One hit death. PETA folks DO NOT READ

Valstarr Hawkwind · Post by **Valstarr Hawkwind** » Sat Jun 19, 2010 2:17 pm

Fishers? Off to Google go I.

Edit: per Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher_(animal)
To get the actual animal link, for some reason, you have to follow above down to the first link under "Other" on the page: I don't know why the direct link doesn't work.

Val

Theoderic · Post by **Theoderic** » Sat Jun 19, 2010 4:37 pm

Some relocation places to arrive at the brilliant conclusion to take the live trapped animals to remote locations where houses are not within many miles of any civilization.

Good on you for living off of the land. Raccoons have many uses, dead. As with all animals that are killed many parts can be used. If you have dogs you can feed them the meat, though I recommend a long cooking outdoors first or making the flesh into a jerky for them.

I'd look at high places for ways the raccoons are entering your abode as they are nimble climbers. They are incredibly intelligent creatures.

AvM · Post by **AvM** » Sat Jun 19, 2010 6:41 pm

Deleted 'cause I couldn't get the link to work.

St. George · Post by **St. George** » Sun Jun 20, 2010 4:27 am

Blaine de Navarre wrote:I was recently regaled with the story of a bar-b-q that started with supper on the hoof and a little test-cutting. I'm told with proper technique one can take a head clean off with one cut.

Watch "Apocalypse Now". The footage is real. One cut and the buffalo's head comes off.

g-

raito · Post by **raito** » Sun Jun 20, 2010 8:50 am

FrauHirsch wrote:Course I had this same experience with a giant Florida cockroach...

(and to keep this on topic) I was in a business suit with a briefcase, so I didn't have any weapons to try on it...

Briefcase is a weapon, and if it's a quality one, all you'll have to do is wipe it down afterwards. In a business suit, as a woman, you probably didn't have the correct shoes for stompin'.

Euric Germanicus · Post by **Euric Germanicus** » Sun Jun 20, 2010 10:12 am

Leo Medii wrote:Because I'm not a flower child hippie. I live on a farm. Farm happens.

HAHA! Leo, I'm so stealing that!

Farm happens. Love it!

I too, live on a farm. I have a few firearms ranging from a .22 M+P 15 to a 44 Mag. People at work (Medical Practice) are all city hippies and ask why I just don't call animal control to shoot the coyote/groundhog/rabbit.

I have a Roman pugio I take out as a side arm when on varmint patrol. People would ask why not just a pocket knife. My answer:

"Ever have to stab something to death?"

Even the Pugio vs a 'coon takes some elbow grease. I have a new respect for period combat, it must have been UGLY.

Hrolfr · Post by **Hrolfr** » Sun Jun 20, 2010 12:51 pm

Raccoons killed 2 or my chickens yesterday AFTERNOON. Like between 2 and 7:30.

Very evil thoughts are going through my head. They WILL die,

Leo, you up for a short road trip? :twisted:

Varyag · Post by **Varyag** » Sun Jun 20, 2010 2:11 pm

It is also ILLEGAL to livetrap and relocate ANY animal in MI

Not if you relocate them to the bottom of a pond! If you use a live trap (which are good in semi-urban areas because you can verify the target animal has been captured and not Granny's feline) just tie a line to the trap's cage and let the trap go to the bottom of the pond for ten minutes or so. Than you just reel 'em in!

Plan "B" involves a ratty old blanket, a live trap with coon or possum, a bit of garden hose, and an idiling Buick.

My objections to all the shooting, stabbing, slashing, and arrow shooting here is the destruction of all that valuable fur. Coons average about 8 bucks each when dried and stretched properly. Possums are abou .75 to 2 dollars. And I hate to say it but to the Canuk with the fisher problem... 40-60 dollars each.

When Westies come to Oertha from Kingdom, their first stop is usually the fur shop for wolves, fox, and beaver to wear. Please wear fur, Scadians! I hate having to see faux fur on people, it really hurts the eyes.

Thorvald Weretiger · Post by **Thorvald Weretiger** » Sun Jun 20, 2010 2:41 pm

Varyag wrote:
It is also ILLEGAL to livetrap and relocate ANY animal in MI

Not if you relocate them to the bottom of a pond! If you use a live trap (which are good in semi-urban areas because you can verify the target animal has been captured and not Granny's feline) just tie a line to the trap's cage and let the trap go to the bottom of the pond for ten minutes or so. Than you just reel 'em in!

Plan "B" involves a ratty old blanket, a live trap with coon or possum, a bit of garden hose, and an idiling Buick.

My objections to all the shooting, stabbing, slashing, and arrow shooting here is the destruction of all that valuable fur. Coons average about 8 bucks each when dried and stretched properly. Possums are abou .75 to 2 dollars. And I hate to say it but to the Canuk with the fisher problem... 40-60 dollars each.

When Westies come to Oertha from Kingdom, their first stop is usually the fur shop for wolves, fox, and beaver to wear. Please wear fur, Scadians! I hate having to see faux fur on people, it really hurts the eyes.

Hey, my budget is tight as it is. Tell ya what, send me fur and Ill happily wear it.

FrauHirsch · Post by **FrauHirsch** » Sun Jun 20, 2010 4:12 pm

raito wrote:
FrauHirsch wrote:Course I had this same experience with a giant Florida cockroach...

(and to keep this on topic) I was in a business suit with a briefcase, so I didn't have any weapons to try on it...

Briefcase is a weapon, and if it's a quality one, all you'll have to do is wipe it down afterwards. In a business suit, as a woman, you probably didn't have the correct shoes for stompin'.

My thought exactly. I was in pumps. I was worrying about scuffing the briefcase if it hit cement in the process. Those Florida "palmetto bugs" are like 3" long.

Urdok · Post by **Urdok** » Sun Jun 20, 2010 4:43 pm

Varyag wrote:
It is also ILLEGAL to livetrap and relocate ANY animal in MI

Not if you relocate them to the bottom of a pond! If you use a live trap (which are good in semi-urban areas because you can verify the target animal has been captured and not Granny's feline) just tie a line to the trap's cage and let the trap go to the bottom of the pond for ten minutes or so. Than you just reel 'em in!

I'm shocked that took so long to come up- a variant of that was my father's favorite way of dispatching pests- a live trap and a garbage can full of water did in a number of critters at our house.

Benedek · Post by **Benedek** » Sun Jun 20, 2010 9:49 pm

Couple of summers ago, a feral beast kept killing my moms farm cats. I finally was able to figure out exactly what it was. A possum, missing one eye, tail half gone, and with a gimp leg.

The thing was at least 20 inches long sans tail and I don't know how it survived. We were cooking dinner inside and started to hear screeching from the new litter of kittens, I grab the first gun handy that happened to be a .410. I put 3 shells into the critters head at about 3 paces and finally and the 3rd one he stopped hissing and coming after me. He lay wounded and imobilized so I had to get up closer and finally ended him at point blank with a .38 that my mother had brought out too me.

I hate, hate hate possums, dirty nasty creatures that are an abomination and hazard to many farmers.

Leo Medii · Post by **Leo Medii** » Sun Jun 20, 2010 10:16 pm

Tonight, we try the marshmallow and trap. Update to follow!

sha-ul · Post by **sha-ul** » Mon Jun 21, 2010 12:08 am

DukeAlaric (George S.) wrote:
Blaine de Navarre wrote:I was recently regaled with the story of a bar-b-q that started with supper on the hoof and a little test-cutting. I'm told with proper technique one can take a head clean off with one cut.

Watch "Apocalypse Now". The footage is real. One cut and the buffalo's head comes off.

g-

I thought it took more than that, something like 3-4, although the first went almost halfway through the neck.

The Lost Celt · Post by **The Lost Celt** » Mon Jun 21, 2010 12:09 am

Half country boy, we have issues with coons here but not so bad, my relatives further out have had to pick em off with a 16g occasionally. My father had to kill a rabid one with a baseball bat, not fun.

My aunt loved it when I introduced her to paintball, went from shooting a coon and burying it to painting the f'er and it didn't come back, pinned a whole family in a tree this way, YMMV but I figure it isn't a bad way to handle some less harmful pests (I'd rather kill the coon personally, as I wouldn't group them in the "less harmful" category, but I don't wanna be burying it at 1am or so)

Got a groundhog to deal with in the near future, deciding between trapping, painting, or killing. Groundhog is just annoying right now, but I don't want my stupid cat to attack it and cost me a good vet bill, and my kid is in the area a lot so GH has to go, right now live trapping or a dead groundhog seem like the two best options,,,,

sha-ul · Post by **sha-ul** » Mon Jun 21, 2010 12:14 am

The Lost Celt wrote:Half country boy, we have issues with coons here but not so bad, my relatives further out have had to pick em off with a 16g occasionally. My father had to kill a rabid one with a baseball bat, not fun.

around here, critters like this,especially skunks are on the bad list& receive #6 bird shot in a hurry as almost all skunks carry the rabies virus whether they are actively infected or not.

Leo Medii · Post by **Leo Medii** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 1:33 am

Raccoon #4, your love of cherries was your undoing.

Hrolfr · Post by **Hrolfr** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 5:18 am

The wife got 2 yesterday afternoon. Won't go into the details, but it wasn't a firearm or a poleaxe (but it did have a handle).

She now wants sabatons and greaves "because the little bastards come at your legs"

I love my wife

Marshmellows work for you Leo? 'Coons like sweets.

iaenmor · Post by **iaenmor** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 7:10 am

Marshmallows or cherries, hmm time to go grocery shopping. Maybe I will get the fat bastage this time. He has killed 3 kittens so far this year. I got his brother this spring and since he has been very careful about being out.

Leo Medii · Post by **Leo Medii** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 9:02 am

My wife found droppings outside our chicken coop filled with cherry pits. We have 4 cherry trees in our orchard. So, I patrolled it tonight until he made the mistake of treeing himself in a cherry tree.
Stoger coach gun-2
Coons-0

The trap so far hasn't done jack. For one, this coon was huge, he probably wouldn't have fit in the door to it.

Jonny Deuteronomy · Post by **Jonny Deuteronomy** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 9:16 am

Seved Ribbing wrote:Wow! Sounds similar to the time I shot a squirrel in the bathroom with my rifle...

How did the squirrel get your rifle? :shock:

Varyag · Post by **Varyag** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 1:41 pm

Coons, possums, and skunks also love crawfish oil, shellfish oil, sardine oil, carp scraps, etc. as well as sweets.

Doorman · Post by **Doorman** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 3:18 pm

There is a family of raccoons living in the sewer system in the middlt of the small town I live in. The live in the pit right in front of the two screen cinema. The theatre employee have to come out at the end of every movie at night and warn people not to go near the raccoons.

Hrolfr · Post by **Hrolfr** » Wed Jun 23, 2010 4:53 am

Varyag wrote:Coons, possums, and skunks also love crawfish oil, shellfish oil, sardine oil, carp scraps, etc. as well as sweets.

Part of the reason I use marshmellows is that I won't continuously catch the neighbors cat (and thus let the 'coons run rampant) with the fishy stuff. 'Mellows will attract only 'coon

Matthew Richardson · Post by **Matthew Richardson** » Wed Jun 23, 2010 1:04 pm

No raccoon stories here in Tucson, but we had just moved into a house on the west side of town in April of 2002. The couple that owned the house before us were very into the feng sui of life. She was a naturopathic MD and her wife was an herbalist. The girls had 3 dogs and at least two cats. There is a very nice pet door into the then breakfast nook, now bar area. Kathy and I have had pugs for years and they understand pet doors. We put the water dispenser just inside the door. Some of you are laughing now, will other giggle.

So, when it got warm here in June/July, the pack rats smelled the water and figured out how to get in the dog door. We noticed the droppings and tried to find them. They are cunning little critters. BTW, pack rats pee as they run and their urine fluoresces, get yerself a black lit, put on some Jerrson Airplane and go rat hunting. The pugs had signed a non-agression treaty with the rats, as the rats were about 1/3 pug size. We killed two with traps. The third one was smarter or luckier than the others.

There was a Tom and Jerry episode in our living room one night, though. We heard the little bastard soon after we had headed to bed and turned out the lights. I grabbed a broom, as I was just trying to get the rat out of the house. Furniture was overturned, the rat ran up the broom and launched itself from my shoulder, calling my a bad name in packrat. It went diving under the kitchen cupboards.

A few days later, I was on the phone with Kathy, who was still working part-time in Phoenix. I heard a trap spring behind the couch and told her I'd call her back. I pulled out the couch and the rat was sitting and shaking it's head, looking dazed from where the springarm had hit it. I had my armour sitting close by the couch. I didn't want to spray rat around the living room by hitting it with a stick, so I grabbed my mail shirt. The rat fully came to, but too late. As it ran across the room, I tossed the shirt on it.

I called Kathy back and told her the rat was under the shirt and that I was going to work out now. She said that's 45 minutes. I said, yep, and when I'm done the rat won't be moving. Workout ensued. Flatrat got tossed out the front door as a warning to it's cousins and the shirt lived overnight in a bucket of water/bleach. The water dispenser now lives at the end of a hall, far from the dog door. Flatrat laid out in the front yard for about two weeks, became flat jerky, then roadrunner snack. BTW, roadrunners _are_ living descendants of velociraptors...

M

Black Swan Designs · Post by **Black Swan Designs** » Wed Jun 23, 2010 3:17 pm

Jeff controls the gopher population with a spear. If I see him lurking around the horses with a spear, I know he's hunting gopher. Thankfully the neighbors have no objection to the sight of Jeff walking over to the dumpster with a dead gopher impaled on the end of a spear.

He dispatches the ground squirrels with the pellet gun. The gun was a present to me to control the feral cat population but he discovered the pellets kill ground squirrels, so the rest is history. Neighbors don't object to Jeff walking around with dead squirrels either. Guess I'll have to get myself another gun so we don't argue over who gets to keep it in their shop.

We live in Rabbit Central and he keeps saying he's going to take the crossbow with him when he's out on a hack with the horses. Wonder how the neighbors would feel about him riding home with a brace of rabbits?

Gwen

Varyag · Post by **Varyag** » Wed Jun 23, 2010 5:04 pm

Wonder how the neighbors would feel about him riding home with a brace of rabbits?

Who cares what they think? :lol:

Nothing is more American than hunting and trapping. It is our heritage.

To the folks who are having coons refuse to enter their live traps... have you tried covering the trap with an old blanket or grass or something to make it look more "inviting"?

Also, if you know how animals are getting in, you can use snares in the egress.

FrauHirsch · Post by **FrauHirsch** » Wed Jun 23, 2010 10:47 pm

We had a big rabbit problem last year with the garden. When we discussed how to kill them, (and then prepare them later), I found that most people got all freaked out about us eating them. These are nice FAT cottontails that have now made our property home for several generations. Our dogs will kill them if they can, but the rabbits tend to hang out in an area that is full of burrs and foxtails so we avoid putting our wooly dogs in that area. My husband was shooting at them with a bow, but it was hard to get a good angle. We have to be careful not to shoot our travel and cargo trailers which they nest under.

My husband has now moved a gopher snake around to different parts of our property 3 times in the last 4 months. He finds it wandering about the yard and seems perfectly happy to let him pick it up and move him to a fresh hole and it slips right down. We do get less fresh holes after a few weeks, so it is doing some work for us.

Uadahlrich · Post by **Uadahlrich** » Wed Jun 23, 2010 11:21 pm

Having a nice snake of the property keeps many vermin under control. Back in the day I took a big helping of whoopass to a brainless buttmunch who killed the corn snake out at the base stables in Beaufort, SC.
He said he did it because "Snakes were evil."

Doorman · Post by **Doorman** » Thu Jun 24, 2010 8:48 am

Uadahlrich wrote:Having a nice snake of the property keeps many vermin under control. Back in the day I took a big helping of whoopass to a brainless buttmunch who killed the corn snake out at the base stables in Beaufort, SC.
He said he did it because "Snakes were evil."

Brainless moron. I remember at my grandparents farmhouse growing up there was a big corn snake that lived in a hollow pecan tree in the front yard. My grandpa would take the mice that got into the traps in the house out to the tree for the snake. That was the fattest snake I ever saw.

The copperhead I discovered in my daughter's sandbox while I was doing pell work had to go away though. She has one of those turtle sandboxes and she wanted to play in it while I did my pellwork. I'm glad I used my sword to push the top off of it, otherwise things could have gotten tragic quickly. I felt something hit my sword when I put it under the edge of the sandbox. :shock:

After I flipped the top off a VERY large and angry copperhead came slithering out after me. I abandoned every pretense at good form and proceeded to rain hammer blows down on the beast.

It turned into a 3 foot long lumpy tube quickly. :twisted:

Needless to say she did not play in the sandbox that day as I sifted through the sand to make sure their were no extra suprises.

FrauHirsch · Post by **FrauHirsch** » Thu Jun 24, 2010 8:53 am

That is so scary Doorman!

Doorman · Post by **Doorman** » Thu Jun 24, 2010 9:05 am

FrauHirsch wrote:That is so scary Doorman!

You have no idea. I had to rewrap my sword because their were little bits of bone and stuff stuck in the duct tape. I went utterly and completely apeshit.

He bit the tip of my sword....does that mean I can no longer use it because the tip has poison in it? :shock:

lol

BdeB · Post by **BdeB** » Thu Jun 24, 2010 9:18 am

This is becoming one of my all time favorite threads. :twisted:

Vermin · Post by **Vermin** » Thu Jun 24, 2010 10:46 am

" Those Florida "palmetto bugs" are like 3" long. "

You got all worked up over a little one?....

Jonny Deuteronomy · Post by **Jonny Deuteronomy** » Thu Jun 24, 2010 11:02 am

BdeB wrote:This is becoming one of my all time favorite threads.

Mine is the epic Wal Mart Fish Tank Thread.