Hog Barrels

Texas Speed Bump

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Jul 31, 2020
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131
Location
Pflugerville Texas
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.
 

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Do the raccoons get after it as well?

yup. They'll tear at the holes with their paws. Doesn't really impact it too much.
a ton of videos online called hog pipes. This version is a step up don't have to fill it as much.
 
yup. They'll tear at the holes with their paws. Doesn't really impact it too much.
a ton of videos online called hog pipes. This version is a step up don't have to fill it as much.
Yeah I've seen the pipes, and those seem a lot more difficult to fill, and keep full, than these barrels.
 
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.
One thing I forgot to mention. If you make yours out of an open top drum, then obviously it's easy enough to fill. I prefer closed top drums as they're more dependable but then you have to fill them through the relatively small bung holes. So I use a traffic cone for a funnel. Just cut the top of the cone off so you don't have that bent edge and it'll stand up in the top of the barrel. I just keep a cone stuck in a nearby tree near each barrel.
 
I take an 8" plastic pipe about 2' long. dig a hole in the ground and bury vertical. Fill it with corn. The hogs come in but only one can eat at a time. They all gather around waiting for their turn to get to the pipe. There is always corn left in the pipe because they can only get their head in the pipe so far.. I set up several in an area about 1/2 mile apart, put cameras up and time them to come in. The hogs may dig around the pipe , but never get the corn unless they stick their head in the pipe. I will take some pictures tomorrow and the hogs coming in. Have abut a dozen to 20. I need to start shooting them again. i only have a one person stand set up. I need to put my two person stand and then can take other hunters. One to use the FLIR to see them coming in at night through the woods and the other person to have my RRA 223 with a Night Vision D-760 - THE SHOOTER!!!! A lot of fun shooting them. Have a bunch of young ones so we will eat them <100lbs. The older Boars several hundred LBS we leave for coyote bait.
Look for my follow up posts & Pictures on this thread.
Len & Jill
 
I see you are from Pflugerville, do you have the hog drums in Pflugerville as well, or elsewhere?

Have you seen deer roll these things?
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.
 
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