Based on the pictures from The Weekend, I decided to take the family out for some pig killin'. We get to the popup blind at about 4:30 (Man you've got to carry a lot of extra crap with a lady and a 7 year old!). Conditions are near perfect, 15 MPH north wind directly in our face from the direction of the trap and feeder, chilly and getting colder. When we arrived, I got them in the blind to start setting chairs and getting settled, while I spread a bit of strawberry jello laced corn and set the trap up. We've been sitting there for about 30 minutes and Shawna gets all excited- there they are! A sounder of about 18-20 pigs is hauling arse across the 150 acre pasture to our north, heading straight at us. About 50 yards out, they all veer off to the west suddenly and I am thinking "Great, they saw something they didn't like!" Evidently it was normal, based on the path we found later. About a minute goes by, we're watching them at about 75 yards away to our left and out front a bit. Evidently they were trying to get a whiff of anything. Then the come barreling in, snuffling up all the corn in the process. The plan was to let a pig get caught in the trap, then to let them come back and I was going to arrow one. We watch them all eat and fight for about 10 minutes all around the trap. Finally one little football makes his way in the trap. Then another yearling boar, then the dominant sow of the group. The boar is straining to get to the corn in the back of the trap and we can see the trip wire getting tighter and tighter. Finally, wham! The trap door springs shut, getting all three in there. Most of the sounder bolts to about 40 yards away, but 1 sow and about 5 footballs come back immideately. We watched them for about 10 minutes, hoping the rest would reurn, but they didn't, instead slowly making their way off. So I tell Shawna as soon as that sow gives me a clean shot clear of the trap, I'm pulling the trigger. I bet I drew and let down half a dozen times. She would clear the trap , but be facing dead at us or quartering to, both real bad shots for a bow. I didn't want to shot with the trap on the other side so as not to destroy $20 worth of arrow and broadhead on a passthrough. Finally the opportunity comes, and I loose the arrow. Miss the sweet spot by about 2 1/2", to the back. 
Gut shot on a pig. She bolts, and stops about 50 yards out, I'm thinking she's going down for the count. Instead she lumbers off, obviously hurting bad, but still motorvating. We watched her get all the way across the pasture before loosing her in the taller grass on the other side. The football never left the party, so I decide to shoot one them as well. This shot was about an inch off the mark high, but far enough to be completely out of the vitals. Didn't get a pass through, instead the arrow stopped with about equal portions on both sides. He runs about 20 yards and lays down. I think he's dead. High fives all around, and I get out to go dispatch the pigs in the trap. Big sow is highly irritated now, and is doing her level best to destroy the trap from the inside out. Shoot them, then go to retrieve the little one. Come to find out, he wasn't dead. About 5 yards away from him, he gets up and takes off at a full run. 
Finally decide that he's not going to die of the arrow's accord, so I put a bullet in him. The shot went straight through both shoulders, shredding them, but went JUST above spine. I was shooting a 2 blade Rage broadhead, which performed flawlessly, full cuts in and out. If it had hit rotated 90 degrees, he would have dropped in his tracks with a spine shot, instead the blades just clipped the tops of the vertebrae on the way through.
Get the pigs cleaned with the help of a buddy, and get back home a little after ten. I'm tired this morning.
Me and the boy:
The take:
The sow was 200# if she was an ounce. The two of us couldn't hoist her in the tree, we had to use the truck. She had a layer of fat 1" or better all over. Never seen one that fat here.
Oh yeah, the wife got the entire thing on video, I'll post as soon as I get it ripped to the PC.
Gut shot on a pig. She bolts, and stops about 50 yards out, I'm thinking she's going down for the count. Instead she lumbers off, obviously hurting bad, but still motorvating. We watched her get all the way across the pasture before loosing her in the taller grass on the other side. The football never left the party, so I decide to shoot one them as well. This shot was about an inch off the mark high, but far enough to be completely out of the vitals. Didn't get a pass through, instead the arrow stopped with about equal portions on both sides. He runs about 20 yards and lays down. I think he's dead. High fives all around, and I get out to go dispatch the pigs in the trap. Big sow is highly irritated now, and is doing her level best to destroy the trap from the inside out. Shoot them, then go to retrieve the little one. Come to find out, he wasn't dead. About 5 yards away from him, he gets up and takes off at a full run. Finally decide that he's not going to die of the arrow's accord, so I put a bullet in him. The shot went straight through both shoulders, shredding them, but went JUST above spine. I was shooting a 2 blade Rage broadhead, which performed flawlessly, full cuts in and out. If it had hit rotated 90 degrees, he would have dropped in his tracks with a spine shot, instead the blades just clipped the tops of the vertebrae on the way through.Get the pigs cleaned with the help of a buddy, and get back home a little after ten. I'm tired this morning.
Me and the boy:
The take:
The sow was 200# if she was an ounce. The two of us couldn't hoist her in the tree, we had to use the truck. She had a layer of fat 1" or better all over. Never seen one that fat here.
Oh yeah, the wife got the entire thing on video, I'll post as soon as I get it ripped to the PC.
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