Remotely Activated Feral Hog Trap

[mattpatt]

I have two traps with a remote gate release on each of them. I designed the system myself because the commercial ones that were available at the time either locked you into using their cameras or they had some proprietary system that could only be used with their gates making it very expensive. My system uses off the shelf components and a little redneck ingenuity to get the job done at a third of the cost. The original controllers were on the 2G AT&T network. At the first of the year, AT&T has started turning off the 2G service which made my traps stop working. I recently upgraded the controller to a 3G\4G compatible controller and recorded a video of our large trap and how the system works. Right now, the trap costs me $30/month to run but we trap and sell hogs to state approved holding facilities so as long as we're trapping hogs we can offset that cost by selling them. I'm also working on a long range wireless system (up to 2.5 miles) that would allow me to activate another trap with the same controller cutting costs in half.

Matt

 

[wbpdeer]

Matt

You have the touch. Can you share what hogs bring when you sell them? I am guessing they are sold for meat?

Thanks for sharing.

Wayne

 

[lakngolf]

Did you have the remote trap door thread on the other forum? It was great and I am glad you posted this.

 

[cutman]

Really cool contraption. Will follow your progress.

 

[mattpatt]

Matt

You have the touch. Can you share what hogs bring when you sell them? I am guessing they are sold for meat?

Thanks for sharing.

Wayne

Hi Wayne,

I'll let you know. We hope to have some in the trap by this weekend. They are processed and the meat is shipped overseas. Regulations prevent the sale of meat here in the US unless Trump has undone that one too.

Matt


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[mattpatt]

Did you have the remote trap door thread on the other forum? It was great and I am glad you posted this.

Yes I had it over at the Chasingame forum.


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[mattpatt]

Hog trap set!

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[mattpatt]

Our take from this weekend.

This video was shot after a ~250 lb boar rared up on his back legs, managed to get his front legs over the top of a five foot cattle panel and got up and over. None of had a gun with us so he made it back into the woods. First time I've seen that happen. At the time we estimated him at around 200 lbs but a couple of the others we managed to get loaded in the trailer and sold weighed close to 200 themselves and he was much bigger than them so we figure close to 250. Bummer as he would have brought almost $90 at the buyer. We ended up with 7 that were heavy enough to sell with a total weight of 1038 lbs and they averaged almost 150 lbs a head. Not bad. Ended up making enough money to pay for the electronic upgrades I had to do to the trap to make it 3G/4G compliant and had a little extra left over to put back for corn.

Matt

 

[wbpdeer]

Bummer that the larger got over the top. I am guessing he will be very difficult to catch in a trap now after that experience.

Do you have a small circular gate that is one way in the fence configuration? Just look at the photo and thought that might be what it is.

You are getting a photo sent to a cell or computer and then triggering when you think you catch the most hogs - is that correct?

Thanks for sharing.

Wayne

 

[mattpatt]

It's a spring loaded gate that swings open like a door. Once it is released, I usually drive down there during the night and wire the gate shut just to make me feel better. My fear is that if the hogs hit the gate too much it might bounce the spring loose and the door would come open. That hog will probably never be back. The only way to take care of him now would be to hunt him or get my buddy to come out with his dogs and maybe track him down. I'm sure he got hurt going over that fence but not sure how badly. There are little barbs on top of those cattle panels and I'm sure it scraped the heck out of him when he went over. There was no blood that we could find though. I use a Spartan GoCam that sends a pic to my phone. Then I wait for the right time to release the gate by calling my triggering device. Usually what we do is wire the gate open for a few weeks to get them used to going in the trap and also it allows us time to figure out how many are traveling in the group so that once the trap is set we have a pretty good idea when they're all in there. The advantage is that you catch the whole group and not just the first few pigs that go in the trap.

Matt

 

[wbpdeer]

I guess it takes about two or three nights to get them all settled in to raiding the corn inside an enclosure.

What is highest number you have caught in one night?

I enjoy this thread. We don't have hogs yet but it could happen. They are East - South East of our farm 10 to 20 miles if you listen to folks.

We don't have bears either and hope we don't get any.

Thanks
Wayne

 

[mattpatt]

Yeah it takes them a little while to get used to going in but the lure of corn is a powerful thing and they can't resist. We've caught 24 in this trap at one time before.


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[Kabic]

Does the boar going over the top going to cause a height increase, or do you think that is a 1 time anomaly?

 

[mattpatt]

Does the boar going over the top going to cause a height increase, or do you think that is a 1 time anomaly?

We've caught over 300 hogs in this trap and this is the first time that we've had one get out like that. Of course this is probably one of the bigger hogs that we've had in the trap. A 250 lb hog is a really big hog!


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[mattpatt]

Wasn't expecting it but we had some more visitors last night to the trap. A couple of the sows we caught had weening size piglets with them and we small enough to fit through the trap. As long as there was no pressure on them they stayed with their momma. When we went down there they scattered. We weren't too concerned and figured they'd just end up as Bobcat and Coyote bait. Well last night they showed back up to the trap. So now I'm thinking I may line the bottom inside of the trap with some chicken wire and reset the trap this weekend to see if I can catch them. None of these are big enough to sell but they will be some good eating!

 

[mattpatt]

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[lakngolf]

Good job matt. You do have a healthy herd! I've had no action now for three or four weeks. Not sure it that is good or bad.

 

[dogdoc]

great job--enjoyed watching! Have you thought about setting up your camera to video? I love watching the video once that door slams shut.

 

[mattpatt]

I have the one that watches the trap but it has to stay in picture mode so that I know when to close the trap. We have another cam we plan to put on the outside in video mode to capture the moment. You would think they would go crazy when you shut the door but these didn't.

Here's a pic of before the door shut.

Here's one a few minutes after..

Matt


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[wbpdeer]

Matt

Your gate probably does not make a ton of noise when it shuts plus the corn pile rules the herd.

I agree with DogDoc - the chaos that occurs many times is comical. A trapper's victory lap.

Thanks for sharing.

Wayne