Trapped or killed to date: (1) armadillo, (1) possum, (1) groundhog. Forget that cuddly woodchuck in the Bill Murray movie. This thing was nasty.
Update 9/10/24: Riley got antsy last night so Barb took her out on a leash where they flushed a BFA (big fucking armadillo). She called me and I grabbed the .12 gauge. Boom.
If you live near the woods you’re gonna have critters. Deer, turkeys, rabbits, squirrels. But for the last few months armadillos and possums have been roaming around in the wee hours. I think I hit an armadillo last week based on the dead animal smell that lingered for a few days. The armadillos can do a lot of damage to a yard, flower bed… even the foundation of your house. And they can give you leprosy. Kelly Wildlife Control trapped one a couple of nights ago (photo above).
And we have a big groundhog terrorizing the neighborhood (Groundhog burrows can undermine building foundations). He’s got a burrow under the deck of the Annex but has so far avoided the traps.
Blowing up milk jugs filled with water is very satisfying. Who knew? Using birdshot from about 30 feet. Popped off twenty rounds with the little .22 pistol (same distance) and hit the target three times. I’m improving, believe it or not.
For weeks (months?) we’ve been plagued by a possum and an armadillo. Feels like it’s one of each but all possums and armadillos look alike to me. Both critters play hell with the yard and flower beds so I’ve been trying to shoot them with my Remington 870 .12 gauge.
The motion sensor on my critter-cams alert me in the middle of the night (usually between two and four a.m.). By the time I get my pants on and get downstairs, they are gone. So I decided to try shoot them from my upstairs windows. Last night, after putting some apple slices out for bait, I got a clear shot at the armadillo and thought I might have hit him. But could find no trace when I went down to check. I suspects the #6 birdshot couldn’t penetrate his armor so I’ve switched to 00 buckshot.
The pest removal guys tell me they can trap these guys and that would be fine but I’m gonna stay locked and loaded until they do. I am not a hunter and have very little experience with firearms but I’ve been practicing with the .12 gauge. Today I alternated between the #6 birdshot and 00 buckshot from a distance of 25-to-30 feet.
I really don’t see how I can miss but it’s a more difficult shot at 3 a.m. Watch this space.
Five years ago I purchased a Ruger .22 revolver with the idea I’d use it for critters. Possums, armadillos, copperheads. I quickly discovered it’s a lot harder to hit a moving target than I realized. The gun has been on a shelf until the last couple of days. I’ve decided to practice until I can hit a soft drink can at ~30 feet. Again, harder than it looks on TV and in the movies.
In the video above the best I was able to do was hit two of the five cans. Although the cans are light as a feather, the .22’s pass right through them without moving the can. Next session I’ll fill the cans with water to see if that makes a difference. The goal is to be able to hit all five cans on one load.
UPDATE: Shooting cans looks great in the movies but this will be a more satisfying –and ecologically friendly– target.
Barb spotted this rascal while watering flowers next to our deck. Somehow she managed to snatch him up with the nearby snake-grabber…call me…while keeping our two dogs back. What a woman. Third one of the summer.
Barb spotted this rascal in one of her flower beds next to our deck. We’ve seen several in this area and assume there are more under the deck. Just the sort of rocky ground they prefer. The one back in May was about the same size.
We are fortunate to have many huge oak trees on our property. But it still hurts to lose one. This guy was probably somewhere between thirty and fifty years old but he’d been sick for a long time. It was just too painful to look at so we had the guys from Korte Tree Service administer Last Rights.
