Bobcat and Rattlesnake
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Right after the big freeze here one of the locals just north of my place stopped by and informed me he had a new Can Am two seater he just bought. He and his companion left and promised they would drive it over for my approval. I could tell he was about to bust so I said bring it on. I saw them messing around in the county road when they were bringing it to my place and figured they forgot something. He came roaring up in the driveway wanting a pistol quick and said he hit something in the road and went back and it was a bobcat and it wasn't dead but seriously hurt. I handed him my Savage 22 but he wanted a pistol so I grabbed my Walther P 22 and away we went to dispatch the wounded cat. After embarrassing myself and managing to hit the flopping cat in the shoulder I handed it over to him and said go get him if you don't want it perforated with holes and see if you can get a clean shot. Should have just clobbered it with a shovel. His Girlfriend wanted to mount it and was pretty adamant about not shooting it up. It was a shame it ran under his front wheel it was an old cat and it's coat wasn't too pretty.
Yesterday I killed the first rattler of 2021. San Antonio weather said we hit 92 in Pearsall yesterday so they're coming out. It was coiled up right by my water faucet about the size of a snuff can. There will be more I can guarantee that. I look for them constantly.
The big ranch south of me had the hog helicopter flying today and I got a short video of them in pursuit of several pigs. Wouldn't you know my battery died in my video camera right when it was getting good and bullets were flying. They ran several pigs against the fence and had them pinned down with the chopper and a opened up on them about fifty feet from the air. Video I shot isn't good too much brush in the way by the time I changed batteries they flew off:(
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@bigfoot I saw a Kubota ATV tooling around on the ranch across the road from me and called the foreman to get a pig count. So far he has loaded 132 dead pigs and disposed of them. Tip of the iceberg I am afraid however their property is high fence and pig proof except where they dig under or pass through drainage culverts. They were doing thermal hunts and some day hunting but just couldn't keep the numbers down.
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"pig proof" is only an illusion. lol.
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@dddoo7 It takes constant fence riding to keep the holes the coyotes and smaller pigs dig under the 6x6 wire fencing and bull panels plugged up. Coyotes will get one started and in a few days it gets bigger and bigger and there is another problem with two legged pigs cutting holes to let exotics out of the high fence areas. We just have five strand barbed wire fencing around our small place so they come and go as they please. Lots of the farms have gone to what I call horse wire fencing to slow them down but still they find a way. When I talked to their foreman yesterday I didn't realize they had that many in there they just really got out of hand since they didn't book hardly any hunts this year. It would tie up one or maybe two people to trap and mess with pigs on a large acreage piece of property. The darn things can even elude the helicopter and I think they gave up on the poison dispensers. Back in 2005 we owned part of that ranch and the guys running cattle on it got a permit to do a one time helicopter hunt. They shot close to 300 in a square mile area with the chopper and six shooters on the ground. A week before they did a ranch east of us and got over 500 in two days. They went back to where they killed the 500 later and did a count and there was just as many back in there as there was before the shoot. They multiply way too fast and the popularity of helicopter hunts fell off you can't fly one of those things around for free.
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@bigfoot If I lived there... piggies wouldn't be such a problem. ;)
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@orkan It would be like large scale prairie dog shooting. You could burn up some ammo at times. The darn things run pretty fast when you start shooting at them. The chopper crew got 17 yesterday in that volley I tried to video it took Kris several trips to get them moved away from the irrigation pivot they were gathered at. I actually saw one crossing my field right at noon today but no big packs lately but during the night they are everywhere. The guy that leases my place was talking about getting a couple of traps he will have his hands full if he does.
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@orkan I grant that you are a lead slinging legend, but you have got to see the numbers of feral hogs on these Texas ranches in person to even imagine what a problem they can get to be. It's especially bad when deer hunters dump hundreds of pounds of shelled corn 2X or 3X each day year round thinking they are going to attract more deer.
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@bigfoot At 600yds, pdogs are in serious danger... so if I could get somewhere that I could see a ways... pigs would be SUPER fun to 1500yds. :)
Fire forming for my 7 norma mag improved today. That would be so fun to whack hogs with.
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@orkan Thing is, this country is mostly brush country and you can't see like out west. Unless you're hunting on a plowed field it is rare to be able to see more than 50 yards. You have to be somewhat careful about putting out traps too because you're likely to catch so many hogs that they'll tear the trap up before you can empty it. Helicopters can kill a lot of hogs in the right situation but they scare the crap out of your cows too and it takes a big wad of cash to get a R-44 and three good shooters into the air. I gave permission to a helicopter hunter once and got paid pretty fair for it but by the time I got the fences fixed where the hogs had run through them, it didn't seem like such a money making deal. Sure it works better on larger ranches where the fences are further apart.
That 7mm Norma Mag Improved sure looks like it will reach way out there and get the job done.
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@rr2241tx If you could set up on a long wide sendero with some feeders you might be able to pick them off shooting suppressed with sub sonic ammo. One shot and it's a Chinese fire drill usually. Maybe at a mile they wouldn't spook, heck they might go sniff their dead buddy and hang around. I have never shot at these things in an open field where they didn't scatter like quail even with a Blackout sub load. Lots of time moving across open land they are at a pretty good pace anyway. A good thermal on an suppressed AR at night is probably the best attack. Daytime not so good. One of the hunters from Spring Branch got 7 one evening at a feeder on my north fence line with a SKS. He dumped a full magazine on a pack of around twenty at close range and probably wounded several more. They had a big circle trap on that place and it finally got tore up. It had a water trough in it and the guy running would let it go for days and then bring a trailer and try to load them up. He decided one day to go and shoot a couple in the trap for one of his buddies and the pigs panicked and leveled the dang thing. Put him out of business.
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@orkan said in Bobcat and Rattlesnake:
@bigfoot If I lived there... piggies wouldn't be such a problem. ;)
If you are ever in the neighborhood feel free to drop in I'm sure we can find some organic targets. I bet you could call up a coyote quicker than a cat can lick its behind down here.
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I may have to head down to Venice, LA early next year for the Rodeo!! Much like the pigs, you can't kill them fast enough. I don't own or have access to an airboat here in Terrebonne Parish or I'd be out there spitting' lead.
Revived 'Nutria Rodeo' Bags 1,500 Rodents in Louisiana
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There used to be a bounty on Nutria here. They were imported to eat some kind of lily pads then became a problem infesting lakes and rivers. I have seen them on the Nueces River in piles laying on the banks sunning. They tell me they are edible heck I guess if you are hungry enough anything is edible. If you eat potted meat or vienna sausages a Nutria Rat is probably better for you. We shot some of those little red eyed ducks one time and tried to eat them I think they call them "Hell Divers ". Totally nasty. Tasted like rotten fish.
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@bigfoot your right about nutrias being imported to eat lilly pads that clogged up the freshwater waterways, but the people that imported them didn't realize that the nutrias preferred to eat marsh grass instead ..... marsh grass that holds our marshes together, hence the destruction and eroding of our coast here in Louisiana. Chef Paul Prudhomme tried to get people to eat nutria, but we have much tastier things to eat here in Louisiana and most everyone said "No way!!!" And there are also some nasty ass birds that live down this way as well ..... But in general, in Louisiana, you can make a pretty good meal out of most anything that comes from a ditch (crawfish, crabs, turtles).
