Baiting and Luring Wild Boar
Boarmasters Wildlife Attractants 10.06.11
Baits and lures are one of the best ways to take a boar. Their natural food sources include: Acorns, snakes, salamanders, grubs, crawfish, fresh plant roots, etc. Dry corn works great, but it can take a while for them to find it. Sour mash can help them find it quicker, but I suggest putting it out with fresh dry corn also. Given a choice they would rather eat the dry corn.
Wild hogs love to follow coons. Raccoons are excellent at finding food and the boar know this. Any time you have a heavy concentration of coons, the boar are sure to follow. Most of the time the coons will find your bait first. So let them eat all they want, they are just calling the hogs in for you! This is another reason that I always use coon urine and boar urine around my traps and baiting areas. Below you can see that the coons found it and the hogs took it away.
I do not recommend automatic feeders for wild hogs! The boar learn to push their bodies against the tripods to shake out the corn and this usually leads to destruction.
Even if you stake it down good, it won’t help. The problem is that there will be a muck hole around it once the hogs begin to use it. They are natural diggers. If you leave your feeder in one place too long, you might have a small lake to wade through when you have to refill it. The number one reason not to use these feeders is that if hogs do not have to work for the food they will come in at night and fill their little bellies up and sleep all day. If you don’t live in Texas, that’s a big problem.
The best way to bait is with post hole diggers or old plastic barrels. They are cheap and easy to move around.
Post hole method:
Dig a post hole as deep and narrow as you can. Fill it with your favorite bait. The hogs will dig and work at it until it is gone. They can’t leave it alone. The more they dig the more they cover it up with dirt. They know it’s there, but it is hard for them to get to. That drives them crazy and makes them work longer for it.
Barrel method:
Old rain or food barrels work the best. Just fill it with your favorite bait, cut a 1-1/4 inch hole on the side as close to the bottom as you can. If you can, re-enforce it with a metal plate. This method produces competition, only one hog can eat at a time, which makes other hogs sneak in during daylight hours to get some food before the night crowd comes in.
Drip bags and urine are an example of lures and attractants. Boarmasters is a leading supplier of hog baits and urines. Be sure to join our hunting forums and enjoy more hunting talk.