So i was sitting in the blind and saw a mama and some young pigs maybe 40lb-50lb size that seemed to be following her. They followed her to corn then when she left they followed her away. My question is if i did pull the trigger on the mama, would those small pigs survive? At what point are they not prey except for a big cat like mt. Lion, 30lb, 40lb, 50lb, 90lb?


Bash me if you will, but thats me, and my ranch. I love hunting and shooting animals but i have to eat it if i kill it unless its a coyote or predator.

Any pig over 20 pounds I think will be ok if mom is gone. They're pack animals so they'll find a new group to run with.

Thats true, it crossed my mind, but im not knowledgeable if they accept "outside" pigs into their groups. Like lions how they have their group and an outsider is sol.

I'm not sure, but I shoot pigs regardless of size and age due to their destructive nature. I shot two different sows this week with group of piglets weighing 10 pounds or less, and another 20 pounds or less. Within an hour those two groups of piglets were feeding with a third group of pigs.

The only time I avoid shooting piglets is when my wife sits in the blind with me. She thinks they're cute and believes it cruel for me to shoot them. Since she is onboard with me hunting so much as I do and does all the cooking while we're at the lease I let her have her way.

In addition, because we have so many pigs our deer are constantly pushed off our feeders. Also, the pigs will destroy the winter wheat fields if we don't knock their numbers down.

Where this family ranch is located there hasnt been a deer seen in a while and pigs just showed up maybe 6 months ago. So im not worried about the deer being affected it isnt used for deer hunting. This isnt farmed nor is cattle grazed, only used for bird hunting. We eradicated the pigs on the hf places we have so its nice to have free pork.

I would have shot the biggest baby pig then tried to hit another one, although sometimes if there's only on big pig and you shoot that one first the others may not know what to do or where to go and will either not go far or return shortly providing you another shot.

What he said.

It is my understanding that sows will nurse any piglet, not just their own. So even if you shoot a sow with young piglets, they'll probably survive. Certainly by the time they weigh over 30 Lbs they'll be OK. Probably once they get to 20 Lbs they're good, and maybe even earlier. At 40 Lbs they're getting to a size such that even coyotes won't mess with them, and their only predator at that point is human.

So, go get 'em!
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Or they stand there waiting for mama pig to get up

That s when you continue to shoot

I shot 4 this way by taking out the alpha sow first

I've trapped mama and had babies standing outside the trap trying to figure out how to get in.....That was exciting as I didn't see the smaller ones when I walked up and they came running at me.

I'm gonna go with about 40lbs. A lion isn't going to worry about anything up to that. A bobcat that is hungry won't either.

I'm sitting here like, man, I bet those tender young pigs are good to eat. A lot better than some old sow...

You would be correct^