Snaring hogs?

[thejanitor]

Have any of you ever used a snare to take hogs? On purpose or just an accident? I am not sure their neck would hold a snare.... Just asking, not sure it would even be legal in TX but thought for all the acreage on the ranch with no cattle it might have been a means to get some porkers if they were not moving while we were watching.
Any success stories or warnings are welcome. I suppose since there are javlina in the area we can't do it no matter what. But would like to hear if it has been done. Thank you, thejanitor

[yukondog]

Think the foot or leg would probly be better than neck, dont think it's legal where I live, best to check game laws first.

[thejanitor]

Yeah after posting I figured it could be a deer issue as well, they could be caught just as easy as a pig. But still wanted to hear if it was done as a common practice or just an off the wall thought. That would probably take us into trapping/snaring instead of hunting and would probably require another license. I have been gearing up for a hunt and not even thinking about different methods until yesterday. But with the drive being a long one to get there the less gear we have to bring the better. thejanitor

[yukondog]

Good luck on your hunt.

[swordfish]

Never snared one but I hooked up on a 60 lb'er one day fishing for snook near Boca Grande.
A half dozen pigs on the smaller size were tearing up the shoreline on one of the islands in the bay just south of Boca Grande, so I tossed a dead bait up on the water edge about 20 ft. from them, and game on! One hell of a fight! Lip hooked it but there was no stopping it. 

[SHOOTALL]

Would it not be better to trap them ? Most of what I have seen is a trap with doors on both ends . You get hogs to eating corn in the trap then set it after they are using it . A steel trap large enough might be to large to be legal . A hogs neck and build might not work well with a snare , a wire strong enough to hold a hog might be rather large . Also the skin is thick . It would most likely be a snare that locks as it closes or the hog might throw it off . You might have better luck with a hook in an emg. situation. I expect a hook is illegal every where .

[thejanitor]

The big live traps would be the ticket if I lived down there and wanted to keep them under control. I was just worried about "what if" we don't see or shoot any.... maybe we could bring snares (light easy to pack and use) But if it did work and it caught them around the neck if you were not there to bleed them out it may be nasty meat. So I agree a trap would be the way to go if it was do-able. but we will only be there for 5 days and it is supposed to be a reasonable priced trip so buying a bunch of hog/cattle pannels while we are there is pretty much out of budget.
But if it was something I had permission to do year after year I would build it and leave it open while we are gone and just bait it up and set the door when we got there. But the whole idea of the trip is to hunt/shoot them the  trap/snare idea was just an afterthought to not come home empty handed. I will be posting back here either way I hope to have pictures. So we will see.   thejanitor

[pastorp]

A live trap is the way to go. You can build a stockade type or a big wire live trap. The stockade traps give you a place to keep them & also, depending on size you can capture a lot at a time. 

Regards,

[Larry L]

Yeah, snaring hogs is legal in Texas. I've snared several hundred over the years. I use a stainless 3/16 aircraft cable rated at 3000lbs and I've had it break on big hogs. I use 1" heavy wall angle iron for locks cut into 1" lengths and drill them myself. You have to be careful what you tie up to though. A fence post is a lousy choice unless you like replacing many feet of ranchers fence...and probably still not get the hog. I try to find a location on a fenceline where they are crossing and a close tree to tie onto. I also have some quad hooks made from 3/4" steel rods that I use for a drag with 8ft of 3/8" chain but I prefer a set where I know exactly where I'm going to find them. Crawling on yer belly thru brush looking for a hog of 350lbs+ can get exciting, not mention crowded. I've killed them so close they've fallen on me. If you have deer, hogs, and coyotes going thru the same scoot, just piss in the scoot and come back a few days later. The coyotes and deer will move out of that scoot and the hogs will find another location too. Then you can set up yer snare. Most of the time the hogs are snared around the neck. I've gotten some snared around the rostrum and if it weren't for the tusks, they would have slipped out. The cage traps are all but worthless. You'll catch the dumb ones but once another hog sees another hog trapped, he'll never set foot in one. It's a hoot to come up on one that is a fresh catch. You only think a hog can be a bad boy. Wait until you get out of the truck and he is charging full blast straight at you with his mouth wide open. They can hit 30mph in the second step. That's why I use cable rated so high. The biggest for me is about 450lbs and that one might have tipped the scales at over 500 lbs. He was one of them that pulled the drag and snare into a huge brush mot. I had to crawl thru the brush on my belly when it dawned on me that the brown and black about 10ft in front of me was him. My Colt Anaconda sounded like it was a belt fed machine gun. He did manage to get up with 3- 240gr HPs in his neck but the last shot ended his career as a father. So yeah, you can snare hogs but if you want see them afterwards, you're pretty much going to make yer own snares. I've never had a store bought snare hold even a small hog.

[Mohawk]

As was said snaring in Tx is legal. So is a baseball bat if you want to. Day or night on private property. They are a non game animal. However you hunt coyotes you can hunt hogs. All you need is a standard hunting license.

[thejanitor]

I ended up not getting a hog, but my friend I was with got one.
Then after I got home I saw on the Discovery Channel "hogs gone wild" and one of the guys was actually snaring with a very strong nylon webbing, And even though it is Holly wood where anything can be done on film, there was a hog caught and held, assuming it was real he had a neat set up. Wish I would have been recording it. thejanitor

[bigoledude]

Bringing snares would have been a great idea.  Light, cheap and very effective.  If it's hot, you might want to check your snares often because they can over-heat quickly and die.  The meat would spoil quickly.  There are thousands of hogs being snared around the neck every year.  And, you can build them to not harm deer.
 
Send me a PM and I will explain in detail how that Australian guy foot-catches them.  He rarely loses them to over-heating, even in the heat of Hawaii.
 
We can hardly catch a hog any longer in cage-type traps here in SE Louisiana.  They wised-up to traps long ago.  But, snares just seem like part of the surrounding brush and grass to them.  Never had the trail develop "around" a snare to avoid the snare.  If they're using the trail, you'll catch them.

[rickt300]

I ran some snares this year for hogs and did catch 2. One got caught just after I set the snare , I heard him making a ruckus and collected him via 45 long colt. The other was torn apart by his buddies the same night he was snared, a gory mess.

[bigoledude]

Problem with a baseball bat is you gotta be there to swing it.  Same with a rifle, except you can operate from a little further away. 
 
But, the snare is hunting when you're at the house with the AC running, building some more $2.00 snares.
 
Jes sayin....

[SwampThing762]

Snaring hogs is illegal in Florida.  Wish it wasn't.  I would be out there running snares all the time.....

ST762

[cnolen]

I have been catching hogs in traps for over 8 years and snaring hogs in North Texas for almost a year now and have caught over 50 of them in snares since i started. I used to make my own locks but have ruined enough of my dads drill bits to figure out its easier and cheaper to order them online. I also used to buy my cable at home depot and lowes (7x7) and it doesnt even compare to the cable you can order(1x19). I can buy almost 5 times the length of cable that is 6 times stronger for the same price as the crap i can buy at home depot and lowes. You need to go to the snareshop.com, it has the best prices i have found on just about anything that has to do with trapping. They are fast when it comes to shipping and it is really cheap.