How to Choose the Best Location for a Nighttime Hog Hunting Setup

After more than 30 years of hunting hogs at night, I’ve learned that finding hog sign is only part of choosing a good location. The best nighttime hog setup isn’t necessarily where you find the most hog sign. It’s a place hogs want to use that you can repeatedly approach and hunt without them knowing you’re there.

Quick Guide: What I Look For

1. Plan the Approach Before You Place the Feeder

The first thing I think about is not where the feeder looks best. It is how I’m going to hunt it. Where I hunt in Texas, I commonly plan around a south wind. I want to park downwind and approach with the wind in my face, without crossing heavily used deer or hog trails on the way in.

A great place for a feeder is not necessarily a great place to hunt. I’ve passed up locations with excellent sign because there simply wasn’t a clean way to approach them.

I also try to anticipate where the hogs are most likely to come from. Mature boars may circle if something seems wrong, so I never assume they will use one exact trail. The goal is to keep my scent away from the feeder and the most likely approach routes.

2. Water Can Make a Good Location Much Better

If I can build a good setup near water, I usually will. Ponds, wallows, low areas that hold water and creek systems are all places I pay attention to. The water does not even have to be on your property; a nearby water source on neighboring land can still influence hog movement across property you have permission to hunt.

I normally do not put the feeder right on the edge of a decent-sized pond. Hogs may be wallowing or lying around the water before they ever approach the feeder. I would rather use the water to help predict movement while keeping the feeder and my approach concealed from animals around the pond.

Use Terrain as Part of the Setup

At one of our best locations, the Pig Bowl, a pond dam does much of the work for us. I park roughly 300 yards or more away, approach from the downwind side, and use the dam to hide most of my movement until I reach the hunting position. At Scott’s Pond we use the same basic idea: approach from the protected side of the dam, come carefully over the top, and hunt from there.

Sometimes the terrain itself is your hunting blind.

3. Look for Places Where Travel Routes Come Together

When two creek or drainage systems intersect, or when several well-used trails come together, I pay attention. Multiple travel corridors can funnel animal movement through the same general area.

Fence crossings are another place I scout. Look for a beaten trail, fresh tracks, mud or hair on the fence, and barbed wire that has been repeatedly pushed, rubbed or lifted. If I have an extra trail camera, I may put it on a fence crossing, wallow, pond trail or trail intersection instead of putting every camera at a feeder. That can show me which hogs are using the area, when they move and where they are coming from.

One productive setup of mine is roughly 50 yards from a creek near an intersection of two creek systems. I like being near those travel corridors without necessarily putting the feeder or hunting position directly in the creek bottom, where terrain can make the wind more unpredictable.

4. Rubs, Wallows and Tracks Tell a Story

I look for mud-covered rub trees and trunks that have been worn from repeated use. Some trees get rubbed for years. Low areas that hold water after rain can be just as revealing. We have one feeder we simply call the Wallow because the low ground holds water and hogs consistently use the area.

A trail camera is helpful, but it is not required. If you are building a simple hog setup, check the next morning. If the corn is gone and you have fresh tracks, rooting or other sign, you already know a lot.

5. Think About What Your Light Will Be Illuminating

This is something I learned from actually hunting and filming under feeder lights: the same light can look very different depending on the ground and surroundings.

Light-colored sand or loam can reflect more illumination back into the scene and create better contrast against a dark hog. I have a sandy location where one light can look excellent, and another location with almost black dirt and rock where several lights can still make the scene appear darker.

Surrounding brush and overhead canopy can change the way the illuminated area looks too. At the Pig Bowl, large oak limbs and vegetation help create a contained, well-defined illuminated area. So don’t only think about how much light you have. Think about what you are trying to illuminate.

6. Cover Behind the Hunter Can Matter More Than Cover Around the Feeder

I do not require thick cover around the feeder. Some of our productive nighttime setups are surprisingly open. What I care about more is what is behind me.

I prefer darker nights around the new moon. If there is significant moonlight, trees or brush behind the hunting position can help break up your silhouette when you move or draw a bow. I also have tripods sitting completely in the open that work very well; I simply prefer hunting those exposed locations on darker nights.

7. A Great Hog Setup Does Not Have to Be Expensive

Some of my most productive locations are also some of my simplest. If a pond dam, ridge or other terrain feature runs correctly for the prevailing wind, you may not need a blind or permanent stand at all.

At both the Pig Bowl and Scott’s Pond, we normally walk in from the protected side and hunt from the dam. We often just stand and shoot. At Scott’s Pond the bow shot is about 17 yards. A basic feeder, a reliable feeder light and the right terrain can be all you need.

Spend your effort on choosing the right location before assuming you need to spend money on a complicated setup.

8. If You Want Solar, Plan for It Beforehand

If you think you may use a solar feeder light, look at sunlight before you commit to the location. A beautiful feeder site under heavy canopy may not give the solar panel what it needs.

Think about where the sun reaches the location and how the light and panel will be positioned in relation to the feeder and hunter. EWT offers simple integrated solar lights as well as larger Outfitter systems, but any solar setup needs adequate sunlight. It is much easier to account for that before the feeder is installed.

9. Let the Hogs Establish the Location

Once the feeder is installed, I like the hogs to find it and begin using it consistently. A camera makes that easy to watch, but again, you do not need one. Corn disappearing and fresh tracks or sign the next morning can tell you the location is being used.

Once they are using the feeder regularly, I will put the feeder light up and let them become accustomed to that as well. The goal is to make the entire location normal before I put hunting pressure on it.

10. My Three-Hour Rule for Nighttime Feedings

This took me years of experimenting to figure out. I tried feeder intervals of 30 minutes, an hour, an hour and a half, two hours and two and a half hours. When the next feeding came too soon, hogs sometimes stayed around the feeder or bedded nearby waiting for it to go off again. That can make it almost impossible to approach.

For my setups, about three hours between nighttime feedings has become the sweet spot. If one feeding is at 11:00 p.m., I may make the next one around 2:00 a.m. That gives hogs time to feed and move away, creating an opportunity to enter before the next feeding.

Three hours is not a biological rule. It is simply the interval that has worked extremely well across my own setups after years of trial and error.

The Bottom Line

When I choose a nighttime hog location, I’m not simply asking, “Are there hogs here?” I’m asking whether I can approach with the wind in my favor, avoid the animals’ primary travel routes, take advantage of water and terrain, see well under artificial light, keep my silhouette hidden, and—if I’m using solar—get enough sunlight to the panel.

Don’t just find a place where hogs want to be. Find a place you can hunt without them knowing you’re there.

Chad Stevenson
Elusive Wildlife Technologies