how far can a wild hog wind???

[Reuben]

back when I was about 10 or 12 years old a friend of my father had a 300 pound wild boar...Spotted like a poland china... Paul caught it in Laredo, TX, as a small piglet and brought him back to Edna and made a pet out of him...We never had seen a wild hog before so we went over and saw the shoat...almost looked like a regular pig to me but he only weighed about 40 pounds at that time...

We had heard of wild hogs in college port area back in those days and down in South texas as well...Also used to see them advertised in the back of OUTDOOR LIFE and FIELD & STREAM magazines...to stop your deer leases with them for the added sport... 

Well this shoat got up to about 3 hundred pounds and one cool morning before the school bus arrived to pick us up for school I saw this big ole boar circling our pig pen...We had a big red Duroc sow and she was in heat... The boar wanted in...usually I was the first one up out of bed at the crack of dawn... the first thing I did was to get up and go look outside and look for any game that might be too far from the huge rose hedges...If I saw a possum or coon or even a feral cat I would send the dogs to catch the game...well that morning the first thing I saw was that big boar and I immediately recognized him...I sic'ed the dogs on him and he looked like a spring loaded hog on steriods. and I saw him make that long sweep with that big head and tusks...I called the dogs off and back to me...I instinctively knew he was going to kill my dogs....I went and got my dad and he let him in the pen...we had some nice looking pigs out of that deal...

I always wondered how that hog just made it to our house...back then hiway 59 was a 2 lane hiway and he had to cross that...it was a good ways to our house...after many years of wondering (40+ years later  ) how far it was I finally took the time to measure the distance with my odometer...the distance came out to be almost 2 miles and a 1/4...The wind conditions had to be perfect is all I can tell. I remember it being just a little on the cool side and the wind must of been blowing at the right speed and from east to west... 21/4 mile is a long ways...

[charles]

 rueben, iv heard hogs and know deer will wander areas up to 5 miles looking for a mate. i dont have the nose strenght of a hog, but at 100yds i can smell perfume, cig smoke and since i quit drinking, can smell alcohol too, if the wind was blowing from them to me. animals have a heck ofa better sniffer than we do. was that straight line measurement or by road for the 2.25 miles? it mighta been a little under 2 miles if he walked a generally straight line.

[Reuben]

The only way I could figure the distance was common sense type calculations...the gravel road runs in straight lines but has 3 nineties if I include the hiway...I measured all distances and then calculated them down to fit on paper...I then drew a straight line from Paul's house to where our house used to stand...I then converted the lines into mileage...the calculation should be almost exact...

this hog had never been loose nor had he ever escaped from his pen....but there is no doubt in my mind he came because he could smell the sow...the wind direction had to be right, the temperature had to be right, probably the humidty and maybe even the barometric pressure...whatever it was to make the sow's scent travel and skim along over the ground for that distance...

[grittydog]

Google Earth is pretty good with distance.

[charles]

 the weather has a lot to do with scent carrying, so with it only being a med distance, it would be a good assumption he smelled her and all the conditions were perfect.

[riverbottomhoghunter]

A LONG WAYS IN EUROPE THAY LEAD HOGS ON LEASHES IN THE WOODS TO FIND MUSHROOMS THAT GROW 3 TO 4 FEET UNDER THE GROUND WHEN THE HOG STOPS TO ROOT THAY WILL DIG UP THE MUSHROOMS

[Reuben]

A LONG WAYS IN EUROPE THAY LEAD HOGS ON LEASHES IN THE WOODS TO FIND MUSHROOMS THAT GROW 3 TO 4 FEET UNDER THE GROUND WHEN THE HOG STOPS TO ROOT THAY WILL DIG UP THE MUSHROOMS

now... if I could train a hog to find buried gold...

[Hog Dog Mike]

We were on a hill one time and saw some hogs that were a long way off. They were probably 1,000 yards away ( I have done some 1000 yard shooting). Anyway it was a long way off.

A slight gentle breeze was blowing behind us toward the hogs. It took it about 5 or 10 minutes for our scent to get to the hogs but when it did they turned wrong side out and hauled it out of there wide open.

[Noah]

No doubt on places that get hunted much, I ALWAYS try to come in down wind... I've been in a deerstand and seen hogs wind the rancher coming in the property from a thousand yards... those hogs came by me like a spooked herd of deer heading for the next county....  smart SOBS do the same thing with any noise at all too... No doubt, they are some smart critters!!!

[firemedic]

Mr. Reuben,.....I'd say that's like asking how long is a piece of rope.......it's as long as it is,.....and a hog can smell as far as he can, which I agree with you is certainly over 2 miles. I don't think we as humans can begin to fathom the abilities of a hogs nose.