Feeders & trail cameras

A deer feeder is a hog feeder until you decide otherwise

If you put out corn in hog country, you are feeding hogs. Texas A&M AgriLife's feeder-fence publication says hunters and land managers put out thousands of tons of corn a year, and "though most of this corn is intended for deer, feral hogs consume a substantial portion of it" ( AgriLife Extension L-5533). Texas A&M's Natural Resources Institute adds that feral pigs "often dominate other species and push them away from feed" ( Texas A&M NRI). So the first decision on this hub isn't which feeder to buy. It's what you want the feeder to do about the hogs.

Keep them out, or use the feeder against them

There are two honest strategies, and both beat hoping the hogs go somewhere else.

• Exclusion. A short panel fence around the feeder. In AgriLife research, 28 and 34 inch fences around broadcast corn feeders kept hogs out completely, while adult deer kept coming. No feeder sold on Amazon is hog-proof by itself, and we found no purpose-built hog-proof pens for sale there, so you build the pen from farm-store panels. Our best hog-proof deer feeders guide covers the research and the build, and how to keep hogs away from a deer feeder walks through the whole plan.
• Acceptance. If the sounder is coming anyway, feed it where you want it: into a corral trap, or into a lit shooting lane with a safe backstop. AgriLife's trapping guidance wants bait available "every single day" so the site becomes part of the hogs' travel pattern (AgriLife, Trapping), which is exactly what a feeder on a timer does. Our sour corn for hogs guide covers the bait.

You can do both: pen the deer feeder and bait a trap somewhere else on the property. Either way, a feeder only manages the hogs you have. Removing them is the job laid out in how to get rid of feral hogs.

Spin or gravity

A spin (broadcast) feeder throws corn on the ground at the times you set. A gravity feeder keeps feed in its ports around the clock. In hog country the spin feeder usually wins, narrowly, because you control when and how much corn hits the ground; a gravity feeder is there for anything that can reach it at 2 a.m. Gravity makes sense for a deer protein program inside a large pen, and AgriLife's L-5533 reports a suggestion of 80 by 80 feet or larger around protein feeders so deer don't crowd. The full comparison, with the pen math, is in spin feeder vs gravity feeder.

Timers decide when, not who

A timer can't choose who eats. What it can do is keep feedings short, keep them in daylight and keep them consistent. AgriLife notes that in warmer conditions feral hogs can "feed nocturnally" ( AgriLife, Feral Hog Ecology), so daylight feedings leave less corn waiting after dark in summer. Sunrise and sunset sync on the better timers shifts the schedule with the season on its own. Our deer feeder timer rankings separate full spinner kits from timer-only swaps and match each to 6V or 12V feeders.

Cameras are the pattern tool

You can't plan around hogs you haven't seen. AgriLife says remote infrared cameras "can confirm if feral hogs are visiting your bait or feed stations" (L-5533). A camera tells you when they come, how many there are, and whether the whole sounder is using a trap site before you close the gate. Our guide to when hogs are most active explains what the timestamps usually show, and what can shift them.

Cellular plans and signal

A cellular camera sends the pictures to your phone, so you don't have to walk in every time you want to know what came through. Two things decide whether one works for you.

• Signal. The cameras we rank auto-connect across major carriers, but none can create coverage. Check your phone at the exact tree before you buy.
• The plan. SPYPOINT offers 100 free photos a month per camera, Moultrie requires a paid plan on every cellular device, and Tactacam has no free tier but lets you pause off-season. A busy feeder can burn through a small photo cap in days.

Our cellular trail camera rankings cover eight models, and Tactacam Reveal vs Moultrie Edge compares those two plan systems head to head.

Where to start

• Hogs are already eating your corn: build the pen first, then choose a feeder that throws inside it.
• You're planning a trap: put a cellular camera on the site before anything else.
• You'll hunt over a feeder at night: read the Texas night-hunting rules first. TPWD recommends a courtesy call to your local game warden before you spotlight hogs (TPWD FAQ).

We haven't tested the gear on this hub. Every pick is researched from the makers' published specs and scored on the rubric on our How We Choose page.