Pig_Popper and I went hunting over the weekend for a nice Grendel hunt using optics from RIX Optics which is a new thermal and night vision company. As usual, things rarely go as planned, but we came away with two hogs on the first hunt. He had gotten a medium-sized sow and I scored a slightly smaller boar. However, his sow was an amazing breeder. She was pregnant with a whopping 14 fetuses onboard. In a manner of speaking, that is 15 in one shot, or if you play the odds, 12-14 in one shot (assuming 1 or 2 fetuses would not survive). Later, I dropped another sow that was pregnant with a more normal 6 fetuses. At this point in the year, our unborn fetus count has surpassed our born hog count.

Thats awesome. I shot a sow that had three little piglets running with it and a regular at one of my feeders sunday eve. She came into the area friday eve when I sat there but something spooked her pretty quickly and she boogered off as fast as she cleared the brush line.

The piglets were pretty small, running with her but not eating corn yet. I suppose that will mean I have three less piglets after a few more days....

Anyone know the age of independent viability of piglets....

I say just stick a jalapeño inside; batter them up; then deep fry those little poppers! Mmmmm good. They would line up real nice on a wood skewer too.

DNS -

Thanks for putting the video together and posting this thread.

I was astounded at the number of fetuses onboard the sow , all seemed consistent in size so I believe all were viable in terms of making it to birth.

That's a lot. You would think that a hot, dry summer would be rough on litters, but I caught this lone sow on camera in September with 13 piglets. She was pretty lean but 13 mouths is a lot.

Lotsa piglets in the making right there. Good job on the shooting and the video as well!