Caught a porcupine in the yard that had been eating the bark on one of our apple trees, all I could get my hands on before he got into the sagebrush was about a 5' long fence board.
He was kinda hard to kill but I was determined and successful. Had to kill a rattlesnake the same way one day he almost made it to the brush too.
That was some of the reasons I bought the NAA 22LR that has been in my front pocket ever since
Use enough gun. a .375 H &H with 270 gr bullets works great! Trust me....
