2busy2work
Member
I have to admit; I was skeptical about how well the hog trap sold at Tractor Supply would work. But I have been pleasantly surprised! My hunting buddy and I have been using two of them to trap hogs at a local hunting club that is infested with hogs. I know there are other types of traps that can catch more pigs at a time. I have one I built. But the Tractor Supply traps are easier to use. We have caught as many as 5 smaller pigs at a time. So we say the trap capacity is 5 (until the number goes up).
The trap is a simple box with three separate doors and heavy fence wire for sides and bottom. There are three upward swinging doors angled inward. We think they meant for the doors to be pushed open by the pigs as they tried to get the bait. At first we tried propping only one small door open. We noticed the bigger hogs were reluctant to enter the tight space at the door. So we have strapped two of them together with heavy zip ties making one larger door.
We use a 2x2 piece of wood to hold the two doors open with 1/4" parachute cord tied to the top of the 2x2 and tightly to another cord tied across near the bottom rear of the trap. Best results are when the cord to the 2x2 is tied tightly to the center of the cord across the bottom of the trap. A slip knot is used so you can slide the cord to set the tension. All the cords should have no slack in them. When a pig bumps the string tied across the bottom of the trap, the 2x2 will move and the doors will fall shut. We put the 2x2 near the side of the cage with bottom of the 2x2 resting on the steel wire at the bottom of the trap. The top of the 2x2 is set just under the edge of the door.
The setup we are using is to place the back of the trap under a feeder so that some of the feeder corn goes into the trap. The feeders go off for 4 seconds twice a day every day. We keep the feeders full all year around so the pigs know where they can get a treat any time. This gets many of the 100 lb. pigs without much trouble. When one pig finally goes in, the others want to share the extra corn so they too enter. One of them will trip the trap.
We are using cell cameras to watch the traps 24/7. This allows us to get pictures whenever there is activity at the traps and when we have caught some pigs. This has paid for itself in fuel savings even though it is only 15 miles away. We use Spypoint cameras with the solar cell built in. At one place we had the trap the cell signal would not reach the camera. So a quick search on the internet showed a cheap external antenna that had a 10' cable. We got one and installed it. The camera had 100% signal and worked great in that location.
So far, we only know of two failed capture attempts of the traps. The first failure was a group of piglet sized pigs feeding in the trap but the door never fell. At that time, we were only propping the single door open. We checked the trap and found that the cord was tied too high across the back of the trap so they could feed under it without touching the cord. Lowering the cord worked. The second failure was found by looking at the pictures. They showed a large hog going in and the next picture showed that the door had fallen but there was no hog in the trap. We guess we did not set the 2x2 properly or he knocked it down as he went by it. The door had to have fallen on him before he was past it.
We have learned a few things as we have been using the traps. We need to keep some 1/4" parachute cord and some zip ties with us when we go to the traps. The big hogs last week completely destroyed the cords. The 100 lb. pigs will tear the zip ties off the doubled doors while trying to get out. The traps are holding up well to the use. We thought the big hogs would bend them or break them. They show no need for repair so far other than cord and zip ties.
The traps have caught 46 hogs since deer season ended and there are still many more to catch. We did not expect the hogs to go into the traps once we had slaughtered some in the traps. But after a few days and especially after a good rain, they seemed to not care about the blood left in and on the traps. However, we do not leave hogs in the trap for long to avoid them soiling the traps with urine or feces.
The biggest hogs had been avoiding getting caught until this week. We caught two big hogs the same night at almost the same time. One in each trap. We attribute that to us changing our tactics a little. We started opening the larger door instead of the single small door which allowed much more room for the big hogs. We disabled the traps for a week or so to let the hogs get used to feeding inside the traps. That worked! The big hogs started eating the corn near the door and over several days started entering deeper into the trap. Then they started eating all the corn inside the trap daily. We then set the two traps and put a pile of corn under the trip cord to lure them to the rear of the trap. It took several days but they took the bait!
This is a picture of how the big hog was conditioned to go into the trap to get the corn from the feeder. Notice the T-post holding the doors open.
Here are pictures of the big hog getting trapped after we added a pile of corn and set the trigger on the trap. Notice the 2x2 propping the door open.
This is him in the trap the next morning.
It took all we had to get him out of the trap and onto the little trailer behind the ATV. I will post a video link later of us getting him out of the trap.
We cleaned both the hogs. No sign of taint in either. We pressure wash them laying on the ground and after we hang them to remove as much dirt as possible before skinning.
The smaller one was 160 lbs. and the larger was 245 lbs. The 245 lbs. one is the largest we have shot or trapped.
One other thing we have learned about pig hunting is to always wear a sidearm when in the woods. This hog did not back away as we approached but stood ready to fight. It is a good thing that trap is well built!
The trap is a simple box with three separate doors and heavy fence wire for sides and bottom. There are three upward swinging doors angled inward. We think they meant for the doors to be pushed open by the pigs as they tried to get the bait. At first we tried propping only one small door open. We noticed the bigger hogs were reluctant to enter the tight space at the door. So we have strapped two of them together with heavy zip ties making one larger door.
We use a 2x2 piece of wood to hold the two doors open with 1/4" parachute cord tied to the top of the 2x2 and tightly to another cord tied across near the bottom rear of the trap. Best results are when the cord to the 2x2 is tied tightly to the center of the cord across the bottom of the trap. A slip knot is used so you can slide the cord to set the tension. All the cords should have no slack in them. When a pig bumps the string tied across the bottom of the trap, the 2x2 will move and the doors will fall shut. We put the 2x2 near the side of the cage with bottom of the 2x2 resting on the steel wire at the bottom of the trap. The top of the 2x2 is set just under the edge of the door.
The setup we are using is to place the back of the trap under a feeder so that some of the feeder corn goes into the trap. The feeders go off for 4 seconds twice a day every day. We keep the feeders full all year around so the pigs know where they can get a treat any time. This gets many of the 100 lb. pigs without much trouble. When one pig finally goes in, the others want to share the extra corn so they too enter. One of them will trip the trap.
We are using cell cameras to watch the traps 24/7. This allows us to get pictures whenever there is activity at the traps and when we have caught some pigs. This has paid for itself in fuel savings even though it is only 15 miles away. We use Spypoint cameras with the solar cell built in. At one place we had the trap the cell signal would not reach the camera. So a quick search on the internet showed a cheap external antenna that had a 10' cable. We got one and installed it. The camera had 100% signal and worked great in that location.
So far, we only know of two failed capture attempts of the traps. The first failure was a group of piglet sized pigs feeding in the trap but the door never fell. At that time, we were only propping the single door open. We checked the trap and found that the cord was tied too high across the back of the trap so they could feed under it without touching the cord. Lowering the cord worked. The second failure was found by looking at the pictures. They showed a large hog going in and the next picture showed that the door had fallen but there was no hog in the trap. We guess we did not set the 2x2 properly or he knocked it down as he went by it. The door had to have fallen on him before he was past it.
We have learned a few things as we have been using the traps. We need to keep some 1/4" parachute cord and some zip ties with us when we go to the traps. The big hogs last week completely destroyed the cords. The 100 lb. pigs will tear the zip ties off the doubled doors while trying to get out. The traps are holding up well to the use. We thought the big hogs would bend them or break them. They show no need for repair so far other than cord and zip ties.
The traps have caught 46 hogs since deer season ended and there are still many more to catch. We did not expect the hogs to go into the traps once we had slaughtered some in the traps. But after a few days and especially after a good rain, they seemed to not care about the blood left in and on the traps. However, we do not leave hogs in the trap for long to avoid them soiling the traps with urine or feces.
The biggest hogs had been avoiding getting caught until this week. We caught two big hogs the same night at almost the same time. One in each trap. We attribute that to us changing our tactics a little. We started opening the larger door instead of the single small door which allowed much more room for the big hogs. We disabled the traps for a week or so to let the hogs get used to feeding inside the traps. That worked! The big hogs started eating the corn near the door and over several days started entering deeper into the trap. Then they started eating all the corn inside the trap daily. We then set the two traps and put a pile of corn under the trip cord to lure them to the rear of the trap. It took several days but they took the bait!
This is a picture of how the big hog was conditioned to go into the trap to get the corn from the feeder. Notice the T-post holding the doors open.
Here are pictures of the big hog getting trapped after we added a pile of corn and set the trigger on the trap. Notice the 2x2 propping the door open.
This is him in the trap the next morning.
It took all we had to get him out of the trap and onto the little trailer behind the ATV. I will post a video link later of us getting him out of the trap.
We cleaned both the hogs. No sign of taint in either. We pressure wash them laying on the ground and after we hang them to remove as much dirt as possible before skinning.
The smaller one was 160 lbs. and the larger was 245 lbs. The 245 lbs. one is the largest we have shot or trapped.
One other thing we have learned about pig hunting is to always wear a sidearm when in the woods. This hog did not back away as we approached but stood ready to fight. It is a good thing that trap is well built!
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. I take a flat shovel & throw it out of our Corral traps. Otherwise..it’ll be a long time before I get new customers..
