falcon

Finished hog proofing a deer feeder in the rain this morning. The hogs will not/cannot get over the 18" tall fence. The deer just step over the fence.

It's built using scrap T posts and cattle panel.

Oldtimr

Wont the hogs dig under the fence since they will know there is food inside?

falcon

Have built a lot of these hog fences, never had a hog do that. Caught one big boar on camera. He got his snout under a panel, lifted it up and went under. He got shot for his trouble.

Topgun 3006

He must not have many hogs in his area or the small ones will go right through those big panel squares and the big ones will root under the panels if they are just sitting on top of the ground. Where we hunted in south Texas that fencing wouldn't have lasted a week!

super_hunt54

It's kind of according to the available food in the surrounding area. Hogs, like deer and pretty much every other mammal, will go for the food easiest to access. If they are especially hungry or the food in the feeder is especially enticing then hogs will most definitely route under that fence in no time at all. Hogs are especially good diggers since they root for many of their favorite foods so digging a little trench under that fence would be no real obstacle at all. But if memory serves me correctly in Falcon's descriptions of the surrounding areas of his hunting places, their choices of food stuffs are pretty abundant so actually working for a small meal from the feeder would not be necessary.

Some people seem to think that animals other than ourselves do not have the capacity to "reason" but those people are foolish to think that. Hogs and many other animals actually do have the capabilities of reason and are MUCH smarter than some people give them credit for. Having hunted hogs for an abundance of years, I have seen them do some things that would require serious thought processes from a human.

Top, you are correct in the fact that that fence wouldn't stop a hog in South Texas for any amount of time. But the food choices in South Texas differ greatly from where Falcon lives. While fantastic browse for deer are available, hogs have to work a little harder for food stuffs than deer around there than they do at Falcon's properties so they focus in pretty hard on deer feeders as a learned response. All this boils down to simply, hogs differ in each and every area.

Topgun 3006

Hogs are incredibly smart and with their fantastic sense of smell present a very fun game animal to hunt. After the first few years hunting down in the brush country I had more fun trying to shoot hogs than deer down there. This one in the picture is the last one I shot down there in 2010 on my Dad's last hunting trip before he died. He was in the blind with me and I told him to shoot it and I don't think he could see it good with his failing eyesight. I took the .243 Sako that was his favorite rifle and the only one he kept until he died and shot that hog right between the eyes. When we got out and went down to gut it and he saw where I shot it he said that's a pretty good shot son! He died just 5 days shy of his 89th birthday on 9/11/11. Hard to believe it's almost five years already since he left us! Mom is still hanging in there at a hearty 91 last month, still drives and goes to the gym twice a week where she lives down on the northeast side of San Antonio.

falcon

Yep, hogs are very good at breaking out of traps. i've had them go over a five foot chain link fence at a hog trap. Hogs are not so good at breaking into things.


i sometimes loosen one end of a fence panel and allow the hogs to come to the feeder. Sooner or later i close up the fence and the hogs make no serious attempt to get to the feeder.


Never designed it that way but little pigs can come and go at will through the fence. Makes the little suckers easy to kill. Since March i've eliminated about 80 small pigs mostly with a Ruger 10/.22 and hollow points.

Topgun 3006

Sounds like you have a lot more hogs in your area than I thought if you've killed that many good eaters!

MudderChuck

My guess is they will eventually figure it out. I put up a two wire electric fence at around the same height trying to protect a Wheat field, didn't slow them down for long.

The lease I have now is old forest, a lot of really old fallen timber, mine sail over those fallen logs like antelope. The one-two year olds are the most agile. The big ones kind of crawl over and have worn saddles into those fallen logs.

Somebody shot a lead Sow and the sounder split up, a bunch of almost one year olds where traveling together. Watched them one night run, pretty much full speed, right through a three wire barbed wire fence. Sounded kind of like a Banjo playing.

falcon

TAMU did a study of this stuff: Their 20 inch high fence kept out most hogs.


http://www.chron.com/sports/outdoors...og-1746657.php


A friend uses 16" high fences around his feeders: Seldom does a hog get inside.