Made a Hog Trap

[Blue68f100]

I have worked all week on this trap for my dad. It measure 5'x10'x54"tall. We were able to move it pretty easy using a bar across the bottom using the hay bail lift on the tractor. As you can see I made the gates in 3 sections to give it that open feel. All can be tripped the same time or just the ones you set. One of the gates is a little smaller so smaller hogs will be able to push it open if they want to get in. My dad still needs to get a couple of small pulleys for the trip line.

 

[Flintknapper]

Good enough.

Be sure and reinforce it with some "T" posts. It will not only keep the trap from being displaced, but also prevent the hogs from "lifting" it by rooting under it.

I see that you used 4" X 6" panel (cattle panel) which is fine for larger hogs but you'll find that piglets will squirt out through the mesh as well as the spaces between your doors. Just letting you know.

Best of luck, get after them!

Flint.

 

[Blue68f100]

Thanks for the reminder. I have a roll of some 2x4 chicken wire to put round the bottom. Most all of the hogs he has seen have been 200+lbs. But he has not seen any in over a month now since they got some rain in his area. His tanks are still low but up 3-4' since the drought last year. I have only seen one small hog (last Sept) and it was probably 50 lbs so its to large to fit through the openings. My dad has some T post and some screw anchors to hold the trap down and too keep them from scooting the trap around. These pictures were taken soon after it was moved down to it's new resting home. He can see the trap from the back door, so it will be checked on a regular basis. It's right at 80 yrds from his back porch.

 

[Flintknapper]

It looks good, nice welding job too.

Prop the doors open at first until they used to going into it. Then either set it with a trip wire or let them root through.

Good luck, hope to see some pics soon.

 

[Blue68f100]

Thanks for the compliment. Welding is what I went to school for (40yrs ago), so I know a little about how to do it. Never did any welding for occupation though. I used a Holbart 135 amp Mig welder (0.025") with mix gas. For those who have this welder B 25-30 setting. I have this setup to weld the thin sheet metal on auto bodies. My gas bottle gauge was reading 0 for the last day of the project, welding on the panel above the gates. I have a bad back which made things a little tougher for me. Leaning over I last about 2-5 min before I start hurting. It does not like that position at all. Most of my welding was horz or vertical runs with very little flat position work. I even did some over head but since I forgot my glasses for doing close work, I could not see what I was doing, bifocals/trifocals not in the right place. So I went by the sound of the arc to hold my distance.

 

[fallout mike]

That's great man. We are looking to make for our deer camp. How much $ do you have in it?

 

[Blue68f100]

Sorry don't really know what the cost is. I used material my dad had on hand, only consumables. Maybe a couple pounds of mig wire, and 1/2 bottle of gas for the welder, 1 14" chop saw blade and some grinding disk to clean up the old tubing so it could be welded.

 

[MCgunner]

I compared the cost of building one like my trap to the 330 bucks the trap cost me already built AND galvanized, which is important down here in the salt air as my place is 1 mile from Espiritu Santos bay which is separated from the Gulf of Mexico 3 miles away by Matagorda Island. Anyway, the materials using cattle panel from TSC would have cost me almost as much. Eh, well, I just bought one already built. I'm lazy. It's worked well for about a decade and is still shiny and rustless.

 

[chas08]

Catch all you can and don't turn ANY loose...good luck.

 

[Blue68f100]

I'm not about to let any loose........

 

[alsaqr]

That is a nice hog trap. Be sure to stake it down well with T-posts.

Hog trapping was a long learning curve for me. When building my first trap i drastically underestimated the strength of a 250 pound boar hog. That trap went through several modifications before it was strong enough to hold a big mean hog.

This is my newest hog trap. Its 8 ft long, 3 ft wide and 42" high. One man can easily load it into a pickup.

 

[chas08]

Hog trapping was a long learning curve for me. When building my first trap i drastically underestimated the strength of a 250 pound boar hog

That happened to us too, many years ago. Whatever we caught that night broke the tack welds on the top and rolled it back like a sardine can...lol. We had caught a few 60-100 pounders in that trap before that. But that night we caught a HOG!!!