Homemade C Trap For Wild Hogs

The author built his homemade hog trap using four cattle pen panels and metal posts. His total cost several years ago was less than $100. Three of the panels are set to form a C shape with a 5-foot gap, with one end of the C not staked so it can move freely. The fourth panel is wired to the side so the free edge of the C flap overlaps it, forming a funnel than can be pushed open from the outside, but can’t be pushed open from the inside.

Many years ago I went on a hog hunt in south Georgia where the hunting group was chasing them with dogs. We killed two big boars, and after the hunt, the dog handlers skinned and gutted those big boar hogs. I brought one home and took it to my deer processor. Although the boar was big and old, my wife Linda and I thought the meat was good, and it left me wanting more wild hog meat.

About three years ago, wild hogs suddenly appeared on a trail camera on my property in Spalding County. 

The camera was set up at a corn feeder on the edge of my field. I had never seen wild hog sign there before, and then seemingly overnight there was a sounder with a big sow, three smaller sows and a dozen pigs. A couple of big boars also began to show up at times.

The wild hogs moved in overnight on Ronnie’s Spalding County property, appearing on his trail cameras.

The appearance of wild hogs on my property spurred my interest, and I began to research trapping hogs. I found some plans to build a simple “C” trap, which might also be called a Circle C trap or Corral trap.

There are a bunch of plans for these types of hog-pen traps online, but most of the specific plan details are for much bigger pens. I simply got the concept in my mind and built one that was smaller than the online plans. 

I built mine much smaller using only four cattle pen panels from Tractor Supply. The four panels and metal posts cost less than $100 total.

Three of the panels were wired end to end and set inside posts to form a “C” shaped pen about 30 feet across. A 5-foot gap was left for the mouth of the “C,” with one side on a post, but the other end moving freely. The fourth panel was wired to one side of it. The other end was staked down, so the free edge of the “C” flap overlapped the side of the straight panel, forming a funnel that opened when pushed against, but formed a smooth side from the inside. Hogs can come in, but they can’t get out.

To better visualize how this works, you can search online for “hog C trap.” There are videos, too. One of the search results you’ll find is on the GON Forum for a thread titled ‘Circle C Trap for Hogs.’ 

The first morning after setting my trap and baiting it with corn overnight, I had a medium-sized sow and a tiny pig inside. When I drove up, the little piglet went through the hole in the wire. 

I killed the sow and processed her, basically cutting the 90-lb. hog into big roasts. It was the first processing I have done myself since 1972, and I did not do a great job, but it worked!

A sawzall with a hacksaw blade helped cut through the bones, and a gutting knife with a hook on the end helped strip the skin from the hind end to the head. The strips pulled off fairly easily. A carpet knife does a great job of stripping the meat.

To prevent the very small young piglets from escaping, I put chicken wire that I already had at the farm inside the trap all the way around. The next morning I had two more 60-lb. sows, three 30-lb. pigs and one tiny 10-lb. pig that was shown nursing in the trap.

Although I had shot the sow the day before and her blood was still on the ground, they did not seem to mind. I found out a .22 worked great for shooting the hogs in the head.

The bigger sows were processed the same way as the day before, and the 30-lb. pigs were cut into quarters, steaks and stew meat. The tiny suckling pig was gutted and skinned and kept whole. 

I bought a small meat grinder, and the butcher at Ingles sold me 10 pounds of hog fat for $.49 cents a pound and 10 pounds of beef fat for $.99 cents a pound. 

Experimenting with different mixtures of each, I found I could not really tell the difference between the beef and pork fat when fried in patties and eaten plain on a bun. I did find that a high-fat mixture, about one pound of fat for 4 pounds of wild hog—about 25 percent—gave me moist fried patties with the best flavor.

The wild hog roasts, from Boston butt shoulder to ham, were great cooked in a crock pot with my Mississippi Pot Roast recipe. Simply put a roast in a big crock pot, add a pack of Au Jus seasoning and a pack of dry Ranch dressing, add a whole stick of butter and five to 10 pepperoncini, depending on taste, and cook for six hours. Linda and I both think it is delicious.

Ronnie drives a metal post for his homemade $100 hog trap.

I also cooked BBQ with the stew meat and fried tenderloin steaks, both were good. I even kept the ribs and BBQed them. Although there was not much meat from them, they tasted great. The little pig was roasted whole on my ceramic grill. Roast suckling pig is a delicacy!

By the time we had eaten all the meat, the hogs had disappeared from my property. They showed up from time to time, but only during the summer when it was too hot to process them. 

But they are back right now. I will soon set my homemade “C” trap for some delicious “free” meat.