[Pancho]

I've got muskrats in my pond again and wonder if there is a muskrat pro here that can give me some insight into the best time to set up my chair and shotgun.

[xd45gaper]

just trap them!!!, muskrats are pretty active at night iirc, i know when you trap them you can check your sets sevral times a night and make mutiple catches in one night off one set if the population is good and strong!

i would sit up early morning or in the evening if you want to blast them. ive heard they are really good to eat better than squrrille and rabbit!!! they have a deep dark red meat

[MCgunner]

Check your local laws. I believe they're considered fur species here and, as such, have a season. BUT, I'm unsure of that. Nutria are open season, though. :D

[ADKWOODSMAN]

Keith Madaras 419-287-4920 president of Ohio Fur Traders
email kmadaras@wcnet.org

Sam Dewyer 419-3520171 Sec Treas
These fellows can probably hook you up with a trapper in OH

[22-rimfire]

Muskrats are fairly active during the day. However they are most active at night or just after dawn or during dusk.

I believe you will discover that you are not allowed to just shoot them as there is a trapping season on them. Same applies to Beaver.

However, with some effort, you should be able to eliminate the muskrats with a combination of shooting and trapping. Try the conibear type traps that you usually place under water in their holes. That assumes you have permission to do so. :)

[ShunZu]

Old farm boy, here. Raised on one, still live on one. I'm not going to profess to know your own state's laws, but to answer you question about habits:

They're most active in the summer in the early morning (dawn) until about 9am. Evening, about an hour before sunset until dark. They don't like cold weather, and rarely come out of their dens if it's cooler than 50 degrees.

They can often be seen early morning in Spring gathering grass and other things to make a nest, well up on shore, away from the water. A .410 works just fine, thank you very much.

Once in the water, remember if you're going to try the .22 LR, unless you're shooting at a nice, steep angle, the bullet can splash and richochet. If there's no homes around your pond, no problem. If you have a house on the other side of the lake, however, they'll frown on bullet holes in their siding.

Remember: They can be psychic. Even though you haven't moved a muscle, are fully dressed in BDU fatigues and are blended in with your surroundings by standing in front of a big tree, they'll still know JUST WHEN to submerge. Put the sight on their nose, and don't take the shot unless you can see their eyes. It'll just splash, you'll hope you made the shot and you'll see the little SOB come up about 50 feet away, just out of your rifle range.

Perfect medicine: .243 107 grain Sierra Matchking BTHP, at a good angle (no danger of splash), decent scope, and enough daylight coming through the objective lens to allow you to see the critter. Nice splash on bullet impact, no doubt you made the shot and you can drag him up from the lake's shore the next morning to avoid the certain stink that will result if he floats around and rots.

Mind you, this is all heresay. :) I've never done it myself. I can't shoot fur bearing animals in Illinois.. Hell, I'm not even allowed to own a gun in this stupid state any more.

[Pancho]

Thanks guys good advice I'll be up before dawn tomorrow. I never thought I'd say it but I don't give a darn if I'm poaching or not those little water rats cost me over $2000 to fix my pond the last time.

[highorder]

Pancho, we must be neighbors; I am new to the area, and always looking for recommendations on a good range or local place for supplies.

Being neighborly, I found this thread for you.

If you contact your local DOW officer you can probably get a nuicance permit. Even in a pond on private property, if you get caught taking furbearing animals out of season, it will cost you.

http://www.ohiogamefishing.com/community/showthread.php?p=604565

[ShunZu]

Forgot to mention... Muskrats, because of their burrowing habits, like to make holes in your damn. If you've ever seen a lake drained with a big V notch in the damn, that's where the muskrat's dens allowed water to punch through.

I watched a few years ago as a friend's 3 acre lake drained in less than 24 hours. Once the hole punched through, the V notch increased in size until there was a huge stream of water flowing out of the lake. All his fish, everything, gone. He'd spent over 10 years developing and stocking the lake.

And I'd offered several times to let me shoot his muskrats, warning him I'd seen them swimming along his dam.

But his wife insisted I was a nut and those "nice little guys that look like beavers" would never do them any harm.

Cost him over $10K to have the damn rebuilt.

I've moved since then. And shame on me, but I thoroughly enjoyed this last Christmas when I saw he and his wife.. and SHE asked me if I'd stop by with my rifle to help with muskrats they saw swimming around this past Fall.

I handed her husband my old Rem 700 ADL with a 3-9 in .222 and told him to teach his wife how to shoot. :)

[Wildfire]

Hey Pancho:
Bait the little farts,. Most any thing green and they will come ashort to grab it.
I would not give a "Rats" but about the laws. In Michigan, Doing or about to do damage is the rule. Or just Shoot ,Shovel, and shut up. Thats kind of how we do things. Property damage is what they are best at. They are Rats.......

[Pancho]

Ok, highorder, you got me there. I'll do the right thing.........right after I kill the littler SOB!
I'll call the ODNR tomorrow.
I live near 3 miles from Goshen, 3miles from Maineville, and 3miles from Loveland.
Really good gunstores are scarce around here. Let me know about where you live and I'll do what I can to help you locate a range and supplies near you. I'm mostly into muzzleloading and that stuff is really scarce.

[highorder]

I'm in Harrison, on the west side.

And I would also not lose any sleep managing my own property.

As for ranges, I'm looking for a public rifle range, or a private range nice enough to spend my money on membership.

Any advice is welcome.

[308win]

You should be able to get a nuisance permit. If not, remove their food source; especially cattails. Removing the food source may not be an option as the 'rats' will travel a long way overland to get corn. Keep the banks mowed and get rid of any cattails and they may move.

[Pancho]

Highorder, Good news bad news. You live about 1 hour drive from the biggest muzzleoading shoot in the world. June 14-22 at Friendship, Ind. Bad news is I don't know much about what goes on on that side of Cincinnati. You'll find that I-75 is almost like a border we kid about needing a passport to cross it.

[Pancho]

308, No cattails and I keep the banks mowed as best as I can. The banks are too steep to do a great job. There is no corn available but there is soybean.

[22-rimfire]

Sounds to me like you are taking the right approach. They can completely destroy the breast of a good pond in a year.

[kludge]

Thanks guys good advice I'll be up before dawn tomorrow. I never thought I'd say it but I don't give a darn if I'm poaching or not those little water rats cost me over $2000 to fix my pond the last time.


Killing nuisance animals isn't the same as poaching. Check your local laws.

[Sergeant Sabre]

We had them in our pond when I was little. They would tear up the cattails and dig around the wooden structures my Dad had so carefully constructed, causing them to lean. One of my favorite things to do was shoot them (this was when I was very young and didn't know you weren't supposed to in Michigan)

I'd climb up on the diving platform we had, with a 20guage shotgun, and simply wait. When I saw ripples in the water I knew one was out and about and I'd end up seeing it soon. I just waited them out.

[Pancho]

My pond is situated perfectly for rifle shooting muskrats. Dense wooded hillside around the back half and 500 acres of soybean field behind that. Even so I don't use anything higher powered than 22 lr. When I bought the property 15 years ago the pond was a total mess with at least 7 muskrats making it their home. To prove the point that muskrats are tough to hit, it took 50 rounds to kill my first. I got better but never to the point of "One shot one kill" The fading light and the fact that they only present less than an inch of nose above the water makes it a great shot indeed with a 22 rifle. After I spent my first $1500 to fix their damage I put away the rifle and said the hell with the sport. I now hunt muskrats with 12 ga. 00 buck. Subsequently I had to spend another $2000 to fix the rest of their damage. My wife doesn't think so but I still think the $3500 was worth having a 1 acre pond 50' from the back of my house. There is always something happening.

[redneck2]

Now, you have to understand that shooting across water is illegal in Indiana. However, IF I were to do it, I'd start about this time of year as the muskrats migrate to build their nests and swim quite a bit.

And IF I were to try to shoot them, I'd get real high and use Aguila 60 grain subsonic 22 LR's with a scope on the rifle. Too small a target for irons. I've heard that they're good for 60+ yard head shots if you're up to it.

This a picture from my front yard that I took at sunrise last summer...
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e283/Indianaoutdoorsman/LakeView003.jpg

[xd45gaper]

They're most active in the summer in the early morning (dawn) until about 9am. Evening, about an hour before sunset until dark. They don't like cold weather, and rarely come out of their dens if it's cooler than 50 degrees.

i dont know where you get your info from but the best time to trap muskrats is after the freeze up!! muskrats are active all year round, they dont hibernate. ive caught rats in 10 degree weather with 4-5" of ice on the ponds. never noticed any differnce in activity between winter and summer months,

but the best absolute best time to get them is in the spring because this is when they are breeding.

[Wildfire]

Hey Pancho,
Those rats are active all year day and night. I too have had to chop many out of the ice.
Get this, First time ever but , I saw a woodchuck running thru an open hay field this year that over a foot of snow .

[X-Rap]

If you can't find ear corn for bait use carrots. I would use a multi pronged approach of traps, baiting, and shooting. Cram a piece of carrot to the trigger wires on connibear #110s and set part submereged in a fake cubby/ den hole in the bank, use bait just stuck in the bank with a leghold trap set below water on a little bench below the bait wire the trap to a brick or stake in deeper water to drown the rat. Build a log raft that will float level with pockets/ recesses that will allow the traps to remain under the water and stick bait of corn ear or carrot on a nail drove up in the middle of 4 traps.
If you have a clear section of shore just leave bait up a couple 2 from the edge of the water line and hit it with a red spot a couple times a night.
The colony should be quite easy to kill off but more will always come back so you will have to view it almost as maintenence.
Once you get the immediate problem in hand see if you can find a young trapper who will keep them in check and make some money off the prime pelts in the fall.

[MCgunner]

Hey redneck, nice front yard. :D

[Savage Shooter]

In my state don't know about yours but shooting on water is highly illegal not to metion dangerous. just trap them with a couple 110s check them nightly and you can catch quite a lot.

[ShunZu]

In my state don't know about yours but shooting on water is highly illegal not to metion dangerous.

By now, everyone on THR knows that -EVERYTHING- is illegal in Illinois. Tell ya what... try calling the IDNR and ask Gov Blago to fund rebuilding your 10 acre lake that muskrats punched a hole in its dam and ruined it.

I'm sure they have MORE than enough budget to do it. The governor said at the last "state-of-the-state" address that Illinois is in GOOD financial condition. Never mind that everyone in the state legislature, including his buddies, laughed.

[XDKingslayer]

Oh you're in Illinois. Well the only thing you can do to get rid of the muskrats is move because they have more rights than you do.

The state will force you off the muskrat's land sooner or later anyways.

[Wildfire]

Hey pancho :
if you aint shot them yet they will die of old age soon.