The previous owner of my place left a hog trap.
The trap is about 40 inches wide by 40 inches tall by about 6 feet long.

I am unfamiliar with his home-made trap, so let me ask about operating the door (vertical gate) release mechanism. It has a lift-up door/gate that slides in a channel. The door release is a rod that has one end hooked to a rope that goes forward then through a pulley down to a hanging bucket well inside the trap. To set the trap, it appears that the other end of the rod is pulled forward and the door/gate rested on top of a short section of rod (leaving the bucket of food hanging in mid air inside the trap). I surmise that a pig inside the trap would be expected to push down on the hanging bucket, thereby pulling the rope which pulls the rod and releasing the door/gate.
When I checked the setup, it seems that to get the rod to release the door/gate it takes a lot of pull.
I am wondering if there is a better way or if I need to modify my triggering setup.
Also: Is there a good way to catch more than one hog at a time.

Never heard of a hanging bucket for a trigger but I have the same door set up.Set the rod holding the door as light as you can.Us a rope that won't stretch much, some use heavy fishing line. Those hogs will get after the bucket and pull it down. Only way to cath more hogs is to build a bigger trap. I just built one and used the same door as your's but used 3-16' wire horse panels. Set them in a circle with no corners, they can push into the corner and clim on top of each other and some will get out. Use sour corn and the deer won't bother it.One thing for sure,kill them anyway you can, trap, shoot, run with dogs. If they ever get established you REALLY have got problems. Your County Extention Office can help you and there are some federal money to help you built traps.

How/where do you go to get the federal money?
What do they need from you for you to qualitfy?
Is this only in certain states?

Aloha Bob,

You have a guillotine door setup I have seen the hanging bucket trigger system like you have. Like Randy stated if you really wanna catch a lot of hogs building a bigger trap is the way to go but im sure you are aware of this.

In my experience the harder the trigger system the more hogs ive gotten in a trap. If you make it to soft and sensitive the first hog will usually trigger it and thats it. if he/she has to fiddle and fuss with it theres a greater chance more hogs will enter the trap before closing.

Also you can set that type of rigger system to be very hard to very soft so its adjustable all you have to do is play with the amount of rod used to hold the door up. The more rod used the stronger the hog will have to pull on the bucket. The least amount of rod used the less pull the hog will have to give for the door to trip.

Theres many other trigger setups to use for a box trap like you have. Unless you really dont like it and wanna change it out then it seems it should work ok for what you have.

If not post up here again and im sure we all can figure something out. Ive been using box traps like these all my life. So feel free to ask!

Aloha,

Dom

look it over good to see if there's a decent way to take the end, or one side off and enlarge the cage area so more can get in to fight over the bucket. That way you might catch more with a hard release. Then you can also relocate the bucket too. You could also build a new bigger trap and just use this as the entrance way into it too. At least you've got a good start with this much.
George

To 458phcapstick, your Extension service can point you in the right direction. NRCS handles the program, it is a federal program and you have to build it to their specs. Right now they require you to use a multi-catch door.I saw a video of a hog that was trapped with several other pigs and she was able to lift up the door and let the pigs out and then she got out also. I think you can get up to $500. I looked into it but decided to build my traps differant.

thanks i will forsure check into it,my trap has been ripped to shreds several times the past month and iam gonna have to build the cattle fence type soon,i allready checked on supplies i just havent bit the bullet and done it...they say bigfoot is back in where i trap and from the way the steel and metal has been bent it looks like it would have had to be a hand that done it and what ever it was had lots of reasoning skills!!
If i catch that Tennessee devil i will take a pic and post it

another time

another trap jail brake ...notice the chain and the trip platform

Hey Randy,What does NRCS mean? No rats cats or snakes?

Hadn't thought about it but that makes sense, Natural Resources Conservation Service. That hog definitely did a jail break. I killed one last night. Will grill the loins tomorrow. REVENGE!

Thanks guys,
The trap left for me is of moderately heavy steel and some re-bar. Looks like it has been in use for many years and has no signs of ever being bent up as som others above show in the pictures.
The discussion helped me understand a door piece I had only noticed but didn't understand. I now believe the door piece is a lift-stop-latch that would keep the hogs from lifting the door/gate once it falls.