Skunks

[Archeryrob]

They must be kicking mating season off early. 4:30am they we going through the yard and one just shrilling away. Walking side by side but one all mouth. Then 9am the dog goes out and come back stinking. Not sprayed but must be getting it on her or they sprayed and are almost empty. Skunk spotted and get the 22 mag and it comes too me, gets to where I can't shoot it without having a car or something else in the back. on the patio, inspecting the grill. Seemed attracted to me and not fearing me.

The wife is loosing her mind and needs the dog in the bathtub. Won't let me stay on it and shoot it when it leaves. Come back 2 minutes later and it disappeared. I never minded them and kept the dog under control after dark. If this is the game we are playing, I'm going to smoke every one of them I see.

 

[Doco Overboard]

Just catch them in a live trap and set them next to your truck exhaust and a blanket over the cage so they go to sleep without spraying by being shot.
One out in the woods or downwind side ain’t a big deal but inadvertently lighting a few of them up Willy Nilly could make for some unpleasantry.

 

[Archeryrob]

Yeah, i know. My buddy has shot them before when predator hunting and the gas releases on contact with lead. The only shot I had was in front of the garage and and on the patio and that is a no spray zone! Now tomorrow, they around at 4:30 mating and it's shotgun, 00 buck and a hat light.

I got retired neighbors that feed them years back and they would come faster than my cats. I had to kill a couple to make it stop. I think history is repeating itself. They got mostly outdoor cats and throw them scrap meat and giggle that the skunks learn to eat it also. But then they come to calling cats.

That is why it probably came to me. Its seeing me as food source and not a threat.

 

[GenoBluzGtr]

When I was a kid, I trapped for furs, and was always catching skunks in my fox sets. I would always just shoot them, and come back on a very cold day to dispose of them. Also that ruined that trap for fox, since there's no way to get that smell off the trap... so it was kinda getting expensive and annoying.

Once, at a fur dealer, I saw him paying guys $15-20 for skunk furs (this was the mid-70s), and I asked how one goes about dispatching and skinning a skunk without getting sprayed? He launched nonchalantly into a description of how to do this...

1. Use your "dog stick" (we all had metal 3/4" conduit poles, with a wire loop whose loose end came back up the pipe - we used these when we accidentally caught a dog in our traps - to hold a dogs head/mouth away from our hands when we released their foot from the trap. Dogs always ran off essentially unhurt, but with a foot that would be sore for a few days). and very slowly approach the skunk with the dog stick on the ground.
2. as you ease the dog stick to the skunk, on the ground, wait until one or both of this back feet are inside the loop.
3. Cinch the loop quickly and get his back feet off the ground. The idea being that, without his feet on the ground, he can't push enough to discharge from his anal funk-sack.

Needless to say, I tried it. it worked great. Until I tried to get closer after lifting him off the ground. The result was point-blank spray in my face. I couldn't see for about 30 minutes, eyes burning like they were pepper-sprayed, and I vomited several times. It was one of the most horrible experiences of my life.

Well, after many many attempts to rid myself of the smell (nothing worked), I shaved my hair off and burned those clothes, but first I skinned and stretched that skunk. I was going to AT LEAST get my $20 out of this.

Upon returning to the fur dealer, I relayed my story and asked what I might have done wrong...

He immediately burst into laughter and called his buddies over to tell them that "this young dumbass actually bought that tall tale and tried it out!!!"... It was all BS. I was very pissed, but could only walk that shameful walk away shaking my newly shaved head. But to his credit, he paid me $50 for that skunk - said it the story was well worth the overpayment.

Disclaimer: Before anyone gets upset, I joined the military in 1980 and have never trapped again, can't believe I did that (now looking back) - but back then, I was raised in a hunting/trapping/fishing culture and family, the $$$ was good, I loved being out in the woods every day and I paid for my own braces and my first two cars with trapping money.

 

[E.Shell]

Disclaimer: Before anyone gets upset...

I'm only upset that you didn't remake those sets. Few things more attractive to foxes and coyotes than a skunked up set.

 

[Archeryrob]

Some of the older guys said they would run the farms at night in the summer with lights and find the skunks and run up on them. If they stop you zig left or right so if the spray they miss you. They run you chase and grab them by the tail and pick them up and then head whack them. He said the back yard smell terrible for weeks in January.

 

[Pale Ryder]

One month or a few weeks stink is nothing. My neighbors live at home pothead son stinks up the hood all year long. Guess parents don’t want it in the house, so he lights up in his car parked on the street.

 

[madmantrapper]

Disclaimer: Before anyone gets upset, I joined the military in 1980 and have never trapped again, can't believe I did that (now looking back) - but back then, I was raised in a hunting/trapping/fishing culture and family, the $$$ was good, I loved being out in the woods every day and I paid for my own braces and my first two cars with trapping money.

What do you think trapping is a bad thing, that folks would be upset because you were doing such a thing. If that is the case I don't belong here. I'd still be trapping if the market was good.

 

[Cool_Moo5e]

What do you think trapping is a bad thing, that folks would be upset because you were doing such a thing. If that is the case I don't belong here. I'd still be trapping if the market was good.

I would be a trapper if there was a market for it as well especially if raccoons had any value.

I have so mamy of them god damn things in my area.

 

[GenoBluzGtr]

What do you think trapping is a bad thing, that folks would be upset because you were doing such a thing. If that is the case I don't belong here. I'd still be trapping if the market was good.

Not personally, I think it's a good method of wildlife management, I just know that some people see it as cruel. I don't regret doing it, but just have a completely different perspective now and would not do it again, however, I have no issues with anyone who does or wants to.

 

[GenoBluzGtr]

I'm only upset that you didn't remake those sets. Few things more attractive to foxes and coyotes than a skunked up set.

I never had a lick of success using a skunked trap for fox or bobcat. I always kept my traps boiled and waxed, and never even touched them without gloves after that. Those were the ones that worked best for the really cagey animals. Skunked traps always got shifted over to things like mink or raccoon sets.

Once, early on, I reused a skunked up trap for a dirt-hole fox set and a big fox (from the tracks), found that trap three nights in a row, dug it up and shit on it. LoL. If he had a middle finger, he would have flipped me off.

 

[madmantrapper]

I never had a lick of success using a skunked trap for fox or bobcat. I always kept my traps boiled and waxed, and never even touched them without gloves after that. Those were the ones that worked best for the really cagey animals. Skunked traps always got shifted over to things like mink or raccoon sets.

Once, early on, I reused a skunked up trap for a dirt-hole fox set and a big fox (from the tracks), found that trap three nights in a row, dug it up and shit on it. LoL. If he had a middle finger, he would have flipped me off.

Where did you grow up? Bobcat are not legal in MD.

 

[GenoBluzGtr]

Where did you grow up? Bobcat are not legal in MD.

Mississippi

 

[Park ranger]

When I was a kid, I trapped for furs, and was always catching skunks in my fox sets. I would always just shoot them, and come back on a very cold day to dispose of them. Also that ruined that trap for fox, since there's no way to get that smell off the trap... so it was kinda getting expensive and annoying.

Once, at a fur dealer, I saw him paying guys $15-20 for skunk furs (this was the mid-70s), and I asked how one goes about dispatching and skinning a skunk without getting sprayed? He launched nonchalantly into a description of how to do this...

1. Use your "dog stick" (we all had metal 3/4" conduit poles, with a wire loop whose loose end came back up the pipe - we used these when we accidentally caught a dog in our traps - to hold a dogs head/mouth away from our hands when we released their foot from the trap. Dogs always ran off essentially unhurt, but with a foot that would be sore for a few days). and very slowly approach the skunk with the dog stick on the ground.
2. as you ease the dog stick to the skunk, on the ground, wait until one or both of this back feet are inside the loop.
3. Cinch the loop quickly and get his back feet off the ground. The idea being that, without his feet on the ground, he can't push enough to discharge from his anal funk-sack.

Needless to say, I tried it. it worked great. Until I tried to get closer after lifting him off the ground. The result was point-blank spray in my face. I couldn't see for about 30 minutes, eyes burning like they were pepper-sprayed, and I vomited several times. It was one of the most horrible experiences of my life.

Well, after many many attempts to rid myself of the smell (nothing worked), I shaved my hair off and burned those clothes, but first I skinned and stretched that skunk. I was going to AT LEAST get my $20 out of this.

Upon returning to the fur dealer, I relayed my story and asked what I might have done wrong...

He immediately burst into laughter and called his buddies over to tell them that "this young dumbass actually bought that tall tale and tried it out!!!"... It was all BS. I was very pissed, but could only walk that shameful walk away shaking my newly shaved head. But to his credit, he paid me $50 for that skunk - said it the story was well worth the overpayment.

Disclaimer: Before anyone gets upset, I joined the military in 1980 and have never trapped again, can't believe I did that (now looking back) - but back then, I was raised in a hunting/trapping/fishing culture and family, the $$$ was good, I loved being out in the woods every day and I paid for my own braces and my first two cars with trapping money.

Omg, that must be an old timer prank. Don’t ask how I know.

 

[DaveP]

Kill stick, syringe on end, common chemical. Ease into lungs, lights out.

Usually just pop thru lungs with .22 short or CB cap, and they slowly nod off, rarely spray.
Remove from trap quickly.

 

[welder516]

Thought this was another political thread.

 

[WHBD]

When I was a kid, I trapped for furs, and was always catching skunks in my fox sets. I would always just shoot them, and come back on a very cold day to dispose of them. Also that ruined that trap for fox, since there's no way to get that smell off the trap... so it was kinda getting expensive and annoying.

Once, at a fur dealer, I saw him paying guys $15-20 for skunk furs (this was the mid-70s), and I asked how one goes about dispatching and skinning a skunk without getting sprayed? He launched nonchalantly into a description of how to do this...

1. Use your "dog stick" (we all had metal 3/4" conduit poles, with a wire loop whose loose end came back up the pipe - we used these when we accidentally caught a dog in our traps - to hold a dogs head/mouth away from our hands when we released their foot from the trap. Dogs always ran off essentially unhurt, but with a foot that would be sore for a few days). and very slowly approach the skunk with the dog stick on the ground.
2. as you ease the dog stick to the skunk, on the ground, wait until one or both of this back feet are inside the loop.
3. Cinch the loop quickly and get his back feet off the ground. The idea being that, without his feet on the ground, he can't push enough to discharge from his anal funk-sack.

Needless to say, I tried it. it worked great. Until I tried to get closer after lifting him off the ground. The result was point-blank spray in my face. I couldn't see for about 30 minutes, eyes burning like they were pepper-sprayed, and I vomited several times. It was one of the most horrible experiences of my life.

Well, after many many attempts to rid myself of the smell (nothing worked), I shaved my hair off and burned those clothes, but first I skinned and stretched that skunk. I was going to AT LEAST get my $20 out of this.

Upon returning to the fur dealer, I relayed my story and asked what I might have done wrong...

He immediately burst into laughter and called his buddies over to tell them that "this young dumbass actually bought that tall tale and tried it out!!!"... It was all BS. I was very pissed, but could only walk that shameful walk away shaking my newly shaved head. But to his credit, he paid me $50 for that skunk - said it the story was well worth the overpayment.

Disclaimer: Before anyone gets upset, I joined the military in 1980 and have never trapped again, can't believe I did that (now looking back) - but back then, I was raised in a hunting/trapping/fishing culture and family, the $$$ was good, I loved being out in the woods every day and I paid for my own braces and my first two cars with trapping money.

Who is going to get upset at that? You earned that money. How many young people today can say that?

 

[GenoBluzGtr]

Who is going to get upset at that? You earned that money. How many young people today can say that?

Agree. If were only the woke crowd, I wouldn't be so mindful, but there are legitimate animal lovers on both ends of the spectrum. Just trying to be polite to them. But thanks for all the support!