Porcupine down

trout004 said:
I used to shoot them in my younger years. Nowadays they usually live unless we find them near the house. They are a neat creature, but like most have said they are tough on the dogs! We ran into this guy last year while doing some sharptail hunting. Luckily, we were out looking for birds after a successful mule deer hunt, so the dog was back at home. He didn't like it when I poked him with my 12 gauge muzzle, but I just took a couple of pictures and left him alone.

Has anyone eaten them? Are they worth cleaning and getting cooking up? I have always imagined that they taste like a mix of meat and a gin and tonic…😂
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Somebody linked to a Meateater episode

I've read it was delicious. I've been looking, but have yet to find one on my property.
 
Coyote Shadow Tracker said:
Years ago they were illegal to kill. They were considered a "Survival Food" if your were lost in the woods. I think that was in Canada.
I know what they can do if they get into a hunting cabin. Total destruction!
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Yes. Even in areas where there was no law against it they were reserved for emergency situations by common consent & social pressure.

They are easy to kill and have lots of fat. Fat is important, some nutrients are fat soluble. If all you have to eat is lean meat (eg rabbit, squirrel, caribou) you will quickly succumb to vitamin deficiency.
 
The porcupines are pretty hard on dogs. This is why I don't let the dogs off leash. At all. I live rural and we have all sorts of serious wild life that will mess a dog up but good. Including Skunks!
But the problem is, some of the folks in my area put their dogs out in the yard or on a chain all day and all night and the dang things just bark their fool heads off. All night.
I think that is just a form of baiting wildlife. Something big like a cougar is gonna come along and kill that dog. That or wolves. Bring the dog inside at night, lets have some peace from the incessant all night barking.
I think its just low class leaving a dog out like that all day and all night.
They must think the dog barking all night drives away wildlife. I don't believe it does.
At night our chickens go into their coop, I then shut the gate and they're quiet all night. Only coyotes pose a problem. Cougars and wolves seem to not mess with my chickens at all.
I don't know why but I'm glad.
Dogs can be serious noise pollution. Barking all day. I just think its cruel to not let the dog in the house, it wants to be next to its 'pack'.
We had friends over once that drove out from far away, as soon as they pulled up they let their dog loose. It ran and ran. It took them hours to get that dog back.
I asked them if their dog has encountered rattlesnakes before. They replied, "oh there's rattlesnakes here"?
They just don't think. I told them before they came out, very serious wildlife here. Dogs must be controlled.
Didn't listen. Luckily nothing happened to their dog but sometimes folks have dogs that get out of the fence, run off to explore and never seen again.
We had a Mastiff and he was surrounded by coyotes once. They fixn to mess him up and they ran when I came out. The coyotes know about guns.
I see a lot of dog irresponsibility around here.
 
leftyviper280 said:
Your quite the man just shooting to kill. I cant believe LRH IS letting this be posted last time something like that was on here it got taken off cause of all flack it got. I hunt too but this **** makes no sense. So sad so so sad. Suppose you threw it back in the woods. One day you'll understand.
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I agree with you I would probably not shoot a porcupine because they don't live around me and don't seem to to create a threat. When in Wyoming Antelope hunting I would not shoot one but let a Coyote come by. Another story. Groundhogs armadillos coyotes prairie dogs Fair game.. I had a skunk that took up residents in my Garage for 6 days. Could not get in a live trap so I put out poison and it did not kill him. On the sixth day he got in the trap. Took him outside with the intentions of shooting him.
I looked at him for a little bit and said guy you lived through the poison
I just turned the trap over and let him go. I've never seen him on my trail Cameras Again. Some of his brothers show up but not him. I won't even kill a poisonous snake. They just bon't bother me. Stray cats around the house are pretty safe unless they set up by the bird feeder and kill 1 bird after another then they become history. I had a J bird at the feeder 1 day that set there and would turn around and Peck other birds in the head and kill them after about 6 birds I shot. Him with the pellet gun. It boils down the one thing what I think or perceive as a threat or a nuisance. But for one thing for sure we live in America and we can all express our opinion And respect each other's opinion. We don't have to agree with it though.
 
mnoland30 said:
In the old days (perhaps as late as the '70s) the US Forest Service would provide .22 ammo to foresters so they could shoot any porcupines they saw.

I got on a airplane wearing my Forest Service uniform (sometimes they would upgrade us) and the talkative woman in the seat next to me said how happy she was about the reintroduction of wolves. I told her there was a reason they were wiped out in the first place. She didn't say another word the rest of the trip, which suited me just fine.

I would love to reintroduce wolves into central park. I think they'd do well there.
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That's being kind of mean to the wolf isn't it? Those people would have it dressed in a pink tutu and bunny ears and give it a name like fluffy or honey bun.
 
I moved to the Texas Hill Country 3 yrs ago.. Had never seen one before that. Now they are coming to my deer feeders. I left them alone until they started coming up to the house. We have 3 Rhodesian Ridgeback dogs. So I am not gonna take that chance. I've declared war! 4 down and 3 to go that I know of.

Had no idea you could eat one. Told my buddy if he would clean it that I would cook it. He declined...Learn something new everyday...
 
mnoland30 said:
I had a 6 month old dog on a backpacking trip in CO. My wife and I went on a moonlight walk, but the dog hung back and started barking. I went back to get her, and as soon as she had reinforcements, she lunged at the porky. She had quills in her mouth, nose, and tongue. I sat by the fire for hours grabbing one quill at a time with pliers while she would jerk away and pull out the quill. I got enough out of her mouth and nose so she could drink water. At that point she was taking my hand in her mouth and lightly chewing to let me know she'd had enough. The next morning, I worked on the rest. The ones in her mouth softened up overnight. She had one in her snout that broke off and got infected. I was thinking about ending our trip, and one night she scrathed it until it came out.

I've learned since that you can put pine pitch on your fingers to grip them. I've also heard that cutting off the back of the quill deflates the barb and makes them easier to pull. I haven't had to try either method.

In the old days, the Forest Service would issue .22 bullets to foresters to shoot porcupines. Back then we cut trees and sold them and added money to the Treasury. Now they spend 20 times what they make, and spend billions putting out the resultant forest fires.
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I know this is late in the day or year. Thanks for the info. I will remember it.
 
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MKWas said:
Yes. Even in areas where there was no law against it they were reserved for emergency situations by common consent & social pressure.

They are easy to kill and have lots of fat. Fat is important, some nutrients are fat soluble. If all you have to eat is lean meat (eg rabbit, squirrel, caribou) you will quickly succumb to vitamin deficiency.
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Went Caribou hunting in the Yukon with the Inuits and Fred Webb. Webb told us to ignore the Inuits as to their idea of Trophy status. He said the Inuit trophy was the fat - not the antlers. He didn't want an 'Oops!" With an unhappy hunter. Inuits told us they only eat the fat because chewing meat took more calories than it provided! For Real!!
 
ntsqd said:
Shot a lot of ground squirrels and a badger or two as a kid in defense of cattle grazing and hay fields, and in the cases of the badgers defense of the irrigation canal's levy. Granddad taught me how to whistle the ground squirrel's "alert" whistle to get them to stand up. I know that they were around, but never saw a porky. I'm sure that I'd have been told to shoot it too.

We got a call from the neighboring dairy farmer one day, would we come down to help with their dog that had been quilled. Local experience in Central OR at the time was that you don't pull the quills from your own dog, you ask a neighbor that the dog already doesn't like to do it. The theory being that the dog usually ends up hating whomever pulls those quills.

I'm going to remember cutting the ends off to deflate the quill, hadn't heard that before.
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I went on a guided hunt in BC in 1985 flown in to a remote lake with 5 tags for GB- moose- caribou - wolverine & mountain goat. My guide had an Airedale Terrier that was with us for all 10 days of my hunt, the dog could smell a porcupine from hundreds of yards away, he would break and go after them and come back with a face full of quills, it took a long time to pull out quills with small pliers each time. The first time I felt sorry for the dog, after the 3rd the time I thought the breed should be named Air Heads. I did end up taking a mountain goat that soaked up 4 rounds from my 338 Win Mag ( poor bullet selection on my part) the goat rolled down the mountain and the dog quickly beat me to the goat and took ownership of the carcass, when II got there he tried to bite me and jumped up and took my hat off as I bent over to handle the goat, I almost used my belt knife on him. I also shot a nice mountain caribou on that trip and the guide restrained the dog without incidence.
 
Garry J said:
I agree with you I would probably not shoot a porcupine because they don't live around me and don't seem to to create a threat. When in Wyoming Antelope hunting I would not shoot one but let a Coyote come by. Another story. Groundhogs armadillos coyotes prairie dogs Fair game.. I had a skunk that took up residents in my Garage for 6 days. Could not get in a live trap so I put out poison and it did not kill him. On the sixth day he got in the trap. Took him outside with the intentions of shooting him.
I looked at him for a little bit and said guy you lived through the poison
I just turned the trap over and let him go. I've never seen him on my trail Cameras Again. Some of his brothers show up but not him. I won't even kill a poisonous snake. They just bon't bother me. Stray cats around the house are pretty safe unless they set up by the bird feeder and kill 1 bird after another then they become history. I had a J bird at the feeder 1 day that set there and would turn around and Peck other birds in the head and kill them after about 6 birds I shot. Him with the pellet gun. It boils down the one thing what I think or perceive as a threat or a nuisance. But for one thing for sure we live in America and we can all express our opinion And respect each other's opinion. We don't have to agree with it though.
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We have a skunk that occasionally shows up in the backyard & on trail cams. He dug up an underground wasp nest near the back door - did me a favor and he fed well for a couple days.

He's a beautiful well behaved animal, and never threatening. I enjoy his visits.
 
MKWas said:
We have a skunk that occasionally shows up in the backyard & on trail cams. He dug up an underground wasp nest near the back door - did me a favor and he fed well for a couple days.

He's a beautiful well behaved animal, and never threatening. I enjoy his visits.
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Every once in a while the most unexpected things work out in your favour.
 

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