Skunks?

B

Blake

New member
First question: How tough are skunks? In other words, how effective is a .22 short at close range?
Second question: Has anyone ever seen a skunk that was 80% or more white? I thought most skunks were predominantly black.

Consider this my prelude to an "I know a guy..." story involving some backyard nocturnal skunk hunting. In the immortal words of Carl Spackler, "In order to defeat the enemy, one must think like the enemy, become the enemy. Like the Vietcong, or, the varmintcong." I'll get back to this one later.

Blake
 
.22 short at close range in the head will kill a skunk, I don't know how shoot him without him spraying, I've heard that a headshot will keep him from spraying. I've tried IT DON'T WORK, some say a spinal shot will do it,I don't know. I live in somewhat of a farming region and I've seen alot of skunks, every size, and color, from solid black to almost solid white and everything in between,even orange /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif I shot one while groundhog hunting and the only black on him was his feet, he was using an old groundhog hole as a den and I guess year of going in and out of the red clay had stained his fur because he was the color of a red fox he just smell worse.
 
Blake if you intend to shoot one, shoot it through the LUNGS not the head or any other part of the body. By shooting it through the lungs you have a less chance of it spraying. But dont count on it as a sure thing. Just the best place to shoot with best results of not spraying. Yes a 22 short will be fine... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif Shoot and run........
 
Problem resolved! I'll just say that I never cease to be amazed at how tough animals really are. MOST of the time I score one shot kills whether it's fox, coyote, waterfowl, doves, etc... However, you hear of stories from deer hunters that knock out a chunk the size of a brick from a deer, and it runs to the next county. The other night, "a guy I know" hit a skunk at about 20 feet with a .22 short in a neighbor's backyard. The shot caused the skunk to collapse and roll over on his back. "He" then walked back around to his own backyard and shined a flashlight where this had just taken place, the skunk was gone. Yes, it sprayed. The next day "he" found blood in the yard from the initial impact, and followed a trail of blood underneath the sun porch. The skunk didn't go far, but he did manage to go 50 yards or so. Oh well, even solid hits and well placed bullets don't always anchor a critter. Which leads me back to my question of whether or not a .22 short was "enough gun." This "guy" had never shot an animal with a short before. Thanks.

Blake
 
I used to maintain a golf course, skunks were a huge problem there, they would tear up the greens something awful. My nightly ritual would be to grab my rifle a box of 22cb's and head out for an hour or so. It never ceased to amaze me how many skunks were around. I could shoot 2 or 3 a night and never go a night without seeing any. I don't know if it was luck, but I never once had one spray, nor did I have to shoot them more then one time. I always went for a spinal shot as an old crusty farmer once told me a head shot srews them up nerve wise and they have the tendency to spray.
Any ways, I used 22 cb's and they worked fine. We had to use these as there were houses surrounding the course and did not want to wake the nieghbors.
 
should never shoot skunks in the head as they can carry the rabies virus in the cerebrial tissue of the brain and a shot to the head could spread the virus quicker.
 
I hate skunks in town, I have a dog and while he hasnt learned skunk yet, the last one sure had. It can be a real problem, because once they learn skunk they allways want another round. "I'm gonna win this time by god!!!!" Anyways this "guy I know" may have shot 3 or 4 of them last summer using everything from winchester super x's to aguilla sub sonic sniper 60 grn. Even with good hits nothing seemed to anchor them in place, but they certianly thinned out in the neighborhood. I woke up to the smell of skunk this moring, I better talk to that "guy I know" and get him to work on the problem some more. It's good to know that cb's will do the job.
 
Originally posted by BeaverWeb:
[qb]should never shoot skunks in the head as they can carry the rabies virus in the cerebrial tissue of the brain and a shot to the head could spread the virus quicker.[/qb]
Click to expand...
BeaverWeb...

Once the animal is dead and the body has began to cool the rabies virus can not survive at below normal body temparatures for any considerable length of time. The only reason officials ask not to shoot a rabies suspect in the head is so they can perform rabies testing on the brain tissue. If there is none or not enough left, then they can't test it... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
No problem BW...

I'm just glad that the 15 years I spent in Animal Control are paying off in some way... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
Coyote scents will get rid of them. Next time you get a yote, extract the urine, or some of the hair or something.

The skunks will actually "Leave Town". They wont stay long where they think a coyote is.
 
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