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The entire black area is 5.5" in diameter. I have a vertical-stringing issue I need to sort out, I suspect it is a combination of too much coffee, and one other user-induced error. It is *possible* I have a parallax problem with the optical sight, and or my progressive eyeglasses.
https://i.imgur.com/sV0Y2tT.png
I wish we were allowed to shoot the varmints that traipse through my vast estate of 1 acre. I hate them. They are so destructive.
Well, my own house is too near to neighbors to use a rifle for varmints, so, years ago I devised a method of loading 45-70 cartridges with a *very* reduced powder charge (often just a shotgun primer, which required milling out the primer pocket to the correct size). I then load a paraffin bullet, like they use in cowboy action shooting exhibitions, Those projectiles won’t leave the lot, and they don’t kill the critters, but once you’ve zapped a raccoon in the posterior with the paraffin projectile, it sulks and moves to someone else’s property.Quote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
At some of my other places though, no real worries. (At one, I have established shooting stands, with clearly marked zones of safe fire, to be absolutely sure. I am convinced some of the raccoons have figured out how to stand just outside the safe zone and taunt me).
Aren't raccoons supposed to be in torpor right now? Haven't seen our neighbor trash pandas for a couple weeks.
Ours achieve a state of torpor *after* they’ve raided. Then they come back. Devils.Quote:
Originally Posted by KayLR
I hate raccoons and I'm a tree hugging woke liberal. The environments of the suburbs seems to suit them well and you can't shoot them. I'd rather have skunks. Actually, I have them too and I'm fairly OK with them.
Skunks are not as destructive as raccoons although maybe they really are. It’s just that we don’t have very many skunks. I don’t think skunks through the damage to houses that raccoons do though, although both of them probably kill chickens,Quote:
Originally Posted by Rogar
My real varmint threat I am not allowed to address directly at the moment- river otters.
Twice in the past 5 years they have gotten under one of my homes, ripped out all of the insulation from the subfloor and the plumbing, dragged in salmon and crabs, and turned the crawl spaces into an Otter Party Palace. Each time the cost to deal with the damage was $15-20k.
This coming year I am applying for a trapping permit, and then the jihad will begin.
The raccoons at my house raid my hummingbird feeders every night if I forget to bring them in. Often they'll even unscrew the base and pitch them into the yard. In 30 years there I've never seen a skunk on the property, but I've detected their odor many times. Sneaky little bastards all!
Our neighbors feed the raccoons, and I've watched a large raccoon try to get into their house when dinner was delayed (succeeded in opening the door and getting into the back porch, but luckily the door into the house was locked). Since they always have a trough of food out for the wildlife, they've had to hire an exterminator who sets out bait boxes for rodents, and we live right on the river with its great blue herons, eagles, etc. They love wildlife, but can't seem to connect the dots as to why they are perpetuating a problem.
I believe we have a skunk living under our shed, since there is always a faint aroma in that vicinity. We go to bed really early though, so we've never even seen it, let alone be troubled by it.
one of my neighbors feeds the deer at her country place, not here at home. Nobody around here had better be feeding the deer!Quote:
Originally Posted by rosarugosa
bae, i think you just need to move your target down and to the left a hair, and you'll be perfect (lol!!) I have a love/hate relationship with raccoons. They are soooo destructive. But it's hard to fault them for just living their best raccoon lives, and they are fun to watch. We've done a lot of trap and release (illegal here, btw). Some outright shooting. A few (unplanned) bashings when they have ambushed. One bit my sister a couple years ago and she did the whole rabies thing, since there's no way to tell if the bloody thing is rabid when it runs off after biting. They get into everything, just to see what's there. And don't get me started on squirrels - although they are pretty tasty. I do much prefer skunks, they are less pushy, and don't tear up as much stuff. Of all our frequent 4 legged visitors, possums are the least annoying, as they don't seem to harm anything, and are so ugly that they're cute.
Bae, I didn't know otters could be such a pain, we don't have them locally, and we're a bit from a river, in any case. We certainly couldn't afford repairs in that price vicinity, that's awful!
We had a new neighbor a few years ago decide to moor his $800k boat to the mooring ball off his beach. We all warned him. He got all uppity about the warnings “it’s my mooring ball, I can use it all I want”. I think he thought we were worried about our views.
Anyways, as predicted, otters turned his boat into a party barge, and the damage was extensive, and expensive.
He no longer keeps his boat there except for short short periods of time.
o kay---last night, i heard an empty catt foodd rattling on the porch, and since my catts were already in, i had to see if it was a stray catt or whatt? But yeah---it was a possum. it scurried off, so i throwed some dogg food out there. The dry dogg food was gone in the morning. I don't want them possums goingt hungry. Nope.
I once forgot to bring a baited squirrel live trap in at night and the next day a skunk had somehow crammed his whole body into the trap and was caught. Not to anthropomorphize a wild animal, but they. do have a rather kind looking face. Thankfully the internet directed me to a save disposal technique and he looked happy running free in the local natural area.
Good job, I love possums. They are the sweetest!Quote:
Originally Posted by littlebittybobby
Especially if you feed them on corn a week or so before you fry ‘em up.Quote:
Originally Posted by rosarugosa
They are such harmless environmental good guys. I prefer to get my protein elsewhere.Quote:
Originally Posted by bae
We had a time with raccoons getting into our trash to where I would stick a cinder block on top of the can. I came out to my car one morning and suddenly the can lid lifted and a raccoon was staring back at me. Our neighbor feeds stray cats so we'd see raccoons going through our yard and into theirs to get the cat food or sometimes they'd be sitting in a tree waiting for the coast to be clear before coming down to get the food. Recently found out that the neighbor's son has taken it upon himself to shoot them. I was wondering why we haven't had trash issues lately. Not sure how I feel about it. I am glad that I don't have to pick up trash anymore but on the other hand, this guy's mom is part of the reason why the raccoons are coming around.
Years ago I did have an encounter with the cutest baby skunk. Came out to get into my car and heard something behind me. Turned around and it was the tiniest skunk I had ever seen. He started stomping his feet at me and then the tail came up. I took off running to the car because (1) I didn't want to get sprayed and (2) Momma was surely close by and she'd for sure get me.
I used to see feral cats along one of my routes and would see winter warming cardboard boxes around for them, but haven't seen any for a couple of years. There seems to be a growing population of coyotes, which may have something to do with it. I've seen coyotes a couple of times lately and they have looked infested by mange, which is sort of sad. There are a lot of nocturnal critters that roam around when we're sleeping.
I put a small device from Amazon in my yard to deter coons. It has a motion sensor that trips flashing lights and a high pitched noise at night. I sort of doubt that it works, but the cheap technology is interesting.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F1D7VWT7...d_asin_title_2
The cats that live in our woods only last about two generations. Moms/Dads with kittens but once those kittens have their own, their parents aren't around anymore. I'd say there are only 5-6 cats right now and I'm almost positive at least one or two are actually someone's pets who just like to hang out with the strays and get a free meal. We have foxes and I swore I saw a coyote by the house once. Might have something to do with keeping the stray population down too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rogar