Kirk,

Saw in one of your videos somewhere you had a two door hog trap, similar to your double door beaver traps. I understand the idea with the beaver traps is that they can see through and are more comfortable in the trap. Did you, or anyone, find that a two door hog trap works better than a single door? I am asking specifically about a coral type trap, with hog panels as the enclosure. It seems they could see through the panels, so I was curious if there was any research showing 2 doors worked better?

I'm not Kirk but yes two doors do help ease the adjustment period for the hogs. Check out jagerpro on youtube. That's Rod Pinson of Columbus, GA and he shows how two doors help.
There's also the boarbuster trap out of Texas where the entire coral is raised when set and drops when fired.

David is right about Rod Pinkston. He is about the best knowledgeable on the subject. I saw one of the original traps yesterday. I only made a handful.(Croyles actually did the welding) They were all modified with the mechanism I have now about 7 years ago.

The problem with an enclosed trap are none targets such as deer. Deer can get hurt if dogs or predators come up to the trap while they are in there. A pen or corral trap is much better in that it can allow the deer to jump out. We made and sold over 50 hog doors, but they were expensive and few new how to best use them. I have one customer here that has four hog doors on his large farm, set up as corral traps. He told me by strategically placing them he has no problem now. I made 2 designs of them. The second I never did video of and shown to the public. That customer told me he caught 74 with his in less than the first year he had his. I never got a complaint or a disappointed customer call.

I can make a corral trap using my mechanism with multiple doors that will fire all at the same time. The corral could be made in all sections that were doors set in a circle or just one or two doors. I just never had a request or someone that wanted to spend that much money. Probably nobody thought about multiple pen doors unless it was remotely fired.

How the corral seems to be most effective is to make so that the first caught go into a holding section and the trap door set back, using the caught family group to lure the rest back to get caught the next night.

If you watch many videos of hogs going into a corral trap or any trap for that matter, the little ones usually run in first followed by the older larger hogs. The larger the pen the more of a chance that it will take longer for the total group to enter. By having two large gates the time is shortened simply because the hogs can readily enter and leave from more directions. They have a chance to settle down quicker, I believe, the more open and more accessible the corral is.

By having a remote and camera for determining when to close the doors, would be hard to beat, if trying to catch the whole wad.

Thanks for the input warrior and Kirk. I don't have enough hogs on our property to justify a jagerpro setup yet. We just started seeing some sign but know they are all around us. I'm going to build a corral type trap with double doors. The plan is that both doors will shut at the same time. Somewhat primal, but just planning on using a trip wire to set them off. I was hoping I would never have to learn how to trap hogs, but it looks like that will not be the case.

I have a little more history on the first double door hog trap and on powered guillotine door traps. I know the double door hog traps work as I designed and built the first double, guillotine door hog trap that I know of in a shop in Doerun Georgia about 10 years ago. I was missing my notes and drawings I made on the plane, but worked from memory with a fellow named John in his welding shop for two days to build the 300 pound, 8 foot long trap with a 3x4 opening. Kirk was there the second day to help finish. It was at that point that I introduced the suggestion that guillotine door traps could also be powered. I later learned that the trap caught as many as 9 piglets at one time. When I was there I saw it catch 2 hogs at once that were 65 pounds. With the wire trigger the trap can be made to catch pigs of what ever size is desired. By raising the wire the little guys will simply pass under. At one point the trap was fired with nothing in it, which was as surprise. We wondered how a pig could fired it without getting caught. Turns out the video showed two raccoons had gotten in and remained in the trap for a couple of hours before figuring out they could simply go out through the 4x4 inch concrete wire mesh. The traps definitely do work. I have a duplicate trap in my shop that has never been used.

Jim is correct that John did the welding on the first one. Later, I had Croyles make a few more. We actually copied a trap that Slim Pederson showed us and put the mechanism we were working on, on that trap design. We thought we really had something at the time. Found out later, after I had time to test that trap, and other small conventional trap designs, that the trigger was not consistent. Once the parts rusted up or the spring tension was not equal on setting, the system failed to perform 20% of the time. That was not acceptable. Several months later, after working on the same basic mechanism design, Jim called and asked to part our ways. We had an attorney draw up papers. I paid John, Croyles, Larry, and Southwest tool and Die for their work with us. I later developed what I have, and Jim developed what he has.

Some time later the first hog traps were refitted with the mechanism I have today to improve the function of the trap. I never made any more like that. The biggest reason was that I had heard about problems when deer were caught. Using a corral, they jump out if a threat approaches.



I was there every day. For the seventeen days that Jim came down.

After I applied for my first patent, when I first started Advanced Trap, I was in the shop. I told My help I was not going to leave that day until I figured out how to make a "practical" powered Guillotine door. I set a guillotine door trap in the middle of the shop floor and pulled up a chair. That was 10 a.m. By 1:30 p.m. we had a working proto-type. Two weeks later I applied for the patent I have now.

This the the boarbuster trap you're talking about http://www.boarbuster.com/ ? If so it is built right own the road at Thomas, OK.

That is an impressive setup, geared for big problems on large farms I would think, $6000 to $8000 each. Great videos to see the traps in action, worth a look, thanks for sharing. Like all ADC work, important to make the catch and equally as important to make the catch without educating others. Looks like that drop trap catches most all of them each time.

Boarbuster looks good but two things I would need to look at before buying.
One, corral size is fixed and could be on the small side for large sounders to fully enter. The jagerpro with its separate door/corral can have any size corral of any shape/depth to give space to draw in the sounder.

Thanks Kirk for making me aware of how the target animal is positioned at the time of firing.

Two, since the corral is the door and positioning of the sounder is essentially radially around the corral there appears to be a greater risk of the corral becoming a dead fall pinning one or more pigs with the potential of defeating full closure. Again this appears to be less of a risk with the jagerpro.

I've never seen or examined either system outside of online sources but comparing the two and understanding a little the concept of animals inside a cage I would have to answer the above concerns before choosing one or the other.

That said, the things I like.

Boarbuster, complete system corral and all parts in one easy to transport package. Appears to be designed for one man installation. Really nice and well thought out.

Jagerpro, only one major component (not counting the electronics common to both) required for purchase. The rest (corral) can be obtained locally and or can be of any alternate design. Modularity, can be configured multiple ways such as large or small corral, single or multiple doors, better suited for uneven terrain.

Just my thoughts as a tire kicker contemplating adding hog traps to my arsenal.

Don't overlook hogg boss gates or bull creek game changer traps.