24hourcampfire.com
24hourcampfire.com
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Hop To
Page 2 of 2 1 2
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 11,699
D
Campfire Outfitter
Offline
Campfire Outfitter
D
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 11,699
I was bush hogging some 3-5 foot tall weeds on a small no cab tractor when I was in high school. Rand over and chopped up a family of skunks. Running them through a bush hog mower sure will make them spray.


NRA Patron
BP-B6

Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 17,179
Campfire Ranger
Offline
Campfire Ranger
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 17,179
But does it kill them?


Screw you! I'm voting for Trump again!

Ecc 10:2
The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but that of a fool to the 24HCF.
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 4,147
Owl Offline
Campfire Tracker
Offline
Campfire Tracker
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 4,147
When I was a teen, I used to trap muskrats, weasels, mink etc.

More than once I caught a skunk or two. But I got lucky. Most all of them died and were frozen by the time I got to them the next day.

But, they all sprayed... I was sure grateful that they took care of adding a great cover scent to my trap line.



Jeff

Last edited by Owl; 05/15/16.

James Pepper: There's no law west of Dodge and no God west of the Pecos. Right, Mr. Chisum? John Chisum: Wrong, Mr. Pepper. Because no matter where people go, sooner or later there's the law. And sooner or later they find God's already been there.
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 2,691
J
Campfire Regular
Offline
Campfire Regular
J
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 2,691
I saw a blip in the last couple of days that the Israeli Defense Ministry had synthesized skunk scent for riot control purposes to replace the "in humane" tear gas.

Personally, I have used CS gas and it generally gets on the user. I will take on gas over skunk any day. (I have had skunk too).

Careful there,

Jack


"Do not blame Caesar, blame the people...who have...rejoiced in their loss of freedom....Blame the people who hail him when he speaks of the 'new, wonderful, good, society'...to mean ,..living fatly at the expense of the industrious." Cicero
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 57,371
R
Campfire Kahuna
Offline
Campfire Kahuna
R
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 57,371
There has been synthesized for years... used to have A and B bottles to mix a drop of each for hunting cover...


We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
IC B2

Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,450
D
Campfire Regular
Offline
Campfire Regular
D
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,450
The skunk scent is chemically a mecaptain and is similar to but not the same as the stuff added to natural gas to make natural gas smellable. A company, Meiller Research using a A&M chemist Tex Isebell,in College Station TX first synahisized and marketed, Skunk Screen, the 2 part formulation of real skunk mercaptain.

Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 13,919
J
Campfire Outfitter
Offline
Campfire Outfitter
J
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 13,919
Back in the late 80's and early 90's when deer archery season started up each fall you could pretty well count on one or more bow hunters bringing skunk cover scent to work and putting some in the forced air duct system that ran throughout the plant. Surprising how just a little bit can be so overwhelming.

Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 1,735
Campfire Regular
Offline
Campfire Regular
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 1,735
Nothing like a fresh, full skunk spray. Back in my trapping days I caught them at times, mostly coon sets.

We would shoot them, then either leave them a bit or take them out and remake the set.

Just watch your dogs reaction when they smell road kill skunk during a drive. Canines enjoy and are curious about the smell.

Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 7,127
G
Campfire Tracker
Offline
Campfire Tracker
G
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 7,127
In general, I don't like to kill skunks as they are an efficient insectivore and eat pounds of grasshoppers. However, when one invades the campground I have to do something about it and have found a shotgun to work best. What doesn't work is me trying to hit a running skunk with a 357 pistol while simultaneously trying to hold back an excited airdale.
A neighbor was telling me he had discovered how to get those skunks. He said he went out into the hayfield at night and there were always a bunch of skunks out eating grasshoppers and he could get them with the 12 gauge. I told him that was good and the last thing he wanted was skunks decimating his grasshopper crop. "Hadn't thought of it that way", he said. GD

Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 9,822
H
Campfire Outfitter
Offline
Campfire Outfitter
H
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 9,822
Skunk eradication was a pure joy for my dad and he used the shoot-the-spin method to prevent spraying.

It was an optimization of minimizing spray and preventing them from getting back to the den under posts piles or buildings.

I use the deflate method in live traps.

The 12 ga buck shot at 25 foot range never seemed to prevent spray, but it put a smile on my face.


Other than that, How was the show Mrs. Lincoln?
IC B3

Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 1,064
J
Campfire Regular
OP Offline
Campfire Regular
J
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 1,064
My daughter's dog has been sprayed twice by himself and he and I walked thru a rain mist where one had sprayed next to the house. I use a very strong flashlight to scan when we go out at night and shoot any skunks found. We have only had two so far this year.


2 b 1 ask 1 !
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 29,664
Campfire Ranger
Offline
Campfire Ranger
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 29,664
Wife and I woke to noise in the wall tent a couple years back. When I switched on the flashlight there was a skunk looking at me from the foot of my sleeping bag. As it ventured to the back of the tent I reached out and unzipped the door so it could escape. We got by unscathed (thankfully our dog was deaf), but wife now insists on a sealed up and floored tent. No encounters yet, but she also refuses to sleep in any tent if we venture into grizzly country.


1Minute
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 15,457
N
Campfire Ranger
Offline
Campfire Ranger
N
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 15,457
Originally Posted by 1minute
Wife and I woke to noise in the wall tent a couple years back. When I switched on the flashlight there was a skunk looking at me from the foot of my sleeping bag. As it ventured to the back of the tent I reached out and unzipped the door so it could escape. We got by unscathed (thankfully our dog was deaf), but wife now insists on a sealed up and floored tent. No encounters yet, but she also refuses to sleep in any tent if we venture into grizzly country.


I don't blame her one bit...and if you don't think the same way you're about one beer short of a sixpack grin


NRA Life,Endowment,Patron or Benefactor since '72.
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 10,238
Campfire Outfitter
Offline
Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 10,238
Originally Posted by greydog
In general, I don't like to kill skunks as they are an efficient insectivore and eat pounds of grasshoppers.


From what I understand they do a fair job on quail and pheasant eggs also. If I had my druthers, it'd be the quail and pheasant population taking care of grasshoppers.


Black Cows Matter!
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 7,127
G
Campfire Tracker
Offline
Campfire Tracker
G
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 7,127
I don't doubt it. However, we have many skunks, many grouse, many turkeys (quail and pheasant don't live here). The skunks seem to spend most of their time digging for grubs and eating grasshoppers at night (although they occasionaly like to go for Mattie's dog food).
I can tolerate the skunks even though they occasionally make the dog smell bad. I can't tolerate porcupines because their defense mechanism is too costly. GD

Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 12,492
R
Campfire Outfitter
Offline
Campfire Outfitter
R
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 12,492
Originally Posted by Jericho
When I was a teenager I did some trapping and one morning I caught a large skunk and shot it with a 22 rifle and left it for after school to remove. It was a cold windy day and the trap set was in a small ravine picked up the trap with skunk still in it and opened the jaws and allowed it to drop on the ground. The smell was strong and the wind seemed to be placing it everywhere. I felt a little light headed, the smell was that strong. Went back a day or so later and the skunk was gone, most likely a fox?



Naw, most likely buzzards. Buzzards will literally eat anything they can get down. Dad was driving down the road one day and disturbed one off a roadkilled skunk, and it circled around and puked on his brand-new Ford pickup.
Dad headed for town, and the quarter car-wash. He spent about $5 trying to get the stench off his new pickup.


You can roll a turd in peanuts, dip it in chocolate, and it still ain't no damn Baby Ruth.
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 31,969
L
las Offline
Campfire 'Bwana
Offline
Campfire 'Bwana
L
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 31,969
When I was in HS, we once caught a baby skunk and kept it for several days. Mild odor. Don't remember how it was disposed of - probably released in same area. Probably then died. Teenagers ain't too smart.

Then there was the scheme to get rich, trapping raccoons. Art Mortfedt had the traps, I had the car... the third or so time we got sent home from school for skunk smell, that plan kinda fell thru. I gave up trapping.

Far as I know, Art is still trapping, not in NoDak, but up on the south slope of the Brooks Range (no skunks!). We both wound up in Alaska a few years later, independently. It was about 30 years before I ran into him again at the Sourdough Cafe one morning in Fairbanks. He has been more adventuresome than I. He has a lodge/guides out of S. Slope of Brooks Range and has flown his light plane to both poles, goferred at S Pole research stations, and been on Antarctic meteorite recovery trip, etc..

He said he doesn't like to get south of the Alaska Range, unless its Antarctica. His wife taught for years in Manley Hot Springs, where I stage out of for my remote cabin down-river, but somehow we were never there at the same time.

You can google him, but he neglected the skunk part in there.... smile


The only true cost of having a dog is its death.

Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 31,969
L
las Offline
Campfire 'Bwana
Offline
Campfire 'Bwana
L
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 31,969
In Jr. College, I was home one weekend and took a long evening foot-hunt north of town (pop 400), only turning around near dark, some 5 miles out. It was pitch black with no moon or else an overcast by the time I was a mile or so from home, but I was following a high river-bank game/cow-trail by feel- no light. I literally could not see my hand held at arms length.

A step to the left and it dropped off, a step to the right I was in knee high grass. No problem. Been doing that trail for a decade.

Suddenly I heard a drumming sound right in front of me. Like, 2 feet in front of my toes. I bent way over to see, and there -2 feet from my eyes - was a skunk bore-sighted on me, tail arced over its back, back hunched, front legs furiously hammering the ground.

I took that to mean it wouldn't like the smell any more than I would..... smile

My respects, Mr. or Ms. skunk!

A year later I was in Alaska, where it is safer.


The only true cost of having a dog is its death.

Page 2 of 2 1 2

Moderated by  RickBin 

Link Copied to Clipboard
YB23

Who's Online Now
104 members (16penny, 257_X_50, 338Rules, 444Matt, 32_20fan, 14 invisible), 1,756 guests, and 788 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Forum Statistics
Forums81
Topics1,187,726
Posts18,400,701
Members73,822
Most Online11,491
Jul 7th, 2023


 







Fish & Game Departments | Solunar Tables | Mission Statement | Privacy Policy | Contact Us | DMCA
Hunting | Fishing | Camping | Backpacking | Reloading | Campfire Forums | Gear Shop
Copyright © 2000-2024 24hourcampfire.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5
(Release build 20201027)
Responsive Width:

PHP: 7.3.33 Page Time: 0.088s Queries: 14 (0.004s) Memory: 0.8867 MB (Peak: 1.0147 MB) Data Comp: Zlib Server Time: 2024-03-29 07:22:27 UTC
Valid HTML 5 and Valid CSS