The installation of your new deer fence will require you to familiarize yourself with the specialized tools required to make sure that your fence is effective and long-lasting. 

Crimping Tool for Monofilament Sleeves

If you have decided to use monofilament sleeves to terminate or connect monofilament wire on your deer fence installation, you will need to use a crimping tool to install them effectively.  The crimping tool is a simple handled tool that will help you squeeze and permanently crimp monofilament sleeves around your monofilament wire to hold it in place. 

Monofilament sleeves cannot be used effectively without the crimping tool.  The sleeves are made of very strong metal, and most pliers found in the home will not be strong enough to crimp the sleeves successfully.  Stronger tools might be used to try to crimp the sleeves, but it would be inconvenient, time-consuming, and unsafe.  The unique shape of the tool’s teeth will fit perfectly around the sleeves, ensuring that they will not slip or pop out when the handles are squeezed—holding onto a sleeve while struggling to crimp it with another tool could result in an injury.  With a snug grip on the monofilament sleeve, the crimping tool can effectively compress the entire sleeve in just a few seconds without much physical effort on your part, making your fence installation go much faster and putting less strain on you. 

Hog-Ringer and Ring-It

The hog-ringer tools are made for use with the 9/16 in. hog rings you will need to secure your deer fence to your tensioning system.  Hog rings are small hooks of galvanized steel that, when compressed, become strong rings that will hold fence to monofilament wire for many years.  To compress them, you will need either the hog-ringer or Ring-It tool.  Both tools function the same way: a strip of hog rings is loaded onto a rail on the tool, and when the handles are squeezed, the rings feed into the teeth of the tool where they are compressed into rings.  Simply place the teeth of the tool around any piece of fence or monofilament wire and squeeze to place a hog ring.  For small installations or fencing around the home, we recommend the easy-use hog-ringer, and for larger or commercial installations, the heavy duty Ring-It tool.

It is possible to avoid using a ringer tool with the hog rings.  Hog rings are not as tough to compress as monofilament sleeves, and a set of pliers may be all you need to manipulate the rings.  We do not advise that you attempt to use the hog rings without a ringer.  Hog rings are very small, so trying to hold them and compress them could hurt you.  They also have pointed ends that could stab you if you handle them improperly.  Bending hog rings with another tool will reduce their reliability significantly.  Using the tool, your rings will be shaped into a tight and neat ring that you will probably not achieve with a set of pliers.  The ringer will leave no gaps between the pointed ends of the ring, and will tuck them neatly alongside each other so that they won’t catch on you or anything moving around your fence. 

Gripple Tightening Tool

A Gripple is used with monofilament wire, but specifically when two broken ends of monofilament wire need to be both connected and tightened.  The Gripple is a circular piece of metal that will automatically hold two pieces of monofilament wire inserted through its openings.  When it comes to tightening this new length of wire, you will need the Gripple tightening tool.  The tool uses a ratcheting action to grip and pull an end of wire through the Gripple, gradually shortening and tightening a length of wire. 

There is no substitute for using the Gripple tightening tool if you have decided to use Gripples for a deer fence installation.  The Gripple is a very specific connector and tightener that can only be installed using a gripple tightening tool. 

For more information, or to purchase any of these tools or connectors, visit our Tensioning Tools and Connectors page at DeerBusters.com.