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Beginnings of a southern land tour...

Not much to update on my farm. The plots are disked and harrowed. Just waiting on some rain to plant. Very little moisture in the 10 day. We have a long season though, so trying to be patient.


Nothing spectacular on the cameras, but there are a couple worthy of chasing with my longbow.016579002363054-57-4-09202025205248-SYFW01890.jpeg016579002363054-61-4-09162025062901-SYFW01778.jpeg
 
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The rain brought the rooters out of hiding. I’ll survey the damage this weekend. They are slick, they won’t come to my feeder and I rarely get a daytime pic.
Just my .02, but I'd HIGHLY recommend putting as big of hurting on the hogs as possible. They reproduce so darn quickly you can get quickly overrun with them, their rooting can make working your plots and land a much tougher challenge, and they'll spook deer off a field almost as quickly as predators.

Coming from someone who speaks from experience -- got so bad in 2022 that I trapped 75 off 100 acres in just the first half of the year. Can also share that trapping whole sounders is way more effective than sniping efforts. 👍
 
Just my .02, but I'd HIGHLY recommend putting as big of hurting on the hogs as possible. They reproduce so darn quickly you can get quickly overrun with them, their rooting can make working your plots and land a much tougher challenge, and they'll spook deer off a field almost as quickly as predators.

Coming from someone who speaks from experience -- got so bad in 2022 that I trapped 75 off 100 acres in just the first half of the year. Can also share that trapping whole sounders is way more effective than sniping efforts. 👍

It’s definitely on my to do list. Traps are pricey, so trying to get there! In particular trap recommendations?
 
It’s definitely on my to do list. Traps are pricey, so trying to get there! In particular trap recommendations?
Our state g&f agency offered a 75% cost share on hog traps for one year. We also have USDA trappers that come to your land and trap. I cant remember if you live on your land - but night time thermal hunting can keep them at bay - and provide a lot of sporting activity - but as said above - trapping is more effective at really cleaning them out. We have killed as many as 150 in a year. I havent got a hog picture in six months.
 
It’s definitely on my to do list. Traps are pricey, so trying to get there! In particular trap recommendations?

That's a whole new rabbit hole. The coolest ones have camera overwatch and a remote switch to drop the door.

The ones that seem more reasonable have a one-way door that you prop open until they get used to feeding in the pen. Then you drop the door, and they enter all night to eat the bait but can't get out again.

You have to build them strong ans be a bit clever. Pigs are smart and powerful animals.

All my info comes from the internet. I've never personally trapped hogs.
 
That's a whole new rabbit hole. The coolest ones have camera overwatch and a remote switch to drop the door.

The ones that seem more reasonable have a one-way door that you prop open until they get used to feeding in the pen. Then you drop the door, and they enter all night to eat the bait but can't get out again.

You have to build them strong ans be a bit clever. Pigs are smart and powerful animals.

All my info comes from the internet. I've never personally trapped hogs.
All good info.

Worst part is disposing of the carcasses after shooting 20-30 pigs. What a pain.
 
All good info.

Worst part is disposing of the carcasses after shooting 20-30 pigs. What a pain.

Yeah, you should have a digger, or pre-dig the holes. Bury carcasses near trees so they become natural fertilizer.

Otherwise just take them really far away and dump them. Gonna stink something awful.
 
Trust me, I've gone down the rabbit hole and researched all the traps. I'm a little over an hour away and really need the remote control traps so that I can drop it on a day that I actually have time to deal with 20 dead hogs. Those traps are all around $6k, which is a little pricey. My state is no longer doing the cost share program, it was maxed out immediately. I have not gone down the USDA trapper rabbit hole yet, but I'm not opposed to it.

Right now, they aren't doing a lot of damage, granted its so dry they can't really root. I wanted to see how they responded this fall to hunting pressure before I spent the money. I don't feed corn during hunting season, so I'm hoping they will move to the neighbors.

The other issue I have is that between two of my neighbors, they own 5,000 of pure pine plantation with creek bottoms throughout. Basically hog heaven. I'm not sure my trapping efforts on 125 acres would ever really make a dent.
 
Trust me, I've gone down the rabbit hole and researched all the traps. I'm a little over an hour away and really need the remote control traps so that I can drop it on a day that I actually have time to deal with 20 dead hogs. Those traps are all around $6k, which is a little pricey. My state is no longer doing the cost share program, it was maxed out immediately. I have not gone down the USDA trapper rabbit hole yet, but I'm not opposed to it.

Right now, they aren't doing a lot of damage, granted its so dry they can't really root. I wanted to see how they responded this fall to hunting pressure before I spent the money. I don't feed corn during hunting season, so I'm hoping they will move to the neighbors.

The other issue I have is that between two of my neighbors, they own 5,000 of pure pine plantation with creek bottoms throughout. Basically hog heaven. I'm not sure my trapping efforts on 125 acres would ever really make a dent.

Was blessed to have grant money supporting the trapping that was done on my place, but with that said the consequence is that the remote control drop traps (boar buster brand) never belonged to me and were removed once trapping was deemed more necessary elsewhere.

I also do have one single panel fence trap I built with a guillotine-drop wood door entry that works fairly well... I set it up to manually trigger by long rope (live at my place so I could sit and trigger it). but I found it usually got only a portion of each sounder and educated any that were nearby and / or escaped. The remote ones definitely were more useful in being able to perfectly see what was going on / triggering with best chance of catching full sounders. Trapper that was triggering it lived about 30 miles away / along the Florida coastline and it was funny hearing him telling stories about when he triggered traps -- remember one time was when he was eating dinner at a coastal restaurant celebrating his Mom's birthday with his Mom and about 20 ladies in their 60s who were shocked he was able to trap hogs via his cell phone sitting at the restaurant.

As for making dent on 125 acres, the 75+ we got off my place was on even less acreage -- about 112 acres and a long/narrow rectangular pass-through property at that. What made for catching so many off my place is that I have a couple of decent stands of swamp chestnut white oak trees near the middle of my place and the hogs were continually being drawn to them. As soon as one sounder would be trapped, another would move in to feast on the heavy acorn crop dropping. Almost impossible to completely eradicate them, but I've had very few camera hits since 2022. Know it's just matter of time before a sounder crosses a road onto our place but sure thankfully to have not had to deal with them for the past 3 years and will act MUCH more aggressively when any future sounders show up. 👍
 
I also do have one single panel fence trap I built with a guillotine-drop wood door entry that works fairly well... I set it up to manually trigger by long rope (live at my place so I could sit and trigger it). but I found it usually got only a portion of each sounder and educated any that were nearby and / or escaped.

Homemade claymore mines, dude. Put one up in a tree angled toward the bait.

The architecture of the device is extremely important. The countermass that faces toward your house should be salt water. The shrapnel can be any lead or steel bits you have laying around. I think steel is better because it's cheaper and better for the environment. You can buy electric matches online. Run a double wire to your house, and just touch it to the terminal when you want to set off the device.
 
Was blessed to have grant money supporting the trapping that was done on my place, but with that said the consequence is that the remote control drop traps (boar buster brand) never belonged to me and were removed once trapping was deemed more necessary elsewhere.

I also do have one single panel fence trap I built with a guillotine-drop wood door entry that works fairly well... I set it up to manually trigger by long rope (live at my place so I could sit and trigger it). but I found it usually got only a portion of each sounder and educated any that were nearby and / or escaped. The remote ones definitely were more useful in being able to perfectly see what was going on / triggering with best chance of catching full sounders. Trapper that was triggering it lived about 30 miles away / along the Florida coastline and it was funny hearing him telling stories about when he triggered traps -- remember one time was when he was eating dinner at a coastal restaurant celebrating his Mom's birthday with his Mom and about 20 ladies in their 60s who were shocked he was able to trap hogs via his cell phone sitting at the restaurant.

As for making dent on 125 acres, the 75+ we got off my place was on even less acreage -- about 112 acres and a long/narrow rectangular pass-through property at that. What made for catching so many off my place is that I have a couple of decent stands of swamp chestnut white oak trees near the middle of my place and the hogs were continually being drawn to them. As soon as one sounder would be trapped, another would move in to feast on the heavy acorn crop dropping. Almost impossible to completely eradicate them, but I've had very few camera hits since 2022. Know it's just matter of time before a sounder crosses a road onto our place but sure thankfully to have not had to deal with them for the past 3 years and will act MUCH more aggressively when any future sounders show up. 👍
What is a "sounder" in hog lingo?? Never heard the term - but I'm in Pa.
 
What is a "sounder" in hog lingo?? Never heard the term - but I'm in Pa.
A group of pigs that all run together. Not necessarily all related. I have seen sounder with two dozen pigs in the bunch. It is important to try to catch them all at one time to avoid educating any escapees
 
^ ^ ^ ^ Thanks for that info, Swamper!
 
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