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Porcupine down

Gater said:
That porcupine will fill up a dumb cows nose full of quills then the cow can't eat when on an open range that's a death sentence for the cow.
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Don't agree killing something purely for some bizarre thrill gives all hunters a bad reputation! Protecting cattle is sincerely a pathetic excuse, Why not shoot everything in sight you know some bird may accidentally fly into a farm animal. The numerous excuses for thrill kills is farcical. I watched two young boys killing protected birds, their father stated how they were just having some fun, seriously!
 
brian11 said:
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?
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🤯
 
Well now these here critters ate my wife's jack Russell up last week and attacked my squirrel dog two nights ago,I've even had them come up to my porch when the grandbaby was crying. I tried to make pets out of them but they seem very uninterested. I kill everyone I see to at least cut down on the threat and on top of that it's a heck of a lot of fun. Porcupine comes around here doing what these other boys have described...I'll light him up too
20210109_113323.jpg
 
Rocketeer77 said:
Don't agree killing something purely for some bizarre thrill gives all hunters a bad reputation! Protecting cattle is sincerely a pathetic excuse, Why not shoot everything in sight you know some bird may accidentally fly into a farm animal. The numerous excuses for thrill kills is farcical. I watched two young boys killing protected birds, their father stated how they were just having some fun, seriously!
Click to expand...
Curious, if something comes into your workplace and costs you five to ten thousand dollars and suffering to your livestock, are you going to pet it or feed it. Maybe just ignore it and let it happen again?
 
brian11 said:
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?
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They have been destroying my fruit trees here in NH as well. We also had to take our dog twice to the emergency 24 hour vet for 2 very nasty quillings, he had them in his mouth and throat and a few about half an inch from his eye. Poor thing could have been blinded.
 
Wow this can get out of control with different views on hunting.
The main word should be "Interntaional Kill".
Some of us Hunt for Sport and get food as a second thought. Some MEAT hunt.
Then there are the Sport and Control Hunters. Varmints and Predators fall into this category.
There is the THRIL of the Kill.
Varmint hunters help out Ranchers. Parrie Dogs can eat up over 30% of the grass land that the ranchers have for their Cattle. That means that the land they have can only support up to 70% of their herd. How would anyone like to loose over 30% of their income (well we are all loosing over 30% in our IRA or 401k since the new admin 2020)???
Hunters help with PD populations.
Wood Chucks- If you ever went to a Dairy Farm and seen how hard they work 7/24/365. WoodChucks dig huge holes in the Hay fields. Not only the holes, but they dig up rocks. You should see the look on a farmer's face when they are barely making any money and their tractor breaks an axel on the tractor or the hay cutter breaks because or rocks going into it. Varmints breed and the better the farmland the more varmints!
Now lets talk PREDITORS. Besides anything to do with farmers the wildlife that is decimated by Coyotes. If you were a Quail hunter 75-50 years ago in the South USA hunting was GREAT. Now it is hard to even find a Quail. Let's talk Deer. Are you a Deer Hunter? Coyotes can kill up to 75% of the Fawn population. You can KILL up to 75% of Coyotes and it will not affect their population.
Big Predators Mountain Lion/Bear:
If you are a Rancher and have a Lion come into your area you can lose a number of calves. have any idea what that calve will cost when full grown and the loss for that Rancher. Think about the loss of a full grown steer taken by a Bear.
Yes we are intruding into the animals area, but not just killing to kill or it should not be that way. I really do not care for hunters that pay tens of thousands to shoot an animal and not eat it. Jill and I went to Africa and did Torphy hunt, but all the meat was eaten. Some by us and most by the tribes where we hunted. They don't hunt, can't hunt and the only meat thy eat is given by hunters.

Then there is another type of hunting to dispatch animals that are destroying property and we don't or may eat them.
I have shot hundreds of squirrels on my property because they were destroying my property (plus I got attacked by a Zombie Squirrel).
We don't condone killing just to KILL-go shoot paper or steel.
Full disclosure I recently asked about shooting a Skunk so that it would not spray. I would rather the skunk leave away from our house than spray our dogs. Probably the dogs' fault to get sprayed.
Same with Porcupines. Porcupines DO NOT ATTACK Dogs. Dogs ATTACK Porcupines. I know, when I lived in PA my dog got it twice and my heart was crying one time when the quills were in his throat and the Vet took over an hour with both of us pulling quills.
It was my fault to let Tobias (my dog) roam all night. NOT THE PORCUPINE!
Sure if a Porcupine is damaging your property and won't leave, then you may have to dispatch it (trying to think of the right pronoun he, she, him, her, they).
Just be a steward of wildlife and not just kill something just for the thrill of it or that you may be an animal sociopath.
 
Coyote Shadow Tracker said:
Jill had several pet Possums. They would come in the garage through the cat door and she would feed them. Benjamin Button & Mickey Mouse. Samson got used to them and didn't kill or chase them (as far as I know) then Mickey stopped coming around later Benji stopped. Figured the coyotes got um.
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Jill just got me up and said look on the back deck table.
Benjiman Button (Jill's pet Possum) was back laying down next to Oreo our cat and sleeping on a cushion. When I was getting the camera Jill opened the door, made some noise, and Benji moved away. Some pictures to follow when i get back out of bed again!
 

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