www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4oNA8ViuwI

The rancher on the lease I am on rented one of these BoreBuster traps. The hogs have been overrunning the ranch. He has trapped 81 hogs in two weeks. The hogs have been extra thick in North Texas this year. It will be interesting to see if I'm picking up a lot of hogs on my cameras with that many taken out of circulation.

a very neat bit of kit....sure beats poison.

I gotta do some hog hunting ...

That's a brilliant piece of kit. What do they do with the hogs normally? I see this guy let a couple go into the bush, but isn't that defeating the purpose of the trap?

Do the hogs in the US carry parasites? It's not uncommon to find worms etc in the wild pigs in Australia, but those that are clean get sold for meat. The hunter shoots them and drops them at a pre positioned refrigerated container for the meat works. Sometimes a shooter will catch and keep a sucker or two, worm them out and fatten them up for Christmas.

Vince wrote:

Sometimes a shooter will catch and keep a sucker or two, worm them out and fatten them up for Christmas.

Like Elvis's Bacon & Ham!

I haven't seen anything about worms. Sometimes they carrier a bacterial called Brucella that can cause a serious infection if precautions aren't used when cleaning - where outer garments than hang up for four hours and the bacteria will parish and not be on you.

These hogs make great sausage, pork chops, roasts, and bacon (though not as much fat as domestic).

The hogs the rancher caught were taken to market to offset the cost or renting the trap. Not sure what happened to the little ones.

the ones in that video clip seemed way to settled when humans approached.normally in mob like that big mumma sow wouldve charged and chompped her teeth ,they might have been in pen for a day or two to settle down but it almost looked like a set up for advertising.
still looks like a great idea,most of the ones used over here are a spiral with a tight spot,pig squeezes in but cant find way back out.

I was able to check my game cameras yesterday. As I was collecting the SD cards, I noticed that the new batteries were half depleted. When l read the cards on the computer, I found out why. Over 700 shots in the 8 days since the last trapping. 81 gone hasn't made a dent in the hog activity.

An example of what happens after the dinner bell rings.

man those pigs are skinny...... sure wouldnt want to fall over and break a leg alone out in boonies with that lot around.
what happens over here when they get like that is they scavenge carcassess,then freshly born stillborn lambs,then they realise they can get lambs still BEING born,by rushing up to ewe in labour,so they now eating live lambs,from there its very slippery slope,they will chase down live ones and target anything weak or in labour,the results are devestating to a flock.....
once a pig is happy to chase down kill and eat something they are a very dangerous animal. as said I wouldn t want to fall and break a leg.

If feral hogs are such a pest, why aren't the ranchers falling over themselves to encourage hunters to shoot them?

well over here they pretty much kept in check nowadays...... you hear of the odd lamb killer but most farmers have regular crew of hunters more than willing to go deal with any that cause issues,a big battle scarred boar that has already killed dogs seems to be the pinacle/ultimate prize (pinacle of stupidity if you ask me) for pig hunters running meathead holding dogs.
the other thing the pigs do is rootup/turn over the ground which isnt flash in cockies good haypaddocks etc.

Elvis wrote:

man those pigs are skinny...... sure wouldnt want to fall over and break a leg alone out in boonies with that lot around.

this is one of several sounders that visit my feeders. The boar on the right is likely 200 to 250 pounds. The sows are 125 or more. The rest are piglets that are several weeks old and lost their spots. Very few sheep in this area. yes they can tear up the ground and do a lot of damage.

English Mike wrote:

If feral hogs are such a pest, why aren't the ranchers falling over themselves to encourage hunters to shoot them?

There are some guys that specialize in hog hunting. Not unusual for them to kill 10 to 20 a night with night vision and silencers. They multiple more than rabbits. They are so bad that Texas no allows hunting hogs from a helicopter.

I've been out twice with no luck - feeders had run dry so they were no shows. I've got that straightened out so maybe next time.

ok now having killed and hung more than a few pigs in my time.....and got not to shabby at guesstimating weight. Im usually within 10-20lb with our pigs.
now I looked at him and said he MIGHT go 130lb but should be 200lb if fat,looking at weaners they normally run 10-15lb and that lot look about that.
for him to be 200lb thats more weight than all those wee ones together. all said and done,shootem and get eating,dont forget the apple sauce.

Elvis wrote:

now I looked at him and said he MIGHT go 130lb but should be 200lb if fat

Well, Elvis, maybe I can slay some of them and see what they weight in at. The last bore was 250.