Help! A Nightly Visitor......Skunk......

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
Easy now. I've sold a few pelts in my time. A good portion of our family income when I was growing up was from trapping muskrat and beaver, running gill nets for carp, and setlines for catfish. A good fall trapping season was 400 muskrat and a couple dozen beaver. I can't say I ever skinned a skunk though.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:

I was talking about a book that was given to me in when I was in jr high.

 

[cw]

oh


and i was serious about the pelt, why did they do away with the coyote bouty?

do you hog hunt? and ya weve made it thruogh some hard times sellin fur, and chopin wood, dont see much beaver here any more

 

[Mac in Wisco]

A good skunk pelt would bring $10 back in the 80's. I used to watch all the fur prices in Fur, Fish and Game. I always wanted to expand on our trapping endeavors, but we pretty much stuck to the river. The fur market is all but gone.

I never saw nor heard of any coyote when I was growing up in Wisconsin. I haven't hunted in years, too much moving around with the military. I'm retiring from the military this summer and moving back to Wisconsin. It's a lot different from when I grew up. The huge flocks of ducks on the river are gone. Coyote have moved into the area, they have a wild hog problem in several counties around there where there were never were any wild hog. They were just starting to introduce a turkey population when I left there and now they are as common as a pigeon in New York City. Still have the huge herd of whitetail though and it's only getting bigger, 1.8 million statewide was last year's estimate.

 

[cw]

would ya say its changed for the best?]
we never had a coyote in ky, until they lifted the coyote bounty, and wouldnt be nice to get $10 for a skunk pelt now?

and ya the fur market has benn gone for awhile now aint it?

sure was a lot a fun though.
is it me or do you find it funny when someone dont know how to handle a varmint getting there chickens i cant remember daddy ever haven that porblem

 

[antiquebuff]

Well, the Update: The trapped skunk sprayed this am about 4:00 and we almost suffocated! The Critter Getter picked it up this morning and didn't have a lot to say.
We will shoot the next one!!!

 

[backyardchickenfarmer]

i shot one about 5 months ago with my high powered airrifle and got it taxidermied, all it took was one shot right on his forehead and he dropped and didnt even spray! heres a pic,

 

[antiquebuff]

Well, we were rid of the skunk for 2 days and then a bear came through and torn apart out bird feeder and natural bird feeding tree I had fixed out side....did not bother my chickens this time....but I think they are secure in the coops. I pen them up every nite and they are in the runs during the day!
Skunk or Bear???? I think I will take the Bear!

 

[unionwirewoman]

Quote:
That's just the way I learned. I remember it being recommended in a book by Bob Gilsvik, "The Complete Book of Trapping", that somebody gave me when I was in jr high.

I've shot five or six skunks in 25 years and had just one spray. Looking around the web to see what the common knowledge is, I found some recommendations to shoot through the heart, some that said sever the spinal cord with a shot and then shoot through the head, and a few that said just shoot through the head... Although several did caution that shooting in the head would probably make them spray.

It seems people have pretty good success with the acetone and syringe, I remember that being recommended in Gilsvik's book also. One post I ran across on the web was from a fellow that worked in pest management. He figured he had dispatched 1500 skunks with a syringe and that he only had three of them spray.

As I said...you can read all you want in books.... sometimes the people who wrote them "thought" they knew what they were talking about . I know you're older than I am , but I've shot 3 x as many skunks as you have ( in the head ) with only 1 spray . Not saying your book isn't right , I just tend to go off of my record , and what has been passed down from my grandfather and other family generations of settling the "wild west " . For anyone who is interested, skinning out a deer and a skunk is basically the same , except the skunks skin is thinner . A rabbit now , that's like fine china .