17HMR vs Turtles (warning graphic)

Status
Not open for further replies.
Enjoy?

What is the point to that? I see no sport in shooting a sunning turtle. Are they picked up after they are shot and eaten? Or are they just left there to rot?

Pointless. And a bad reflection on hunters/shooters in general. (These clips are NOT hunting).

The antihunters would love to get their hands on material like this, and honestly, there is nothing that I could say in the shooter's defense. It wouldn't suprise me if this was found on the PETA website as a slam against hunters.
 
pest

I dunno, I found it on another website, I guess the guy said they were turtles from a private crayfish farm/pond and they were a nuisance animal as they eay the crayfish or something. Personally I like turtles and would rather see them moved than killed, but I guess maybe they make good crayfish food?
 
Turtles can pretty well take over a farm pond and ruin the fishing. If a landowner cares about fishing, he's usually quite happy for folks to shoot them. No different from sheep/goat ranchers and coyotes, or alfalfa farmers and prairie dogs.

Shooting turtles makes life easier for the raccoons, as well. :) (I've found at my pond that a .223 works well.)

Art
 
In Arkansas, and many other southern states, turtles are considered nuisance animals because they can take over a catfish pond or a crawfish pond.

A bunch of big snappers in your fishing pond is not a good thing.

In my years of fishing all over Arkansas, I have seen turtles killed with shotguns, rifles, pistols, pocket knives, big rocks, even an axe once.

In some farm ponds, the turtles learn to come towards human footsteps on the bank, because they learn that human footsteps often equals a stringer of easy to eat fish.

I have yanked my stringer of fish out of the water with a big ole snapper attached to one of the fish many times.

I have eaten turtle from time to time, but they are a big hassle to clean.

hillbilly
 
Last edited:
I guess I'm just not in touch with my feminine side. But you know what? Who cares what PETA thinks, posts on their web site, or anything else the radical left does. They want us dead and gone no matter what we do.

I like to shoot just under a turtle in the water and get major hang time. A .300 Wthby does real nice. If I want to go and shoot turtles it's none of your frikin business.

If you kill a mouse in a trap do have to eat it to justify it's death?

If you shoot a turtle out of your fish pond?

What's the difference?
 
I was under the impression they were protected. It may just be a specific species in South Carolina, what do I know.

owen
 
Owen,

Some types of turtles are in fact protected others are not.
 
Turtles are a big hassle out here. A neighbor's fish pond has been completely run over with snappers. Too bad, because it's a nice pond that used to produce good-sized brim and catfish.
 
Turtles are a hassle to clean because of their shells and their scaly, tough skins.

Plus, just because you've cut the turtle's head off does not mean that it's really dead, or is even aware that it is dead.

Here's a link on the procedure for cleaning turtles for food.

hillbilly


http://www.funlinked.com/maisie/msfrog.html
 
I've spent many an afternoon under a mesquite tree with a .22 trying to thin the herd of turtles in a tank. Never seemed to lack for one to shoot. They are rather prolific I think. Turtles are a pest. Comparison to rats was appropriate. Rather sporting to try to shoot when they only poke their head up out of the water. They learn to duck when they see movement too. You learn to shoot quick.

Smoke
 
I took a snapper turtle away from my dogs and dropped it in the tank that borders my property and my neighbors.

He was a little annoyed, wanted to know why I didn't kill it. Obviously I'm not much of a fisherman:D :D I would defer judgement to a marine biology type, but the collective opinion of my neighbors and fishing oriented people that I run into seems to be that they are varmits.
 
One of the first jobs I was ever paid for ( I was 8 or so) was shooting turtles on a catfish pond. I got fifty cents a turtle (it was my uncle's place and he didn't expect me to do so well) I earned ten bucks on my first day with a borrowed mossberg 22 bolt action.

Also have been known to eat turtle soup. Was also once severely scolded by a great aunt for letting a snapping turtle go (We could have had turtle soup!) well, suffice it to say that old woman could have easily slung the 10 pound snapper that was resting on my minnow trap into her canoe.. but i wasn't about to do it.. that thing looked like a dinosaur to me.
 
Nobody knows how long snapping turtles can live. There are verified cases of snappers around 100 pounds.

A 98-pounder was caught in the Chattahoochee River in south Georgia which had an arrowhead in the shell of its back...Disremember; 1970s, maybe a couple of decades or so earlier. Guesstimated 100 years old or a bit more.

Art
 
snappers

I used to catch them occasonally when I was younger while fishing for bullheads, biggest I ever caught was about 50 lbs tho. Kept him in a cattle tank and fed him frogs for the rest of the summer and let him go for winter. Interesting info about snappers, unlike other turtles they dont go dormant during the winter, friends of mine have seen them moving around under the ice while ice fishing on several occasions. I dont think they eat when the water is that cold though.
 
H&H
hillbilly
and others I agree. I have eradicated many a turtle here in AR.

I once shared a pond with 4 other neighbors in a residental area in the city. One summer it really got bad. We fly fished for bream and bass, (catch a release, barb-less hooks). We jug fished for catfish ( pulled many out to keep pond "balanced"). Neighbor had his grandkids "trying" to fish for bream...turtles kept diving down for crickets and worms. I kept the turtles at bay with a pellet gun so the kids could fish.

Neighbor and I had had enough. Using those itty bitty treble hooks I made leaders and using 15#test line and Ambassador 5000's we pulled out 40 turtles in one day! Remove leader, chunk turtles in an old wash tub in the back of our trucks. Little trebbles get swallowed and they cannot get "unhooked", Some turtles were 15" we had a bunch in the 20" diamenter size!

Hauled then down to the river and dumped them. We dumped over a hundred turtles in one week! Figure the hooks would dissolve and they could end up downstream...in the country...where who knows what happened *ahem*.

Next time the grandkids came to fish...a lot more fun and no nuisance!

I /we did the pellet gun handy...just in case. This improved quality of pond.
We made a regular "job" of nuisance control. We never had a problem with snakes...ducks roamed the neighborhood, I learned the ducks were actually brought in to keep the snakes and mosquitos at bay...it really works.

We had the "duck crossing signs" in yards...had the "no turtle" signs as well.

Out in the country...Model 70 in '06 works. 45ACP works, 12 ga slugs work...might as well hone one's skill while doing "nuisance control" IMO.
 
Can't say I know everything there is to know on the subject but here in N. Tx if you have a tank, you have a bunch of turtles.

And the number of turtles on that tank is inversely related to the quality of fishing on said tank.

And, you can work for weeks to get rid of the turtles but in 18-24 months they are back and it's like the original "reduction" never happened.

They are about the easiest things on earth to trap however.
You can never get ride of them altogether.
S-
 
Man, he had his Boonie hat on - Spotter calling his shots...

The dreaded SNIPER........

Those were some big time shots he was making, maybe all you "Big Game" hunters could give some tips on how to make these shots just a tiny bit more challenging.

:neener:

Nothing worse than people with to much time on their hands and no brains to back it up.

12-34hom.
 
A lot of pics of large alligator snappers at this guys website, he runs a farm in Missouri.

http://www.turtleman.com/

pic6.jpg


turtle1.jpg


pic4.jpg
 
big turtle

I dont think a 17hmr would make a gator snapper splatter quite like the little ones do, hehe, might not even penetrate the shell.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

John Ross
  • Locked
Advice for new and would-be .500 S&W Magnum shooters...
Replies
23
Views
10K
OldStumps
O
N
  • Locked
Could this be Bear Grylls folder knife in Man Vs Wild ?
Replies
20
Views
3K
nathan
N
D
  • Locked
A little Colorado high country hunting today....
Replies
17
Views
2K
BIGR
B
Y
  • Locked
Exciting 10mm load --- 155gr XTP + Blue Dot = 1600fps
Replies
19
Views
3K
sparkyv
sparkyv
Mike OTDP
  • Locked
Pistol Marksmanship 101
Replies
1
Views
779
Mike OTDP
Mike OTDP
Back
Top