Do we want to feed deer or hogs?

[Hoghunter]

I have been following Flintknapper and his hog saga for some time now. It's almost like reading a mystery novel...you never know what surprises will be in the next chapter. Very interesting and educational. I never knew there was so much to learn regarding hog hunting.

My limited hunting experience the past few years has been on a North Texas/Oklahoma area ranch thinning out the Prairie Dog herds. This year I did not go since the plague has pretty much wiped out the doggie towns. I do not have any experience (yet) hunting deer or hogs. I have been invited (this fall) to help thin out the feral hogs on a ranch near Devine, Texas. The owner wants to increase the deer population, not the hog population. I know that the hogs are there based on game camera pictures showing 20 or more hogs at a time around a deer feeder early in the morning.

The assumption is that you want to fatten up the deer and not the hogs. Why not place a series of 5' high hog fence panels around the feeder to keep the hogs out that would allow the deer to feed without hog harassment? Deer should not have any problem jumping a 5' fence. You would now be feeding deer (and probably racoons), instead of hogs.

You could still hunt or trap hogs using another feeder, but you would no longer be buying deer corn exclusively for hogs.

Am I missing something (or a lot of somethings)?

I am ready to be educated as this is all new to me.

Hoghunter

 

[heeler]

Lot of issues here.
First,you dont need a five foot fence to keep hogs out as they are not jumpers such as deer.
Good hog panel run in a heighth of three feet in a circular motion around a feeder works well until the hogs dig under it...And they will unless the ground is solid limestone or granite.
But in all honesty the deer clear out when the hogs arrive because the hogs are aggressive and generally come in large numbers and the deer want no part of them.
Frankly after hunting deer for many years before the feeder craze came along I would be content to hunt the rest of my natural life without the aid of those things.
However if killing hogs is what you desire to do then put as many of those automated corn feeders out as you can and kill those stinking feral hogs as often as you can because they will come to the feeders.
However I must admit the hogs are smarter than the deer and if the pressure of man becomes strong they will simply go to ground so to speak and move only at night.

 

[Zen Archery]

the few places I hunt farmers set up feeders to keep hogs contained within an area. history has taught farmers that hogs like corn more then wheat so by throwing corn consistently it will keep them near the corn and away from the wheat (for a while).

now as for thinning out the hog population to have a better opportunity to shoot deer. hogs are naturally prone to night time movement. so if you have a feeer i would set it for dusk dawn and midnight.

yes, you still may see them during the day time but once you shoot one or two of them they will become educated to being hunted during the day time and move into night time feeding patterns.

start buy shooting all the pregnant sows and sows with piglets first.

 

[Oathkeeper1775]

Camp Bullis

San Antonio eh?

We had feeders up on Camp Bullis (92-94); they were 5 gal buckets of feed hung from a juniper, they were triggered by a wooden stick that only a deer with antlers could reach and wiggle. Not high-tech but they worked.

We had a problem up there with turkeys and does stealing the corn, hogs weren't a problem back then....

 

[tarosean]

yes, you still may see them during the day time but once you shoot one or two of them they will become educated to being hunted during the day time and move into night time feeding patterns.

Then you hunt at night...


OP,
I have moral issues with feeding game animals. Its not hunting to me! no different than sending one of my cows to slaughter.

I wont waste the money on feed for hogs, since I feed other livestock and that cost seems to be going up daily....

One of the things I hate about TX is that they allow baiting. I kept my NM residency for years upon arriving in TX so I could go back and do real hunting at a fraction of the cost. Now-a-days I pay the out of state fees.

 

[Art Eatman]

The morality of baiting for deer is not on-topic for this thread.

 

[Hoghunter]

Feeding deer or hogs?

Yep! Looks like I was missing several items. Thank you all for providing feedback to my questions. I will be hunting hogs in the fall with two experienced hog hunters, so I will pick up some "real world hog experience" then.

Thanks,

Hoghunter (soon to be)

 

[spclpatrolgroup]

I could care less about baiting from a morality standpoint, and more about baiting from a health standpoint. CWD can be spread through bait piles, or communal feeding, along with other desease. A large food plot is a much better alternative than a pile of corn or grains.

 

[41 Mag]

The area where our farm is we put out food plots, as well as several hanging feeders which both throw feed and allow free feeding. I do what I can afford to do to help out the deer, not so much to hunt them but simply to add additional nutrients and minerals they would not normally get. Usually IF we hunt by oe of the feeders, it is with the grandkids so they can simply see deer, and be apart of the experience, we rarely shoot anything but possibly a doe.

As to the hogs, I put out minerals in holes drilled with the auger so they have something to keep them coming back to. This said, we shoot as many in the back yard coming up after the fallen pears and ornamental peaches as we do anywhere else. Pretty easy to setup a motion detector pointing under the trees, with a 120V light that comes on when they show up. simple plug it in and they get used to it and by the following weekend you simply step out the back door with the 12g and buckshot and have at it.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

The assumption is that you want to fatten up the deer and not the hogs.

Up to this point in time,all of our deer are naturally fat(same with hogs) as there is always a large amount of naturally occuring food year round. Landowners/leaseholders use "supplemental" feeding to keep deer on their land. Green fields,wild crabapples,wild turnips as well as assorted fruit trees do this quite well but you still see large piles of corn regularly(illegal to hunt over here). Typically anything that appeals to deer also attracts hogs.

 

[MCgunner]

Feeders should work better this year in Texas considering the acorn crop will be minimal. I've got to go get mine set up.

 

[Mike1234567]

Just as 41 Mag did, I'm thinking of putting a deer feeder on my property to give them some extra nutrition and so they'll frequent my area because I enjoy watching them. If I do I'll encircle it with a 3 foot high fence to keep the darned hogs out. There's pretty much no chance of them being hunted because the most of the homes in my immediate vicinity are on just a couple acres.

 

[41 Mag]

You had better reinforce the fencing pretty well. I put up a pen around a protein feeder and had a t-post every 6 feet. I used 4 - 20' panels with the ends laced together with SS wire.

Here is a link to what I returned to the following weekend,
Hunting 2007

If those hogs want in they will get there and with things being like they are this year they might decide they want in bad enough to get there. Heck they pulled up over half of the post to get inside.

 

[T Bran]

The best way I found to feed deer and not hogs is to drive a 2'' pipe in the ground under the feeder and put a tray ( a metal trash can lid works good ) on top so it looks like a bird bath arround 3.5 feet tall. Over your timer/slinger put a piece of plastic pipe that extends below it a few inches. When the timer goes off the corn falls straight down onto the tray since it is elevated deer can eat at will but hogs only get what they knock out. Be sure to drive the 2'' in deep enough to be rigid or they will push the whole rig over also drill some drain holes in the tray. This has been working for me since last year but what it wont do is keep out coons turkeys or other corn theives. Im also waiting for the first bear attack since nothing is perfect.

T

 

[Mike1234567]

You had better reinforce the fencing pretty well. I put up a pen around a protein feeder and had a t-post every 6 feet. I used 4 - 20' panels with the ends laced together with SS wire.

I'll keep that in mind and build accordingly. If I build this it'll be a relatively small enclosed area with chain link fence buried about a foot deep.

The best way I found to feed deer and not hogs is to drive a 2'' pipe in the ground under the feeder and put a tray ( a metal trash can lid works good ) on top so it looks like a bird bath arround 3.5 feet tall. Over your timer/slinger put a piece of plastic pipe that extends below it a few inches. When the timer goes off the corn falls straight down onto the tray since it is elevated deer can eat at will but hogs only get what they knock out. Be sure to drive the 2'' in deep enough to be rigid or they will push the whole rig over also drill some drain holes in the tray. This has been working for me since last year but what it wont do is keep out coons turkeys or other corn theives. Im also waiting for the first bear attack since nothing is perfect.

That sounds like a great idea. Do you even need to bother with fencing with that setup?

 

[T Bran]

Mike1234567
No I attempted to fence off a food plot once it held for a little while but the hogs had more time to work on it than I did so I dont bother with fencing anymore.
Happy hunting

T