only) until dark and then hunt for hogs after that. We do not have any game cameras out there yet, so we don’t know exactly what time of the night the hogs are going to the feeders, but it is clearly evident they are going to the feeders, but for some reason this year, it is always at night from what we can see. Thanks.

dont see one on that link . might just be my computer. if its the one with the small black adjustable things . with the lights in the end of them . i would save my money. i have one . and hate it. has to be adjusted just right . and then they have to be standing at the right angle. and if you get one of the lights even remotly close to pointed towards the front of the feeder. there is so much glare. u cant see anything through the scope.

I think someone on here uses those cheap solar landscape lights around their feeders. I've been thinking about using some myself to see how it works. Hogs have scared the deer of the feeder at the only rain proof blind we have.

The cheap ones at Harbor freight are $22. They tend to get picky when it gets real cold out and may or may not work when cold.

BUT I can buy 4 of these to any other solar powered, motion activated light I have seen.

go to wally world.solar spot lights $10.00 each dont put all on feeder set some up on tposts shinning across the feeders. works well and cheap.

i have one that i am making . trying to get paton on them right now. works better than anything i have found. as soon as i can get the paton thing going. i will put them on here.

about all that I can say is that feeder lights without a game camera is going to be an exercise in frustration.
You can light it up but if they are coming in at 2 am your going to be sitting a lot of wasted hours waiting.

mine has a camera plate on it. lol. already thought of that.

true you need to pattern them and no wasted time in the stand.

ok . im new on here. how do i post a picture ?

http://www.texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/754445/How_to_Post_your_Pics#Post754445

I use the cheap solar lights they work good, buy you have to use several to see. Corn all your roads as well and spot light them as well.

Corn the roads. Tie empty cans to a string and run it around all through the corn. Park the truck about 100 yards or so down the road. Sit in the back of the truck and have a cold beverage. When you here the "tinkling" of the cans, turn on the spot light and open fire. Pretty cheap

I couldn't see it either when I pulled it back up. Looks like it moved. They now have it at: http://www.academy.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_10051_285657_-1?N=329212102+933739032

It is called Wildgame Innovations Moonshine Hog and Varmint Feeder Light. It does look like it could be the "small black adjustable things . with the lights in the end of them", but please check out and let me know what you think. I don't see anywhere on there whether these lights come on automatically, so I'm going to have to assume they do not. I actually figured I'd have to turn them on manually once it is 30 minutes after sundown since that would be when we could no longer hunt deer, but since that is also when the hogs used to come to the feeder, I can see how that would have a good chance of scaring off hogs that might be close by and checking things out before they came in.

I'll have to check on the solar powered lights. Sounds like would be cheaper and plus wouldn't have to pay for batteries. Still not sure what would trigger the lights coming on.

I haven't heard anyone say anything about having to use one color or the other for the lights. I have heard that red will not scare off animals, but that if white light comes on, it sends them running.

I like the one about tying the cans together, except it might work better with an AR-15 than my bolt action .270, but then I'd be scared about what if there was a deer in the mix, or even worse, some lost trespasser or poacher.

Dunno about the other lights, but those little solar powered lights have detectors that trigger them to light up when it is dark.

LOL, my hogs don't seem to have watches or day planners. About the only thing they are consistent in doing is coming during the night and even then it isn't 100%. Only very rarely have I been able to pattern mine such that the hogs actually show up when predicted. I like to arrive early and once in a while, they will be early too and I end up spending a minimal amount of time in the stand. 3 or 4 times in the last 2 years have hogs shown up within moments of me arriving and that is when I arrived early. Mine are a fickle lot.

Kill Light. $48. Green LED lights magnetic or hangs. Work great

i use the moonshine lights. i started with the red lens and switched to green and then found that the clear don't seem to both them. i think it does take a couple nights for the hogs to get use to them. i use the motion sensor on them. having two will help cover more area around the feeder. the 6 volt 5ah battery lasts a couple of weeks. i leave the moonshines on and have a brighter, battery draining feeder kill light that i use the night i hunt so the hogs get use to coming in.

JonesFisher - where do you get them for $48, I looked on Elusive Wildlife's website and they are $80. http://www.elusivewildlife.com/products.htm?section=22&p=productMore&iProduct=274

pafree - sounds like a good setup although probably out of my price range since you say you have 2 moonshines and one "brighter, battery draining feeder kill light", that would have to be at least a $150 setup. I never thought about it taking a couple of nights for the hogs to get used to them. That might put a dent in my plans on installing Friday night and using the next night.

eastTXhunter300 - I went to the link you listed in your response to Terri's Great Outdoors about how to post a picture. I was hoping it would tell me how to put the pictures in my signature like I see that some people have. When I did it, I had 3 pictures that were all 125 pixels tall, but when I updated my profile, they somehow defaulted to 800x600 so these 3 huge pictures showed up in one of my responses to an IM someone sent me. Any ideas on how to make the pictures stay small, and how do you get several pictures stuck together like you have in your signature? Thanks.

i have changed my setup at the feeder to move some lights to other feeders and you can could probably get away with one moonshine light. i cut the bottom out of a bucket and put it over the spinner on the feeder so the corn only falls under the feeder in the light. i would have the bigger hogs eating the corn outside of the light and never come in the light. now they all come in the light. i have a gun mounted light to spot the larger shy ones but have never had to use it. having a good low light scope or scope you can see the cross hairs at night is always a plus.

I have the Wildgame Innovations Moonshine Hog and Varmint Feeder Light from academy on my bow stand feeder, plus a game cam to pattern them, as best possible. It works well for my set up. The light has two options, one, turn it on and it stays on, or two turn it to the motion detector setting and it comes on w/motion. I use the red lens that comes with it. Nothing is full proof, but with a pin light on my bow sight it's worked on plenty of nights

thanks. will try to get the photobucket thing set up. think i have decided to just sell them at the hunting and gun shows for a while and see how it goes .will post some pictures on here when i get it going. and yes. that is the light that i was talking about.you can have it if you want to come get it . lol. i hate the thing. thats what actually made me invent my own.

May not want to shoot a spike/doe and leave it under a lit feeder.

You deffinintly want to get a game camera to make things that much eaiser on you... i do alot of night hunting and can tell you the little solar charged path lights work good on the feeders and are cheap...but it limits you to the feeder only....check out the G3 light by bowlite products...you can get a mount for your rifle, bow, and bowfishing rig and use the same light on all three....the green by far has shown the best results and the low beam is as bright as most competitors fixed high beam...with the bowlite you get two settings for close or long shots...its also very compact and has awsome batterie life...this way you will be able to hunt the feeder and be able to pick off anything that dosnt come to the feeder...and is awsome for walk hunting all with the same light...check them out at thebowlite.com

I do a fair amount of night hunting myself but have always used red lenses on my spot and weapon light. How do animals react to green light compared to red?

The reactions are always different....as far as the animals reactions green or red are about the same...i like the green cuz it seems to be easier on the hunters eyes and i can see alot further with green than red.

pretty cool idea using the bucket to direct the corn straight down.

I'm probably going to have to go with the moonshine hog & varmint feeder because it looks like the one that EWT makes they are the only ones you can get them from and from their website it looks like to get it shipped overnight would be as much as the unit itself.

You sound like you might want to get rid of your moonshine varmint feeder. What parts do you reside in? I'm in the Dallas area. Thanks.

i have also used red.in my opinion. green is better. they dont seem to pay any atention at all to it. i have a couple of pictures where the hogs are standing right in front of the light. im talking a foot away. and not paying any atention to it. but i can make these lights in red too. i tried both. just liked the green better. and i am in cisco. just east of abilene on I20.

That is interesting. The guy over on Texas Boars who sells lights talks about how the hogs don't see red, don't notice his lights. He is wrong of course. They may not see red as a color, but they do see the light. It may be a shade of gray to them, but they see it.

That's always been my problem with red, it just kills the throw. I'll have to try green next time.

hope i got this pic thing figured out .

I have the green lite on my feeder also,,pigs,deer,coyote pay no attention to the lite. Its the kill light,,,im adding another one to it.

I am going to get a new scope for this method of hunting pigs,,im really thinking a 4x12x50 the lites work well, but theres always some pigs standing just outside the brightest area

I have a small Surefire flashlight and I just hold it against the forearm of the rifle and it lights up the feeder area just fine.

I have a weapon light by Primary Arms out of Houston. Very bright and great value ($70). I can light up to 150 yds (white) easily. I need to find some green light jell material before my next hog trip in a few weeks.

Look online or in music stores that carry stage lighting, like Guitar Center.

The 4x12x50 leupold is the best for night hunting...at least for your money...you can see as far as you want on a good moon

Check out thebowlite products as well expesialy if you bow hunt and bowfish as well...one green light can mount on all three

I should have quoted the post previous to mine. I was referring to a weapon mounted light.

ghamilton, local shop here in town has several left $55 I think, got mine at academy last summer but I havent seen them lately.

I don't even see them on the elusive wildlife website anymore?

I tried the wal mart solars, and placed red lenses on them. Could not see well at all with them. Next I bought a spotlight and put a lens on it but found it spooked them when turned on and was impossible for me to hold and aim at the same time. Then I bought the green Kill Light and it throws a lot of light, has the dusk til dawn switch which is nice, but never had hogs come under it. Lastly I bought a light from texas boars and it has made a good bit of difference. Mounts to a camera tripod and has both red and green lights. I can see really well for about 70 yards. Have killed several using it. Was the most expensive option I tried but not much more than all of the others added up.

I actually ended up getting two of the Wildlife Innovations Moonshine Hog & Varmint Feeder Lights at Bass Pro Shop this last weekend. I got them over the Kill Light Feeder Lights simply because to get the Kill Lights for that weekend I would have had to have them overnighted or bought them a couple weeks earlier since apparently you can't get them except through EWT's website or eBay (which is currently out of them from what I can tell).

I was not very pleased with the Moonshine lights. I was able to see under my feeder alright with my 10x50 binoculars to the extent I would have been able to see if an animal came to my feeder and I would have been able to identify it, but when I put my 3-9x40 rifle scope to my eyes, I could not see my cross hairs to shoot if I wanted to. I was in my blind at 100 yds away and the next night I was in another blind at 120 yds away. Whatever I end up with ultimately, I will need to be able to see my cross hairs from these distances, buy a new scope, or build a new blind (I'm definitely hoping not to have to use these last 2 options).

A couple of other things I didn't like about the Moonshine lights was that with the feeder lights attached to the feeder legs as they are designed to do with the U-bolts, when you open the battery compartment, the battery falls down on the ground, so you have to carefully slip your fingers in their before fully opening the compartment to keep that from happening. Another thing was that when we initially installed the Moonshine lights which was in the middle of the night, if you set it to ON which is the dusk to dawn photocell setting and if you do this in the dark, the lights do not even come on, I'm guessing this is because the photocell does not see the transition from light to dark to turn it on, I could not even fake it out with a flashlight shined on the photocell. So, I had to set it for the PIR mode for motion activation. When I did this, it would stay on most of the time and then shut off for a few seconds and come back on, this is without anything around that should have been setting off the motion activation in the first place. When we came back the next night to actually hunt, I did not have much faith in the PIR setting, so I changed it to the photocell setting and it came on as it should after the sun set.

We hunted at each blind for two consecutive nights, we stayed till about 2-3 hours after sundown, but never saw anything come to the feeders. Before we left at the end of our trip I installed solar panels on both setups so if nothing else the lights should let the hogs get used to them over the next 4 weeks until we go back out there.

Great explanation. Kinda gives me an idea for my night time hog hunting at my feeder.

unless you got lit recticles rifle hunting with a feeder light is out...set up a pop up about 25yrds away and get them with a bow or shotgun...now scope mounted lights are a different story

http://www.harborfreight.com/12-volt-halogen-vehicle-work-light-93904.html

Plus

http://shop.tjb-inc.com/12-vac-photocell...urce=googlebase

plus a 4x4 post 12v feeder battery and solar charger. Tail light repair tape if red is wanted. Bam. Try it before I do this weekend.

Ok, so the photocell may or may not work, but I'm sure there is a cheap one that would.

The xlr250 green light I just got is Awsome. Mounted right on top of scope, can see through my scope very clearly. This seems to me to be a better option that feeder lights....

Reason I like feeder lights is it makes it more convenient to bring others out and the rest of my family can hunt when I'm not there.

Pretty good point.

I bought a magnetic led light a tractor supply for 5 bucks and duct taped 3 sections of a green plastic sprite bottle to it for a green glow. It works great. Takes 3 triple a batteries and runs a long time.

pm sent

I plan on getting an xlr250 but right now every site I found (EWT, ebay) say its on backorder so can't get it right now anyway. I would like to have a feeder light also though so I will be able to see when they are at the feeder 120 yds away. I don't just want to be shining a light down there all the time to see if they are there.