Double Naught Spy
Sus Venator
I had not thought about this in a while, but the topic came up last evening when my hunting partner, Ben, dropped a medium-sized (170 lb) sow that was pregnant with a whopping 14 fetuses onboard, all of which looked to be in good condition until mom had her upper spinal cord severed.
I have killed and necropsied a lot of hogs over the years and can think of only a handful of pregnant sows that I have seen with double digit fetuses. Usually, they have about 6-8 onboard with first timers (gilts) with lesser numbers, but 2 seems to be the most common for gilts. In doing some online reading this morning, it looks like 14 is about the most fetuses a sow is apt to have at one time, though I am sure it is possible for more.
I picked up another sow later in the evening that had another 6 onboard, so with only 3 hogs down, we came away with another 20 fetuses that won't be causing any issues.
Rifles used were both 6.5 Grendels with 18" barrels and Silencerco Omega suppressors. My boar and sow were shot with Hammer Bullets 92 gr. "Power Hammer" bullets and Ben's trophy sow was shot with 95 gr. Northern Precision Spitzer RBT bonded bullets, all loaded by Druid Hill Armory. Velocity on both loads is over 2700 fps. I am using a Rix Optics Leap L6 thermal scope and Ben is using a Rix Optics Tourer T20 digital night vision scope.
And yeah, the 150 lb boar looks bigger than the 170 lb sow. That is an optical illusion caused by how we had to place the hogs. The sow in back was truly much larger than the boar.
I have killed and necropsied a lot of hogs over the years and can think of only a handful of pregnant sows that I have seen with double digit fetuses. Usually, they have about 6-8 onboard with first timers (gilts) with lesser numbers, but 2 seems to be the most common for gilts. In doing some online reading this morning, it looks like 14 is about the most fetuses a sow is apt to have at one time, though I am sure it is possible for more.
I picked up another sow later in the evening that had another 6 onboard, so with only 3 hogs down, we came away with another 20 fetuses that won't be causing any issues.
Rifles used were both 6.5 Grendels with 18" barrels and Silencerco Omega suppressors. My boar and sow were shot with Hammer Bullets 92 gr. "Power Hammer" bullets and Ben's trophy sow was shot with 95 gr. Northern Precision Spitzer RBT bonded bullets, all loaded by Druid Hill Armory. Velocity on both loads is over 2700 fps. I am using a Rix Optics Leap L6 thermal scope and Ben is using a Rix Optics Tourer T20 digital night vision scope.
And yeah, the 150 lb boar looks bigger than the 170 lb sow. That is an optical illusion caused by how we had to place the hogs. The sow in back was truly much larger than the boar.
