Can’t shoot’em, trap’em

Spurchaser

Spurchaser

Well-known member
The plantation my son works at just recently started getting hogs. How they haven’t had them before now is a mystery, but they’re showing up in force now.
We’re in SWGA so it’s bait them up and shoot or trap. They decided to try the trapping first which is the most reliable way. They bought him a PigBrig and said make it happen.
Through trial and error he’s got it down. But, we both agree, some hogs that might have encountered a trap before just can’t be caught. We both equate hogs to coyotes as far as smarts. Least little thing out of the ordinary and they’re gone.
He found sign and started baiting. He let them come in almost a week before ever adding just the T-post.
After about 4 days of them feeding around the posts he placed the net, but real high. They skipped a couple of nights then slowly came back. Once all were under the net for about 4 nights straight he lowered it to where it would scrub their backs.
After another 3-4 straight days he dropped it.
That very night he caught the entire sounder.

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Think it was 3 larger boars and 8 smaller ones.

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Awesome! We don’t have them here thankfully. YET! Well, I don’t think that’s entirely true because there are guidelines within our hunting guides and on the state department of environmental conservation website about NOT shooting them if you see them, but report them to the D.E.C. Better to trap them in bunches as your son has done rather than shoot and scatter them. But I gotta be honest… if I’m on stand and a pig comes meandering by, it’s going to get shot!
 
Yeah, like I said, some just can’t be caught. He’s had them coming in a week and put up the T-post and they left. He waited 4 weeks and they never showed. Those we’ll eventually find again, bait up, and night hunt them.
Our issue is brush. All my bait sights are in lower elevation just so I can get multiple shots and hopefully multiple pigs. We don’t have any ag fields we hunt. We don’t kill or trap for free, lol.
 
Yeah, it’s something they have to get used to for sure. Pigs are naturally skittish when it comes to anything out of the ordinary. But get them used to it and they’ll scoot right up under that sucker when that feed is there.
 
A sounder isn’t usually all boars. Usuall 2 or 3 sows and their pigs.

I’ve seen the pig brig videos where they catch the sounder (sow and pigs) and then the boars come along and get in to be with the sows.
I have also been part of a couple of pig brig demonstrations in set up. It does not look like this one is equipped with the top apron to help keep them from going over the top (costs extra of course).
 
I caught a young one once, spotted it while working bean ground. Chased it for a few minutes with the tractor before hopping off and running it down. Called all the confinement building owners in the area, none would claim it(tattoo ear). 7months in an old cattle stall 245#(live weight) of good pork. Probably should of went a couple more weeks, bigger chops but I didn't want the hassle of a frozen waterer.
 
Yeah, that’s what was crazy about this, all boars. Never seen that before either.

And no, we didn’t mess with none of these. Sometimes buzzards won’t even touch them. Piney rooters just stink.

Before thermal I’d sneak in to a bait site by just smell alone and click the Wicked Light on once I could hear them chomping food. When you can find dead shot pigs by smell alone, I ain’t touching them. I know that upsets a lot of people and I’ve donated a lot of pigs…only once though. One guy told me he’d never ask again. Said he almost ended up in a divorce when that joker stunk up the entire house.

We’ve shot pigs outta swamps and bottoms that weren’t bad, good actually. It’s just hit or miss with pine pigs.
 
Never had a problem with sows except being poor or tough. Wild hogs in our area usually have little fat on them, except maybe in late winter after a good acorn crop.

Wild hogs are almost always in motion and cover a lot of distance. This makes for tough meat (muscles). Tame hogs lay around all day with plenty of food and therefore their meat has more fat and more tender.
 
Yes sir, our hogs are very nomadic in nature. We may be flooded with them with no end in sight, then they disappear for months at a time. About all I can do is keep spots baited up for when they come back through we get a chance to trap or hunt them. The deer, quail, and turkeys take full advantage of the bait sites too, lol.

I was out moving cameras and feeding this morning and not paying attention to any pics coming in and 400 yards away are pigs that I didn’t notice until about an hour later. Only appeared to be two young boars, but I added a little feed there to see if they come back.
 
Pig Brigs are good traps. As stated above, he may want to get the cap for the ones that try to climb out. Pigs are pretty good climbers. A few years back a friend and I made a trap out of some hog panels. It worked fine until two of the big sows showed the others how to climb out. After that it was useless.
 
Thanks for the heads up. I know our drop trap has a piece like that cause I’ve seen boars put there front hooves on it before.
 
Spurchaser said:
Thanks for the heads up. I know our drop trap has a piece like that cause I’ve seen boars put there front hooves on it before.
Click to expand...

A friend of mine is a certified trapper for NC. He has 3-4 different types of traps and the Pig Brigg is definitely one of the better ones. He also has the boar shields for all of his Pig Briggs. He said that they do seems to help protect the net.

Right now he said he rather use his drop traps because our area has a lot of red clay and setting up and moving those PB's can get to be a lot of work.

I don't know about in Alabama, but I know that the PB's have REALLY helped here in SC.
 
We have a HogEye camera drop trap set up. I was in Texas waiting to fly home the next morning after a turkey hunting trip in NM and the phone went off showing a pig at the trap. It was just a lone boar we were after and from halfway across the country I dropped the trap and caught the hog, lol.
It was about 0100 back home so I just sent a text to the manager to check the trap when he gets up, lol.

I’m really liking that PB my son is using though. May invest in one if I can find folks that want to pay. A lot of folks will let you “shoot” pigs for free or “trap” for free, lol.
 
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