I am a younger guy from Illinois and would love to go on a cheaper DIY hog bowhunt, something with a lot of encounters, not worried about trophies just want to have fun! What are your guys' experience with public land spot and stalk hog hunting? States nearer to me would be ideal. Thoughts and concerns?
Personally.... I would go to south Georgia. You can do all that you want, camp out etc. But you gotta go that far to get into them. There should be several threads posted in history that talk about Hill style hog hunts etc for info on potential locations.
Join the pbs. They have multiple membership hunts each year. We have a hog hunt planned for the end of January 2018. I think all the slots are field for this hunt, but they have others. Anything from moose to turkey.
Jeff
There are multiple WMA's in Southern Georgia where a DYI hog hunt is very easy to do. Tens of thousands of acres of swamps to roam.
Jeff is right, being a PBS member automatically gives you invites to membership hunts all over the country for all different kinds of animals. Of course you gotta get involved, pay attention and sign up quick when they are announced. In the next several months, one member is hosting a deer/javelina hunt in Arizona while three different members are hosting hog hunts - two in TX (one of which features packing into the backcountry on mules!) while another member is hosting one in GA.
Another really good idea is to join the TBG, and in turn you are automatically invited to their regional hunts which include hogs on good public land. Heck, their newsletters alone will pretty much point you in the right direction regarding good hog hunting on public land. It's very fun to go on these member hunts, meet other trad bowhunters, see new areas, and learn from the locals. They even tolerate Yankees, pretty much, as long as you are decent. Heck, the very first time I met Matt Shuster was on a TBG hog/squirrel hunt at THe Paradise, when he "forgot" his food and was doing his thing there at meal time, fork and plate in hand.....
My son-in-law and I are headed to GA in a few weeks. Plans are not final as of yet, but, we have chosen a WMA along the Savannah River.
Jeff, Matt was "forgetting" to bring food and foraging off the other members back when I was a member of Paradise in the mid-1990's. I imagine he has it down to a science by now!