Toxey Haas on Bowhunting Wild Hogs

Toxey Haas, the creator of Mossy Oak camouflage, hates hogs but loves to hunt them. "Hogs compete with deer and turkey for food, root up and destroy my green fields and roads, and are a general nuisance," Haas says. "Hogs may be bad for the land, but they’re great for the bowhunter."

On a recent bowhunt for wild hogs, Haas had glassed a green field and spotted several hogs less than 250-yards away. “I saw seven hogs feeding in the field," Haas explains. "One of the pigs looked like a sow weighing approximately 150 pounds. I knew a pig that size would be delicious to eat." With the wind in his favor, Haas crept within 70 yards of the feeding hogs as they moved down the edge of the field. Before he could take one with his bow, however, the hogs turned toward the woods.

Knowing he would lose the opportunity to take a hog unless he could turn them back, Haas reached into his pocket for a Knight and Hale Hyperventilator Deer-Grunt call. "Earlier in the year, I watched a boar and a sow together," Haas reports, "the boar grunted quickly when he tried to breed the sow. Listening to the boar's sound, I thought I could reproduce that sound with the Hyperventilator. When you give that exciting sound on a deer call, the hogs can't resist coming in to investigate.

"You can blow in and out fast on the Hyperventilator to produce the sound of an excited hog," Haas advises. "After grunting once, I saw a hog lift his head and push a small pig toward me before going back to feeding. I grunted again on the Hyperventilator, and this time the sow began walking toward me."

Relying on the grunt call, Haas lured the sow to within 30 yards of his hiding spot in the tall grass. As the sow leaned her head down to root, Haas drew his bow and delivered the arrow squarely behind the pig's shoulder.

Haas admits excited grunting will bring in young pigs easier and better than it will old boars. He also mentions that like any other form of calling, hog calling doesn't always work. "However, calling hogs does work at times," Haas explains. "That's why I carry a deer-grunt call with me anytime I go into the woods in search of hogs. Since I began using the deer-grunt call on hogs, I've taken 12 hogs with my bow."