It is hard to tell from this pic (hogs bunched up)….but this is 9 of the 10 pigs from the litter(s)…of the two sows my Nephew shot last week.
I apologize for the fuzzy picture (borrowed camera…while mine is being repaired).
How it happened:
I knew with the sows gone…the shoats would return to the bait site (no leadership).
I have been “moving them” slowly from the bait site toward the trap (about 40 yds. away).
The last two days…all of the corn placed in the trap had been “hoovered up”…so it was evident they had been going in and spending some time in there. Normally, I would set up the Game-Cam on the trap to confirm…but small hogs are “predictable” to say the least.
They did fool me a bit today however. Game-Cam pics from the last 4 days showed them coming directly into the bait-site from woods to the East. Today…I had an East wind and the tree stand I use when manually tripping the doors is on the West side of an old logging road (down wind). I was happy with the wind direction…it left me pretty much bullet proof in terms of being scented.
I “assumed” the hogs would hit the bait-site first, pick up the scant amount of corn left there…then work their way down to the trap as a group. Instead…they came to the trap first and split off into two groups (7 went into the trap, 3 went up the trail to the bait-site).
Well……..pookie, “I may have to settle for 7”…I was thinking. To my surprise the 3 turned around only half way up the trail and came back. YES……., this is more like it!
Two of the three go immediately into the trap, one stays outside (there’s always a non-conformist, sheeeesh). So…… I am waiting patiently for the little bugger to make up his mind. Problem is…. a storm is headed my way and it’s starting to rain.
I don’t mind a light rain…and they didn’t mind the rain.…BUT the wind was now starting to swirl (not good).
“Greediness” was telling me to WAIT, but “Experience” and “Murphy” were persuading me otherwise. Just about the time I decided to give young “glue-foot” another 30 seconds, a clap of thunder sounded in the distance.
All of the pigs in the trap lifted their heads and looked toward the opening. Well….that was all I needed to see. I yanked the cord, the doors slammed shut and little footballs started running in all directions.
In a few minutes they all settled down and went back to eating the corn. The rain got a little heavier…but I wanted to wait for the lone pig to return and see if I could just shoot him with my .45 Auto.
Less than 10 minutes had passed when I spotted the little red pig sneaking back in. He walked back and forth on the opposite side of the trap… never offering a decent shot. I finally decided to just let him go, I clapped my hands loudly….watched him as he ran away….then got down.
I’m sure there will be “replacements” soon, (they always send replacements)!
Flint.