OT what is this strange animal in our backyard

I can't say, I've never had peregrine falcon.

Going back to 1982-83 was easy. No closed season for Porcupine. It read pretty much the same as what I quoted from 2008.

I might have some Rules & Regs from the early 1970's, but I couldn't find them in the "easy" places. Now the next most likely place is way-to-much-work. Haven't looked there for maybe 5 years and that was only because I didn't have any other choice. Ever hear of Fibber McGee's closet? Snort! But wait, it's even worse than that. Have to move many years of accumulation piled in front of the door. I don't think so...

I did find a few other odds and ends though that I had kinda forgotten about, so it wasn't all for naught :)

Maybe Wes has some more insight or is a better pack-rat than I.

Aha. That's why I don't mind cleaning the garage. I always find something I've been missing.

I think Don probably has it right. It's a guess, but it sounds like a good one -- a matter of sportsmanship, rather than a law.

Not just a guess. My dad respected game laws and expected me to as well, but he did invite me to shoot a porkie near Alpena while deer hunting because he didn't think I could hit it with a bow at that distance. (I did) He didn't make me clean it and eat it.

Later I felt a bit ashamed of that, wondering "now why the hell did I do that?" I think that was exactly what he had in mind.

By "guess" I meant that it was a guess that the sportsmanship issue was the root of the legendary legal issue. I recognize that the sportsmanship/ethical issue stands on its own feet.

What you're describing is something like what got me to quit varmint hunting for groundhogs. There were no cows in those fields, no horses...no point.

Porcupines, way back in the bush are somewhat harmless, around man the are a nuisance - chewed up seat board in the out house and ruined wooden handles for the salt, injured curious pets, to mention only a couple. Groundhogs and agriculture don't mix, period. Anyone who disagrees with me can go hug a porcupine! Gerry :-)} London, Canada

But neuter first, with a Ginsu knife from the kitchen.

Its only common courtesy.

Gunner

One could not be a successful Leftwinger without realizing that, in contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of Leftwingers, a goodly number of Leftwingers are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid. Gunner Asch

Dang! Time to hose out my keyboard again. Thanks a lot Don!

Pete

I have a couple of magnum air guns in that class, and I enjoy them. But for the same or more power with less noice, nothing beats a bolt-action or lever .22 with a long (22" or more) barrel shooting CB Caps. The only noise you hear is of the firing pin and of the bullet hitting the target. No blast at all.

Energy on target is several times that of a pellet gun, with less noise. That said, neither would be appropriate for small game.

I used CB caps for killing squirrels in my parents' back yard. As you say, they're all but silent. And one will go right through a squirrel. I killed at least a dozen of them, and never had one escape wounded.

Well, given the under-the-porch location, my Dad's ultimate weapon might not be an option for you, the "woodchuck smoke bomb". Prep the end of the paper cartridge with a few nail holes, find the den, drop in the lit cartridge, shovel the hole closed. Watch for smoke from other parts of the yard (a woodchuck den will sometimes have 3 or 4 exits. You may have to repeat a couple times if you find other exits.)

Seems he would get at least one in his bean patch every year (a few yards from a drainage ditch that always had water in it) and if he couldn't get it with the .22 pellet gun, would resort to this as the "always works." The local farm store "Agway" carried them.

Though when they started trying to dig a den in the gravel floor of his toolshed, he mixed in some portland cement and hit it with the hose before putting all the tools back the next day. You might want to consider something similar for the dirt under your porch. You don't necessarily need it full concrete hard, just harder to dig in than it was.

We had a farmer who worked the piece across the road growing up (before it got turned into sprawl) whose weapon of choice was "set and forget": his black lab. And the next-door-neighbor once ran over to show us his pair of shepherds had treed one about 20' up a 25' sappling, the tree bobbing back and forth from the weight, the dogs just sitting and waiting...

YMMV --Glenn Lyford

Head shots?

About half the time. The first one was aimed at the head, but went clean through the chest. Some others were through the body rather than the head.

A CB cap in a rifle chambered for long rifle ammo often is not accurate. My ancient single-shot .22 was very accurate with standard velocity .22 LR (I used it to earn my Marksmanship Merit Badge). But it was not good with shorts, and even worse with CB caps. It slung them in about a 1" circle at

50 feet. The bullet makes a long jump to the rifling. I missed some shots clean that I never would have missed with LRs.

It was good enough to kill the squirrels that sat in an oak tree that hung over my parents' swimming pool and tossed the acorn shell pieces into the deep end. d8-) I never minded vacuuming whole acorns (I could get most of them up with a net) but bits of shell would clog the filter intake.

BTW, I also tried some BB caps in that rifle. I got them from England; they had copper shell cases, or possibly they were red brass. The original BB caps from the 1920s and '30s fired round balls but by the time I got mine, around 1964, they were using very short conical bullets. Their accuracy in that rifle was absolutely terrible.

Tried CB Longs? Less jump. I do need to figure out which of my rifles shoots those best. Might be interest to chamber a cheap bolt gun to .22 short or long as a dedicated CB gun.

Another possibility is the Aquila SSS. Full length, light charge. Louder than CB but quieter than even a .22 short. Supposedly great with a suppressor

Some people I know in south Jersey have rechambered their .22 bolt-action rifles for shorts. In NJ we can't hunt with a .22, except for 'possum and 'coons, at night, with a .22 short (or that was the law 10 years ago, the last time I looked).

Weird, huh? I shot those squirrels illegally over 30 years ago. I don't do things like that anymore.

(I just checked -- it's still limited to .22 shorts, 'possum and 'coons only.)

The people I hunted rac(c)oon with were Fish & Game officials, friends of my father. Raccoons are nocturnal and the only practical way to hunt them is with dogs, which chase them up a tree. Then you have to shoot into the air with bullets that won't cause damage coming down. They used mostly .410 shot, and .22 shorts if they could aim at the silhouette.

I read an old study somewhere on the hazards of falling military bullets that had been fired up at or from aircraft. At terminal velocity .30 caliber was annoying but not a catastrophe. .50 caliber was lethal.

jsw

Car exhaust keeps them passive, longer.

The people I hunted rac(c)oon with were Fish & Game officials, friends of my father. Raccoons are nocturnal and the only practical way to hunt them is with dogs, which chase them up a tree. Then you have to shoot into the air with bullets that won't cause damage coming down. They used mostly .410 shot, and .22 shorts if they could aim at the silhouette.

I read an old study somewhere on the hazards of falling military bullets that had been fired up at or from aircraft. At terminal velocity .30 caliber was annoying but not a catastrophe. .50 caliber was lethal.

jsw

============================================

Yeah, that's the whole issue with rifles in NJ. I see that the laws haven't changed since I was hunting here. I used to have a rifle permit and I could hunt squirrels in the winter season with a muzzleloader of up to .36 caliber, or deer with .44 caliber or greater. The only other rifle hunting is the 'coons and 'possums with .22 shorts. Trappers can use rifles and .22 shorts to dispatch trapped animals. Commuting to NYC on the train, I used to see a muskrat trapper poling his boat through the swamp...er, the Meadowlands , with a .22 rifle across a thwart. Behind him you could see the Empire State Building and midtown Manhattan. It was quite an ironic contrast.

There is an exception for woodchucks. .25 caliber rimfire or smaller, and centerfire up to .25 caliber. That's the only centerfire rifle hunting in NJ.

Being the mostly densely populated state, NJ is not a place for rifle hunting. Where I used to do most of my squirrel hunting, at Clinton Wildlife Management Area, the woods butted right up against a housing development. You really had to stay oriented and think about where you were shooting.

BTW, we can use rifled slugs for deer hunting.