Hog Trap Troubles

Mods, if this is not the best forum for my threar please feel free to move it.

I built a 4'x6' hog trap earlier this year. I have caught 1 250lb boar. Ok, I baited the trigger heavy and pined the gate so it would not trip then I posted a a camera at the gate. I have dozens of coon pictures eating my bait. Recently there has been lots of big hogs, both boars and sows but only 1 went in the trap. Several have spent a lot of time examining both the entrance and the floor of the thap. The hogs must cross a piece of angle iron to enter the trap. The floor of the trap is made of a hog panel.

Yesterday I pulled the card and again had some mature hogs not crossing the angle but THIS TIME I had several pictures on 2 nights of between 10 and 12 piglets in the trap. That would have been good eating! !!!!

My question, are the older hogs that much smarter? What can I do to fix it?

cover the angle iron and floor with dirt

buttplate said:

Mods, if this is not the best forum for my threar please feel free to move it.

I built a 4'x6' hog trap earlier this year. I have caught 1 250lb boar. Ok, I baited the trigger heavy and pined the gate so it would not trip then I posted a a camera at the gate. I have dozens of coon pictures eating my bait. Recently there has been lots of big hogs, both boars and sows but only 1 went in the trap. Several have spent a lot of time examining both the entrance and the floor of the thap. The hogs must cross a piece of angle iron to enter the trap. The floor of the trap is made of a hog panel.

Yesterday I pulled the card and again had some mature hogs not crossing the angle but THIS TIME I had several pictures on 2 nights of between 10 and 12 piglets in the trap. That would have been good eating! !!!!

My question, are the older hogs that much smarter? What can I do to fix it?

Click to expand...

Yes they are that much smarter. I have found if you put bait in the trap and not set it for several weeks and get them use to the trap you are more likely to trap a big one. Also move the trap around once they figure out where it is and what it does or your chances go down. There are a bunch of educated hogs out there but I use the Pavlov's dog approach. You can hunt over the trap as well with a wind placed ladder stand.

All good answers. I caught a monster boar in mine last February.

Leave it baited and no trigger set for a few weeks. A small feeder would be ideal so you don't run out of food in the trap. I've been looking for one online, b/c it is a royal pain going to the club every few days to throw more corn in the trap. I do NOT have floors in my traps. They are secured by T-posted so the big hogs can't lift the trap up.

I'll be baiting and "trapping" hogs again after deer season. Our club doesn't allow baiting a hog trap during deer or turkey, so I have about two months until turkey and less than 4 months of brutal hot weather in June/July/August to bait them.

Think I have 10 or 11 traps on two pieces of property. It makes for a LONG morning of checking traps.

We use carpet over the entrance and floor of ours and have caught pigs of all sizes.

All good information and I will give some of then a try.

Thanks.

GAGE said:

We use carpet over the entrance and floor of ours and have caught pigs of all sizes.

Click to expand...

good idea, never thought of that.

An educated pig will probably never enter a smaller trap like that.........I don’t know that the ai will stop them from going into it. Post up some pics........we love this stuff

They do learn, with three traps set, i find they will eat bait right up to the door. Then they leave, no matter how much bait is in the trap. We move our traps around, that helps. We also use a drop gate and have caught so many we've lost count in Miller Co. Ga.

Even though it is kind of small, that set up looks really good!!

Does anyone have a bait recipe that the hogs can't pass up?

To reiterate what others have mentioned, yes, in general older hogs are smarter, or rather, more wary. In my experience trapping them in a corral trap with the door panel wired open, it would often take two or four days to get the big girls to wander in. Piglets usually rush right in. Shoats were usually next to follow, and it could take days to get a big girl to build the confidence to go in. I ran cameras on my traps like you, and got to observe that behavior time and time again. There will always be exceptions, but that generally is how I observed it. When I had a new group move in, I would prebait the trap inside, and run a feeder over it usually for a week until I could check the camera and see that all hogs in the sounder were going in. When they all had been confidently feeding inside it for three or four days straight, that's when I set the trap. You might also be able to use a different bait on the night you set the trap. If you've been using straight corn, you might could add some corn mixed with sweet feed in the back, or some corn soaked in cherry koolaid in the back to sweeten the deal, and throw them something they aren't used to eating, and further entice them. I see the trap is painted. When you put your nose up to the frame, can you still smell any paint? If so, that could be a factor, but the smell will diminish with time.
I would also say to cover the bar and or the floor with dirt. Good luck, and I hope we could be of some help!!

I also forgot...you can camo your trap a little by using zip ties or bailing wire to affix branches, weeds, privet, and vines to it, and you can weave branches, vines, privet into the panels too. This helps reduce the appearance of hard edges and straight lines, and will break up the appearance a little. I did that to my corral trap, and it made it look super natural. Just an idea!!

That is a very nice hog trap.

Cover the angle iron and trap floor with dirt or old carpet. Move the trap around every few weeks. Don't put a lot of corn outside the trap.

Recently i moved two traps at our lease. Caught hogs in both traps first time they were baited.

That is nice, thank you.

Hogs get trap shy after one of their number gets caught in a trap. This sounder went nocturnal after one was caught. A few nights later i killed the banded hog seen to the right of the tree.

Once had a big boar that would visit a trap, eat what was outside, but wouldn't go in the trap. Bought a cheap brand of pancake syrup poured it on the corn, had him the next day.

We run three traps, two that are movable, and one set in place. Traps are anchored down with T post. Only problem we have is coons and small pigs are eating the bait. Small pigs and coons trip the trap, but can go through the cattle panels.

Bought a cheap brand of pancake syrup poured it on the corn, had him the next day.

Click to expand...

Molasses often works for hard to catch hoga.

I have never understood the logic behind not setting the trap for weeks so the hogs will get used to it. I have set cameras over my traps and yes they are weary of the traps but eventually they will commit. If the hog is in your trap why would you not want it baited and set to catch him? What good does not setting the trap do at this point? Say you dont set it and he eats at your spot where you have your tripping mechanism. What good does not having it set do at that point? So he will come back? What is the point? If you had the trap set he would be caught.

Getting the hog to trip the trap is not the hard part. Getting him inside the trap is the hard part. To each his own.

This is for a 4x8 trap with a drop down door