How to make a feeding plot for wildboar

A guide for wild boar feeding plots

Are you one of the many European hunters who hunt wild boar? Then this article is for you. We have put together a great guide that describes how to create a great feeding plot for wild boar.

The guide is based on our own experiences from hunting wild boar in different places, where over the years, we have received many good tips from other wild boar hunters, and made some discoveries ourselves.

Finding the right location for your feeding plot

When it comes to building a feeding plot, it pays off to make some considerations about its location before starting. For example, it is nice to know a little about how the pigs move in the area, how the winddirection is and much more

We have made you a small to-do list which takes you through some of the considerations you can do.

• Are there pigs in the area? Spend a day or two looking for signs of wild boar in the area you want your feeding plot. It is easier to get pigs to the feeder if it is located in a place where they like to stay and feel safe. If you can find a place with footprints, droppings and turned up soil, you know there are pigs in the area.
• Where to put the highseat? When you have an idea of where to set up the feeder, you should look around and notice if there is a place to put the Highseat. The Highseat must be positioned so that you can sit and observe the feeding area without being detected. The distance should not be too great and you need a free shot. We recommend that you place the highseat at about 30-70 meters from the feeding area, preferably so that you have dense trees as a background. It is also important to have good wind, both when you are sitting in the highseat and on the way there. Therefore, you should check where the wind most often comes from, and place the highseat accordingly.
• Choose a calm place – Wild boars are shy animals and therefore they should feel as safe as possible, at the feeding place. So it is a good idea to place the feeding area some distance away from houses, roads and other places where people and livestock move a lot.
• Is it easy to get there? We know from personal experience that the easier it is to feed, the better we are at getting it done. Therefore, place your feeding area in a place that is relatively easy to access, either on foot or by ATV. This way you make both the work of feeding and handling shot pigs easier.

Now that you have found a good location for your feeder. You can test it by smearing a tree stump with beech tar and hanging up a trailcamera. If within a few weeks there are wild boars by the tar, then you can calmly set up your feeding area. If, on the other hand, nothing happens, then you can consider whether to find another place. Remember, however, to be patient, as it may take some time before the pigs dare to show up.

Equipment for the feeding plot

There a no right or wrong to how a feeding plot should be set up. However, many of the places we have been hunting, are set-up quite similar to eachother. It is on this basis from the places we have hunted ourselves that we make this guide

Barrel and automatic feeder

A barrel with an automatic feeder is in our opinion a must have. This way you can control when to feed and how much feed to spread. Once there are pigs on the feeding plot, it is very important that the barrel does not run dry. If it does the pigs are quickly gone and you have to start the plot up again. Therefore, a feed barrel of a certain size is a really good idea. Note that you should not feed the pigs with large amounts of feed, but just a small mouthful. This causes them to visit the feeding plot regularly. The feeding barrel can be placed on 3 legs or hung in a tree, as long as it is not directly on the ground. A good idea would be a feeding system like this one.

Trail/game camera

Many wild boar hunters choose to set up a game camera at their feeding area. That way you can keep track of when there are pigs on the site and plan the hunt accordingly. A game camera also gives the opportunity to form an impression of which animals come to the feed, and thereby choose which pigs to shoot. We recommend a game camera that can send images on either text, email or an app. It is also important that it can be used for a long time without running low on battery. We recommend this Bolyguard or Spypoint

Activity barrel / Feeding cone

An activity barrel is a type of feed barrel that the wild boar has to roll around before feed comes out, a bit like dog toys. A barrel like this is good for keeping the wild boars in place a little longer, it is a good idea. The wild boars like to use activity barrels as toys and often spend a lot of time doing it. This provides a better opportunity to choose the right pig and get a chance to shoot before yhey leave the feeding plot.

Lures for wild boars

Baits can increase the potential of a feeding plot considerably. The “oldest” and most used bait for wild boar is beech tar. The pigs rub against the tar to keep the fur free of vermin, and the boars also rub their teeth on stumps that have been tarred well. Therefore, they naturally seek the scent of beech tar. So make sure to tar tree trunks and stumps around the feeding plot – the pigs will love it.

There are also other baits for wild boar. These are designed to have a quick and powerful effect and many of them can attract pigs the same evening as you put them out. Chek them out here

Light it up

If you dont have Night vision gear, a lamp on the feeding spot is a good idea. The pigs rarely appear, while it is bright enough to hunt with ordinary scopes. So an automatic lamp with a green light is a cheap and good solution. It turns on when the pigs pass the sensor and they quickly get used to it. In addition, wild boar are not so shy about the green light. Have a look at our moonshine lamp for this purpose.

Which feed to use for wild boar

Wild boars are omnivorous and you can feed them with pretty much everything you can get your hands on. The most commonly used is corn, which the wild boar is absolutely crazy about, but corn can be expensive and there are many cheaper things that work almost as well. Many hunters, also feed with grain or peas, which are cheaper. In fact a mixture of the different things can be super effective.

If you have access to beets, carrots, potatoes and the like, it is also a good thing to use at the feeding plot. However, keep in mind that deer should not eat to much of that stuff before they can get sick. If you have a lot of deer on the terrain, then be a little careful with it, as of course they will also use the feeding plot.

Do you want strong wild boars? Then you can use a supplement of various salts, minerals and sugar. We use Buck Expert feed products, which are developed for the European wild boar. Here you get both salts, minerals and sugar granules, ready to mix in the feed. Powdered sugar is good to mix in – the wild boars love it.

How to feed wild boar

With an automatic feeder, you can set the feeding time and control how much feed is needed. On our own setups, we set the feeder to run 8-10 seconds about an hour after sunset and then possibly 8-10 seconds later at night / morning. Depending on how long the nights are. The idea is that the wild boars become active right after sunset and will seek out the feeding area as one of the first stops on their route. Here they will find a small snack, eat it and search further. This gives you enough time to shoot a pig, and does not use much feed.

Be careful not to use too much feed at one time. Because if the pigs eat till they are full , they are likely to stay away the next day.

To finish of we want to wish you luck on your hunting adventures, from team Lucky-Hunter