A wise man once said “If you are going to do a job, do it right”. The same can be said for wild hog trapping. Yes. Throwing up a trap and scattering bait may bring a few hogs. Unfortunately it will not really offer hog control.
Start on the right foot. Complete your scouting homework. Condition hogs to your feeder and to your trap. Watch and wait. All of this will get hogs in the right place at the right time. Follow up by dropping the gate on your Jager Pro trap. Celebrate some success, but your job is not over yet.
Doing the job right means getting the whole sounder. Which in turn prevents educating hogs that will breed and build bigger groups.
The Hog Cutters dropped the trap’s double gates in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. Josey loaded up to head to the 23 square mile property alone. Parking about 600 yards away, he went in on foot. Watching through the Pulsar thermal rifle scope atop the 308, which is normally in Zeb’s hands.
When scouting the area around this trap site, the crew found a tree about 100 yards from the 12 o’clock gate. Tall and lean, the tree was the perfect perch for a tree stand. The simple bow stand would give Josey the best vantage point for scanning for wild hogs that may be wandering in the vicinity. Regardless of how complete a sounder looks on the MINE or ICE camera footage, Hog Cutters will always make entry under stealth. As you can see by the video feed recorded on the Pulsar scope, this technique pays off.
Clinging to the tree from 20 feet above the ground, Josey found his justification. A pair of boars sniffing around the gate.
As a novice to the world of hog trapping, I question Josey on everything. One day I asked why intelligent wild hogs would choose to approach and stay by a trap full of anxious sows. In his country boy tongue-in-cheek way he told me ” Well, all sows look prettier at closing time”. In spite of my Yankee upbringing, it was not hard to figure that one out.
The field clear ahead, Josey climbs out of the tree. He makes his way to finish the job in the trap. Soon his likeness appears in images on the Jager Pro app, conspicuously alone. His demeanor is different. You can tell it’s not the same without Wyatt and Zeb by his side. As long as there is a job to do, and do well, he will keep at it. For now the show will go on without them.
