Varmint stories

Lud · July 13, 2012, 09:21:39 AM

Last Friday I went to the barn and had caught a possum in my live trap in the barn near the cat food, (which I use to make 'em hold still when I shoot 'em). Well, I set the trap outside where I can shoot without fear of ricochet and got distracted. Did some other tasks and lunchtime came and after I recalled I needed to "take care" of the possum.

He didn't look so good, in fact he looked dead on that 100 degree day..., sort of in the sun. I shot him anyway as he may have been playin' possum.......but he wasn't, never twitched. Took him back halfway to the lake where I've dumped varmints for years at the Coyote Cafe.

So now I've added "possum killin' heat " to my descriptions of How Hot is it!

Raider Bill · July 13, 2012, 09:30:35 AM

Hard way to die. I caught one in a live trap a few years ago. Was going to take it to the bridge for gator meat and set the trap in the back of my truck. Got distracted. Girlfriend took the truck to run errands when she came back she asked me if I had forgot something... 100+ heat, black bed liner. I actually felt bad.

Jim_Rogers · July 13, 2012, 11:25:05 AM

I was standing in the doorway to my shop/office and looked out to the other end of the driveway towards the dumpster.
I saw something on the ground next to it that didn't look familiar at all.

It was gray in the front and black in the back. It had a long tail and when it hopped away it kind of moved like a weasel.

But it had the head of a cat with whiskers.

I think it was a "fisher cat", but I'm not completely sure.
Not enough time to grab a snapshot with my camera.
If it was a fisher cat then that's the first one I've ever seen.

Jim Rogers

Magicman · July 13, 2012, 12:03:48 PM

To keep from accidentally shooting my trap, I have a rope tied to the handle on mine. The pond is close, and they can't swim.

blackfoot griz · July 13, 2012, 01:18:37 PM

Years ago, I was riding a colt through a large pasture/hayfield making sure all of the gates were closed before turning the horses & mules in. One side was a hayfield, the other a partially timbered area with a small creek flowing through. I was getting the colt used to swinging a rope over his head when there's something grayish moving through the taller grass.

Almost an impossibility, my throw was true (lucky, and, looking back on the event-really stupid!) and I have a young-- very unhappy badger caught. The snarling Mr badger comes right at us and the rodeo began. The colt takes off...the faster we go, the faster the badger seems to chase us. My rope has a badger on on end and the colt has the rope clamped under his tail which only adds to the excitement. While I'm trying to get control of the colt, at the other end of my rope, the badger is bouncing off stumps, rocks, getting drug through the creek and getting madder by the second. We get into the open (freshly cut) hayfield portion and we're really moving.

I get the runaway colt going in large--fast circles...the danged badger still fishtailing behind. The badger finally released himself and we went our sepperate ways.

The next day, Browning and I sealed the fate for that badger!

Magicman · July 13, 2012, 01:30:37 PM

What a story. I have never seen but one badger bt that was enough to convince me that I would not want to be tied to one. I'll bet the colt did not forget either.

Jim_Rogers · July 13, 2012, 01:47:21 PM

Quote from: Magicman on July 13, 2012, 01:30:37 PM
What a story. I have never seen but one badger bt that was enough to convince me that I would not want to be tied to one. I'll bet the colt did not forget either.

Would have made a great YouTube video for sure.....

sandhills · July 13, 2012, 01:58:16 PM

We spent 4 days in Estes Park Co. a few weeks ago and I personally got to watch a bunch of people antaginnise (?) the heck out of a few badgers, luckily no children were hurt, a few adults definitely earned the right to be. Blackfoot, I'd of paid money to watch that one, been on a few rodeos myself ;).

blackfoot griz · July 13, 2012, 05:50:25 PM

Quote from: Magicman on July 13, 2012, 01:30:37 PM
What a story. I have never seen but one badger bt that was enough to convince me that I would not want to be tied to one. I'll bet the colt did not forget either.

MM-the Badger incident happened in 1982. I found a pic of me and the same horse (pic circa sept 1984 Ovando, Montana--FF folks love pics!). This red roan Appaloosa turned out to be one heck of a horse (and I am a quarter horse fan). When the owner sold out he kept 3 horses out of the whole bunch and this was one of them.

Would have made a great YouTube video for sure.....
[/quote]
No doubt. That poor badger went for one heck of a rough ride!

Magicman · July 13, 2012, 06:31:14 PM

My only Badger sighting was also in 1982. I was the Camp Jack in an Elk Camp on Navajo Peak in Southern Colorado that year.

Lud · July 14, 2012, 07:23:00 AM

"Badger on a rope". "Possum-killin' heat". Good start for a thread, eh?

I remember, as a kid, watching a guy somehow hook a muskrat's tail while fishing for bass in our lake. He played him for a while and really bent the rod before the rat got away. That was one stressed rat.

I think I've felt caught like that a few times. The "How'd I ever get in this predicament" feeling! :D

Magicman · July 14, 2012, 08:54:05 AM

My wife did manage to snag a water moccasin while fishing. That is one time that she did not want to reel it in. Thankfully, it finally wrapped up and she was able to break the line.

Don_Papenburg · July 14, 2012, 08:57:00 AM

My nieghbor and I were talking about varmints and such one day long ago . He told me that when he was a young lad . Hios job was to go get the cows in for milking before he went to school . One day he chased up a fox and the fox scurried into a tile opening . so he put a rock over the opening and after he had the cows p to the barn he took a leghold trap out to the tile and replaced the rock with the trap and off to school he went . He said that when he retuned from school the fox was trapped by the testis . now that had to hurt twice once when the trap goes snap and again when the trap hits the tile at full trot.

Chuck White · July 15, 2012, 09:52:47 AM

The worst varmints we have here around the yard are those dang moles!

They keep making their tunnels, every night!

Anyone got any idea how to really get rid of them without buying a lot of gizmo's?

Texas Ranger · July 15, 2012, 06:30:06 PM

Propane gas and ignition

Norm · July 16, 2012, 07:18:02 AM

12 pack of beer, 12ga shotgun and a lawn chair.

Magicman · July 16, 2012, 07:45:18 AM

Dynamite.

:D

Cypressstump · July 16, 2012, 07:47:21 AM

Badgers can be formable critters to deal with when their ticked off. They typically have short fuses anyway, least the ones I've pestered before. In New Mexico A friend was off to work out of state for a couple months. He asked if I would look after his trees, water them for him. He had 12-15 acres out in the high desert
And had planted about 50 trees for whatever the reason. He did not have a water well at the time and his windmill was not yet completed. I had to tote his 450 gallon water tank on trailer to someone's house, get water, bring back to his water shed, and connect to the irrigation system he had set up. The Tank would last 4-5 days, watering every other day in the summer months. It was a time consuming event, especially beings that I had to walk the trees hooked up on different watering feeds to ensure the jack rabbits had not eaten off the little water tube "flags", the metering restrictors. It never failed there were always a few missing. So each tree walking trip, per zone, took 2 beers and a handful of the little push in restrictors. This area is all Mesa area, high desert, sage brush and sandy soil , typical NM desert.

One day while finishing the last zone walk, I saw water squirting straight up alongside a tree. Great , dang rabbits gotta drink too.. ! !! As I neared the tree, I saw a burrow inside the little dammed up area around the tree base. Even closer, saw a head poke up, then go back in the hole.... Humm, this is different. When I got about 30 feet away, the badger came out of his hole, facing me, popping his jaws. As I had an empty beer bottle in my vest pocket, It seemed to be a good idea to whack the varmint and run him off so I could replace the little rabbit eaten flag, As the pretty good beer bottle tosser I fancy myself to be, I whacked that badger right in the face. Then things turned for the worse... as he bee lined straight for me, and the trees I was watering were only 3 inches diameter,, And my Cajun track shoes, Redwing slip-on work boots,,,weren't no match for this guy. They are fast. I grabbed my single action ruger single six 22 mag, and began to shooting and trying to side step him. About my 4th shot I nailed him, he was only a couple feet away by that time, 1 more shot for good measures.

I took the badger back to my friends shop where he had a deep freezer and bagged the rascal in a garbage bag, left him in the freezer, figuring my friend would like to have the pelt or whatever. About 6 weeks later, my friend returned, called me saying he'd be in the next day, no need to water any more,,, thankfully. The next day I get another phone call from him, he's all excited calling me a SOB,( in a jokingly manner) for putting that Badger in his freezer without telling him, heck after 6 weeks I forgot.... He apparently dumped the thing out and freaked out sorta badly inside that small shed,, I did not know he was that scared of those things as he readily let me know.... :D

Moral of the story,,, Don't go whacking a Badger in the noggin with a empty beer bottle ,,, also , leave the single action 6 shot 22 at home and carry a 14 shot .40 cal... time can be of the essence...

Magicman · July 16, 2012, 07:58:44 AM

I'da been thinking about the 22 first. :D

beenthere · July 16, 2012, 10:32:14 AM

Cypressstump
That makes for an interesting recollection.
Now, how about some more information about the "trees" that were growing?
What has become of them after all that intricate watering on the mesa?

How about some pics of what those trees look like now?

My badger experience was in the early 70's, when I had one digging under an old shed. I thought it was a woodchuck until one day I was walking by the shed and heard a commotion underneath. I stopped to see a badger pop out and snarl at me. Unmistaken for its size, coloring, and being very wide and flat. Was after that when I realized he was gone. Apparently it didn't like my company and moved on.
Only have seen one since in this Badger state, and that was dead along the road.

Cypressstump · July 16, 2012, 12:36:56 PM

beenthere, the trees were a few oaks, some native cottonwoods, a few fruit trees and some type of conifer that was native to N.M. .

That was 10 years ago ,and I have been gone from New Mexcio for nearly 6 years. They were actually doing fine for their enviroment considering the soil out there, altho the cottonwoods were not as tolerant as the others. I think they like a far more shallower water table... :D :D

blackfoot griz · July 16, 2012, 02:58:06 PM

"
"Moral of the story,,, Don't go whacking a Badger in the noggin with a empty beer bottle"

That is some funny... and true advice!

Tom L · July 16, 2012, 03:51:08 PM

possum story

my ex wife came home with a present for me one day, she hit a possum with her car, just knocked it out.
so she put it in a box and put the box in the trunk of her car and then drove home so I could get it out of the trunk and either help it or kill it. now the fun started, open the trunk and there is a very alive and pi*&^(d off possum showing me his teeth,hissing and wanting to eat me for dinner. put on some heavy welding gloves and had to get him out of the trunk.

they are not too friendly when injured and cornered to say the least.

Jim_Rogers · July 16, 2012, 06:24:27 PM

Again I say:

"That would make a great YouTube video....."

trapper · July 17, 2012, 02:31:41 PM

I have let a few out of traps as they are not legal to kill in WI. Used a hog catcher to hold them down while removing the trap from their foot. Only had one that wasnt happy to leave when i let him go He finally walked away when he finally discovered he wasnt a match for a BIG stick. He charged several times but always ended doing a backflip down the hill.
He finally gave up.

sprucebunny · July 18, 2012, 09:03:05 AM

Not really a "varmint" but I was about 3 miles from home the other morning when I felt something on my thigh... look down and there is a mouse sitting on my leg. We both jumped

So I stop and open all the doors in the pouring rain and bang things around inside the car.....
Another 2-3 miles and I look over and the mouse is sitting on the passanger armrest looking out the windshield, then looking at me 'Are we there yet ??? '

I swerve into a farm's driveway and open both passenger side doors and start yelling " Out ! OUT !! " I saw the mouse exit ( sadly ? ) then I look up and there is a man with a phone watching me

I just started laughing and drove away. So, if that guy had a video .......

Jim_Rogers · July 18, 2012, 09:48:32 AM

In the summer time, I leave the door open to the shop/office here at my mill yard.

Sometimes the yard chipmunks think it's a nice place to visit.

While I'm in here doing computer work, they'll run right by me and look around and run back out. Usually after I give them a good talking to about being inside...... :D

easymoney · July 18, 2012, 11:44:49 AM

several years ago i was working at a job site and had left my drivers door open and it got dark before i left. a short piece down the road i thought something was moving around in my car. i stopped and turned on the interior lights and there was a big cat looking at me looking worried. i opened the door and both of us was relieved when he got out.

another cat story. a few days ago i had headed out in my truck and a little ways down the road i heard the awfullest wailing i have ever heard. i stopped and looked under my truck and my cat was on top of the frame under the bed. he was scared to death riding down the road. i coaxed him out and put him in the cab and carried him home. he cried all the way home. you would have thought he had learned his lesson but a couple of days later i was in my car and about 1/2 mile from home i head him cry and he was sitting up in the back seat crying. i had to take him back home again. stupid cat. ;D

Don_Papenburg · July 18, 2012, 10:34:26 PM

I had a cat that would sit in the combine and watch as the corn went in the header . Kindof like he was looking for mice. Then there were the two that would come running if they heard the tractor start and would sit on the side windows keeping an eye on me so they could jump on my seat incase I left the cab.

blackfoot griz · July 19, 2012, 01:22:41 AM

Tonight, my wife and I were eating a late dinner on the porch. My border collie Jack was close by hoping for some leftovers. I asked, "where is Annie?" our heeler. Just as I called her name, she let out a wimpy bark from the taller grass about 50 yards from the house...and she came running-- full tilt!
About the time she got to where we were eating...we both got the horrible smell....skunk!

I ran to the house, got the .410 (closest firearm at the time) and a few minutes later, I got the skunk that got the dog. Instead of tomatoe juice for the dog bath, we checked the internet and used a combo of liquid soap, hydrogen peroxide and baking soda. The results were amazing. 10 minutes after taking a direct hit by the skunk, we could not detect any skunk smell on the dog.

Unfortunately, it still smells like skunk outside!