BK9 Helping Me Get Ready For the Pig Trapping Season

C

coote

Joined
Apr 3, 2006
Messages
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The feral pigs sometimes show up in late February. I have neighbours with an orchard, and in past years the hogs turned up when the fruit started to drop. Naturally it is best to have my traps set before they arrive.

My preferred traps are spring-up leg snares based on an ancient design. I've made them using metal components for the trigger mechanism, but this year I intend starting off with using a trigger made from wood. So today I went and cut some sticks to make part of the mechanism. The trees I cut branches from were barberry. This is an introduced plant (danged if I know why somebody thought they should plant it here). It grows some nasty spikes in sets of three, and I guess I've been stabbed by these dozens of times. Under the bark, the freshly-cut wood is bright yellow.

If you are curious as to how the trap mechanism works, below is a link to a video of a Malaysian (Indonesian) trapper setting something similar. These traps are very effective. I've caught heaps of pigs in them, along with a few other species. If you set the spring device (I often use rubber shock cord) to lift the noose only just high enough to tighten it around the animal's ankle, it is a fairly humane thing as far as traps go. Non-target species can be released, although care is required.

Click on the link to see the video: Making a spring up leg snare

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The BK9 really shines doing this type of work. I prefer it to a hatchet or a machete. I haven't had to sharpen it for ages.
 
Very cool. Where the heck are you based? Feral pigs are just starting to make their way up here in Ontario. Not an issue yet, but I suspect that will change with time.
 
Awesome man. I've sharpened my niner very few times over the years.
 
Thanks for the comments !

I live in Nelson... in the south island of New Zealand.

It takes a bit of time and effort to set the traps. If I'm trying to catch a pig that has been digging around a house or an orchard, I don't have to walk far. However my most productive method has been to set five to fifteen traps in the bush and along the ridgeline that the pigs probably have to cross to get into our valley. I guess it takes at least 15 minutes to set one of my primitive traps, but probably half an hour is more realistic. I'd allow maybe two hours of walking (return trip) to check the traps.... but much longer if I've caught something. It also takes time to find a good location to set a trap with a decent tree nearby to anchor it to.

After uploading my first post here, I wondered about the sharpness of that 'nine. I felt along the edge and there seemed to be a slight burr on one part of the blade. I judiciously wiped it with a ceramic stick a few times, and restored the edge to a condition which I would call 'very sharp'.
 
The pig in the bottom picture was dispatched with a spear. Sometimes I haven't taken a rifle when checking my trapline..... and I didn't have one with me on this occasion because the weather was wet and I figured a spear would suffice (the handle of the spear is visible extending from the pig's ear in the photo). It would have been much better if I'd had a rifle as the pig was one of the biggest I've caught, and it was held by a fairly thin nylon cord which was long enough to give it a fair bit of movement. It lunged at me repeatedly, and mostly presented itself head-on so the opportunities to get the spear into the boiler-room were limited. It was one of the riskiest situations I've gotten myself into. But, once again, I got away with it. After I'd killed that pig, I found one of a similar size in a fixed neck-snare a bit further along the trail. Both were boars. I worked pretty hard that day.

The pig in the top picture is a smaller one, but it also has an interesting background story. When I'm setting my traps, I often do it later in the day and I seldom carry a rifle. I set the traps quite late on this particular day and I was walking back down the trail when I heard a squeal below me. Turns out I had this sow and a smaller pig in two adjacent traps at the beginning of the trapline. It was quite dark, but fortunately I had a head lamp. I also had a BK9. When caught in one of my spring traps, animals often have quite a radius of travel. They run all around the place and nearly every pig will charge at me. They may be false charges, but in the heat of the moment I have no means of knowing what they are thinking. I couldn't see whether this pig had tusks or not, but whether it did or not I like to stay away from their sharp end. It didn't feel safe to try to grab it. I found some fairly large sticks and threw them on to the snare rope. The pig eventually got tangled, then fell over. I took the opportunity to quickly push my 'nine into it.

I carry a rifle more often now. I've used a .22 rimfire shooting Winchester Subsonic Hollows for years and they've worked well. And while a relatively quiet .22 is probably the most suitable choice for some situations in places where other people may be nearby, I've come to appreciate my home loaded .357 magnum ammo using cast bullets and only enough powder to keep the speed below the speed of sound.
 
C coote …

This is interesting stuff. Thanks for sharing. I’ve always enjoyed accounts of the effectiveness of .22lr. Never shot anything that large with it myself, but I have no reservations, trusting it with many tasks.
 
I've shot quite a few goats and (generally small to medium) pigs with .22 rimfire subsonics. I've also shot one deer with Peters High Velocity .22 rf. The deer suddenly appeared maybe 12 yards away and I popped it between the eyes. I've never seen a deer drop faster. Not a recommended practice though. But if a .22 is the only choice, and if the range is sensible and the hunter has the skill and self-control to try to ensure that the bullet hits the right spot, it can certainly work.
 
I can't see the BK 9 in the top pictures...all I see is green. 🤓

The Farm pigs we did in for large critter cutting season is, put a 22 LR on its forehead and stun them with it, then string up and let them bleed out as they sleep their way to pig heaven on their bodies to the oven/grill/freezer/baconater/inthebaconeater and so on.

Get them feral hogs, they cause lots of damage around the world. Some dumb idiots tried to dump some russian boar strains around here, but thank god he dropped them out of the farm land area and near the winter. There is no food in black spruce swamps and alder brush areas, and at least the wolves wiped them out, well the ones that didn't starve to death, or neighbors shot.
 
Our original wild pigs may have been released to feed settlers and whalers when Europeans first settled. But there would have been escaped stock and animals that were abandoned. I'm pretty sure that in recent times some keen hunters have released pigs into the wild to either increase the population or improve the breeding stock.

Although pigs create problems, I don't think our problems are as bad as what is experienced in the US.... although some farmers might argue. Interestingly I believe I've seen a natural decline in the pig population on an island I have visited since the late 1960s. Back in the early days there seemed to be quite a few pigs in residence, and there were also quite a few hunters chasing them around the property that I visit. Nowadays there is a family living on that land most of the time and they do not see many hunters. Poaching seems to be very rare and there are greater penalties nowadays for hunting without permission. Yet I don't see much pig sign around compared to the old days. There are still pigs there, but either the population has diminished... or they dig less and take a dump away from the pathways I walk on.... and stay well out of sight. I think fresh stock was released into the wild a few years back, but we still don't see many pigs. I'd really like to know more about the habits and biology of our local hog population.
 
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