As some of y'all know I have a minor dislike for feral hogs. I find em ugly, mean, destructive illegal aliens. Second only to fire ants as the devil's favorite pet far as I can tell.
Last night was the latest round in our attempt to eradicate a few of em.
This was my third time to this particular part of The Great State.
Trip one Tater and I saw pigs but spooked em with the truck drivin thru the pasture.
Trip two Tater, Ian and I heard pigs, coyotes, and somebody gigglin.
Trip Three just Tater and I, since Ian is a responsible member of society and workin One Million Hours a week.
This trip we did more preplanning** and decided to sit on a hill we thought had promise. About sundown we started to set up, both of us loaded down like mules crashin thru the woods. Found a nice over watch and started lookin about and saw 5 pigs rootin up the field below. I tell ya, when I called pigs! Tater looked at me like I was smokin crack. Him bein the professional animal killer and all, he usually sees em first. We dropped all our junk, loaded up the rifles and took a quick peek. Yup, two sows and three little ones. Tater told me to take the one on the left in 3,2,1 I was impressed how well we timed it, both shot within a whisker of the other. Pigs slowly walked, then ran after a few stumble steps. Both us fired again and had two distinctive misses.
Debate began after no blood trails found and our post set up. We were both positive of good hits on the first shots...
Half hour later the three Lil pigs from earlier came out to feed, piglets just don't wander off from momma Scratch two sow! Took a shot but missed them.
An hour or so later we got buzzed by a pig. He came in under the radar and stopped about 30 feet in front of us. Tater heard an even bigger pig commin so we held off. They then gave us a squeal when we hit the spot light, but they hit a slight dip so no shot.
After a short discussion of, next time lets not wait to shoot we settled back in.
Thirty minutes later a 180 lb range boar came in to about 20 feet. The .06 nailed him, causin him to roll a few feet down the hill with a squeak. He was a pretty hefty boy, glad he dropped so fast.
After this it quieted down and we called it.
Tater went back at first light, and found the two sows in heavy brush, both of em runnin close to 150 lbs. Sometimes they just don't bleed externally. It was great clearin both them girls out. Pigs can breed at 6-8months of age, havin an average litter size of 8 . Y'all do the math.
The way I see it is if they have 8 piglets, 10 of em live.
**Cindy has informed me the term preplanning is redundant. It is an old Fire Department term, and hey ya don't git more redundant then the F.D.
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5 comments:
If I remember correctly, a pigs gestation period is 3-3-3: 3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days. That makes for alot of piglets in a year!
They say under idea conditions one pig can equal 300 in a year. Better come help us next time we go. Cindy will be there.
I will be there if I don't have to work the next day. I am not sure I can hang with the 3 AM go to bed and 7 AM get up and work all day routine.
HAH - responsible. Now that's giggle worthy. I'm glad you guys had a good trip - you had it comin'
I'm not sorry I laughed for four hours straight, either. Totally worth it. :-P
AngelA-I remembered the "a" at the end!!
Yes, they are edible, all depends on the size. For boars, once they become sexually mature they are nasty. Survival food only. For the sow, usually under 200 lbs are the best eaters.
We do have a serious problem with them, much worse then the deer in Iowa. My buddy Tater caught 54 of them in a town north of here, that is much like Urbandale.
We fear when they expand up into the corn belt, I have seen what they do to pastures, would hate to see them run wild in a corn field.
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