Luke Shaffer
When we signed the lease for a 300 acre space in San Marcos, the owner told us there were white tail deer, dove, turkey, axis, and hogs. Needless to say, we were pumped at the prospect of year-round game to hunt.
About a month in, some of the excitement started to fade. Of course, there were plenty of white tail (central Texas, y’all), but other than a few doves, the rest of the list was a bit scarce. Fast forward a couple weeks later, and behold:
Soooey! That’s some good pig rootin right there. Then they started showing up in the cams:
Yes! In Texas, wild pigs are a nuisance. They are legal to hunt or trap year round, day or night. They also happen to be delicious. The only drag is, they are almost impossible to pattern. They don’t run dusk and dawn like deer. The don’t roost regularly like turkey. They come in, devour a food source, and move on.
You’ve got to figure out a way to keep them occupied in a space for some time. Feeders are great, but if you have a dozen wild hogs on two seconds’ worth of corn spinning out, it won’t last one second. So how do we keep them hanging around?
Make them work for the food.
This is where the hog pipe comes in. The idea is that you fill this sucker with corn. They smell it. They come to get some. Once they knock the pipe and realize that makes the corn come out, game on! They should hang around for a while – bouncing this thing around, shaking out corn – giving you time to turn them into dinner.
Let’s make one, shall we?
Here’s what you need:
- 1 – 4” x 24” PVC pipe
- 2 – 4” PVC snap-in drain (caps are $9ea, these suckers are $3; also, these should allow little pieces of corn out, but lots of aroma)
- 2 – 1/4” 880lb quick link
- 1 – 3/16” x 6ft 840lb wire rope security cable (chain works too, but again, this was cheaper)
- 1 – U-bolt fastener
- 1 – Tie out stake
You’ll also need a mallet and a drill with a 1/2” drill bit.
Drill a few holes in the pipe. You want enough that some corn comes out when it’s jostled, but you still want to make them work for it.
Pound one of the snap-in drains into one end of the pipe. I had to file the inside of the pipe just a bit to get the drain in. It’s snug. It shouldn’t need any other fastening to stay in there (at least I don’t think it will).
On the other snap-in drain, thread the U-bolt though the holes in the center, place the plate on the other side, and screw the nuts on.
Add the quick link to the U-bolt, and one end of the cable to the quick link. Put the other quick link on the other end of the cable, and onto the tie out stake.
Make sure the cap will fit into the other end – again, some filing may be needed. Even though this end is snug as well, you should be able to use the cable to pull this end off to be able to fill the pipe with corn, but it shouldn’t be able to be pulled out by the pigs knocking it around 🤞.
I put this whole rig together for $30. We’ve got a spot we are pretty sure is along the hog highway where I’ll install this next week. I’m also going to try to get the party started by putting out a corn/Kool-Aid/yeast slop to draw them to the pipe. Here’s hoping we bring home the bacon. We’ll keep y’all posted!
