I'm hunting on a lease over in Newton County and the hogs have gotten smart enough to start rooting out all three legs of my feeders to knock them over.

Have gone back and added t-post next to the feeder legs and then wired the two together, but lately the hogs have started rooting even deeper and it's just a matter of time.

I hunt from ground blinds, so hog panels are out of the question. Anyone have any suggestions?

This is not what you want to hear but I have sold many Winch feeders because of just such problems. When I had my website I used to tell folks that they were great for those overrun with hogs and cattle with "mad cow disease", since both cause havoc with traditional feeders.
So much for the bad news. The good news is a well built winch feeder will last a lifetime. Just make sure if you go this route make sure it has a brake winch and NOT a boat winch. The barrel should also have straight legs not angled this will help with coons and squirrels. Hope this helps.

Make sure the legs have drain holes down low. When the legs are stuck in the ground they clog with dirt. If they get a little bit of corn or grain dust inside the pipe legs then when it rains the legs fill up with water. They then start to turn stinky as it seeps thru the dirt clogged ends and the hogs smell that then start rooting the base of the leg.

Feeder pens but guessing you don't want them to allow for the hogs to come around. T-posts with lots of wire and driven down deeply then.

We had this problem for a while and went with feeder pens. If you really don't want to do that route, my buddy took top rail off a fence (or any conduit that is 1.5" or wider) and cut it into about 3 or 4' sections and drove them down into the dirt straight down so that they intersected the feeder leg about 24 inches off the ground. He then screwed the feeder leg to the rail he drove into the ground so that even if the hogs dug out the bottom of the feeder legs, the "supports" would hold it up. Eventually all three legs were not touching dirt and his feeder never fell over. Another thing some of these guys have tried is putting an old disc blade on the bottom of the feeder legs for support. Not sure why, but the hogs didn't really mess with them that much, and the wider support helped keep the feeder up.

To combat this at a place around Paris I used livestock panels laid flat on the ground and then staked down. The deer and pigs will still get the corn but it will stop the rooting.

We use T-posts driven deeply and wired tight for our tripod feeders. For us, the best option was converting to a single-pole (3"+ Pipe) concreted 3-4' in the ground. Hogs are no match...

.308 FMJ 150gr right behind the ear (at 2800 fps, of course).

But, seriously, we just fence the hogs out. I also hunt from a ground blind. Hog panels are only 30" tall.

All hog panels are 34" tall that I have seen. Just build the pen big enough where your blind is right on the edge of it.

Do you have 2 trees about 8-10' about where you can lay a piece of drill stem between the two and have your feeder suspended from the middle with a pulley system? I did this on my farm in East Texas/Panola County to keep the hogs from doing as you mentioned and it worked great. I had 2 oaks that branched apart about 8'.

Now I use 2" square tubing tripod feeder legs that are 14' and the barrel can be raised up to 10'. I have the ends of the legs in 3 Gallon Coffee cans to keep them from digging in and the cans are hole punched to allow drainage. Works like a charm.

x2.

Works like a charm.

Fill the holes with sackcrete.

If you still want hogs, but them in feeder pens but put the feeders close to the edge to where they'll spin corn on both sides.

Capsule wildlife feeder. No pen ever needed again. Worth the money.

hog/cattle panels..

I would say hog panels, as you could still get an arrow or shot off, especially if the deer are coming or going outside the pen. Another thing to consider is a feeder on skids, like the All Seasons stand and fill feeders. I have the 600# version and the cows and hogs don't stand a chance against it.

Here's my All Season's feeder with cows all around. They were licking and nudging it and the thing didn't budge. Will still be putting a pen around this one.



Here's my other feeder. I found it in a heaping mess on the ground last weekend after cows destroyed it. They hadn't run cattle in this area for the last 18 months, so I didn't put a pen around it. I rebuilt it and will be putting a pen around it.

Before and after...Like a 13oss

I second this responce.

That is what I call MAD COW DISEASE I have sold quite a few winch feeders as a result of this disease.

Instead of t-posts, I drive in 3 short pieces of rebar and sleeve the pipe legs over the rebar stake. My place is pretty rocky, so a hammer drill is usually needed to sink the rebar. Quick process, and those stakes wont go anywhere. Rebar stakes only needs to stick out of the ground enough to prevent the leg from being pushed out. For us, hogs can't/don't dig way down under legs, they shove em out and cause the feeder to drop.

I agree. We have always had winch up feeders and never had any problems with hogs cows horses or donkeys.

I do not like the break winches when the feeder is empty sometimes our don't like to crank down, I much prefer the boat style winch.

You do need to spray a little silicone or gun oil on them every so often. If you are using a boat winch make REAL sure your hand doesn't slip off and that the claw catches. They come down MUCH faster than they go up, especially with 300 pounds of corn. I have seen it happen.

Ive had it happen. Good tip on the silicone or oil, Ill have to give it a try a couple of ours have gotten to be some real pains in the but.