MacTech
Member
Tonight, the Scout earned it's keep, it's short, quick handling form was a definite advantage in dispatching an unwelcome visitor of the Marsupial variety...
I went to the porch about a half hour ago to see if the cats wanted to come in (it's supposed to get down to 9 degrees Fahrenheit tonight), as I approached the window looking out on the porch, I saw the torso of a long gray furred animal at the cat dish, that's strange, I said to myself, our cats are a black and white and a orange and white domestic shorthair, not gray....
As I approached the door out to the porch and looked out the window, I saw the animal had a long, pointed snout covered in snow white fur and a hairless tail, it was a bit larger than our cats, yep, it was a 'possom for sure, a rather unusual visitor up here in southern seacoastal Maine.... at least *I've* never seen one up close before
Since we have pet cats, and we have horses, and 'possoms are known disease vectors, it came down to me to having the unpleasant duty to dispatch it, I don't like killing animals if I don't have to, but I don't want to put our animals at risk either
I grabbed my Scout, and the 5 round mag from my Trainer, loaded the mag with some CCI Quick-Shoks, and went back out to the porch, when I opened the door, the 'possom ran into one of the cat's storm barrels (wooden casks with a hole cut in them and stuffed with hay), and sat there, glaring at me with an intensity of hatred I had never seen in any animal, it wasn't snarling, or growling, just.....staring....
the barrels were about six feet away from me
I apologized to the critter, it couldn't help being what it was, or being in the wrong place at the wrong time, I worked the bolt, loading a Quick-Shok, and raised the Scout, waiting until it's head was turned and it's ear facing me, as my finger tightened around the trigger, again, I apologized to the 'possom....
The Scout fired, the Quick-Shok entered the ear, and the 'possom just simply *dropped*, it looked like a one shot kill, but since these animals are adept at "playing dead" (and the air was getting stinky, a sign that it's "playing 'possom"), I put a second shot into the lung/heart/center mass area, and a final shot between the eyes
I hope the first shot did the trick, it's my duty as an ethical outdoorsman (I don't consider myself good enough to be a hunter, yet) to make sure I put down my quarry as quickly and humanely as possible and with the absolute minimum of suffering, it's just unfortunate I had to shoot the critter in the first place, why couldn't it just stay in the woods? live and let live
Anyway, the Scout has earned it's keep tonight, the Trainer would have been too long and ungainly for close-quarters my Ruger Mark II would have been too loud and bright (4" barrel vs. 16" barrel), and my Marlin 25 would have been too inconvenient with the scope in the way, the light, nimble iron sighted Scout was just the ticket
and it goes without saying that I'm going to be adding more CCI Quick-Shoks to my ammo stash, as I only have 47 left, and the things just plain *work*
Sorry, no pics, I forgot to take them before I had bagged the corpse up for disposal (using nitrilite gloves and double-thick small garbage bags)
Sorry, Mr. 'Possum, I wish it didn't have to go down this way
I went to the porch about a half hour ago to see if the cats wanted to come in (it's supposed to get down to 9 degrees Fahrenheit tonight), as I approached the window looking out on the porch, I saw the torso of a long gray furred animal at the cat dish, that's strange, I said to myself, our cats are a black and white and a orange and white domestic shorthair, not gray....
As I approached the door out to the porch and looked out the window, I saw the animal had a long, pointed snout covered in snow white fur and a hairless tail, it was a bit larger than our cats, yep, it was a 'possom for sure, a rather unusual visitor up here in southern seacoastal Maine.... at least *I've* never seen one up close before
Since we have pet cats, and we have horses, and 'possoms are known disease vectors, it came down to me to having the unpleasant duty to dispatch it, I don't like killing animals if I don't have to, but I don't want to put our animals at risk either
I grabbed my Scout, and the 5 round mag from my Trainer, loaded the mag with some CCI Quick-Shoks, and went back out to the porch, when I opened the door, the 'possom ran into one of the cat's storm barrels (wooden casks with a hole cut in them and stuffed with hay), and sat there, glaring at me with an intensity of hatred I had never seen in any animal, it wasn't snarling, or growling, just.....staring....
the barrels were about six feet away from me
I apologized to the critter, it couldn't help being what it was, or being in the wrong place at the wrong time, I worked the bolt, loading a Quick-Shok, and raised the Scout, waiting until it's head was turned and it's ear facing me, as my finger tightened around the trigger, again, I apologized to the 'possom....
The Scout fired, the Quick-Shok entered the ear, and the 'possom just simply *dropped*, it looked like a one shot kill, but since these animals are adept at "playing dead" (and the air was getting stinky, a sign that it's "playing 'possom"), I put a second shot into the lung/heart/center mass area, and a final shot between the eyes
I hope the first shot did the trick, it's my duty as an ethical outdoorsman (I don't consider myself good enough to be a hunter, yet) to make sure I put down my quarry as quickly and humanely as possible and with the absolute minimum of suffering, it's just unfortunate I had to shoot the critter in the first place, why couldn't it just stay in the woods? live and let live
Anyway, the Scout has earned it's keep tonight, the Trainer would have been too long and ungainly for close-quarters my Ruger Mark II would have been too loud and bright (4" barrel vs. 16" barrel), and my Marlin 25 would have been too inconvenient with the scope in the way, the light, nimble iron sighted Scout was just the ticket
and it goes without saying that I'm going to be adding more CCI Quick-Shoks to my ammo stash, as I only have 47 left, and the things just plain *work*
Sorry, no pics, I forgot to take them before I had bagged the corpse up for disposal (using nitrilite gloves and double-thick small garbage bags)
Sorry, Mr. 'Possum, I wish it didn't have to go down this way
