Finally got that boar

Pics? I'm going hog hunting in FL in 3 weeks. I'm assuming 30-30 is not enough, correct?

Well done, fellow Texan. A dead pig is a good pig.

MCgunner....No pix of this one. Didn't mess around with the camera, wanted to get it on ice fast. It was 104 out there today and pigs spoil fast.

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It's been hot in N. TX too and since the cabin doesn't have A/C, we don't hunt much in the summer. Congrats on the hog.

Congratualtions on the hog! The wildlife biologist here says they get real smart about traps, really quickly if they have en encounter with one.

I'm assuming 30-30 is not enough, correct?

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Will be fine. About any deer rig will be fine for hogs. Gun choice is more a matter of expected distance.

Sorry, but I don't buy into that "trap smart" theory. I've trapped and killed more hogs than the average guy, and have never figured out how they ever came up with that theory. Just how is a hog supposed to learn about the dangers of a trap if they have never been in one? I watch small pigs hanging around traps eating, and I doubt they have ever seen one before. I would guess a lot of the biologists have spent a lot less time around feral hogs than some of us hunters have. They can sure tell us how many millions...billions...or whatever amount of dollar damage the hogs cause a year, and throw around a lot of unsubstantiated figures, but that seems to be the extent of what they try to teach us.
On another note, hogs aren't really that hard to kill..a lot of misinformation out there too. Put any reasonable caliber through the shoulder and they are down.

Your biologist is right, but he assumes they survive their encounter. With me, they don't.

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Obviously! He was talking about those that had either escaped, or the trap had not functioned as intended, in the context of making sure you set up everything right so it works the first time. We have good hog populations in certain pockets of Ohio, and some of the questionable and makeshift trapping methods used by locals tend "educate" as many hogs as they catch.

Stoney, this guy words for USDA, and his job is to trap them. I've also seen your work. Have you ever run into hogs that you knew had been trapped before?

Sorry, but I don't buy into that "trap smart" theory. I've trapped and killed more hogs than the average guy, and have never figured out how they ever came up with that theory. Just how is a hog supposed to learn about the dangers of a trap if they have never been in one? I watch small pigs hanging around traps eating, and I doubt they have ever seen one before. I would guess a lot of the biologists have spent a lot less time around feral hogs than some of us hunters have.

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Well, a whole lot of hunters/trappers also believe the same theory. To hear some talk, hogs are freaking geniuses. Some hogs do appear to be trap shy. Others manage to get caught repeatedly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF0MDS5CMYY

On another note, hogs aren't really that hard to kill..a lot of misinformation out there too. Put any reasonable caliber through the shoulder and they are down.

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Sure, it is just a matter of where they are down.

Sorry, but I don't buy into that "trap smart" theory. I've trapped and killed more hogs than the average guy, and have never figured out how they ever came up with that theory.

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i don't buy it either. Depends on how hungry they are. Too many times i've caught hogs from the same sounder in the same trap on successive nights.

One day i had about 15 hogs in traps at two locations. There were five adult hogs in the last trap. i was tired and left a huge gut pile within a few feet of the trap. That night we caught five more hogs from the same sounder in that trap.

Used to have a game camera at every trap. Some few hogs, usually mature sows, seemed to avoid the trap, then one night in they would go in-caught!!! We've had a few hogs escape from our traps. At least two of those hogs were later caught.

MCgunner, congrats on the pig.

Caught a three legged muskrat in the same trap that I removed same leg out of a day before...

Part of the reason I have been able to hunt the last 3 months down in Bosque County, Texas is because the hogs got trap shy. They had multiple sounders and were only getting a few hogs at a time and the rest seemed to become "educated" to what the traps did. Basically, they had lots of hogs but were only getting random singles anymore.

We have removed most all of the adults in the immediate area, though the property is now populated with piglets. We lose out opportunity to hunt at the end of the month when the deer hunters return. The landowner plans on trying to trap the "uneducated" piglets.

Here is out last hunt. The biggest hogs are 65-80 lbs.
https://youtu.be/Jj1m_MMGrRU

I'm sure the intelligence and learning abilities of hogs vary between individuals. I can compare some of the dogs I've had over the years, and I could tell you which ones would fall for teh same trick over and over, and which ones learned once.

I really can't identify one hog from another as a rule, with a few exceptions along the way. I tend to refer to some that stand out by pet names as I am figuring out how to get them.....names like "the devil pig", "big balls", and "stumpy" are just a few that come to mind. There are bunches that show up around feeders that all pretty much look and smell the same.
I guess I would have to admit that if a hog was in a group watching some throw a fit inside a cage, they might learn something from that...but I have caught complete sounders in stages of 3 nights in a row in the same trap. I guess there are many variables in this sport and we will probably never really get solid definitive answers to a lot of our questions.
I got this sow yesterday morning and it was kind of a surprise to see her. Hogs have been pretty scarce around here lately. I hunt some really dense woods and as such I'm pretty much confined to the clearer areas where I have feeders as a rule other than the occasional clearings.
I prefer to shoot them through the shoulder and it surprised me to see the shot through the lungs I made. I looked down and the rear sight had broken on my rifle and it moved over a little. I found a new part to fix it at Dixie and it's on it's way. I've shot that rifle for years and it's never had a hiccup, but I guess anything mechanical is subject to failure now and then.

Yeah it's a trapdoor carbine 45/70. I sorta lean towards the older guns as a rule, although a lot of my hunting is with modern stuff. I just seem to pick up something different out of the safe occasionally and throw it in the truck with me.

Had a trap door a while back that looked like that one, the guy i got it from said it was a bannerman conversion..ever heard of that? In hind sight shoulda kept it

I like to use a Hawken or another muzleloader from time to time. I've been playing with some smoothbores lately again, but accuracy is a challenge with them for hunting sometimes. I just finished putting a new front sight on a a .62 smoothbore flintlock pistol and thought it might be interesting to try it on hogs in the traps maybe.
Jack...those Bannerman firearms are pretty interesting. I don't know a lot about them other than they were normally assembled from parts, but he sure built an interesting business with his wits.

Stony's carbine is the real banana if i remember it was made in 1885. Bannerman's were cut down rifles and parts guns made with cut down barrels or carbine or barrels from other weapons that they could make fit. Bannerman had tons of parts US and foreign that he some how mated as a complete weapon. There was no worry about longivity or safety as long as it looked like a rifle and sold as a rifle they were happy. Shooting trapdoors with reduced loads is a kick in the butt and trying rapid fire you can see how Custer, particularly without coordinated fire, could be easily over run by a determined foe.

come to think about it my bannerman trap door did look it was built from mis-matched parts...it did function though..shot some real light smokeless loads ..2400 with polyester fluff to hold powder near primer..equal to light BP load..thanks for the reply..jack

Hard to believe in this day and age Bannerman's was based in NYC. Would have been a cool place to visit. "I'll take 5 boxes of those .44 Henry flats." "Yes Sir and did you know we just got a large shipment of 50-70 trapdoors in?"
Ah to go back in time!