A Badger Story

[XBT]

Gunload Master’s and swheeler’s discussion about a badger on another thread reminds me of my own experience with badgers.

I have two golden retrievers that I often take walking near my rural home. One day while my wife and I were walking the dogs they ran across a badger. Those of you who know badgers know they seldom refuse a fight, and this one was no exception. I didn’t want to hurt him so I dove into the fight and grabbed each dog by the collar.
I twisted the collars some to get the dogs attention, and then dragged them off the badger. That ungrateful varmint, thinking he had whipped the dogs, decided to whip me too, and went to chewing on my leg.

Picture this, if you will. A gray-haired old man, with a slung mauser bouncing on his shoulder, a mad dog in each hand, dancing around on one leg, while a very mad badger is clamped onto the other leg.

All the while my wife, at a safe distance of course, is shouting, “do something, DO SOMETHING!!!”

Well I “did something”, but it wasn’t quick or pretty. It took three shots and I was very happy that I missed both the dogs and my foot which was still in the badger’s mouth at the time.

We were all losers in this deal. The dogs lost some hide and hair, I lost a perfectly good pair of trousers, and the poor badger lost most of all.

The worst part is, now the dogs think fighting badgers is great sport, and have done so several more times.

As for me, I now mostly carry a revolver on my walks; I find it works better than a rifle at ranges of less than one foot. I also try to start shooting BEFORE the badger grabs my leg.

Be carefull of badgers... Jim

[StarMetal]

Man, that's unbelieveable. Too me pound for pound two of what I think the meanest little critters are: a badger and a wolverine. I sure a heck wouldn't want either to be chewin on me. Glad you came out of it ok. Yeah, wives are cool when stuff like that happen...they do as your wife did.

Joe

[shooter575]

XBT, ROTFLMAO The picture I have is too funny, Glad everyone cept the bager came out OK! Here is SE Michigan Bagers are rare. But 6 or 7 years age there was one spoted on our farm.Had burroed into a hillside along a gravel road that had quite a bit of traffic.Had a lot of woodchucks in that section of the farm. Bager moved in,chucks moved out! I never saw him.Had bunch of locals that all came around to tell me about him though. I bet some one poped him for his hide though

[carpetman]

When I was a kid,our next door neighbor came and got my dad to take care of something that was chasing his dog. It was a badger and it ran into a culvert under our drive way. My dad 12 guaged it,and thats the only badger I've seen in Texas. Come to think of it,never have seen one anywhere else. My brother and I shook up the same neighbor when we brought two armadillos from the lake and turned them loose.

[Buckshot]

...........XBT, you need a bayonet for that Mauser for up close and personal work.

............Buckshot

[drinks]

Carpetman;
The se quarter of Texas is thick with badgers, just most of the time they are out at night.
My cousin at Freer livetrapped one, got it out of the hog trap and wrapped it up in a doubled burlap bag and threw it in the trunk of his Model B Ford, about a mile down the road, the badger came through the back seat and headed for my cousin, for once , he showed some sense and turned off the switch, opened the door and bailed out, was only doing about 10-15 mph on the ranch road.
Last time he tried to bring one home.
Don