Indians For Guns

Spring is finally here. My wife is refilling her bird feeders with suet. The yard needs raking. Those hibernating animals are out and about now. I can't put the garbage in the dumpster as the temps are climbing so I store them for a couple of days in a corner of the basement till the night before garbage collection day. Something got into my basement by chewing through one of the fresh air intakes for the furnace and ripped open the bags. Trash every where! I yell at the dogs but my wife says that the basement doors were closed all day. After some detective work, I think it's a Raccoon.

I eye, in turn, the shotgun, .22 LR rifle, .22 LR handgun and the .22 short pistol. I decide that I don't want to fire even a .22 LR in the basement as the walls are field-stone and mortar and a .22 short might just piss him off if he is a big one. Being in a small space with Raccoonus Pissedoffus is no laughing matter. Neither is being in a small space with a .22 LR slug ricocheting off stone walls.

Besides that, my wife says " You're going to do WHAT"?
I dredge up my best smile and reply "...ermm... nothing".

I searched the basement and didn't find anything. So I finally bought a trap and blocked up the area where he got in. Nothing in the trap for two weeks now and there is no food or water in the basement so he must have been blocked out.

I was just thinking about this when I remembered a story that I had read about a home owner's battle with a coon. I'm sure you will find it as humorous as I did:
Midnight Battle With The Raccoon Of Doom



*Procyon lotor=North American Raccoon.

Ha ha ha, XL

This is remind me my old house, we have a tree house in are back yard for the kids so they can play around in the back yard. one day in late April i woke up earily in the morning and went to my back yard so i can do some work because we have a five big Pine tree in are back yard and there is lot's of Pine cones in the yard.

i start raking under that tree house and i heard the noise right above me but can't see anything from where i am standing.the tree house 12 foot high from the ground.the only way to get in that tree house is a ladder so i decide to go inside the tree house and have look,soon i open the door there is Raccoon with two baby they are running every where and scaree me and i fell on my tailbone from that ladder and run few foot and stand there.This is not what i like to start my Sat. morning.
Oh what a pain earily in the morning , i can't forget that day .

Baljit

he he! Good one, XL! And a good story re: the link, as well, thank you!

Possums: Those things are disgusting looking critters with a rat's tail and a spike hairdo. However, I have a little (little means little, BTW) respect for them. There just aren't too many marsupials around anymore outside of Australia, so I guess they've been pretty successful. But I don't' care for them, because when I was a kid, they'd up and die everywhere and stink up everything! One died under my bedroom window -- an unpleasant discovery. As a kid, I messed with cars, and one of them died under there, as well, making an unreachable stinking mess. But it was the first one that set me off against possums. (Here, for the sake of accuracy, I should mention that the animal is properly called an opossum, and possum is a corruption of the proper word.) I was about 14 years old or so, and a stinky situation evolved in our garage. One door of the garage was left open about 4 inches for our cat, and I suspect that this was the point of entry the problem used. The smell in the garage grew and grew, and one Saturday morning when my brother and I were sleeping in, we heard my Dad come into the house and announce to my Mom in a sort of "What-do-you-know" voice, "I found out what is stinking up the garage: there's a dead possum in there, and he's just crawling[/b] with maggots!"

At this point, both my brother and I shrank under the covers and played real sleepy, as neither of us wanted to get drafted for a cleanup detail.

So that's why possums don't rate highly on my list. There are some around this suburban neighborhood -- I catch them every once in a while when driving down the alley at night. But, thank goodness, none of them have died by the house. I suppose the bobcats, of which there are a few around, make short work of any possum that can't run and hide fast enough.

Raccoons: We had these things in New Mexico, in the little mountain town we lived in. Normally, it would have been a pretty harsh environment, as this was the highest town in New Mexico at 8750 feet in altitude. The town was in a narrow canyon and the growing season was short. However, raccoons had a pretty plentiful supply of food, judging from their size -- all provided courtesy of that dirtiest animal of all: man.

I'd come home at night from work and there were a few who made a regular habit of "dumpster diving" in the large trash container at the bottom of the hill below our house. The swinging headlights of my car would often send one or more scurrying up the hillside.

But it was in the summer that the raccoons were more in evidence. Our house was on the side of a mountain overlooking the town, with large windows across the front wall that went from floor to ceiling. On summer nights, our room lights would attract a sizable gathering of insects, including large moths, and the raccoons (these were big devils, maybe 15 kilos or so) would amble up on our deck and eat the insects. It was interesting, watching them stand on their hind legs and scoop up a big moth with their front paws.

We had a Siamese cat then that was maybe 3 1/2 kilos, and she was about the most fearsome cat I'd seen. She also had quite a loud voice. When those raccoons came up to the window like that, she would go absolutely berserk, howling, growling, and hissing wildly at the monster on the other side of the glass. That glass was a good thing, for despite our cat's brave show, one of those raccoons would have made short work of her. They are smart, quick, and very very clever. As I understand it, they are a relative of the bear, and they are cunning and resourceful critters.

dear xl,
why didn't you think of .22 shots?for such close encounter.anyhow you didn't have to use it .
nice fun though
regards

LOL Baljit, that's quite a story. I can see it in my mind's eye.

Timmy,
A full grown 'coon can, indeed, be a nasty customer.

Dr sahib,
.22 shot shells don't work well in autos. When I have tried them they won't eject and you have to dig them out of the chamber with a knife or cleaning rod. They'd probably work in a bolt action but I'm not going in the confined space with a scope sighted bolt rifle with a 25 inch barrel.

Besides that, shooting a 'coon with a .22 shotshell will be like reaching over and scratching his behind. He's not going to like it much and is liable to want to do more than scratch scratch mine, in return.

When I first got married, we rented a farm house that had several outbuildings where we parked our cars. They were full of pigeons that pooped all over our cars so I was in there one afternoon with .22 shot shells cleaning the place out. All of a sudden a great big woodchuck came tooling out from one of the corners straight at me. I think the poor guy was just trying to get away but my dog, a spaniel mix with no quit in him, went after it. I got one shot off before the dog was on him. When the shot hit, he just turned and snarled at me and then latched on to the dog. Of course, then I'm hopping around trying to get the empty out of the chamber while the dog and 'chuck are in a little twirling tornado of dust in the middle of the dirt floor. I finally gave up on the gun and got a swift kick into the 'chuck. He let go the dog and came at me so I did the prudent thing and ...ran. So here I am; running flat out with the 'chuck in tow and the dog barking furiously, in pursuit of both of us. As we came out of the shed, the 'chuck ducked into the undergrowth and I latched on to the dog collar to prevent him from going after it. By this time my wife heard all the commotion and came out. She held the dog and told him what a good boy he was and then she laughed at me. Hmmmph!

Oh Sure! You guys can laugh all you want but you didn't see the big yellow teeth on that sucker!
Since then I have steered well clear of .22 shot shells. Never touched another one.

Hmm, I guess I should change my signature now.

Hi xl-target,
> Had a good laugh reading your tryst with the Coon / WoodChuck
> Was reminded of an old puzzle:
How much wood
would a Woodchuck would
If the Woodchuck
Would chuck wood?
Cheers
Briha

Well, Briha, a lot of thinking has gone into the question that you asked. The non scientific answer is:
A woodchuck would chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.. Now say that fast three times really fast.

Apparently someone else has spent more time on this (yes, it was a government employee). See this article:

Dick Thomas says the answer is 700 pounds. He came up with the solution to the riddle in June, while working as a fish and wildlife technician for the State Department of Environmental Conservation. Since then his little joke has popped up all over America.

http://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/08/nyreg ... story.html

Well, Briha, a lot of thinking has gone into the question that you asked. The non scientific answer is:
A woodchuck would chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood..
> Now say that fast three times really fast.

Hey xl_target,
> You got me there buddy
> I tried this on my pals - none could get it right!!!
> BTW - are Wood Chucks & Beavers of the same genus?
Briha

LOL, what an excellent read!

@ .22 shot - that is also called "lizard shot" for a good reason, is not much use except against a particularly aggressive gecko

@ XL, Baljit & Timmy - your anecdotes were an excellent read. This side of the pond the 2 biggest menaces (in most cities/ suburbs) we face are feral dogs followed closely by monkeys... I guess mongooses may be a close third (really nasty customers)...

Cheers!
Abhijeet

Abhijit, Briha,
Glad you guys had a good laugh.

BTW - are Wood Chucks & Beavers of the same genus?

Well , they are both Rodents but they are not of the same genus.
Beavers are generally bigger (up to 1m in length vs. up to 80cm in length). Beavers have a very distinctive tail.

Groundhog

The groundhog (Marmota monax), also known as a woodchuck, whistle-pig, or in some areas as a land-beaver, is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. Other marmots, such as the yellow-bellied and hoary marmots, live in rocky and mountainous areas, but the woodchuck is a lowland creature. It is widely distributed in North America and common in the northeastern and central United States. Groundhogs are found as far north as Alaska, with their habitat extending southeast to Alabama.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Sciuridae
Genus: Marmota
Species: M. monax

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog

Beaver

The North American Beaver (Castor canadensis) is the only species of beaver in the Americas, native to North America and introduced to South America. In the United States and Canada, where no other species of beaver occurs, it is usually simply referred to as "beaver". Its other vernacular names, including American beaver[2] and Canadian beaver,[6] distinguish this species from the one other extant beaver, Castor fiber, native to Eurasia.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Castoridae
Genus: Castor
Species: C. canadensis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Beaver

Beavers can be plumb nasty! First of all, they are large -- every bit as large as a large raccoon, and they can definitely have an attitude. I've heard many stories of folks being chased and attacked by enraged beavers, as odd as that may sound. I'll admit, the first time I heard such a story, it sounded odd to me, as well.

The most memorable thing I can say about beavers has to do with a coworker of mine from my days in Taos, New Mexico. John (the poor guy is dead now, from a heart attack) also owned a mobile home park, and he kept the place watered from an acequia, like most all agriculture is in New Mexico.

Please let me explain acequias: In a slang way, one might call it "ditch bank irrigation." The water coming in small creeks and streams from the mountains is channelled into a network of small ditches, and as this water makes its way down the side of the mountain through fields, it is turned on and off on a time share system, such as, you have so many hours to take water from the acequia each week, and then it's someone else's turn further down the mountainside. Where we lived, for example, we got 45 minutes a week, and this was enough to fill tanks containing 2000 gallons of water for our domestic use.

Anyway, poor old John had this trailer park, and he'd shovel some dirt into the acequia to force the water onto his land. (Usually, this is how it's done, though there sometimes may be fancy iron or concrete control gates for larger establishments.) He'd set the water up, and get up the next morning to find out that beavers had built a dam and he hadn't gotten any water overnight during his allotted time. In such an event, he was just out of luck, not a good thing in the desert!

Being that dynamite isn't available at the local hardware store anymore, John had to bust up the beaver dam by hand, shovel, and axe -- a back breaking task, as what the beavers could throw up overnight was pretty solid work.

This would happen fairly often in the summer, and I remember well his coming into the coffee shop in the morning, all haggard from his attempts to break up the dam before coming to work and brimming over with lots of bad language for the beavers! (No, he wasn't a gun person, and it was against the law to shoot them where he was in town, anyway. He just had to grin and bear it.

What a lovely thread with so many different experiences.
I didn't think much about these small little creatures till I read this post.
Timmy , I have read somewhere that beavers can cut down big trees to dam a river.........at times changing it's course.

Thanks for the good laugh. XL,I would suggest buying one of these to deal with nasty creatures in the basement.Proudly made in the USA and guaranteed to stop any charging racoon/wood chuck/beaver ( the four legged variety )



http://www.searcyent.com/new_577s.htm

xl
are these creature called as ground hogs ?
regards

Depending on where you are in the US, they are variously called Groundhogs, Woodchucks, Land Beavers or Whistle Pigs and probably some swear words as well.