Wild Hogs

[garseer]

I am interested in finding out if anyone has any tips or tricks on how to control wild hogs. They are doing a number on my pastures!!!!!!!

 

[Mahoney Pursley Ranch]

You can't control them. Shoot or trap as many as you can.

 

[garseer]

I hate to just kill for the sake of killing them, but I need to thin them out somehow. They are worse then last year. I guess I need to find some people that wants some meat. I like it myself, but I can only take so much in my freezer.

 

[Mahoney Pursley Ranch]

You need to get agressive and kill as many as you can. You say they are worse than last year and they will be worse next year if you don't get busy. I don't like killing just to kill either but when it comes to hogs you just don't have much choice if you want to reduce the numbers.

 

[bigbull338]

if you dont start killing them.they will over run you.a group of wild hogs can do alot of damage to pastures or hay fields.they have tobe controled.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Cow panels won't hold them. They'll burst through or else die hanging through one of them. Use sheep panel with 4 by 4 grid for your traps, box style.

If you pen them, make sure you have a roof. If not you will learn the true definition of "piggy back". Shoats will literally ride on the back of a hog and jump 6 foot walls. Adult hogs will jump 6 foot walls.

If you shoot into a group, they'll bust on you and hit the fences bending 7 foot T posts, driven deep, into a 90. If your neighbor has 6 foot T posts they'll lay the fence flat. They'll also shear wooden posts if he has them. We have all agreed on no hunting now. Trapping is the only way and you have to be agressive. When 30 hogs are shot into, they'll bust every fence and cross fence between the time they start and they time the finally stop running. It is a train wreck when it happens. Brand new barbed wire snapped. You have to see it all to believe it.

This year I have not seen one single hog. Last year I trapped as many as 41 in a week's time. The year before was almost as bad. Patures on the river bottom look like they had been through bombing raids.

Texas Boars used to be a good website but now there are too many idiots posting there. I quit going.

 

[backhoeboogie]

An AR-15 works real nice on them wild hogs.

Individuals maybe. You shoot something into a bunch, you'll wind up damaging more than the hogs will.

 

[Caustic Burno]

I am interested in finding out if anyone has any tips or tricks on how to control wild hogs. They are doing a number on my pastures!!!!!!!

Nothing truely works as I have been fighting them for years.
There are some things that help, requires working a lot of night shifts. Kill everthing trapped period do not release even the smallest ones. Set up a baited ambush and work them over with a shotgun. The surviors won't come back, all you did though is moved them over. Carry a gun on every piece of equipment and gut shoot every hog you see. I hog hunt 365 under deer feeders that are moved around after they get bait wise. If you have 100 hogs you will have to kill 88 a year to maintain the herd at 100. You are not going to win this battle.
There are two types of people in Texas those of us with hogs and those that are going to have hogs.

 

[alabama]

I am interested in finding out if anyone has any tips or tricks on how to control wild hogs. They are doing a number on my pastures!!!!!!!

Nothing truely works as I have been fighting them for years.
There are some things that help, requires working a lot of night shifts. Kill everthing trapped period do not release even the smallest ones. Set up a baited ambush and work them over with a shotgun. The surviors won't come back, all you did though is moved them over. Carry a gun on every piece of equipment and gut shoot every hog you see. I hog hunt 365 under deer feeders that are moved around after they get bait wise. If you have 100 hogs you will have to kill 88 a year to maintain the herd at 100. You are not going to win this battle.
There are two types of people in Texas those of us with hogs and those that are going to have hogs.

If they are that bad you need to start raising hogs.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Of course backhoe. I would only shoot one at a time.

Just don't want the city boys thining they can come to their "deer lease" and jump shoot into a herd of them. There are pics people have taken with over 150 hogs in the picture. You shoot into a bunch like that and it will wipe out some fences for miles around. Its best to trap them.

 

[backhoeboogie]

There are two types of people in Texas those of us with hogs and those that are going to have hogs.

:lol: It would be nice to be the kind that's "going to have hogs".

Unfortuneately hogs are smart critters. They'll get trap smart in a hurry. In addition to Caustic's info, you can also bait up holes. Put a cow panel at each hole you bait up. Bury the corn there where the panel is. When you move a trap to that hole, take the cow panel away. Keep rotating your traps to the bait spots and keep a panel there when the trap is not there.

A hog that has been trapped and got away probably won't be caught again.

 

[Jogeephus]

These two made amends for their mothers sins on the pit! :lol:

 

[tytower]

Over here the word is don't eat the wild ones they are full of worms. Do you get much of a worm problem there?

I guess it can't be bad or you would not be eating them .
I have known fellas that catch the young and feed them up to eat and clean them out in the process

 

[garseer]

Anyone have any good designs for making a hog trap. I have seen some, but am interested to know if anyone has a good one. They have to be thinned out and if that is the best way to go then I will make a couple.

Thanks for all your replies.

 

[Jogeephus]

Over here the word is don't eat the wild ones they are full of worms. Do you get much of a worm problem there?

I guess it can't be bad or you would not be eating them .
I have known fellas that catch the young and feed them up to eat and clean them out in the process

You need to be careful cleaning them here. Some kind of crud can get you if you are not careful and you cut yourself while cleaning one.

We'll eat big ones, little ones but sometimes we won't eat the boars. You can normally tell if the meat is going to be rank within the first few minutes of cleaning it.

My favorite are the small ones grain fed for a while. But now that I think about it, they are have already been grain fed cause they are doing a number on the corn fields.

Garseer, I don't have any plans but I'll get you a picture of a homemade trap I have. I think the main thing you need to know is how the door trips. Other than that, any good strong cage will do the trick.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Mine are 40 inches wide, 40 inches tall, and 5 feet long. They have a top and bottom. The doors are guilotine, sliding down in channel. I pick up the entire trap with the tractor bucket and haul it to the pen. Put the pen door against the trap door and "let 'em go" into the pen. Then I call everyone who wants one to come and get it. These is a side alley in the pen with a guilotine gate you can cut them out into. Pick one out, run them into the side, pop 'em, open the gate and turn them back into the pen. You can then retrieve the downed ones.

You can use old bed frame angle, sucker rod - practically anything for the trap frame. One sheep panel (has 4 by 4 grid) will build a trap. You can also use "untility panel" from TSC but it is only 16 feet long. I stitch weld the panels to the frame.

If you use cow panel, the hogs can get their head through the holes. They'll wiggle until they break the wire. Your squares will all be circles in no time.

Catch hundreds of them please. You'll do us all a favor if you do. It is actually kind of fun, at first. 17 trapped in one night is my record.

I have also caught some deer, mostly yearlings. Have caught two bucks and have caught one twice. You can release the deer unharmed. If you make the trap too big the deer will bang their heads and rip hide off of their faces. (that's why I use the 40 inch dimensions).

 

[okbob]

you can put some heavy hunting pressure on them sometimes the will leave for a god while but they will return and you will have to start over again hunting them, could get me and my son to help you out

 

[Earl Thigpen]

Mr. Garseer,

You can trap them and sell them live. There are folks who buy wild hogs, at least in my part of Texas. I am assuming you're talking about wild domestic (feral) hogs and not Javalina.

I've eatin' wild hog before and really couldn't tell the difference from what we raised. Shot one on a deer lease in East Texas a few years back. One of the wives cooked up a ham and it was absolutely great. The rest we ground up into sausage. Good stuff.

If you're goin eat one watch for the sows in heat (their meat tastes really bad). You can tell as they smell like a well used outhouse and that's the way the meat smells when you cook it.

I think everyone pretty much agrees. You need to get really aggressive if you hope to control them.

 

[garseer]

Thanks guys for all the replies. It is really appreciated. We actually caught about 15 or so on the place about a 2 month's ago with a friends trap. I thought we had thinned them out some, but put the game cam on the tree and there is a ton of them and they are back rooting up the pasture/deer plots, etc. Yes, Josephus if you have any pictures of how the door/gates trip I would appreciate that. I am currently working overseas, but soon as I get home I will make the traps and get started on them for sure.

Thanks Again to all.

 

[D.R. Cattle]

We just hunt the heck out them with dogs. The ones we don't catch get the daylights scared out of them and go to the neighbors places. Come back in a few weeks but we look forward to scaring the heck out of them again. Love to hear the dogs bay em up.