Not really hunting, but yard varmints.
Beware....long ramble ahead
My Mrs had left a plate of supper in the microwave for me, after a long days work. She had a church business meeting to attend. I had just nuked the food and carried it to the couch about 930pm when I saw her headlights swing into our driveway. i was comforted to know she was home. I could enjoy my supper and relax.
At the same instant that the back door swung open, I heard the words...THERE'S FOUR SKUNKS IN THE YARD AND THE DOG HAS ONE OF THEM.!
I set my plate down and hopped up in alternating directions like a John Belushi skit from the 80s.
Grabbing a gun and running out the door was the last thing on my mind.
I ran down the list of gun options and light options in my head trying to choose the right combination for the job.
What I chose actually wasn't the best tool for the job....but sufficient I guess. My newly acquired Mklll 22/45 target model, and a high lumen pistol grip spotlight... both kept near the back door for such occasions as this.
I realized a couple of shots later that the baby skunk I was shooting was already dead ... courtesy of our now smelly dog. Now for the other three. One of them was surely the momma, and loaded for bear. I cautiously prowled the perimeter in my Reebok shorts and Ariat work boots, pistol in one hand, spotlight in the other.
No skunks to be found, just a suspicious and undeniable drumming sound coming from the base of a huge decorative grass in the landscaping. A broomhandle thrust into the grass like a sword and parted to reveal another baby skunk kitten stamping his front feet to make the drumming sound.
He was backed up to the 140year old brick wall of our old farm house. That was plenty good to stop a .22 bullet, but just above ground level was an electric conduit and a copper propane line. I retrieved a headlamp so I could operate my pistol and broomstick probe. After consideration I decided to quit while I was ahead and leave the little varmint be. I knew momma skunk was likely nearby, if not also in the giant clump of 6ft tall grasses. If I got blasted by skunk juice, I was definitely going to be the loser....no matter how many dead skunks I had to show for it.
I returned to the house with only one dead skunk, and I couldn't even claim the kill.
I finally sat back down to my plate of now cold food.
"You smell like skunk"
Back into the shower for the second time within the hour....
.
A few mornings later I set out to get a jump on the daytime heat. Our old yellow farm dog practically told me about the raccoon that was up the birch tree in the back yard. She sat at the base of the tree whining, wagging, and looking up. She is a kind and lovable dog, but for some reason....she hates coons, and has killed a half dozen or more in the last couple of years. Sure enough, a quick scan of the yard revealed a coon corpse. She had killed a juvenile in the night, and momma had made it up the tree.
She was pretty ratty looking with dull hair and notched ear. I usually have a "live and let live" attitude towards such things, but not this time. The grandkids were coming in a few minutes, we have chickens, we have a garden, we have an excited dog.....we don't need a ratty old coon involved with any if them.
The older mkll target pistol with rds got the nod for the dispatch gun.
The fact that the kill wasn't instantaneous led me into another goose chase at the shooting bench that I will share later in another thread somewhere.
Never a dull moment.
. His antlers are naturally chocolate colored and they were even darker when seen in the tall winter colored blue stem grass and snow covered ground. This is a short hair buck with genes that probably came east from the Texas panhandle. It is common in my area to see both short hair bucks from Texas and long hair bucks whose genes came south from the Dakotas. I was very happy to get him.
