How To Build A Hog Trap Without Welding

Two Easy Methods On How To Build A Hog Trap Without Welding

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Welding hog traps is a huge hassle to hunters. It also might seem unnecessary when there are better alternatives.

These welded traps are also not ideal for moving around and fast setup. It’s better to build a hog trap without any welding for that. We know this is why you are here and we plan to help you out on this.

So, how to build a hog trap without welding?

To build a hog trap without welding, you can use a box or a corral trap. But there’re certain factors that need consideration like placement and baiting factors before you set up your trap. It’s paramount to go through the process methodically.

Well, these were just a preview. There are a lot of other crucial factors that need consideration. We’ll discuss all of it in detail.

So let’s not waste any more time and get right to it!

Types of Non-Welding Hog Traps

Non-welding traps are basically traps that don’t need metal or metal joints being welded together unlike traps for bobcats. Having a welded trap system is very difficult to move around. And hogs don’t stay in the same place. If they understand there’s danger, then they won’t stay there for a second.

The best option for these types of hunting is to use non-welding traps. Those that use wood and steel panels, timber, wires, and nets.

In the case of non-welding traps, there are two types that work the best,

  • Box Trap
  • Corral Trap

Using these traps, you can easily be moveable and effective.

If you’re interested to broaden your knowledge on the ways of hunting, you can learn through reading various hunting and trapping-related books. We’d like to recommend you some of our favorites.

Now, let’s dive deep into the details about these two traps.

Box Traps

For hog trapping, box traps are very simple and easy to make as they take less time. These box traps are portable hog traps. It’s also cheaper to make and can be dismantled and reassembled in another location with no time.

So the question is, how to build a portable hog trap?

Box traps or portable hog traps are made from wooden panels or timber with a rectangular shape. First, the pieces are laid down and set up. After that, the structure is secured and a trap door is built. Finally, the tripwire is set up. These are made in various sizes depending on the need.

Source: wildpiginfo.com

Materials Used

Box traps are rectangular or square structures made of 2-by-4-inch and 1-by-4-inch or 1-by-6-inch wood fence panels.

How to Build a Box Trap

The most frequent box trap design is four feet wide, eight feet long, and five feet high, with no set-top or bottom. To prevent caught pigs from climbing out of box traps, jump bars or corner covers can be fitted. However, do not completely cover the top of a trap. Otherwise, other feral animals might get trapped

Step 1: Laying Down and Setting Up All the Pieces

First, take the designated design you want to use and place the wood fences on the ground. Then, lay them out according to the design. The typical box trap design is four feet wide, eight feet long, and five feet high, with no set-top or bottom.

Overhead woodwork isn’t needed because the five feet high panels prevent the pigs from jumping out.

Step 2: Secure the Structure 

Using decking screw nails, secure the timbers by overlapping them with each other. We recommend decking screw nails over regular nails as they stay in place and hold on to weight far better. Here are some of our recommended quality decking screw nails.

If you’re using panels then just simply join them and secure them using the screw nails

Step 3: Building the Trap Door

Building the trap door is one of the major tricks to trapping wild hogs. It’s very basic and easy to do.

So, the common question that most ask is How to build a hog trap door?

The hog trap door is built using timber and two heavyweight stones. The stones will add weight. Create the holding mechanism of the door using wood. After that, make a latch to which the door will stay open. When the hog triggers the tripwire, it’ll remove the latch and the door will come down. 

Set the trap door by securing it with a steel T-post opposite the front and back corners and connecting the trap sides to the T-posts with wire.

Step 4: Setting Up a Tripwire

Tripwire is the hog trap door trigger. To set up a tripwire for the trapdoor to engage, you’ll need to decide where to set the wire. It’s best to set it just a meter or two behind the trap door. That’ll ensure the hog will be inside the trap and won’t get hurt by the trap door falling.

Source: dragonsdogma.fandom.com

Set the wire from one side to another. Then create a pulley system using a rope or a hook. Set the wire through the pulley system and to the trap door holding mechanism. This will be the hog trap tripwire design.

Tie down the tripwire with the holding mechanism. And that’ it. To tend to the ropes and wires, you can use small knives. We have some of the top Scandinavian knives sorted for you that are small in size and perfect for the job.

When the hog triggers the tripwire, it’ll pull the trap door and trap the hog inside the box.

That’s how you build a box trap.

Things to Consider While Using a Trap Door

To prevent pigs from jumping over a trap door that does not extend to a height of 5 feet, you must account for the height discrepancy. There are two approaches for that,

  • If the trap door is positioned in between the ends of two livestock panels, as described above. cover the opening above the trap door with a piece of livestock panel or other heavy-duty mesh wire.
  • Simply cut a trap door aperture in the middle of one of the 16-foot livestock panels. Install T-posts on each side of the trap door for further strength, then link the door to the cattle panel and T-posts using heavy-gauge wire.

Include an extra T-post with a height of four feet on each side of the door for added security. The brunt of escape efforts will be focused on either side of the door. 

Fasten the livestock panels to the T-posts using heavy-gauge wire every 1 foot, beginning at ground level. Five per T-post. 

Another alternative for fastening is to utilize U-bolts. You’ll need two to three per T-post.

Pros and Cons

Box traps are easier to build and less expensive than conventional steel traps. Furthermore, because they are collapsible, they take up less space for transportation and storage.

The catch amount per trapping attempt is restricted to a few pigs. The box trap’s hardwood panels have a more restrictive appearance than wire panel traps. Requiring longer-term upkeep. Furthermore, the 8-foot side panels are heavy and can be difficult for a single person to manage.

Corral Traps

Corral traps are a popular and effective method of controlling feral hogs. They can catch entire sounders (groups of hogs) in a single capture. The majority of corral traps are constructed of 20-by-5-foot utility panels with 4-by-4-inch square mesh and steel T-posts.

Some corral traps make use of headgates, while others make use of the panels themselves to form a funnel. These can be useful because headgates are often expensive to buy. 

Corral traps take longer to put up, but the potential capture rates are substantially higher.

Source: Agfax.com

Materials

Corral traps can be built by fastening 16-foot by 5-foot pre-built welded wire livestock panels to 612-foot steel T-posts with heavy-gauge wire or U-bolts. We prefer U-bolts as they’re sturdier and strengthen the joints.

Three or four 16-foot-by-5-foot panels will yield a trap large enough to catch most sounder groups. You may easily increase the size of the trap by adding more livestock panels.

How to Build a Corral Trap

Now that we’ve gone through the details of the design and essentials, let’s go through the building process.

Step 1: Overlapping the Panels 

Begin by overlapping the livestock panel ends 1 foot. Now, fasten the neighboring ends with nylon zip ties or cable ties to make a circular corral trap. Make sure to leave two-panel ends open for the trap door.

Step 2: Shaping the Corral

Shape the corral by pushing or pulling the linked panels in or out of a circle as you work them together. 

Step 3: Setting Up the Trap Door

Set the trap door in position. Then drive T-posts into the ground right next to and on each side of the trap door once the corral is finished to your liking. You can use a single-catch or multi-catch trap door.

Step 4: Securing the Panels and Trap Door

Using heavy-gauge wire or U-bolts, secure the free panel ends to the trap door frame and T-posts.

Step 5: Grounding the T-Posts

Finish the trap by making your way around the corral and placing a T-post in the ground every 8 feet on the outside of the panels once the trap door is securely in place at the overlapped ends and the middle of each panel.

And that’s how you build a corral trap!

Pros And Cons

The size of the corral can be easily altered by adding or removing cattle panels, allowing the trap to be enlarged to accommodate larger sounders. The open-top lets non-target species escape, and the bigger size of the trap, along with the open appearance of the cattle panels, may appear less frightening to trap-shy pigs.

Corral traps take longer to set up than box or cage traps. The 16-foot cattle panels may need to be chopped in half for shipment, requiring more assembly time and effort, and tree roots in wooded areas can sometimes make driving and pulling T-posts difficult. A T-post puller is an excellent investment.

Things to Consider Before Building a Trap

Before going into the hassle of building a hog trap, you’ll need to consider some factors. These are paramount to gaining the best chance of trapping hogs. Let’s go through them.

Trap Placement

Place traps correctly to increase your chances of success. Place them on or near hog pathways that connect resources like food, cover, and water.

Aerial images can indicate how resources are scattered across the environment, which can help you strategically install traps.

Scout the land for hog signs, such as trails, scats, wallows, hog damage, and rubs, which are patches of mud rubbed on trees, posts, and utility poles. In regions where there are a lot of hogs, they will make obvious pathways.

Getting the Right Bait

Feral hogs are omnivores, meaning they eat both plants and animals, therefore a variety of baits can be employed successfully. Whole corn, cattle cubes, carrion, sour grain, and commercial hog attractant odors are common baits.

The importance of pre-baiting cannot be overstated when it comes to trapping success. If entire corn does not attract wild hogs, try the recipe below.

  • Corn- 150 pounds
  • Sugar– 8 pounds 
  • Yeast – 1 packet 
  • 4 or 5 packets of grape, strawberry, or raspberry flavored gelatin or drink powder

Combine all of the ingredients. Make sure you don’t get the product on your clothes. Ladle the bait into and around the trap, restocking as needed.

There are other types of baits you can use. These are,

If you want to use commercial baits, then we’d like to recommend some of the best ones in the market.

You can purchase these baits and have a good chance of luring the hogs into the trap. They are very effective. 

And that’s all there is to know about this topic!

FAQs

How do you keep deer out of hog traps?

Use an open top so that if you do catch a deer they can jump out. A strand of barb wire about 2′ to 3′ above the ground and across the trap opening has helped us with fewer deer in the traps

What kind of wire is used for trapping?

The best snare wire for making traps should be between .20 gauge and .24 gauge. This size range is thick enough to hold small animals but thin enough to prevent them from seeing the shiny silver reflection.

Are snares effective?

Snaring is an effective technique to capture animals that cause economic damage and for harvesting furbearers. Snares placed in trails or under fences can successfully capture furbearers. Carefully select sites where snares are set to avoid capturing non-target animals such as deer and dogs.

Conclusion

That’s all about the question of how to build a hog trap without welding? We hope we’ve cleared the doubt and fear about this. It is a daunting task to do. But with all honesty, if you have the materials and some helping hand, you can do it in no time.

A pro tip would be to take help from the local expert. You can ask for help from your hunting friends too.

Let us know in the comments how it went.

Good hunting!