Hog Barrels

[QuietTexan]

Yeah I've seen the pipes, and those seem a lot more difficult to fill, and keep full, than these barrels.

When you can sit on the porch and shoot them nightly the corn seems to last awhile. That's what the owner does on the ranch I hunted last year. Scotch, cigar, rifle, green motion light.

I do like the barrel concept though.

 

[atepointer]

One thing you can add to your barrel which will blow your mind is put a hand full of rocks in your barrel larger than the holes. Amazing to watch how long they will keep coming around rolling the barrel thinking it's corn. Smoked more than a few on barrels long since empty.

 

[Coyote Shadow Tracker]

I wanted to share something we do at our hunting lease in Central Texas. We have a lot of hogs here in Texas and they're a lot of fun to hunt. One of the challenges is that while they come through our hunting areas daily, they're very unpredictable as to the time. When they come through, they don't stay long unless there's something to eat. To keep them coming back and hanging around longer, we put out poly barrels filled with corn with holes drilled in the side. They role the barrel around the post and the corn trickles out slowly so it takes a few days for them to empty it. You can make these from 30 gallon up to 55 and you can use open or closed top drums. Both have their advantages and drawbacks. The open tops can get roughed up enough by the hogs so they come open and the closed top drums are a challenge to attach to the cable. A few words of advice I learned the hard way. Use metal cable, not chain and run it through some conduit. Also be sure you have a good, sturdy swivel mechanism on the drum. We've had them break several of our chains and cables when they roll the drum around and the chain/cable binds up until it breaks. In the picture of the blue drum, I used a chair caster as my swivel and just took the wheel off. Also use a heavy duty ring around the T-post or they'll break that too. These really work well but you can go through a lot of corn using them. I tend to only run mine when I'm actively hunting. You can see that they can be a bit of a mess when the hogs play in the rain too. One time they broke my cable and I didn't find my drum until the next year, a good 1/2 mile away. They'd pushed it a couple hundred yards into a creek.

GREAT SETUP!!!!

 

[Buckys]

Thanks. I'm sure the cattle on our place would destroy these so I would need to put it in a pen.

I'm already thinking of a few modifications to let our racoons know how much we love them.

 

[bamban]

My buddy's place, Quitaque TX

 

[Texas Speed Bump]

Thanks. I'm sure the cattle on our place would destroy these so I would need to put it in a pen.

I'm already thinking of a few modifications to let our racoons know how much we love them.

You might be surprised. It all depends on how well you secure the barrel to the t-post. I lost several barrels my first few years because I underestimated how easily the hogs could snap a cable or chain once they get it bound up. The key is to make sure everything swivels and that your cable or chain doesn't bind. That's one of the reasons we run them through metal conduit. We have game cam pics of 300# hogs trying to mate with these barrels so we know they can take a beating.

And speaking of racoons; if you're not running the "Eliminator" spinner plates (https://www.allseasonsfeeders.com/products/eliminator-spinner) on your feeders, you're wasting a lot of corn. All our feeders have this type of spring-loaded spinner now. We don't need any cages or anything around the feeder box and the coons can't get anything out of them.

 

[Pdyson]

I had raccoons chew a hole into a plastic barrel feeder large enough to crawl inside. I walked up on the offside to fill it one day and a coon jumped out. I was ****ed to see a hole the size of a basketball in the side of my 2 yr old Moultrie feeder. I only use steel now.

I might build several steel barrel feeders and spread them out. Put a few big rocks in them or maybe a cowbell inside or on the wire rope. That way I could walk by them a hundred yards down wind and listen for the hogs.

 

[RB II]

We have a couple of the pipe setups. And have have shot over a few barrels also. We had several setups with cellular cameras and ARs with thermal scopes. Basically sit at camp drinking whiskey until they hit a feeder, go to it and let the youngsters shoot hell out of them. Then wait for the next one to be hit.

 

[Buckys]

You might be surprised. It all depends on how well you secure the barrel to the t-post. I lost several barrels my first few years because I underestimated how easily the hogs could snap a cable or chain once they get it bound up. The key is to make sure everything swivels and that your cable or chain doesn't bind. That's one of the reasons we run them through metal conduit. We have game cam pics of 300# hogs trying to mate with these barrels so we know they can take a beating.

And speaking of racoons; if you're not running the "Eliminator" spinner plates (https://www.allseasonsfeeders.com/products/eliminator-spinner) on your feeders, you're wasting a lot of corn. All our feeders have this type of spring-loaded spinner now. We don't need any cages or anything around the feeder box and the coons can't get anything out of them.

I might be surprised but IDK, cows can tear some stuff up.

As far as racoons go, the first time I took my son (bow) hunting when he was about 6yrs old, he told me that he wasn't sure if I shot a deer that it wouldn't bother him quite a bit.

So I cut a deal with him - I'll let the does walk but if an adult buck or raccoon shows up, I'm shooting it. He was completely cool with the buck idea but asked me why I wanted to shoot the raccoons. I conveyed the damage that they did to the feeders, etc. on the ranch and he was then a-o-k with that idea.

And wouldn't you know it? A couple of does walk 10 yds in front of the popup bliind. But then so did a raccoon. And that dude decided to check me out standing on his hindquarters. The 100gr G5 released all of the oxygen from his chest cavity. My son asked "did you get him, dad?" ...

 

[Mike6158]

I think I live in the only place in TX that doesn't have hogs. They're probably staying in the creek bottoms down the road but I rarely see where they've been rooting <--pronounced root-n, so I don't know. I've seen them but the time span between sightings is years. I haven't seen any down in the rice fields of Garwood but I have seen sign in the ditches about 15 miles to the west. My son in law hunts them at night, 4 or 5 times a month. He kills them all the time. Coyotes too.

 

[long450]

I hunt on 700 acres near Lampasas. The deer will eat any corn that happens to be left on the ground (which is usually only after I've initially filled one and rolled it myself a few times) otherwise the pigs usually eat every kernel. Deer won't touch the drums, much less roll them. We haven't had cows in the pastures for several years but I wouldn't put it past cows to roll them.

I have duck hunted around there, consider yourself lucky!

 

[338jedaw]

I have duck hunted around there, consider yourself lucky!

Awesome setup !

 

[Mike6158]

A few days ago I visited my brother-in-law and sister. They only live maybe 10m down the road. I said something about needing to test an subsonic 8.6 bullet but not being able to find a hog. He laughed and said "you want hogs, I got fword hogs". It's like I said in my post above, around here they are sticking to the creek bottoms and getting into his cattle feeders at night. Hunting pressure has changed how they live. So now I just have to get motivated to put the thermal on the 8.6 and see if I can get on one at night.

 

[Victor3Ranger1]

View attachment 471697

My buddy's place, Quitaque TX

Man!!