Hog Snaring?

About how big of a loop and how high off ground for say a 300lb hog? Any other advice on hog snaring would be appreciated.

I would weld that snare to the ground. No idea on loop size

I have been using a 12 - 24 inch loop about 6-8 inches off the ground turkey. Been working pretty well for me. Haven't hung one as big as 300 yet but I have got 3 that went over 2. My advice is to anchor high and give them plenty of entanglement. They sure tear up a lot of real estate on a 6 foot extension cable.

Snaring hogs will teach you just how strong they are and what they are capable of doing to equipment, so be prepared to learn and make changes as needed. Doing this will help to reduce the number of failures that will inevitably happen if you do enough of it, trust me, I’ve been there. When I started snaring hogs, I had an ideal situation for learning quickly—-they just kept coming, and that meant that I was able to expedite the learning process through trial and error. At first, I built simple, lock, stop, cable, and adjustable loop snares. Not long after I started, my snares/extensions changed quite a bit. With changes came fewer cable failures. I settled on 3/32” 1x19 snare, swivel, and then 1/8” 7x19 extension as my general purpose hog snare. 7/64” 1x19 snare cable with a 12/0 swivel for times I wanted a stronger snare (expected boars). As you’ll find out, the strong ones will sometimes end up in any of the snares, so every snare has to be as strong as possible. Do not cut corners on anything or you could walk up to a mess without a hog. If you use 1x19 cable, use threaded stops/nuts.

Feral hogs caused the farmer an estimated $40,000 in damage on back to back years. They were holding in thick brush surrounding a large rice field. Their trails were incredibly obvious, and they simply couldn’t resist going to the fields during that time of the year to wallow (while flooded) and to root (once drained). I’d gang set the trails and escape trails. When they came through, I’d catch one or more. The next time through, it’d be a repeat story. If they used a different trail, chances are I already had it set. If they created a new trail, I was watching for it. Hogs being, well, hogs, any new trail is very easy to find. Always look for new trails. Set them if the hog population is high. If it isn’t, be careful which trails you set (deer).

Some will say swivels aren’t necessary, but I’ll tell you that using snares with a swivel close to the loop was one of the first and most important lessons I learned, and I won’t need to have to relearn that one I can assure you. I won’t set another hog snare that isn’t swiveled. 12/0 in-line is the best. 9/0 in-line is second best. 9 gauge swivel with a nut or several washers would be my 3rd choice. I’ve had big hogs stretch 9/0 swivels, but I never had one fail. 12/0 swivels are as good as it gets.

Personally I prefer a loop that’s on the large side... 16” minimum, usually more like 20”. I have no use for a non loaded and shaped snare. Bottom of my loops low. Don’t really measure it, but probably 6-8” or so, give or take a little. Make sure your support wire is solid.

There are only 2 sizes of snare cable that I’ll use for hog neck snares. 3/32” and 7/64”. I like 7x7, and I like 1x19. I use both, but I’d probably choose 1x19 because of the way it can be shaped. I only want 1/8” extension cables. 7x7 extensions are fine, but 7x19 extensions are better imo. I like to anchor as high as I can reach on trees that are strong but have some flex. 3-4” diameter trees are ideal.

I was in a unique situation—-high population, holding in thick cover surrounding a draw station they couldn’t resist. I was able to hammer down with snares. However, when I tried to snare them elsewhere, I wasn’t as successful. The terrain that I was setting up wasn’t nearly as thick, there was a much smaller population, and they didn’t have to go anywhere—they went where they felt like going, and that included corn feeders that a number of people were keeping filled up all around there. My experience had been that where hog populations are highest, deer are pushed out to the edges of the hog’s core area. Once populations are lower, there’s a much greater chance of deer entering the equation, and that’s definitely not what I want. If I were trying to snare hogs where deer we’re expected, I would absolutely take steps to reduce chances of snaring deer, even if that meant that I didn’t set snares at all. It can be a lot of fun if you’re able to do what you need to do without having to deal with poachers. As with anything you’re after, if you don’t learn about the animal and their habits, you’re only handicapping yourself. Get ready to learn some lessons on how hogs will test the strength of your equipment, because they’ll surely show you.


When it comes to anchoring, do something that’ll hold a 4-wheeler. If you aren’t able to use trees/poles/t-posts for anchors, you’ll want to double stake. Personally, I wouldn’t be comfortable using a single earth anchor. I’d use two wolf fangs if I were setting away from trees. Since my experience was around trees, I’d sure appreciate hearing from others that have used stakes/earth anchors, what they used, and what their results were.


Good luck

One of the BEST snare sets for hogs will be locating and setting the trees they’re rubbing. If there are hogs using a wallow, you’ll know it. They rub trees after getting muddy, and it’s a very effective set. I’ll hang a snare on every single tree that looks like they’re using. They’ll kill some trees due to repeated rubbing. The mud they leave behind makes them easy to find, but you may also encounter rub trees without mud. They may have a shine to them. They’ll look somewhat like an aged, giant deer rub, and you’ll probably find hair on the tree too. I think the rough bark and the sticky sap of pine trees makes something that they really like to rub on, but they’ll rub on many different types of trees.







I posted more about hog snaring and avoiding deer on this thread:

https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthr...gators-and-other-non-targets#Post6288344


Keep us posted on your adventure. People getting rid of feral hogs are doing something that benefits everyone and everything.


Good Luck,

One last thing... I much rather use extensions that have an adjustable loop, but there can be problems experienced when using an adjustable loop. First of all, a single wrap around tree before passing the cable through the loop can make opening the loop after a catch difficult. Wrapping the extension around tree several times before passing the cable through the loop should help this. So will using 1/8” instead of 3/32”. I once had a hog break my extension. To be clear, the tree I anchored to that time didn’t have any flex to it. It was about a 10” diameter Oak tree. The Extension was passed once around the tree, then the rest was passed through the loop. When the hog hit the end of the cable, the cable was clean cut right where the sliding double ferrule pinched it. I shot that hog a couple days later wearing the snare and extension. What surprised me the most was how small it was to do that to 3/32” cable. It only weighed somewhere in the 100 lb or so range.

I believe building your extensions with a little extra length and wrapping the cable around the tree 2-3 times before passing it through the loop will remedy this.

Thanks for the info guys. Although I wasn't able to snare him the problem has been taken care of. I may have had the big eye on him.

Good deal.


What’s the story?

Ttt before archiving

Ttt

Thanks for that wolf dog, reading that thread was a stroll down memory lane for me. I spent a lot of time and effort on that project. Snared tons of pork and played a part reducing crop damage. I had a lot of fun doing it too, but I seriously doubt I’ll ever be in that sort of situation again. Trapping, night shooting, and aerial shooting are the way to get it done in most situations, but snaring worked there. Seems like yesterday, but it most certainly wasn’t.

I bought several Hog Snares when Gander Mt went out of Biz here. Looks like a foot hold, but it slings a snare up the leg when it fires.