41 Wild Hogs Caught—At Once!

It takes a crew to dispatch and remove 41 Franklin County hogs from a trap and then transport them. Here’s the team (from left) Joe Mitchell, Fallon Chandler, Preston Chandler and Tim Cawthon. Taking the photo is Alan Mitchell.

Twenty years ago if you had wild hog problems, some would go through the paperwork hoopla and then hope to shoot a few after dark over bait. Others would find a heavy-duty trap and hope to catch a few more than one at a time.

With the invention of net-style traps, like the Pig Brig Trap Systems, hunters and landowners are finding themselves way more efficient in mitigating the devastation caused by groups of wild hogs.

Take Preston Chandler, of Martin, for example.

“We noticed a large group of hogs rooting and destroying a wheat field across the road from our residence,” said Preston. “The farmer had been hunting them with dogs for years. About three weeks prior, a big group moved in, and they were going back and forth between two pieces of property.”

The damage from the large group of wild hogs was occuring in Franklin County in northeast Georgia.

Preston has used a Pig Brig trap for about five years and decided to give it a try on these hogs.

“It’s the best tool there is to trapping hogs, just simply set it up and leave it up until they get comfortable with it,” said Preston. “You keep lowering it until it touches their backs.”

When Preston first set it up, he used a trail camera and had about 20 feeding on a secret recipe of hog bait. The next night he said there was about 30. After that, it was time to lower the net trap all the way to the ground.

“It’s a fish-trap design. They funnel in and get can’t out,” said Preston.

At 2:30 a.m., the phone started going off with pictures. It didn’t take long to fill the trap to what Preston thinks could be maximum capacity.

“I contacted Pig Brig and told them I think I figured out how many hogs could fit in the trap. Within a couple of hours, we had approximately 41 pigs . We were able to eliminate the problem early that morning.”

Inside the trap was one big sow, three boars and the rest piglets. Preston said a local farmer had killed four big sows during deer season, and he also thinks the one sow in the net was in heat, which was why they caught the three boars.

“We caught every hog in that group,” said Preston. “There’s another group of about 10 or 15 that’s around that never ran with these. We’re trying to catch them, too.”

Something tells me it’s a matter of time.

How many hogs will fit in Pig Brig trap? At least 41.