Yes! It is on the list of what the ranch owners where we hunt have on their list for us to help control.
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Porcupine down
- Thread starter jbronner13
- Start date
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my buddy had to shoot his own dog it was so bad....sadMy dumb *** dog has been quilled twice. One of those times in the inside of his mouth and throat so I just take 'em out now instead of paying 4k in vet bills
My Karelian Bear Dog was also a victim of the quill of shame. I plucked the quills myself. I got everything out except for one inside his mouth. I have to monitor him for infection overnight. He was GTG in the morning; the quill inside his mouth was gone. I got lucky; I did not incur any vet bill$. Three days later, we were hiking and went to the same spot where he encountered the porcupine, but he did not run into one.My dumb *** dog has been quilled twice. One of those times in the inside of his mouth and throat so I just take 'em out now instead of paying 4k in vet bills
I was in Wyoming for a spring bear hunt one night on the way back from the bait barrel the friends I was with decided it would be fun to shoot some porcupines we where driving the logging roads one of the guys says he sees one we stop jump out my buddies being the nice guys they are they let me shoot first. So I grab my AR start shooting quills and wood where flying then I hear my good ol buddies laughing their butts off so I am wondering what's so funny well they had shot that porcupine the day before and it was stiff as a board. Yea I had to laugh it was funny.
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…
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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MSURunner
Well-Known Member
Furers will buy them to harvest the quills. If you're selling coyotes for pelts, they can add to the stack!
Grey Goast
Well-Known Member
If you have kill one to protect property I understand but not to just because you see one. A partner of mine in my youth went to Colorado packing hunters into the mountians by horse and mule trains . He shot one and said clean it. I was Young and with my heavy leather boots i went to turn it over that heavy guage leather turned into butter as the quils went right through and I was in tears while getting my boot off. removed Quils and turned to a stick to turn it over it had a soft like mink under belly. what looked like a 25 pounder after skining it was no bigger than a big squril.I recomend boiling it first to remove greese as i learned the hard way. then cook in frying pan.taste is not bad. but you will be scraping greese off the roof of your mouth if you dont boil it first.
Blandry
Well-Known Member
I know I almost stepped on one taking a leak one night. Climbed out of the shelter with my headlamp, started ****ing and looked down there he was just kind of moving like a snail. I thought he was a badger at first.
Had no idea they were good to eat!
Had no idea they were good to eat!
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.
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.
They are pretty tasty. Kinda fatty but good flavor. We usually try to get one every year and roast over fire at campI 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…
Yes up here in Canada we mostly wander the woods searching for the " Survival Food" from mid April until Mid December. In December we can start living in communities again and rebuild our homes that we lost in Spring. The IGLOOS are snug and warm, but a real mess come warm weather!
When we brand there is always a calf or two that have a nose full of quills. We kill them on sight.
leftyviper280
Member
Timely thread. I just killed one in our yard last night. Probably my first ever. He pushed his luck too far.
When I was a kid, NH had a bounty on them. Bobcats, too. 50 cents a nose for the porcupines. Destructive on fruit trees, tool handles, even the side of a building. I remember many times as a kid, we'd hear them at night chewing on the side of the house and holler down to Dad, who'd go out and blast them. You had to hit them in the head. Body shots didn't count. I remember hearing of my aunt pumping a full box of 22s into one and it kept going. I saw my Dad shoot one in the body from a few feet away with a 30-06 with hunting ammo. The thing kept going, dragging its entrails in the dirt.
That was in the 60s. At some point, NH stopped all bounties, and I've been glad to see them wandering around our yard. They don't bother me, I dont bother them. ALthough I do have to be careful to not trip over one in the dark walking between buildings. We've nicknamed a couple of them "Chompy", because mostly they just chomp away on the grass all day. They seem to come and go. Supposedly, fishers know how to flip them over and attack their belly, so maybe that's why they periodically disappear until a new one shows up again.
We have had one or more hanging around for years. Several years ago, I planted some really nice apple trees. The best I ever had. There weren't even any known "local" porcupines at that time. The first night, the porcupine(s) hit them hard, girdling them and climbing up in them and eating off all the branches. I put a steel fence up around them the next day. That did no good at all. They just climbed the fence and finished them off. I was really ticked, but I restrained myself from going on a killing spree over it.
A couple years ago, we planted a couple more apple trees, not nearly (even after 2 years growing) as nice or healthy as the originals. I put up a 5-strand electric fence around them. All has been well. A couple "Chompies" have come and gone.
This spring a large female appeared and hung around, then there was a new little "Chompy" who spent the summer growing up all over our lawn. I was concerned he was so small at first he might walk under the lowest strand of the electric fence, but we had no issues. Mother seemed to disappear after awhile.
Yesterday afternoon, I looked out the window and realized there was a very large one INSIDE the electric fence perimeter. I went out and shut off the fence and took the gate down to shoo him out of there. That's when I noticed he'd completely girdled the best of the two trees. That did it for me! A 20 gauge shot to the head from a couple feet away and he was DRT.
I wondered if he might be good eating - after all, he eats nothing but the finest grasses and APPLE TREES. I knew the wife would have a fit over it, though, so didn't bother asking and I took him out in the woods for the fishers and coyotes to have.
On the electric fence, I think maybe the quills are not conductive on a big one with big quills, so maybe it's ineffective. Sure seemed to be for that big one. So I asked my wife if we're going to have apple trees or allow the porcupines to live, because, living in the deep woods, you sure can't have both. I guess we're leaning toward not trying to kill all the porcupines. If we had a dog, that'd be a different problem, but we don't. I had a dog once here and he got into a porcupine so bad we had to take him to the vet hospital to be anesthesized to get them all out.
So that begs the question - any of you ever eat porcupine?
When I was a kid, NH had a bounty on them. Bobcats, too. 50 cents a nose for the porcupines. Destructive on fruit trees, tool handles, even the side of a building. I remember many times as a kid, we'd hear them at night chewing on the side of the house and holler down to Dad, who'd go out and blast them. You had to hit them in the head. Body shots didn't count. I remember hearing of my aunt pumping a full box of 22s into one and it kept going. I saw my Dad shoot one in the body from a few feet away with a 30-06 with hunting ammo. The thing kept going, dragging its entrails in the dirt.
That was in the 60s. At some point, NH stopped all bounties, and I've been glad to see them wandering around our yard. They don't bother me, I dont bother them. ALthough I do have to be careful to not trip over one in the dark walking between buildings. We've nicknamed a couple of them "Chompy", because mostly they just chomp away on the grass all day. They seem to come and go. Supposedly, fishers know how to flip them over and attack their belly, so maybe that's why they periodically disappear until a new one shows up again.
We have had one or more hanging around for years. Several years ago, I planted some really nice apple trees. The best I ever had. There weren't even any known "local" porcupines at that time. The first night, the porcupine(s) hit them hard, girdling them and climbing up in them and eating off all the branches. I put a steel fence up around them the next day. That did no good at all. They just climbed the fence and finished them off. I was really ticked, but I restrained myself from going on a killing spree over it.
A couple years ago, we planted a couple more apple trees, not nearly (even after 2 years growing) as nice or healthy as the originals. I put up a 5-strand electric fence around them. All has been well. A couple "Chompies" have come and gone.
This spring a large female appeared and hung around, then there was a new little "Chompy" who spent the summer growing up all over our lawn. I was concerned he was so small at first he might walk under the lowest strand of the electric fence, but we had no issues. Mother seemed to disappear after awhile.
Yesterday afternoon, I looked out the window and realized there was a very large one INSIDE the electric fence perimeter. I went out and shut off the fence and took the gate down to shoo him out of there. That's when I noticed he'd completely girdled the best of the two trees. That did it for me! A 20 gauge shot to the head from a couple feet away and he was DRT.
I wondered if he might be good eating - after all, he eats nothing but the finest grasses and APPLE TREES. I knew the wife would have a fit over it, though, so didn't bother asking and I took him out in the woods for the fishers and coyotes to have.
On the electric fence, I think maybe the quills are not conductive on a big one with big quills, so maybe it's ineffective. Sure seemed to be for that big one. So I asked my wife if we're going to have apple trees or allow the porcupines to live, because, living in the deep woods, you sure can't have both. I guess we're leaning toward not trying to kill all the porcupines. If we had a dog, that'd be a different problem, but we don't. I had a dog once here and he got into a porcupine so bad we had to take him to the vet hospital to be anesthesized to get them all out.
So that begs the question - any of you ever eat porcupine?
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