First Hunt Ever Advice

[Double Naught Spy]

Next question is - do I absolutely need camouflage? I have earth color clothing (brown) and I'm cheap. Sorry if this is a no-brainer.

Yes, you absolutely need camouflage. How else will you project the correct hunting prowess?

Seriously, no, you don't need camo. I wear some camo to hunt hogs and a lot of earth tones. I have hunted with people in bright white or neon green shirts before that would do better for pedestrians crossing traffic and wanting to be high visibility to not get hit by a car, and who were still successful.

HOWEVER, and this is a huge point, I believe (that is the sum total of credibility for this statement) that camo and earth tones work in your favor. It is just something that helps give you some advantage and may be critical in wide open fields in daylight or at much closer range in low light. Hogs actually see pretty darned well and their limited FOV binocular vision in front is about as good as humans, only more narrow. They DO see better at night than we do. Their side views are with less detail but they can see something like 330 degrees around them, so I would have to believe if they see a brightly colored object moving in their periphery that they are more apt to take notice than something that doesn't stand out.

Along similar lines, noise discipline is important as well, though I have hunted with folks who were nearly deaf and who spoke way too loudly and yet the hogs didn't run off that time. I have had a guy stumble and fall in front of me, his gear noisily clattered to the ground and him cussing, and not had hogs run away at 80 yards. I have accidentally clinked the leg of my shooting sticks against my partner's shooting sticks, not very loud, but that one clink was enough to cause the hogs to immediately bolt at over 100 yards.

I think light discipline is important as well in low light, but hogs won't always bolt if they see lights.

Odor discipline, also important, but again, not 100%. I have had hogs down wind of me that took off running, RUNNING before I ever got into range (inside 300 yards) and I have gotten to within 40 yards of hogs down wind of me that didn't run.

All in all, I think the impact is cumulative, but nothing is 100% detrimental or effective to helping your hunt.

Lone boars can be awfully skittish whereas the same approach used on a foraging sounder might not even get a head raised from the ground.

In sounders, there is commonly one or more sentinel individuals that do security checks. They will typically be the individuals that you see that stop, stand still (freeze), and more often than not, raise their noses in the air. They are basically doing a "Stop, Look, Listen, and Smell" for situational awareness. These will be the hogs that will most likely bust you from a distance. If they detect a threat, they may start trotting away and then grunt or grunt and start moving off. If they just start to run, one or two individuals (or all their piglets for a Sow) may go with the runner, but if the alarm grunt is given, they will all go into motion. If you see hogs doing security checks and you are within shooting distance, then be prepared to shoot at all times lest you may lose your opportunity in short order once the alarm call is made.

Lastly concerning their behavior/capabilities, there are a lot of things hogs tend to do or tend to not do, but hogs are very individualistic like people as well. For every common behavior, you can find (often numerous) exceptions. Expect the unexpected and be happy if you aren't surprised.

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On Killing Hogs...hogs have a great reputation for being "killed" and reanimating almost immediately to up to 20 minutes later. If you ever have any doubts about how well a hog has been shot, just go ahead and shoot it again, ideally with a well placed CNS shot.

True story, my old partners Dave and Alex were hunting the pecan orchards and had killed 7 or 8 hogs. The hogs on this property have to be collected and taken to a disposal area. They drove the truck around and collected the hogs, piling them in the back. They arrived at the collection area and started unloading. Alex said he had just tossed his 2nd hog onto the ground when he turned to grab the next hog....that was standing up and looking at him. The hog then turned and jumped out of the side of the truck. After recovering from the shock of what he had seen, Alex took off after the wounded hog, pistol in hand and run it down after 80 yards or so and killed it again.