How long do you leave the pen baited before setting the trap? I built my pen this morning but I have seen a hog on camera yet. They have been pretty faithful around 1530. Nothing yet
It might take them a few days to come back into the area? I guess morning will tell.
I set the trigger but tied the door open so they get use to it.

Any last minute tips

I’d give it a couple days if they aren’t being pressured by dogs or thermal guys. Assuming you have a camera on it? Often the smaller pigs will go in immediately and the adults will take a day or two to warm up to a 6 foot gate trap. With a drop trap the adults definitely commit faster than a gate. Trigger set to the back of trap so they are hopefully all in before triggered, or have a heavy log with a trench filled with corn under it wired to where only a big pig will be able to root it up to fire. Good luck, I did 3 years of full time pig trapping and genuinely feel bad for those that do it every day, pig trapping sucks.

Unless you got born this year and never seen a trap pigs, anything new is a turn off. Y’all think coyotes notice a subtle change, hogs are worse.
Now, that sorta goes out the window when it’s cold and there’s not much to feed on. We’ve had pigs for almost a month and swapped one of my cams for the HogEye camera and they vacated for two weeks. Once they started coming back, we waited a week and put up the trap. Good news is those hogs were never seen again in that area, lol.
All depends on the age of pigs and their experience.

Well I'm getting pics of them now, about 25yrd from the trap. So they haven't run plum off yet!

Unless you want to wise them up over time, wait till ALL are going in the trap before setting. Had a sow took 13 days to go in, would come twice a day to let her piglets feed but wouldn't go in. Sometimes they barn storm in other times they won't go in one for love or money, i haul in a drop type trap for those, usually they walk under it the first night!

But im working PHD. hogs everyone and his brother has shot at, trapped ran with dogs, etc.

This is my second attempt at hog trapping 1st time was 4yrs ago. I left the door tied open 8 days before they were all going in. I set the door for real on the 9 day & caught 16 that night.. I left the trap set for almost 3 weeks before I caught the boar haven't seen another pig on that property! I think that what I'm going to have to do here, sit back and be patient. Here's my setup

Can't get a pic to up load

Like everything else they are not real smart to begin with BUT they learn a million times faster than any coyote or peg leg beaver ive ever met!

Looks like it's going to take some time this is the only one I got on the pen camera he stayed 45 min but never crossed the threshold. Looks like i'm going to have a feed bill bill be6this is over. Lol

Time for plan B
Get out the hog rifle

I know they have been shot at quite a bit. But they haven't been trapped as far as I know.
I think I will tie up all three doors until I get them coming in without hesitation. Any other ideas

On a serious note, there is one thing i wondered about when reading on the hog trapping thing.
Has anyone tried a hog decoy in center of trap to entice them in ?
Decoys work for many different things.
But maybe trap shy hogs are totally trap shy hogs

Ok, so the hogs push the gate up to get in? And right now you have it propped or wired up so they can come and go?

Yes that is what the trap door is designed to do. However that is not how I use it. I have a root trigger wired to the door at the back of the trap.

Why not just let whatever hogs want in to come in without slamming a gate down? Either way you’re not catching the entire sounder unless they all rush in at once before tripping the trip wire.
We have the falling type trap with a camera and watch them and when all are in we’ll trigger the gate to drop.
Right now we have NO pigs and haven’t had any in over a month. No sign. No pics. Nothing. They’re nomadic down here. They’ll stay for a couple months and be everywhere on the property, then gone a couple of months. We catch and hunt as many as we can when they’re here.

Start outside the trap and run a line of corn from there into the trap, let them start feeding and follow it into the trap, once they start feeding into it scatter it around all in the trap like your feeding chickens vs just pouring alot in a pile at the back. They will eventually work their way to the back and trip it. I quit root sticks long ago, trip wires are the way to go.

I’ll tell you what I’ve found when baiting them to a spot for thermal hunting. The more bait you have, the less time they spend at the site.
I live 10 minutes away from the property. If I just fed and leave the minute I get the first pic, I don’t have time to make it to the property, park, and stalk my way to the site before they are gone.
However, after a couple nights of them feeding when there’s very little bait left, they stick around until the last kernel or nut is found.
It’s like they think ok plenty of food here, let’s get a bite and move on. Very little bait and they think we ain’t leaving until it’s all gone.
Posthole diggers and corn down the hole are the best for keeping them around when just a little bit is scattered near the hole. Check with landowner first because the will have a 3-4ft wide hole about 2-3ft deep rooted up over time.

Try a large mirror (like one off a dresser) fastened to a panel directly across from door. It works.

Jackie, Why did you give up on root sticks and go with the trip wires? I can certainly make that change if I need to. Here is the current look