I saw a skunk playing pickaboo in the culvert under my driveway when I pulled in from a field target match on Saturday. "How convenient," I thought to myself. Grabbed the .20 Veteran out of the back seat, zipped open the case and chambered a .20/13.73grain JSB, stepped out of my truck, turned the scope power WAY down......and waited. Took the little stinker a few minutes to work up enough courage to make a break for it. I was ready. Found him in the scope and squeezed off one shot, right into his vitals, slightly quartering away shot. I could tell it was a good shot, from seeing where the pellet impacted, watching his reaction, and the very satisfying "plop" sound that the pellet made on impact. He dropped back down into the ditch that the culvert empties into, out of sight. Maybe a 35 yard shot, at most.
I expected stink. And I also decided to just let it be and check up on him the next day. Basically I took the archery deer hunting approach that you do when you know you put a good shot on the animal. ie, let him just lay down and die, versus being impatient and potentially jumping him and letting adrenalin get the animal farther than it would go sans adrenalin. Last thing I wanted to deal with was a pissed off skunk, in close quarters, emphasis on the PISSED off, in all meanings of that word.
Checked up on the situation on Sunday after church, and found this right where he dropped out of sight. He didn't even make it back into the culvert.
Just the very slight hint of thiol group "skunk." He very certainly didn't release the juice. For which I'm grateful. I used a long handled pitchfork to relocate his corpse. That's the third one this summer. Two of which for sure didn't spray. The third one was unknown about spray on projectile impact, as he was 135 yards away and I didn't find him til the buzzards showed me where he was, at which time he certainly DID smell like a skunk. I normally don't like to shoot skunks, mostly b/c I don't like dealing with the smell. But these three were hanging around my house too much. Two of the three (the earlier ones this summer) had actually moved in under my Conex. This one on Saturday was in the culvert about 25 yards from my house. And would often run down the side of the house when we'd get home late at night. The fear was that he'd end up in our garage.
Here's the gun. 19fpe in the right spot will do the job.
I expected stink. And I also decided to just let it be and check up on him the next day. Basically I took the archery deer hunting approach that you do when you know you put a good shot on the animal. ie, let him just lay down and die, versus being impatient and potentially jumping him and letting adrenalin get the animal farther than it would go sans adrenalin. Last thing I wanted to deal with was a pissed off skunk, in close quarters, emphasis on the PISSED off, in all meanings of that word.
Checked up on the situation on Sunday after church, and found this right where he dropped out of sight. He didn't even make it back into the culvert.
Just the very slight hint of thiol group "skunk." He very certainly didn't release the juice. For which I'm grateful. I used a long handled pitchfork to relocate his corpse. That's the third one this summer. Two of which for sure didn't spray. The third one was unknown about spray on projectile impact, as he was 135 yards away and I didn't find him til the buzzards showed me where he was, at which time he certainly DID smell like a skunk. I normally don't like to shoot skunks, mostly b/c I don't like dealing with the smell. But these three were hanging around my house too much. Two of the three (the earlier ones this summer) had actually moved in under my Conex. This one on Saturday was in the culvert about 25 yards from my house. And would often run down the side of the house when we'd get home late at night. The fear was that he'd end up in our garage.
Here's the gun. 19fpe in the right spot will do the job.
