How much oomph to poke an armadillo?

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WestKentucky

WestKentucky

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Last night I had an armadillo rooting in my flower bed. A not so gentle whack with a 2x4 sent him scampering along. That was his warning. Any other 3am adventures will not be as pleasant. So, at say 10 ft, what does it take to poke through the shell? Will a 22 lr pistol? rifle? 22 mag? 357? 12ga? What is my go-to? I don’t know what to use because A. I have rolled one and just pissed it off with a 30-30 at about 100 yards, and B. Since it’s inches from my house I don’t want to risk deflecting a shot by not using enough gun to poke the hole in its back?
 
Dunross said:
A 22lr is plenty for an armadillo if you can see it clearly.

At night when the light is poor and it's running a load of #6s would be more certain.
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I figured as much, but the 30-30 experience had me concerned. I hit it twice in the woods at roughly 100yards and just rolled it over and it went to flopping and carrying on the first time then it took off running and I hit it again and it balled up like it was dead. Since I had never seen one there I went to investigate and take pictures as proof, not a speck of blood. It went over a small deadfall with good markers to show where it was at and I got nothing.

I’m going to load the mag cylinder on my single six as a mid-power critter gitter. I’m fed up with my yard being a playground in the wee hours. Foxes aggravating the dogs, coons in the trash, now a stinkin armadillo. It almost makes me want to move somewhere else to where I just cut loose with the .270 and not worry much about what the neighbors will say. This subdivision has big lots and plenty room, nice people, but go to shooting guns and they get nervous, especially since the lady that lives on the far side of my 1/2 acre of woods had a bullet come through the far side of her house into her dining room.
 
WestKentucky, I’ve been looking for a opportunity to talk to you and it’s finally presented itself. I’m here in Western Kentucky and noticed armadillo moving into the area in about 2016. Back then I saw the first one about 30 miles south of my location and now they’re everywhere. All the ones I see are dead on the road and I mean bunches of them. I notice your location is middle Tennessee. When did they start showing up there? I’ve yet to see a live one!
 
Creed Bennett said:
WestKentucky, I’ve been looking for a opportunity to talk to you and it’s finally presented itself. I’m here in Western Kentucky and noticed armadillo moving into the area in about 2016. Back then I saw the first one about 30 miles south of my location and now they’re everywhere. All the ones I see are dead on the road and I mean bunches of them. I notice your location is middle Tennessee. When did they start showing up there? I’ve yet to see a live one!
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I moved to TN in 2015. When I moved we drove in on a weekend looking for a place to rent, and I saw one on a Saturday night in June of 2015 right up the road from where I live now. My wife and I started calling it armadillo hill and that is one of the natural markers that we regularly use to tell the other where we are when on the way home. The one I shot with the 30-30 was near Hopkinsville and was probably in 2011. Rumors were starting to float around that they were moving in but a lot of people were still skeptical. By 2013 it was quite common to see one as roadkill in LBL when I would go fishing.
 
I've done it with a .22 lr out of a six inch revolver big one too but it also basically tried to come sit in my lap.

I've seen them peppered by a three inch .410 and keep on trucking through another shot and a 4x4 to the tail before finally eating one more shell and giving up the ghost.

.243 win works great of you don't want to run around the yard, but where misses end up might be a limiting factor on that option. There's enough trees still standing and enough empty pasturage that larger ordinance is a valid option out here.
 
Small world! I live near Cerulean Springs south of Pennyrile Forest. I use to live in Hopkinsville but decided to get away from there in 2010. I’ve got 125 acres of woods to play in now. The first armadillo I saw was on my way to South Christian School. I work for the school board. When I saw it on the side of the road it blew my mind. I had no idea they were in the area. No wild hogs yet though!
 
.38 Special said:
Yeah, well, pigs carry trichonella and chickens carry salmonella and cows carry Creutzfeldt-Jakob. You could go vegan but then you'd have to worry about E. Coli in the fertilizer.

I'm solving the problem by drinking myself to death, but hey, you do you.
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You forgot fish having a bioaccumulation and therefore high concentration of mercury. I think that my wife’s growing to-do list will eventually take me out. If not, I’m due for another concussion. 3 noggin knocks ago I was told another concussion would kill me. Hasn’t slowed down the hobbies though.
 
Creed Bennett said:
Small world! I live near Cerulean Springs south of Pennyrile Forest. I use to live in Hopkinsville but decided to get away from there in 2010. I’ve got 125 acres of woods to play in now. The first armadillo I saw was on my way to South Christian School. I work for the school board. When I saw it on the side of the road it blew my mind. I had no idea they were in the area. No wild hogs yet though!
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I guarantee we know a lot of the same folks. My family close friends were heavily involved in the school system, but they have all either moved on or retired. On the topic of Cerulean, and Pennyrile, I have hunted and fished in trade water and in the park basically my whole childhood. I have seen wild hogs in the cerulean area around 2001 when the hog market went mild and wild all at once. When the big meat brands quit buying from farmers and started having commercial contract hog houses a few farmers turned hogs loose rather than kill them or get pennies on the dollar for them. I spent plenty days in the deer stand watching hogs that I thought had escaped only to find out later that they were intentionally released. There was one old sow that must have had a litter of about 20, and her piglets helped to cause a boom in the bobcat population on that farm. You are in prime turkey country too.
 
edwardware said:
Well, as @MacAR just related, a .357 Magnum is light for possum, so I'd go larger 475NE at a minimum.

Or a golf club.
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I was cautioned in that thread to use nothing less than a 500 NE. :rofl:

In all seriousness, I usually use a 22 since I don't care if it runs off and dies, and I like to watch the acrobatics. Plus, its a lot quieter at 2 am. My Single Six has accounted for several in the last few weeks. I used Federal HP', and they were all one shot kills. On the other hand, I now have a .22 caliber bullet hole in my shop wall from an armadillo. My aim was a bit high, and the bullet bounced off the shell and went through the sheet-iron wall. Luckily nothing was damaged.

So, with that said, I recommend a shotgun. I shot 6 'dillos in one evening while on a walk. I used a single shot 410 and 3" #6's. Worked a treat, and all were pretty much drt. I admit that I "snuck" up on them and the range was quite close; twenty feet or less. For what I call "yard work", I use this:

0913202118-1.jpg

This old M24 Winchester is a side by side 16 gauge built in 1939. I keep it loaded with high brass #6 shot. They don't move, twitch, nada. DRT every. Single. Time.

Bottom line, if I were you I'd use a shotgun unless I had close neighbors. If that's the case, I'd use the 22. Quiet, but not so quick as the scatter gun.

Mac
 
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Creed Bennett said:
WestKentucky, did you ever shop at Top Guns in Madisonville?
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Probably so. I used to frequent all of the shops in Princeton, Madisonville, Greenville and Hoptown. So much so that the names all kinda ran together.

Thinking more about that area you aren’t far from the back end of the shooting range between Dawson Springs and Princeton. There’s a shooting range there that my cousin used to use to give the firing range portion of carry classes. There’s also a small waterfall there and some verified Native American “heritage sites” where the natives lived or at least camped in caves on a bluff. It’s all public land and if I remember right it is names Jones Keeney after the name of the family who gave it to the state. If you don’t know that area then give me a holler in a PM and I will point you in the right direction.
 
I am from the deep South originally. We all had 'dilla guns, usually a .410 single break open shotgun. But some 'dilla killa's would prefer a .22 rifle. They are not hard to kill or especially tough. If I were to hit any 'dilla I ever saw twice with a .30-30 there would not be enough left of it to even investigate the remains. They pop like a watermelon and when hit less than instantly lethally they jump like a jumping bean straight up about three feet and then start digging. As far as I am concerned they are an invasive and are shoot on sight category vermin. During the Depression they were oft referred to as Hoover Hogs and were eaten commonly. And they do carry leprosy. I like a .410 Mossberg 500 pump lately with number 4 shot, that usually kills them pretty good.

Good fun is HMS Bear Load .45-70 from a Marlin Guide Gun. Talk about nothing left :).
 
Good to see folks from the local areas. I live in spitting distance of KY in Southern Indiana. I've never seen an armadillo north of the Ohio...yet.

I have heard of them moving into Southern KY. There dont seem to have been an issue when I was in Murray and Bowling Green going to college between 99 and 03.

Anyway, I look at Armadillos the same way as I look at possums. They are very simple critters. They can take lots of damage before they know they are dead. I have heard of possums getting shot throw the chest and rear with a .357 here. If it doesn't splatter their heart or crush the CNS, they just keep trucking along. Not much holds them together except for jaws, something to pump blood, and a brain to tells said blood to be pumped.

I hear cars make short work of them;)
 
WestKentucky said:
...but the 30-30 experience had me concerned. I hit it twice in the woods at roughly 100yards and just rolled it over and it went to flopping...
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Hitting anything at 100 yards is just a bit of a poser. That the critter "...rolled...over and..went to flopping..." suggests a hit of some sort. However, since it then ran off and you found no blood sign, I conclude, me from afar, your shot skimmed the top of his armor. That would ring his bell but not be mortal. If I could, I'd run off as well. I have enough respect for the .30-30 cartridge to believe a direct hit amidships would send Mr. Armadillo to that great flower bed in the sky.
Shooting the same critter at fairly close range at more or less right angles to the shell would likely penetrate. I would rather think a .38 Special or .357 Magnum loaded with light wadcutters would like penetrate better than a .22 lr and probably not make much noise, either. A .357 magnum rifle or carbine would be even quieter.

For ultimate quiet, I would suggest a long handled heavy hammer if you can get close without spooking him. Practice stalking.
 
Creed Bennett said:
WestKentucky, I’ve been looking for a opportunity to talk to you and it’s finally presented itself. I’m here in Western Kentucky and noticed armadillo moving into the area in about 2016. Back then I saw the first one about 30 miles south of my location and now they’re everywhere. All the ones I see are dead on the road and I mean bunches of them. I notice your location is middle Tennessee. When did they start showing up there? I’ve yet to see a live one!
Click to expand...
We saw one flattened on a street in Newton, Illinois a few years ago. It was a fluke of some sort... it must have hitched a ride under a vehicle to get here.
 
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