Strangest Hunting Method

Anybody read Danny, the Champion of the World ? They could have used Birdlime, or possibly threaded long horse-hairs with raisins and just hauled the pheasants in.

There's another method I heard of for those partial to seagull. A small stone is hidden inside a bit of bread and chucked skyward for the flying rat. The sudden unexpected increase in mass causes the gull to stall (supposedly).

Here's another pheasant method I pinched ;

"My neighbor told me one way of poaching pheasants. You take a house brick and fill the cavity with corn and then leave it in a field about 100 yards from a hedge. You take a 12 bore shotgun and hide behind the hedge. When the pheasant comes along and starts pecking at the corn you fire the shotgun in the air and the pheasant is so surprised it knocks itself out on the brick." Doh !

Not so strange a method, I guess, but thought I'd share this. Today, one of our crews was clearing and grubbing some brush and trees where we will be installing a settling pond. I got a call on the radio about 1330 that they had a rattlesnake that needed relocating. Off I go with my self-built snake stick, and one of the Safety Dept. guys as assistant. To make a long story short, I took about 5 minutes to locate, snare, and pull out an eastern diamondback rattlesnake (with some of the prettiest camoflage coloration I've ever seen on one) a little over 5 feet long, some 5 inches in diameter for most of that length, easily 15 pounds in weight, and with a head nearly 2 inches across. He had 12 rattles plus a bud, so was a minimum of 13 years of age. The rattles were clearly audible from a distance of 40 feet. We took him across to the far side of the area being cleared, and put him under the chain link fence into an adjacent simarly wooded and brushy area, where he eventually apparently made himself at home.

All in a day's work at MY office. How'd y'all do for grits and shins?

As for me I'll stay away from bottom feeders. When I was a boy we lived down river from a neuclear power plant. One of our neighbors (an engineer from France I believe) showed my dad how to prepare carp. I didn't think it was all that good (muddy flavor and all). That was in 1960 and a short time later a grain barge sank right about where the carp was caught. It took a while to begin a salvage operation and by the time they did the Army Corps of Engineers stopped them because the boat had become too hot (radioactive) to raise safely. I wonder if I still glow in the dark!!

On another note; the main reasons that an introduced species will outstrip natives is that 1) the other native flora and fauna have not built up defense mechinisms toward the intruder 2) the intruder, having been introduced into new surroundings, ramps up all its defense and offense mechanisms as a means of surviving it's new habitat. That is at least what I was taught while working with noxious weeds for the rural county I live in.

They taught you right - that's exactly what happens. Especially the part about no natural defense mechanisms - intruders can often outcompete natives due to this. And if they cannot, then they are not around long enough to pose a problem. There are many more species introductions that fail than that succeed, but you just don't hear about the failures. But give the new kid on the block a niche to hang out in, and Katy bar the door! OBTW, which river did you live on?

That's the Columbia River in Washington State. We lived in Richland at the time, gateway community to Hanford neuclear works. My father was an engineer at an aluminum giant which shall remain unnamed at this point. He was let go over a dispute about something he invented in his own time. I guess he didn't read the fine print about not owning his own time.

"...hoping to slow the bear down..."

Glad THAT worked out for him! Whoosh, talk about yer close calls...

My grandpa grew up as the oldest of 5 boys on a farm in Michigan. He had a tremendous storehouse of stories that fascinated us kids and made my mother's hair stand on end!

Grandpa said there was a cash market for skunk pelts and rendered skunk fat - apparently it was used in ointments - so he and his brothers went skunk hunting. Here's how:

Take a flexible willow branch, and split the tip end in two - about a 12-inch split. Put a small peg in the base of the split to hold it open. Tie the two top ends tightly. You now have a flexible stick that ends in slender loop about 12" long. Locate the skunk's den, insert the loop-end of the stick, and stir it around vigorously. (A skunk will not "spray" in its own den, so you're safe so far.) When the loop catches on something, you can assume that it's part of a skunk! Twirl the stick rapidly so that the skunk gets wound around the stick, then yank it out fast and whack the skunk on the head.

Grandpa claimed this worked like a charm. The oldest four hunted all day, leaving the youngest brother to guard the growing heap of skunks. Problem: A few of those skunks were only stunned, not dead. When they came to, they objected strenuously, as only a skunk can! By the time the boys brought their noisome haul back to the farm, their mother wouldn't let them anywhere near the house.

The boys lived in the barn for more than a week, skinning skunks & rendering the fat. They had to buy new clothes and burn the ones they were wearing, so the "net income" was paltry and the adventure was never repeated. But what a grand story for entertaining children!

Why oh why do I get the feeling your grandpa was pulling your legs a bit.....or was the victim of some older kid's idea of a snipe hunt.

When I was younger and stupider (yeah, believe it or not, that is possible), I was the butt of a snipe hunt by some of my older cousins that I did not know real well. They took me out to the middle of a cotton field in Arkansas on a pretext of showing mw something really neat (they would not say what) by letting me ride the handlebars of a bike. After we got there they fed me a line about hearing a bear approach (I was a young stupid city kid from Houston and knew nothing about bears or their likelihood of being in an Arkansas cotton field) and they took off on their bikes just as fast as they could pedal leaving me alone in the middle of that field. I just about shite myself AND gave myself a heart attack running the mile and a half back to the house .

Did you mean?

Rorschach said: "Why oh why do I get the feeling your grandpa was pulling your leg"

OK, maybe so - and what if he was? He was famous for story-telling, not for skunk-hunting. :)

My father overheard one of Grandpa's stories and objected: "Now, Pa, that's not how it happened!"

Grandpa calmly replied: "That's how it SHOULDA happened."

I really loved that guy.

In a previous posting I referred to my relocation of a rather sizeable eastern diamondback rattlesnake, which I illustrated with a generic pic of said snake. I mentioned that if/when a real-life pic became available I would post it here. Therefore: (I don't seem to be able to right it, but if you don't mind looking sideways at a snake, which is the only way some people will look at one, here 'tis.)

You have to get it the right way round before posting!!!