THIEF!

[atchman2]

Last night I resolved to get rid of the possum terror behind my house.  That was the goal until I took my decongestant and fell asleep.  I did wake up at around 5 AM and heard the dinger go off.  There was a raccoon outside a HUGE ONE!  When I couldn't get a shot at the side of his head I passed on it.  I could have shot him between the eyes but I wasn't sure that would work.  

Anyway, I went back asleep until my daughter needed a ride to school.  When I came back the dinger was going full tilt because there were squirrels everywhere!  I grabbed the 350 and my tin of CPHPs and bolted out the door.  The squirrel gave me a perfect profile and I dropped him with a head shot; or so I thought.  I don't know if it was the twitching, but he was standing up again so I put one at an angle that had to go through his ear and out the front.  That time he didn't move!  

Instead of going to get it, I waited because my wife had breakfast ready.  I went down to check my bait area (it smelled like skunk), to get the Game Camera, and to pick up my squirrel.  It was GONE!!  The camera tells the tale of a certain feline thief!  It was my OWN cat!  She was in sleeping on my feet earlier in the evening.  I let her out and she ROBS me.  

Chip the Wonder Dog and I then went out to hunt a new subdivision being built.  Saw some cuttings, none fresh, and gave up and went home.  Fell on my tush and got me and the 350 pretty muddy.  I've got to clean us both up in a bit.  

Here is the camera footage and picture of the culprit!  On the good side my squirrel re-stocking is going well-now to cull them back again  

In the second picture down you can see me dumping some scraps into the bait pile.  Look how fast the raccoon comes in to eat!  I was trying to get the small boy child to go to sleep and missed out on shooting it.  

The last picture is of the THiEF!

[longislandhunter]

Randy,,,,, those are some great pics buddy, that trail camera is great.  Sorry to hear about the stolen squirrel but at least it was taken by a "friendly" instead of the "enemy"  

Seems as though the local critters have locked the location of your bait station into their internal GPS     and with all that activity it's only a matter of time until you get a harvest or 2.  

Keep postin the trail cam pics.... I love em  

As for falling down and gettin all muddy.... don't feel to bad about it, we've all been there.  I remember one time many years ago a friend and I were shotgun hunting starlings at a duck farm (not the one I hunt at now) and as I turned the corner of a barn I slipped and fell flat on my back.  After years of having thousands of ducks in them the ground in the pens is really just packed down duck poop and it's really thick.  It had rained for 2 days prior to our hunt and yup, you guessed it, all that poop turns into an oatmeal consistency.  When I fell on my back my whole body sunk into that wet, sloppy poop about 6 inches, from my head to my feet.  It was horrible, I can't even describe the smell !!  My buddy made me wrap myself in an old blanket before he'd let me get in his car for the ride home.   To this day my friend busts my chops over that.   So you seek,,, it's happened to all of us....

Jeff

[atchman2]

If I shot the Raccoon dead on instead of under the ear, do you think it would go down?

[airiscool]

Randy,
 
Nice pictures.  With all those night critters, if you don't start shooting some, you'll never get any sleep with all that dingin'!  

If it was me, I'd have gone for the front head shot, and do a quick reload.

Paul.

[atchman2]

I'm actually thinking of leaving my Blue Streak pumped up for a second shot? That way I don't have to fumble for another pellet, I can just flip the safety off and let loose.

[airiscool]

Jeff,
"...............It was horrible, I can't even describe the smell !! ............"

I remember it was as bad as an open cesspool with a double helping of ammonia !!!!! And I was only standing in it  ankle deep where we'd hide-in-wait inside the duck houses. First 15 minutes were the worst trying to breath as shollow as possable until the nose gave up on being able to smell anything.  We'd wash our boots off before leaving the duck farm, but we still had to ride home with the truck windows open, then leave the boots outside for days to air out !!!!!!

Still, it was great fun with a sky full of black birds to shoot at !!!!!

Paul.

[airiscool]

Randy,
Good idea !!!

Paul.

[longislandhunter]

Randy,, I think the 350 would do the job with a frontal shot, especially if you use Predators   , but even a domed would do the job, however the ability for a fast follow up shot is indeed a good idea.  Heck, it's always a good idea most of the time, after I shoot a critter the first thing I  always do is reload fast....

Ed (Shadow) could tell you for sure about a frontal shot on a raccoon.... he's shot more raccoons than Davy Crocket  

Jeff

[atchman2]

airiscool - 1/27/2010  11:04 AM

Randy,
 
Nice pictures.  With all those night critters, if you don't start shooting some, you'll never get any sleep with all that dingin'!  

If it was me, I'd have gone for the front head shot, and do a quick reload.

Paul.

I seem to keep waking up for Skunks and cats

[1377x]

good story nice pis
to bad you let the cat out of the bag

[atchman2]

I've got the night vision camera ready for tonight!  It is an older model Sony with the NightShot on it.  I've got to wait until my houseguests leave tonight before blazing away.  Might be warm enough to just bundle up and sit outside until midnight.  After all heat is only a few feet away.

[dk1677]

Congrats on the tree rat! sorry about the feline thief, lots of other targets there!

[Bogey]

It seems that the only critter that did not show up was Winnie the Pooh.  Oh, and Smokey the Bear.

[shadow]

You nail between the peeper's directly or just above them and those Bandit's will go down, dropped my share of them with a third eye shot. As mentioned though always reload and approach with caution, give em a poke poke with the barrel to check for those possum players. Here's some harvest that had a third eye installed by a Predator.  

[atchman2]

Nice (GULP) pictures