Southern Texas Hog hunting

[wack]

5 hours in what dirrection? Is there public access? Would I need a guide? 

[doe assassin]

5 hrs north west, and yes i beleive there is public land. In lohn everybody is sick of the hogs, so if you cant find land, im sure someone would lets you pop a few. No you woudlnt need a guide unless you wanted one. hope i could help

[doe assassin]

Thats exactly how it is in Lohn. People will beg you to take as many as u you can. There are so many!! we hunt and we see about 30 hogs a day/nite. since there not a protected animal, you can go spotlighting at night if you dont get one in the day if you want. Thats a blast.

[wack]

 Thanks Doe Assassin, that's the kind of lead I was looking for. That's a couple hours west of Waco? Maybe I can get my brother in law to take a road trip over that way and scout it out before. He's got a 40 cal. semi auto but he's never hunted. I also haven't seen anything on restrictions for fire arms. My 1st choice is my 30-06 or my bow , but have choices of 12 Ga slug or shot gun, 44 mag revolver, .22 Sig Sauer Mosquito semi auto hand gun with A Streamlight TLR II Tactical light and laser for night back up. That light on a bigger gun would be awesome for night hunting. .22LR is a little light for hogs but it's better than throwing stones. lol That tiny little light will light up a target at 100 yards easy. Check one out, you'll be amazed. 

[doe assassin]

Yeh  in lohn we have hogs that get up to 500 pounds easy. We have one on our trail cams with 4 inche tusks. I would go with the 30-06 or the 44 pistol. Its a good ol time getting out there and hog hunting. Defenatnly dont go with the 22lr becuase that would only tickle these brutes. I attached a photo of a pic, i have on comp. but thats not nearly the biggest one. I recently deleted files and thats only one i found. But i would have your brother when he go's make sure he talks around to find if anybody wants your assistant. Im sure someone will let you kill as many as you like... they just wont them gone

[doe assassin]

Hope you can get a monster pig!!!

[doe assassin]

hey wacked, hoped i could help, that pic is off me and my 140 4/8 ten point. I shot him in lohn. i was pretty lucky huh?

[doe assassin]

the pick off me and my profile on the left...

[Zim]

Feral hogs down here are not considered game animals, so there are no licensing requirements or bag limits for feral hogs in Texas, nor is there even a season for them (meaning they can be hunted year-round). Use common sense, and if you are going to do a night hunt, call TPWD to find out who the game warden is in the area. Give him a call and let him know you will be night hunting for pigs and on whose land you will be hunting so that you don't get hunted by the game warden for possible poaching.

There is very little public land in Texas, and while generally there is no restriction on hunting hogs on the public land that we do have, you need to find out if there are any restrictions on the public area you plan to hunt. If you hunt on private land, you need to get the permission of the land owner. We take trespassing pretty seriously around here.

A little advice, at least for the hogs in East Texas: shoot the big ones for pictures and for mounting, shoot the little ones for meat. They're smart critters. Hog hunting, as plentiful as they are, isn't just shooting fish in a barrel.

[wack]

Zim, thank you for your input. Are you sure no license is required? I thought you needed a small game license. Pretty much everything else is as you say common sense stuff and good advise.

 I have a brother in law living in Houston. He has a nice 40 cal. semi auto pistol but he's never hunted before. I've been trying to talk him into giving hog hunting a try. He's a good Christian, not married, has a great job and is always helping people out. I've been trying to get him to find a landowner in the area that really needs help getting rid of the hogs. From Doe Assasin's advise I've told my brother-in-law to look for a land owner near Lohn TX. Problem is Lohn is about 5 hours from Houston. Zim, do you know of a land owner who needs help with hogs closer to Houston?

 As far as restrictions, public or private, are there areas down there that are restricted to say shotguns or weapon restrictions for populated areas? Example, in Wisconsin we have shotgun only areas where you can use shotgun, handgun or black powder but no rifles. My bro wanted to know what the best rifle was for hog hunting. I can think of many but if there are shotgun only areas, my answer changes. Rifle, for a beginner, in the spirit of the old west and just plain fun, my first choice of rifle for him would be a Marlin 30-30 lever action. I'd put see through scope mounts on it for iron sight shooting, 3-9x50mm Bushnell Elite scope with fire fly ret. on it. Take a look through one in the dark and you'll know why I choose that scope. I have one on my 12 ga slug gun, 40mm and it's awsome. If it's shotgun only, I'd tell him to get a 20 Ga slug gun. I also told him that he should put a Streamlight TLR tactical light on his hand gun. They make a tactical light, TLR I, and a TLR II has a light laser combo. The tiny little light is awesome. Light up a target over 100 yards away, you wont believe it until you see it. I see it, still don't believe how powerfull this light is. It blows away my huge 5 D Cell Magnalight! Not sure, is the laser sight legal in TX? The laser is pretty inpressive also.

Those are my hot tips for night hog hunting in return for the good advise above. Thanks. BTW another thing I was wondering about, snake boots? When I come down there, it will be for like a week maybe 2. What's the best snake deffence with out breaking the bank? Don't need it up here.