Striped Skunks?

[Heffay]

Leftist hippy

Considering who I learned this from, that is funny.

[bensdad]

I live on a hobby farm and shoot skunks on-sight. Dad used to drown them, but I just don't have the heart (done it a couple times, but it bums me out). Yotes also get shot, but not the fox. They have a "cute factor" that overrides the need to dispatch them. Other animals that are not allowed passage are 13-lined, moles, and anything I catch eating my grapes.

[xd ED]

Then you will never enjoy the fun of heading out after prairie dogs.

I don't think I could enjoy hunting prairie dogs at all. That just seems like the worst type of hunting. Killing for the sake of killing. Like the videos of those duck poachers down in Louisiana who shoot hundreds of ducks just to shoot them, then let them rot.

Leftist hippy

I kinda gotta side with pony here. Maybe it's the cute factor, and a bit of my ethics. If someone was having issues with pdogs I'd be willing to dispatch them, and even make a bit of sport of it. . But shooting them to be shootin 'em wouldn't work for me.

Likewise with yotes, or the 100s-1000 sparrows and starlings I've popped to aid the wood ducks and bluebirds maintain and establish themselves. If they're a menace, exotic, or hindrance to a preferred species, I'd do it. That's not to say I'm making moral judgements on those who proceed differently.

[JJ]

I kinda gotta side with pony here. Maybe it's the cute factor, and a bit of my ethics. If someone was having issues with pdogs I'd be willing to dispatch them, and even make a bit of sport of it. . But shooting them to be shootin 'em wouldn't work for me.

Likewise with yotes, or the 100s-1000 sparrows and starlings I've popped to aid the wood ducks and bluebirds maintain and establish themselves. If they're a menace, exotic, or hindrance to a preferred species, I'd do it. That's not to say I'm making moral judgements on those who proceed differently.

I don't want to take this guys post too far off topic, but a last note on p-dogs. Let's be honest, very few ranchers have issue with them, the ones that do, are in the black footed ferret areas, that legally can't poison, or shoot. If they want them gone, poisoning them is the most effective way to take care of them, followed by waiting for the plague to take them out (and the former can't be good for all the species that may inevitably eat them).

I personally thing a 55g-kill pill is more humane death, than poison grains, or the plague. YMMV

[xd ED]

Points taken; on thread drift, and humane dispatching.

[Heffay]

Points taken; on thread drift

This isn't thread drift. It's still related to the original post, talking about who shoots skunks on sight. If you allowed absolutely zero drift, the only acceptable answers in this thread would be "I do" or "I don't". And this would rapidly become the most boring forum on the internet.

[yukonjasper]

I also tend to think that P-dog shooting - although it may be fun as heck - starts to get to the Wonton Waste category for me. Unless a rancher or landowner has a legitmate gripe that the swiss cheese tunneling causes grazing cattle to break legs and its affecting someones livelihood, other than that I'm not sure I'd see it as in the same category as Varmint or Predator hunting. Large population of either have to have a detrimental effect on many parts of the ecosystem. One could argue that the system needs to level itself, but the fact that Humans are in the middle of that system makes it unbalanced by definition. We affect habitat and environmental conditions in the course of our existence. Denying that there is need to counter balance the effects would seem to me to be naive. Sure, we pick Pheasants and Ducks over Fox and Racoon, but we pick winners and loosers all the time. The collateral damage that is done from the "harmful" critters outweighs the benefits - we aren't talking about erradication - just control in a system that doesn't have effective or immediate enough natural controls.

[grousemaster]

Many years ago I read a study on game bird mortality or success. The study showed the in similar conditions such as habitat and weather, that racoons, possum and skunks are much harder on the game bird population like ducks, pheasants, grouse, etc. than fox and coyotes are.

That's true, but I think feral cats are the worst of them all. I know a guy who owns some land in SD, his bird numbers had taken quite a nose dive over a couple of years and they asked the DNR why this could be. They suspected predators and setup traps. They caught something like 100 cats in a couple months....bird populations recovered. I do shoot at cats when I'm bird hunting out in the middle of nowhere, only if there is not a residence nearby that may be the owner.

I absolutely shoot skunks on site to. Reasons already discussed in this thread. My wife about killed me when we were driving a road back from her parents house and I made a quick stop off the side of the road , jumped out of the car and drew my 1911 down on a skunk that was parading around the ditch in broad daylight. This is on a gravel road in south central North Dakota, don't worry no safety issues.....besides my own safety when I got back into the car....should have left my ear protection on for the ride into town

[Heffay]

I absolutely shoot skunks on site to. Reasons already discussed in this thread. My wife about killed me when we were driving a road back from her parents house and I made a quick stop off the side of the road , jumped out of the car and drew my 1911 down on a skunk that was parading around the ditch in broad daylight. This is on a gravel road in south central North Dakota, don't worry no safety issues.....besides my own safety when I got back into the car....should have left my ear protection on for the ride into town

Is that even legal?

[Ron Burgundy]

I absolutely shoot skunks on site to. Reasons already discussed in this thread. My wife about killed me when we were driving a road back from her parents house and I made a quick stop off the side of the road , jumped out of the car and drew my 1911 down on a skunk that was parading around the ditch in broad daylight. This is on a gravel road in south central North Dakota, don't worry no safety issues.....besides my own safety when I got back into the car....should have left my ear protection on for the ride into town

Is that even legal?

Pretty much anything goes on NoDak.

[yukonjasper]

That's true, but I think feral cats are the worst of them all. I know a guy who owns some land in SD, his bird numbers had taken quite a nose dive over a couple of years and they asked the DNR why this could be. They suspected predators and setup traps. They caught something like 100 cats in a couple months....bird populations recovered. I do shoot at cats when I'm bird hunting out in the middle of nowhere, only if there is not a residence nearby that may be the owner.

I don't know that I would hesitate even in areas that are adjacent to residences - I usually ask the property owners when I ask permission to hunt their land if there are escaped animals that I need to watch out for - like family cats, barn cats or bunnies etc.

If the farmer has barn cats that are out of control you'll usually get the green light to shoot as many as you can. Some farmers are responsible enough to have the cats spayed or neutered and want the cats to control mice around the barn. Usually the mouse population around the barn keeps the cats close - its the overpopulation that forces the cats feral. In fact on a pheasant hunting trip, we had the land owner and a friend of mine's brother in law ask if we could round up as many cats out of the barn as possible and dispose of them while he took the family to town. He couldn't get away with it so he needed to sub contract the hit. That was quite a grizzly affair and one I regret participating in, but 90% of the cats were starving, so in a way it was more humane than letting them starve over the winter. They were very agressive and wild, so we were careful not to get bitten or scratched.

[JJ]

I absolutely shoot skunks on site to. Reasons already discussed in this thread. My wife about killed me when we were driving a road back from her parents house and I made a quick stop off the side of the road , jumped out of the car and drew my 1911 down on a skunk that was parading around the ditch in broad daylight. This is on a gravel road in south central North Dakota, don't worry no safety issues.....besides my own safety when I got back into the car....should have left my ear protection on for the ride into town

Is that even legal?

Legal in MN, as long as you are not in a shooting ordinance area. You have to be aware of the status of the area in which you are. Around our farm, the township owns the ditches. And not one person will complain about the taking of nuisance animals in the ditch.

Weasels, coyotes, gophers, porcupines, striped skunks, and all other
mammals for which there are no closed seasons or other protection are
unprotected animals.hey may be taken in any manner, except with the
aid of artiicial lights or by using a motor vehicle to drive, chase, run over,
or kill the anima

[sgruenhagen44]

Many years ago I read a study on game bird mortality or success. The study showed the in similar conditions such as habitat and weather, that racoons, possum and skunks are much harder on the game bird population like ducks, pheasants, grouse, etc. than fox and coyotes are.

I read that somewhere too. I just try to shoot the damn things before my dogs get sprayed. My extremely stupid short hair got sprayed twice and bit by one in the same weekend.

[Spartan]

I do the same. ............... I put down skunks where and when I find them. In my opinion, the only good a skunk does is feed Great Horned Owls.

When I was a kid my dad was at war w/ skunks ... the old man must have shot 10-15 a year ... it seems that skunks had wiped up his hatchling chicks and baby ducks multiple times in his life and gave rabbies to a dog and a prized Ram.

The dogs would go crazy and then the OM would grap the 870 and a flash light .... net you heard boom boom boom and a few dead skunks in the yard .... he used a long handled rake to move them on the gravel and a little gas and a match and voilà .... smoked skunk

[Jack's My dog]

I absolutely shoot skunks on site to. Reasons already discussed in this thread. My wife about killed me when we were driving a road back from her parents house and I made a quick stop off the side of the road , jumped out of the car and drew my 1911 down on a skunk that was parading around the ditch in broad daylight. This is on a gravel road in south central North Dakota, don't worry no safety issues.....besides my own safety when I got back into the car....should have left my ear protection on for the ride into town

Is that even legal?

I doubt any one would think twice in Midwestern Minnesota if they saw you doing this. In the cities.. you would be on the way to the cop shop for sure.