What do you do with your varmints?

[Bottom Fodder]

I used to make roach clips from raccoon penis bones. They were unique gifts.

Poor quality beaver got.tanned and laced on willow hoops again they made great wall hangings.

Heard they make good toothpicks

 

[D Coots]

Heard they make good toothpicks

Tooth pricks

 

[D Coots]

Shot a badger one time when out in Wyoming pd'ing and he still had a pd in his mouth...

 

[Old Navy]

Shot a badger one time when out in Wyoming pd'ing and he still had a pd in his mouth...

They are few and far in between here. We don't shoot them.

 

[Pheasanthunter]

Shot a badger one time when out in Wyoming pd'ing and he still had a pd in his mouth...

Shoot any badgers on the ranches I hunt you won’t be coming back!!

 

[Gary in MD]

I pose them just right and then take a picture! LOL
Then lay them out for the buzzard buffet.
From this morning…

 

[jds holler]

And there was the time when Jed and Cyrus were out on the prairie, and a crow lit on a bush probably 300 yards away. Jed says, "I'll bet I can smoke him with Old Betsy".
And Cyrus says, "If you can kill that crow from here, I'll eat him."
After the smoke cleared, and the crow lay flapping on the ground, Jed asked, "Do ya figure to boil him or roast him?"
jd

 

[Tesoro]

Shoot any badgers on the ranches I hunt you won’t be coming back!!

Weird. The ranchers where I shoot ground squirrels in eastern oregon encourage shooting any and all badgers on sight.

 

[L.Sherm]

Weird. The ranchers where I shoot ground squirrels in eastern oregon encourage shooting any and all badgers on sight.

Thats exactly what I was told by a wheat farmer one time, TRY EXTRA HARD!!

 

[Tesoro]

Thats exactly what I was told by a wheat farmer one time, TRY EXTRA HARD!!

The badgers will dig underground to find nests of tasty little rodent snacks. In the process they create underground caverns just below surface that can collapse when a cow walks on top resulting in a broken leg, or create potholes for irrigation equipment etc.

 

[Pheasanthunter]

Weird. The ranchers where I shoot ground squirrels in eastern oregon encourage shooting any and all badgers on sight.

Well where I shoot they want the badgers left alone because they hunt the pdogs so I guess they would rather put up with a few of them then thousands of pdogs

 

[L.Sherm]

Well where I shoot they want the badgers left alone because they hunt the pdogs so I guess they would rather put up with a few of them then thousands of pdogs

The problem is, in the process they dig even bigger holes to get at them

 

[Pheasanthunter]

The badgers will dig underground to find nests of tasty little rodent snacks. In the process they create underground caverns just below surface that can collapse when a cow walks on top resulting in a broken leg, or create potholes for irrigation equipment etc.

They have some big den holes and if you ever caught one in a leg hold they can excavate a lot of dirt I know they will dig for food but did not know they tunneled just be low the surface. Whatever they might do he still wants them left alone so that’s what I do doesn’t pay to make a landowner mad

 

[Tesoro]

They have some big den holes and if you ever caught one in a leg hold they can excavate a lot of dirt I know they will dig for food but did not know they tunneled just be low the surface

In my country we have ground squirrels in pasture/alfalfa fields that they burrow after. Plus I guess they make their own dens.

 

[Rick in Oregon]

Most all the ranches we shoot for squirrels has badgers, and the ranchers say "kill 'em ALL!" So we try to oblige.

This one at 228 yards with my fast twist M700 in 204RM:



When a 32 or 39gr SBK or NBT smacks a big one, it really sends back that audible "THWOP"!

 

[Ackman]

Most all the ranches we shoot for squirrels has badgers, and the ranchers say "kill 'em ALL!" So we try to oblige.

This one at 228 yards with my fast twist M700 in 204RM:



When a 32 or 39gr SBK or NBT smacks a big one, it really sends back that audible "THWOP"!

Same here. Squirrel holes are bad enough but badgers make a huge hole. Not good in grass or alfalfa. One occasion, shooting squirrels on a horribly squirrel infested field, a badger went into it's hole before I could get a shot. I tried different things to get it up but nothing worked. But growling did work.....squatting down by the hole and growling, menacingly into it. After less than a minute that thing down there started growling back. And voila, a head appeared at the bend in the hole and got a 20gr in the eye. DRT. T/C contender carbine 17AH.

 

[nakneker]

Looks like the OP stopped commenting early on page 2, I read most of his comments and some of the other comments, I think he was sincere in his original post.

In today’s world, shooting varmints just doesn’t make sense too many who live in a concrete ecosystem, not too mention the anti gun, anti hunting, cancel culture we are all dealing with on some level.

Growing up on a ranch, riding horses dodging prairie dog holes all summer while branding cattle, protecting the grains in the shed from the squirrels and the mice, looking over young calves from coyotes, shooting skunks and coons out of the garden on a full moon was all the reason needed to kill varmints, it was obvious. If you didn’t control the varmints you gave up the $$ on the bottom line at the end of the year whether it was less crops, fewer calves or buying more grain to replace what the vermin decided they needed. Making a living was hard work ranching. Damage to feed sacks, vehicles or shed lightening (mice do eat wiring) was a constant battle. So the question of why we shot varmints was obvious if you grew up that way.

As far as eating them there is no way in hell I’d eat a prairie dog, a woodchuck, ground squirrel, jack rabbit, coon, skunk etc etc. especially in the summer, we would eat cottontails when it was cold or the occasional tree squirrel in the fall. If you look at the little fleas and ticks on many of these animals in the summer you’re taking a risk handling them much less eating them, or to mention everything you’d find under a microscope. As mentioned in many of the posts the chunks and carcasses are usually gone by the next day, something ate them, whether it was a bird of prey, coyotes or whatever, nothing went to waste. The only varmint I’ve seen go uneaten is a coyote, I've seen their carcasses go untouched for weeks.

Lastly, shooting varmints isn’t only productive on many levels, it’s enjoyable. If you’re not programmed that way I get it but many of us are. Half of my rifles are made for varmint hunting, not shooting tin cans or paper, although that’s fun too, to each their own. You don’t have to eat what you kill in every instance, sometimes I think you’d be foolish to do so. Edible game is a different story and I do believe it’s good to eat what you kill when thats your quarry, nothing saddens me more than finding a lazy butcher job during hunting season. Leaving the front quarters, sloppy job on the back straps, 10 pounds of neck meat left, whatever the case I think it’s respectful to not use everything you can.

 

[Ackman]

Looks like the OP stopped commenting early on page 2, I read most of his comments and some of the other comments, I think he was sincere in his original post.

In today’s world, shooting varmints just doesn’t make sense too many who live in a concrete ecosystem, not too mention the anti gun, anti hunting, cancel culture we are all dealing with on some level.

Growing up on a ranch, riding horses dodging prairie dog holes all summer while branding cattle, protecting the grains in the shed from the squirrels and the mice, looking over young calves from coyotes, shooting skunks and coons out of the garden on a full moon was all the reason needed to kill varmints, it was obvious. If you didn’t control the varmints you gave up the $$ on the bottom line at the end of the year whether it was less crops, fewer calves or buying more grain to replace what the vermin decided they needed. Making a living was hard work ranching. Damage to feed sacks, vehicles or shed lightening (mice do eat wiring) was a constant battle. So the question of why we shot varmints was obvious if you grew up that way.

As far as eating them there is no way in hell I’d eat a prairie dog, a woodchuck, ground squirrel, jack rabbit, coon, skunk etc etc. especially in the summer, we would eat cottontails when it was cold or the occasional tree squirrel in the fall. If you look at the little fleas and ticks on many of these animals in the summer you’re taking a risk handling them much less eating them, or to mention everything you’d find under a microscope. As mentioned in many of the posts the chunks and carcasses are usually gone by the next day, something ate them, whether it was a bird of prey, coyotes or whatever, nothing went to waste. The only varmint I’ve seen go uneaten is a coyote, I've seen their carcasses go untouched for weeks.

Lastly, shooting varmints isn’t only productive on many levels, it’s enjoyable. If you’re not programmed that way I get it but many of us are. Half of my rifles are made for varmint hunting, not shooting tin cans or paper, although that’s fun too, to each their own. You don’t have to eat what you kill in every instance, sometimes I think you’d be foolish to do so. Edible game is a different story and I do believe it’s good to eat what you kill when thats your quarry, nothing saddens me more than finding a lazy butcher job during hunting season. Leaving the front quarters, sloppy job on the back straps, 10 pounds of neck meat left, whatever the case I think it’s respectful to use everything you can.

Yes. Urban people very often are oblivious to these things. Many years ago the foreman of a huge ranch in AZ told me that every year he'd lose several ranchhands to injuries. In with a bunch of cattle, the horse would step in an unseen pd hole and the rider would fall. He'd lost a dozen that year to arm/shoulder breaks.

 

[Konocti's Wigwam]

I think he was sincere in his original post.

There was no deception in my post, it was a honest sincere question. I'm not the type of person that would go out and hammer 10 PDs a day and keep going back. I would shoot them for fun, but I'd rather hunt something I can put some real meat in the freezer.

I never meant to dis anyone who does shoot PDs weekly, and not as if I despise people that do, I'm totally fine with it. I have put rats that I catch in my shed and just lay them on a log, they're gone the next day, so I have to guess the coyotes get 'em.

Anyway, it's all good, I don't have any problem with them, and heading up to my property where there are plenty of animals, big and small...I must have 8 bucks hanging out at my property this year. I can't shoot them as I'm in city limits...they don't bother me and I don't bother them.

 

[TaperPin]

As a kid I heard about an old guy who liked rock chucks - my assumption was he ate them, but for all I know he was practicing taxidermy. He was out west during the Great Depression so it could have been a dish from his childhood that he likes. In the 1980s he was paying $5 and would take one or two every month. Lol