How many have had a job as a hunter?

Randy in Arizona · Apr 10, 2005

About 20 years ago I was working a table at a gunshow in Albuquerque with a suppressed 10-22 on the table.

A gentleman said, "I NEED one of those." Now I'd hear "I want one of those" frequently but this was new to me. I asked why, expecting that he had just expressed himself strangely.

As it developed he had a major pigeon problem in a steel fabrication plant. The pigeons were whitewashing the equipment and it was a health hazard. He could not use a regular 22 or shotgun within the city limits because the neighbors would call the police and traps and cats didn't work well enough.

After a few minutes conversation, I had a job as a hitman!
I found the suppressed 10-22 was too much, it shot through the pigeon and the corrugated steel roof too. A Remington Nylon 11 with a muzzle can and CCI CB Longs was just right, even a miss would not shoot through the roof, but would drop the pigeons.

Lots of fun, but the plant closed and the rest of the pigeons survived.

Remington788 · Apr 10, 2005

Part of my current duties is wildlife hazard management (I work at an airport).
As a result I have been paid to shoot deer, coyote, badger, groundhog, skunk, raccoon, goose, duck, pigeon, dove, starlings, grackles and black birds.

Some days I just hate going to work. :evil:

Smoke · Apr 10, 2005

My best friends brother worked for several years as a guide. He lived in Texas but would go up to Montana and Wyoming and hire out with outfitters. He'd spend a couple of months scouting country from horse back. Then spend the season guiding hunters on pack trips. He made an obsene amount of money considering it was only a few months time. Then he would come back to TX and work his regular job.

Riding around beautiful country on horse back. Getting to know where all the big ones are. Bring back enough Elk meat to last the summer, and getting paid for all of it.

I never really liked him....

Smoke

Lennyjoe · Apr 10, 2005

I do!

Actually, a program I run is called BASH which in the world of military acronyms stands for Bird Aircraft Strike Hazard program.

My job is to keep the wildlife off of the airfield. Airplanes and birds/wildlife dont mix. I have all the required permits to depredate if necessary. Most of the time I use pyrotechnics. If pytro's dont work then I break out the 870 shotgun and go to it.

Remington788 · Apr 10, 2005

Most of the time I use pyrotechnics. If pytro's dont work then I break out the 870 shotgun and go to it

Pyrotechnics are fun, but sometime you just have to make em bleed. :evil:

H&Hhunter · Apr 11, 2005

I gave up my job as a guide and took a position as a dean of discipline at a girls reform school for naughty college age cheerleaders.

Hunting was just to boring for me.

Arc-Lite · Apr 11, 2005

Randy...two or four legged hunting? done more of the two legs, then 4 legs.... H&H... does this position of yours...have a title? just asking so I can get my resume out...QUICK !!!!

Zeke Menuar · Apr 12, 2005

When I was a kid I got paid 25 cents apiece for blasting robins and other assorted birds out of the cherry trees with an old school Benjamin air pistol. Does that count?

ZM

H&Hhunter · Apr 12, 2005

H&H... does this position of yours...have a title? just asking so I can get my resume out...QUICK !!!!

Arc,

Yes but much like a supreme court appointment the job field is very limited and the appointments are for life.
In this business the life expectancy is very short due to the ummm.. Stress of the position.

If anything comes along I'll let you know.

El Tejon · Apr 12, 2005

How about an independent contractor?

When I was a kid I spent summers on my Uncle's farm south of Indy in the hills and woods of Morgan County. I was paid $.25 per pigeon, $1 per crow, $15 for a fox, $10 for a coyote but I could sell the hide for foxes and coyotes too. I killed starlings and blackbirds for fun.

Used a pellet gun for pigeons inside the barns and my Uncle's .220 Swift about the farm.

SamlautRanger · Apr 12, 2005

El Tejon

And you gave up your job as a professional hunter to become a lawyer???!!!! :what:

(no wonder Indiana is now lacking in small game, El Tejon depleted the population-good thing you are not here in Cambodia - I would have to arrest you!) :neener:

GooseGestapo · Apr 13, 2005

Hunted Hunters for a living!

Catch and Release, though.
(Though some stayed in the cage a LONGGGG time, a few still there!)

Got to shoot a few critters OTJ for depredation control, however. Similar to what Rem788 related (airport, in city limits- ordinanace prohibited all except State Employees from discharging firearm for depredation control, go figure!?).

Occasionally a road kill that needed dispatching. Especially after a S.O. Deputy shot a deer with a 9mm that got up, ran across the interstate, and got hit by another oncoming vehicle in opposite lane! S.O went to .40 S&W shortly thereafter, though ammo choice and shotplacement was at fault.

Now I just hunt for meat and outdoors experience.

(RETIRED !!!!!!!!!!!!)

El Tejon · Apr 13, 2005

SR, Indiana still has plenty of small game. They just live in the 'burbs now along with everyone else.

Darn squirrels and their minivans.

sm · Apr 13, 2005

Yeah , well , kinda sorta...Along the lines of El Tejon.

I'd have the "job" of keeping critters " at bay" . In return for hunting, camping, fishing and "roaming rights".

Be it rabid racoons, packs of rabid dogs, feral cats or turtles out of the garden. Model 70 in '06 is "just" Enough Gun for this.

Pigeons out the barns, with "popcorn loads", Riding "shotgun" on Farm Equipment ...or making sure none of "OUR doves" made in over and into other properties.

Hard to explain - you kinda had to sorta be there over the years. Now-a-days giving a 10 yr boy firearms and free range rights...well...they still outta I say.

St. Gunner · Apr 14, 2005

Worked at a feed store right out of highschool, one of the jobs duties was to shoot pigeons off the grain elevators. The store was in town so another worker and I had to build a wall to hide our activities from people who might see. We used an RWS .177 air rifle and would pluck them out from our blind when time permitted.

Got paid for six months to do nothing but shoot hogs and coyotes right after the feed store. That was a fun job. The landowner bought the ammo and I got a monthly salary with the stipulation I spend at least 40hrs per week hunting them. I think I spent about 60-70hrs per week doing it. It was horrible.

After six months i'd made a dent, or forced em to be sneaky and he let me go.

Get paid on occasion by landowners now for removing hogs, but most of the time its just a big thank-you. We have a few that insist on buying lunch, or paying for gas, or other stuff.

The best racket to get into though is small animal removal from apartments. I was doing some remodel work one day when the manager came in and said, "You are a redneck, I have a problem. A racoon is in the trash dumpster by one of the buildings and when people go to dump trash he is lunging at them and making a racket. My normal animal guy said he can't be here until late today. I pay him $150 per animal to remove them, I'll give you $175 if you do it right now." So I borrowed a broom, some duct tape, and took my Gunsite Folder and fashioned a spear. Said racoon terrorized his last apartment person that morning. The maintence guy was like, "Dude, I aint never messin with you man, that thing didn't even squeal or nuttin." Let me tell you facing down a pissed off boar coon in a trash dumpster can be an interesting experience.

H&Hhunter · Apr 14, 2005

Be it rabid racoons, packs of rabid dogs, feral cats or turtles out of the garden. Model 70 in '06 is "just" Enough Gun for this.

SM,

Ain't that true for just about everything??...

My three favorite rounds on the planet are the 06, .375, and .470 the three most sensible rounds one could ever use.

I was doing some remodel work one day when the manager came in and said, "You are a redneck, I have a problem. A racoon is in the trash dumpster by one of the buildings and when people go to dump trash he is lunging at them and making a racket. My normal animal guy said he can't be here until late today.

St Gunner,

Isn't it amazing how people can usually pick up on the fact that some of us just know how to deal with these things. That cracks me up.

Before I took the prestigous position of bad girl behavior specialist (It's an easy job really once you get it figured out. You just have to show them what to do with all that extra energy. :evil:

)

I've been involved in professional hunting both full and part time for the last 20 years. I keep my hand in as a hunting guide but have gotten away from it since I've moved to Colorado 4 years ago as the guide scene is kind of "clicky" in my area. Lots of big private ranches who tend to use family and friends guides.

Before I moved up here to suburban front range HELL. I guided and worked as much as possible with an outfitter buddy of mine out of Pecos NM. Richard is a cat and bear man from way back. Off season we usually had some type of deperdation work with the state.

The last contract I worked was in the Manzano Mts of NM. We had a contract to reduce the lion population in that area as the cats were wiping out the bighorn sheep in the area. Lamb mortality was over 90% due to lion deperdation. We hunted on horses using hounds for one year straight as often as we could get out. The really excititng thing about that job was hunting lions at night behind hounds. That was a really huge thrill riding around in rugged country all over the place in pitch dark. I'll never forget some of those nights. There isn't anything that gets the blood boiling like having the stillness of a cold rocky mountain night shattered by the bay of a good throaty hound when they hit a cat scent. You know at that point your night just got a little more interesting.

God I can't wait to move away from the front range of Colorado. It ain't nothing but Los Angeles on the Rockies..

Itote · Apr 14, 2005

I guide turkey hunters on three hunts a year in South Carolina and two or three hunts in Florida. I also guide hog and deer hunters here in Florida and South Carolina too. Wish I could do it full time. To many bills though

Chris

pete f · Apr 15, 2005

I spent the better part of three winters in MN killing geese on my lunch hour from private golf courses/ country clubs. we have a severe problem with geese that are not migrating, but rather finding that they can live here year round by finding places that never freeze up. artificially areated ponds, cooling ponds for power stations, etc, These geese become a major nuisance and can make a golf course or public park un walkable and because they pack up so tightly in these ponds, avian cholera and other diseases can run rampant. I used a variety of guns. the two best were a bloop tube 12 gauge and 26" barrel anschutz using rem CB Longs. the anschutz was nearly silent, unrecognizable as a gun shot from fifty feet a way, I would find a position where i could shoot into a berm or contour, preferably from a sand trap or other indent in the ground. a thick foam rubber pad and then I would cover my self with a white painters ground cloth. and then pop the geese as they walked back and forth around the shore of a areated collection pond. A buck a bird, some lunch hours I made 50 bucks. some i made a buck. head shot with the 22 they often just slumped and became a life like decoy. the Bloop gun was great too. If the birds were flying, I would use that gun, an old marlin pump with a extension tube which made the barrel nearly 6 feet long, a 12 guage sounds like popping bead on a tire with the tire machine popsssssss, not loud, and the guy who made mine also makes slugger barrels that use a plastic capsule of buckshot. He has had great success killing deer in municipal environments, being hired by many cities to dispatch or thin deer herds in power plants, airports, water treatment areas, arboreatums. etc.
hastings now sells choke tubes that are barrel extenders, hastings #1387LPB02 is the model number of the factory made rem 870 barrel.

deciple-of-keith · Apr 16, 2005

My entire working life. Has been that of a Pro shooter .Started on rabbits then went on to Kangaroos ,dingos ,donkeys,cammels,Water buff',pigs, goats,Foxes when their skins were worth the effort.These days I'm back on Roos for human consumtion.Hey the money could be better,but its not every job that your Office is miles from anybody. The best part of the job is having a lunch room with the milky way (without pollution) as your ceiling

El Tejon · Apr 16, 2005

Right then! One eats kangaroo?

Steaks on the barbie?

deciple-of-keith · Apr 16, 2005

El it's a funny thing :scrutiny:

my Dad was a Roo shooter before me.We had the ???? forced down our throats :barf:

We for many years shoot em for pet food. Then some bright spark said hey this is very low in colesterol .Over night it became a gourme dish. Over night our Permits to cull Roos went from 60.00 a year to 500.00 a yaer (now$750.00 a year) .We had to do meat hygine ,forensic&firearm marksmenship courses . Stainless steel trays .Which are inspected yearly and accredited by ahealth inspector . Now We get paid between 46-75cents a kilo (approx 2.2 lbs) . Yet in supermarkets Roo meat is selling for $11.75 a kilo . :banghead: The answer to your question in our house if the Kids won,t eat their brocoli .........We put roo steaks on the barbee. They then ask for a double serve of Brocili.Providing I turn the Barbee off

GooseGestapo · Apr 18, 2005

You just gotta love the Ausie sense of humor!

My kids were about the same way about venison. Except when served sphagetti made with beef they would complain about the stuff "tasting funny"!

Hang around and continue to humor us "Disciple-of-Keith" !!!!

BTW: I thought you 'mates were prohibited from owning "real" guns, except for b/a and break action guns. Kinda makes it hard to make a real dent in the 'Roo population dosen't it?

deciple-of-keith · Apr 19, 2005

Thank you for your vote of confedense on the subject . Of azzie humour .Yes I'd love to stick around.(esp as Iv'e got time to burn as it were.Ive used up my Roo quota for this year & unless I choose to go to the Simpson desert &shoot Cammels .I'll be waiting to see how the Fox skin market fairs this year! and I aint planning on going back to the desert in any particular hurry!!!!!!!.Its bad for my delicate consterution :uhoh:

: :banghead:

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