Coryell County
Hog Trapping in Copperas Cove, TX
Copperas Cove backs right up to Fort Hood, and the hogs move between the two every night. We trap them on your side of the line.
| County | Southern Coryell, with city limits reaching into western Lampasas County |
|---|---|
| Water hogs use | Lampasas River tributaries including Clear Creek and Reese Creek, and Cowhouse Creek country to the north |
| Ground | Grand Prairie plateaus and grassland over limestone |
| Drive from Killeen | About 10 miles, around 15 minutes |
| Trapping price | Starts at $800 |
A town named for a spring
Copperas Cove takes its name from a mineral-tasting spring, the "copperas" water, that early settlers found here, according to the Handbook of Texas. The Texas Historical Commission marker puts that spring "in a cove of a nearby mountain." The town moved two miles northeast to meet the Santa Fe railroad in 1882, and a Chisholm Trail feeder route made cattle its business early.
Cattle are still a big part of the country around it. In the 2022 Census of Agriculture, Coryell County had 340,572 acres of pasture against 121,551 of cropland, with 63,294 head of cattle. Hay, wheat, oats and corn were the top crops. Every one of those is something a hog will eat or tear up looking for something else.
Two watersheds meet here
TCEQ lists Copperas Cove inside the Lampasas River watershed, with tributaries like Clear Creek and Reese Creek draining the ground around town toward the Lampasas. North of town, southern Coryell County drains through Cowhouse Creek, which runs southeast about 90 miles to Belton Lake.
For a landowner that means water in more than one direction and draws cut down through the limestone toward both. Hogs bed in the brushy heads of those draws and walk them at night to feed. The trail where a draw opens onto pasture or a hay field is usually where we build.
Living next to Fort Hood
The city borders Fort Hood, and Camp Hood took about 225 square miles of southern Coryell County when it was built in the early 1940s, per the Handbook. That much land with limited access holds hogs, and they don't stay on it. They come off at night onto the private ground around town to find easier food and water.
We can't trap on post, and we don't need to. The hogs have to cross your property to reach your pasture, your feeder or your garden, and that's where they're catchable. Expect it to be ongoing work rather than one catch, because the reservation keeps sending more.
What a Copperas Cove job looks like
A lot of calls from here come from places on the edge of town: a few acres with a house, a barn and a fence line that hogs push under every night. Others are full pasture operations out toward Lampasas County. Either way it's the same process. Find the travel lane, set bait under a cellular camera, let the whole sounder get comfortable, build the trap around them, and drop it from a phone when the last one is inside.
Depending on the market and the situation, hogs go out alive to a buying station or are dispatched on site. Then we reset for the next group off the reservation.
- Small acreage on the edge of town
- Pasture and hay ground in southern Coryell County
- Ranches on the Fort Hood boundary
- Ground on the Lampasas County side of the city
Sign to watch for near the line
If your place shares a fence with the reservation, walk that fence first. Hogs work the same crossing points night after night, and you'll see a worn low gap, hair on the bottom wire and a muddy trail leading in. Rooting usually starts within a short walk of that gap and spreads as they get bolder.
Thin limestone soil around Cove doesn't hold a track as well as blackland does, so look at the soft spots: around water troughs, in low swales, and at the bottom of a draw after rain. A photo of the crossing and the worst rooting tells us most of what we need.
Ten minutes from our base
Copperas Cove is about 10 miles from Killeen on U.S. 190, around a quarter hour. That's close enough to check traps on short notice and keep pressure on a property that has a steady supply of hogs coming at it.
Other help in Coryell County
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension's Coryell County office is at 303 Veterans Memorial Loop in Gatesville, (254) 865-2414. If your ground is on the Lampasas County side of the city, the Lampasas County office covers it. When you want the hogs trapped and gone, call us.
Copperas Cove hog trapping questions
How much does hog trapping cost in Copperas Cove?
Trapping starts at $800. Acreage, access and how many hogs keep coming set the final price, in writing before we start.
My property backs up to Fort Hood. Can you trap there?
We trap on your property, at the spot where hogs come off the reservation. That crossing is usually the best trap site you have.
Will they just come back?
Next to that much open land, more will come. That's why we plan Cove jobs as ongoing: catch, reset and catch again.
Do you cover the Lampasas County side of town?
Yes. City limits and county lines don't change how we work.
Nearby: Killeen · Belton · Gatesville · Lampasas · all areas
Sources: Handbook of Texas, Copperas Cove; City of Copperas Cove, History and Demographics; Texas Historical Commission marker; TCEQ, Lampasas River watershed; Handbook of Texas, Coryell County; USDA NASS 2022 Census of Agriculture, Coryell County; Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Coryell County.
Hogs near Copperas Cove?
Tell us the road, rough acreage and where you're seeing sign. We'll come look.