Iguanas... Iguanas... Iguanas. Thats what pisses me off, so I just give them a dose lead and keep them away from destroying my hard home grown stuff.
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Why do you pest? Or not?
- Thread starter rangur1
- Start date
We have become overrun with feral cats. I have no idea who turned them loose to begin with, but they are on my list. Can you cull a feral cat with a pellet gun? If so, what caliber? Pellet or slug?
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Have you noticed that you are not concerned about rats, mice, tree rats, and other small vermin?
Just a thought...
Maybe you should count your blessings and be happy the "feral" cats are taking care of those vermin. Then again, I think you just don't like cats.
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If I don't kill them, they will over-run my property like they were doing when I bought this place a little over 5 years ago!
I tried pretty much everything else and the only thing that works/worked is killing them with abandon. No prisoners.
The sad thing is that I have been so successful that I don't get to shoot as much anymore, often for weeks at a time now.
Such is the lament of a successful backyard pester. (chuckle) Shot placement, shot placement, shot placement!
Hey, I am not complaining... (smile)
No, really! (grin)
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Also have chickens. When we moved onto our property, one of the first nights I was in the back yard and turned a flashlight up our holly tree to see about 15 pairs of beady little eyes reflecting down at me. They were in the holly tree, and the vines along the fence. After cutting back the vines I probably only had to kill about 15 or 20 rats before the population got under control. Well, I've lost track of how many I killed. But it was quite a few.
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My forefathers were hunters & gatherers.
■ I am a gatherer:
▪ I have gathered over 50 different types of .22cal pellets in the quest of finding the magic pellet for each of my guns.
▪ I have gathered detailed specs on hundreds of scopes, silencers, projectiles, and scope mounts.
▪ Some day, when I've earned enough money, I will have gathered dozens of airguns (like so many of you reading this).
■ I am a hunter:
▪ I hunt for airgun bargains.
▪ I hunt quarry — pest or game.
My forefathers would be proud of me. Would yours...?
Matthias
■ I am a gatherer:
▪ I have gathered over 50 different types of .22cal pellets in the quest of finding the magic pellet for each of my guns.
▪ I have gathered detailed specs on hundreds of scopes, silencers, projectiles, and scope mounts.
▪ Some day, when I've earned enough money, I will have gathered dozens of airguns (like so many of you reading this).
■ I am a hunter:
▪ I hunt for airgun bargains.
▪ I hunt quarry — pest or game.
My forefathers would be proud of me. Would yours...?
Matthias
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My forefathers would be proud of me. Would yours...?
Matthias
If I kicked our prime-minister in the nads, I think my grandfather would have said he was proud of me. So far, no luck.
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I was looking for a place to call my own over 30 years ago when I happened to come across my "Little House on The Prairie" that I now call "My Home Sweet Home". It had 2 Pecan trees, 1 peach tree, a muscadine vine, a fig bush, flowers everywhere and a "small forest" behind the house with a small creek to boot. It was the spring of 1990, and I knew that my prayers were now answered because I was and had been working very hard to have something to call my own. As the season began to change and my fruit trees were beginning to bare fruit, I noticed fuzzy butts (squirrels) began to scout out my trees as they had done for many years before I moved there, I decided to turn my little Garden of Eden" into their living garden of Hades. Well, a storm took out the peach tree that Blue Jays and squirrels feasted on every chance they got, my fig bush was taken out with time and disease but everything else is still standing it was when I first moved here. The fuzzy butts always know when it's times to rape my pecans trees and I know as well, that's when I take charge and cut down on their population causing them to perish from lead poisoning, 1 shot between the eye and the ear and the butt is dead. That's my story and I'm sticking to it, I had a problem with fuzzy butts knowing that all that it takes is 1 well placed shot between their eye and the ear, sometimes in their face between the eyes!
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I shoot tree rats, chipmunks and invasive birds because they are evil and should be executed for crimes against humanity.
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Just my opinion but I suppose there may be widespread truth to what I am going to say. I’ve always heard the reasons to hunt or pest or whatever you call it. Herd management, I put the food on my table, rid the nuisance, blah blah. The fact is we are predators by nature. It’s in our DNA and there is just something about taking an animal that appeals to that innate trait. I think this is why some people get really screwed up and can’t control it and end up hunting other humans. We like to sugar coat it with a lot of other things but I think anyone that doesn’t admit there is something to the kill or win etc is fooling themselves. Probably not a hugely popular opinion but I really believe it to be true.
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The predator instinct is there, for sure. I find hunting makes me feel a bit more sick than happy. It's an odd thing: I'm fine dealing with my own wounds. If I cut myself badly and the skin starts peeling off my hand, I can patch it back up together without problems. But if someone else starts bleeding I feel nauseous. Similarly I don't enjoy dealing with "near deaths", i.e. poor shot placement, and corpses. I deal with it because I have to.
I imagine the murderous psychopath instinct is maybe a little more tied to the related joy we get from a "good fight". i.e. the struggle to best someone else, just taken to more of an extreme. That said, probably every murderous psychopath is unique in their own way and has their own weird little motivations.
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Certainly agree there are many who enjoys the kill and it’s part of DNA because our nerve system rewards us with dopamine when we achieve something big or small. Even with those who “enjoy” the kill not all kill for the sake of killing. We certainly are good at justify/rationalize anything but many if not most do have good reasons to hunt or pest or kill! As long as people respect the kills then it should fall under normal human morality but then again who are we to judge? Trillions of creatures die every year just so we can live, whether by our own hands or not it doesn’t make any difference!
“I think” we all need to be responsible in how we live so our little earth is sustainable a bit longer for our kids. No, I’m not anywhere near being Vegan but I am a label reader and try to be as responsible as possible in hope to leave the world not as horrible as it can be for my kids.
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You know, I'm not really a cat person and had 5 big tom cats that use to pass through my yard at night and I left them alone. An old saying use to run through my head when I'd see them after they triggered my security lights: an enemy of my enemy is a friend of mine. In the 5 years I've had this house I never had problems with mice and that's because of those 5 cats that would come to my yard. 4 months ago, a couple of coyotes moved into the unoccupied house behind my neighbor and I haven't seen the cats since. Yes I'm waiting patiently to take out the two coyotes. However, 5 cats peacefully passing through or hunting in my yard at nighttime is very different than a feral cat problem if the cat problem is so bad that there are dozens of cats in my yard everyday all day breeding and taking over. Beyond a certain point lead might have to fly.......
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I live in a fairly rural suburban town-house and I have a pellet trap in my back yard on the ground at 30 yds at the edge of the lawn and on top of a creek bank. It sits 5 yds from my two bird feeders.
On a somewhat regular basis I will see a squirrel, groundhog, rabbit, chipmunk or dove pop its silly head up in front of the trap when I am shooting. They all get a pass. All the birds at the feeders get a pass except the hosps and starlings. If crows would come in they would be gone too.
I have a couple permissions at dairy farms and everything is on the menu there. Hosps, Starlings, Pigeons, Pigeons, Pigeons, crows, whistlepigs, raccoons, fox etc. hoping to go ratting too. I have no problem with this pesting.
I have not seen any opossums or skunk in a while but I would take them too. Certainly the possum, I will kill every one I see.
I thought they were great tick eradicators and I am all for that, but I have since learned that they eat a lot of turkey eggs, and turkeys eat a lot more ticks than opossum ever could. Our local turkey population could use a hand. We are also seriously over run with fox, and there is a red tailed hawk nest across the street from me which is putting a hurting on the squirrels and bunnies from what I have seen.
In my lifetime like many I have killed critters for the sake of killing them, but I do not believe that I do that now.
I do have to say that when I put an instant kill on a hosp, starling, pigeon etc that is sitting on top of a silo or whatever facing me, and it does not move at all except to fall over stone cold dead, I call it a "Stillwell angel". This comes from the movie "A League of their own". The annoying little kid is taunting the team with " You're gonna lose" repeatedly, Tom Hanks tosses a glove in his face and knocks him out. He falls over like described above. I laugh every time I see that part and I can't help but laugh when i see a pest bird do the same. Especially when they fall 50 or 60 feet onto a tin roof, the thud is great. I'm just saying.
On a somewhat regular basis I will see a squirrel, groundhog, rabbit, chipmunk or dove pop its silly head up in front of the trap when I am shooting. They all get a pass. All the birds at the feeders get a pass except the hosps and starlings. If crows would come in they would be gone too.
I have a couple permissions at dairy farms and everything is on the menu there. Hosps, Starlings, Pigeons, Pigeons, Pigeons, crows, whistlepigs, raccoons, fox etc. hoping to go ratting too. I have no problem with this pesting.
I have not seen any opossums or skunk in a while but I would take them too. Certainly the possum, I will kill every one I see.
I thought they were great tick eradicators and I am all for that, but I have since learned that they eat a lot of turkey eggs, and turkeys eat a lot more ticks than opossum ever could. Our local turkey population could use a hand. We are also seriously over run with fox, and there is a red tailed hawk nest across the street from me which is putting a hurting on the squirrels and bunnies from what I have seen.
In my lifetime like many I have killed critters for the sake of killing them, but I do not believe that I do that now.
I do have to say that when I put an instant kill on a hosp, starling, pigeon etc that is sitting on top of a silo or whatever facing me, and it does not move at all except to fall over stone cold dead, I call it a "Stillwell angel". This comes from the movie "A League of their own". The annoying little kid is taunting the team with " You're gonna lose" repeatedly, Tom Hanks tosses a glove in his face and knocks him out. He falls over like described above. I laugh every time I see that part and I can't help but laugh when i see a pest bird do the same. Especially when they fall 50 or 60 feet onto a tin roof, the thud is great. I'm just saying.
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