An off topic Aw Sh*t

[Gussy]

Came into the shop yesterday and there was a faint skunk odor. As I went back to turn on the air compressor I heard a scratching noise. Aw Sh*t. It's coming from my dust/chip fan. The way he came in is an 8' drop and on the intake side 10' back up to the ceiling. NO way out. Double AW SH*T.

The plan.......... The intake side is a 6" pipe. Cut a 6" hole in the top of a 5 gal plastic bucket and put an el into it. Quickly remove the intake side and put the bucket in it's place and the skunk will go into the bucket........... sooner or later.
OK, that parts good but what if he makes a run for it while I'm "holding the bag"?

Part 2 of plan "A" (the sequel in a 2, maybe 3 or 4 part story..... yet to end) Go out to the truck (diesel) and get the emergency can of starting fluid (ether). Drill a 1/4" hole about a foot above where he might be. Put him to sleep THEN pull the pipe an if he's within reach put him in the bucket, if not, use the elbow and bucket.

It took damn near 2/3 can before the noise quit. Quickly pulled the pipe and looked, no critter. Even faster put the new pipe in it's place into the bucket. Did I mention the the bucket is 3/4 full of water? How long can a skunk tread water?
Gus

[KCSO]

Gussy
Although I haven't skinned skunks in the wood shed for almost 12 years now the shed still smell like skunk, though not as bad on a cool day. Just thought you might like to know.

[Gussy]

Well folks, I may be in trouble. I think the AMA is going to pull my anesthesiology lic. It's looking like my patient OD'd and didn't make it. Maybe 2/3 can was too much. I sure hope his relatives don't get "wind" of it or I might end up in court. I'm still going to wait until tomorrow to remove him (just in case he has a possum relative).
gus

[redneckdan]

Ether isn't instantaneous. Takes about 2-5minutes to set in. So probably the first blast was sufficent and the rest of the can was overkill.:roll:

[Beau Cassidy]

It took about 2 months to get the smell out of my garage after one found the cat food bag. I had to dispatch him with a .22 short after he found security behind some boxes. BAD IDEA. He had food and was out of the weather. He wasn't coming out. Luckily the box of skeet stopped the bullet before it got to the propane tank. Now I just bait them ouside on the OTHER side of the street with cat food. I can see them under the street light from my over the garage reloading/guy room and dispatch them by shooting out of the window. In keeping with a cast bullet theme, it keps the skunk smell off of my lead.

Beau

[versifier]

Once upon a time there lived in the beautiful mountains of Olde New England two brothers who were very proud of their shooting skills with their .22's. One summer the local skunks discovered the cat door into the wood shoppe on their farm. Now the younger, smarter brother said to their aging dad, "I'll take my 10/22 and pop the sucker right between the eyes!" and the dad said, "Go for it, but DON'T MISS!"

So the younger (did I say smarter?) brother waited patiently until the stri-ped kitty looked up from the bowl of cat food and popped the sucker right between the eyes. Dead as a mackerel. No spray, no smell, no problem. Rolled it onto a shovel with a piece of scrap wood and outside to be burried. And so it went the same routine with the next three that happened by. And the father, justly proud of the skill with the rifle that he had taught his youngest son, shared his joy with all who would listen, including the older brother, who, let it be known, was soon some sick of listening.

In fact, so sick was he of listening, that he took to keeping a careful eye out so that he, too, might perchance to also bask in the warm glow of praise from the father. And, lo, one evening soon after he had begun his vigil, his patience was rewarded. "AHA," he cried gleefully, "We've got another one. This one's MINE!" Forthwith did he grab his own .22, an ancient single shot bolt action with the front sight bent at a 45* angle. Spake the father with due concern: "You know, the last time I fired that, it shot about an inch to the right of where I aimed." "Relax," replied the older, but not necessarily wiser, brother, "I've been shooting this since I was seven, thirty years. I can't remember the last time I missed with it!" And so saying, he loaded it with a hp round and went forth into the shoppe.

After a few minutes, there came the sound of a shot. The father and the younger brother made it to the door just in time to see one stri-ped kitty, hit in the shoulder, pivot upon its hind legs, tail raised, fill the entire wood shop with the fruit of it's anal glands. "OH FUDGE! (well, not quite, but you get the point)", screamed the older and now panicky brother, "Give me another round quick!" And I (oops, I mean the younger, smarter brother) passed him the box through the barely open door, but my (I mean his) eyes were already watering, even outside. Luckily for the older brother, in the mean time said stri-ped kitty had shuffled of this mortal coil and expired, after having first climbed into the space beneath the table saw and emptied there the remaing charge from said glands heretofore mentioned.

Now, verily, it is almost eighteen summers that have come and gone in the beautiful mountains of Olde New England, and ever yet upon a damp and rainy day one might still chance to catch within the wood shoppe a whiff of a lingering redolence. And when perchance some new pesky critter should dare to show itself within the wood shoppe, the phone of the younger brother now will ring, merrily, and he will happily drive the twenty miles at the request of his now ancient and venerable father, his trusty 10/22 on the seat beside him.

[Dale53]

Versifier;
Good tale!! I enjoyed this immensely.

Dale53

[Gussy]

Pulled the intake pipe today and couldn't reach him. Had to take the front cover off the fan to get to him. Small feller, very dead and no stink. Turned out better than expected.
Gus

[omgb]

I had a run in with a couple of skunks back in '79 on Freeze Out Lake just west of Great Falls MT up on the bench. Any way, it was late fall and I was hunting ducks by jumping them off of the dikes. The grass was knee hing and I was following a path through it when a pair of skunks emerged about 20 paces ahead of me. They continued down the path in the same direction I was heading. The Major (my unit commander ...I was an E4 Sgt.) said something about how those nasty things eat pheaseant eggs and that I ought to do the right thing and shoot them both. Well, not one to shirk my duty, I unloaded first the right and then the left barrel of my Stevens 311 into the south end of that pair. Mistake, mistake, mistake. Wow, it was like a cloud of mustard gas, all yellow and oily and about 10 feet across and it drifted across the still air and settled down on the grass, the ground and me. The stink was enough to knock a buzzard off a honey wagon at 50 paces. needless to say, the Maj had to ride home with me. The windows were open and the air vent was on full tilt boogie the 40 miles or so until we were back in town. My wife made me undress on the front lawn and as expected, tossed my jeans, boots, jacket and my waders. :castmine:

[redneckdan]

we sure got some story tellers here. got some good 'uns too.:drinks:

[bruce drake]

Gussy,

To really screw with your Karma, you need to look up your local PETA organization and deposit that "Restfully Sleeping Denizen of the Woods" on their doorstep.

Other than that, great thinking on the Ether. Makes you wonder if there isn't a little german in your background.....Bad Karma!

Bruce

[kodiak1]

Aw yes summer and skunk stories. This could turn into one long well read funny thread.
Ken.

[bruce drake]

No skunk stories but a pretty funny story about a 200lb St. Bernard and a ittty-bitty porcupine and the resulting several hours of trying to holding down a dog bigger than myself while trying to extricate the hundred or so quills because the overgrown pup decided that an entire porcupine would fit nicely in his mouth like the basketball he liked to play with.

[Slowpoke]

I had a run in with a couple of skunks back in '79 on Freeze Out Lake just west of Great Falls MT up on the bench. Any way, it was late fall and I was hunting ducks by jumping them off of the dikes. The grass was knee hing and I was following a path through it when a pair of skunks emerged about 20 paces ahead of me. They continued down the path in the same direction I was heading. The Major (my unit commander ...I was an E4 Sgt.) said something about how those nasty things eat pheaseant eggs and that I ought to do the right thing and shoot them both. Well, not one to shirk my duty, I unloaded first the right and then the left barrel of my Stevens 311 into the south end of that pair. Mistake, mistake, mistake. Wow, it was like a cloud of mustard gas, all yellow and oily and about 10 feet across and it drifted across the still air and settled down on the grass, the ground and me. The stink was enough to knock a buzzard off a honey wagon at 50 paces. needless to say, the Maj had to ride home with me. The windows were open and the air vent was on full tilt boogie the 40 miles or so until we were back in town. My wife made me undress on the front lawn and as expected, tossed my jeans, boots, jacket and my waders. :castmine:

You should have got a little closer before you shot, it will still stink, but nothing like it does when it gets atomized.

I have had the displeasure of having to deal with over 100 skunks in one ten week stretch, ye old 12 ga at about 6 feet aimed directly below the tail, sure saves a lot of time and wear tear on the sinuses, and a nice breeze at your back is a bonus.

They should bottle that crap, i bet it would work better than pepper spray, I seen my buddies old hound dog lay down and ball after a good shot in the face, I have seen that same dog pull cougar fur and bear fur by himself !

Good luck

[MT Gianni]

I found the best way to shoot one in a leg hold trap was to break the spine between the front shoulders with a 38. A broken spine and lung shot gives a quick death with out the ability to spray but like Versifier says, you better not miss. Gianni.

[Frank46]

We had a summer place in pennsylvania along with 5 other family members. One night a bunch of skunks climber under one family members trailer and commenced biological warfare. Our trailer was across the road and about 100 feet away. The smell was not to be believed. The family members in the bombed trailer spent the night with other relatives. It was not a pretty sight as they tore up the ground underneath the trailer. Took about ten gallons of bleach before the smell was even halfway diminished. Frank

[Wayne Smith]

Gussy,

To really screw with your Karma, you need to look up your local PETA organization and deposit that "Restfully Sleeping Denizen of the Woods" on their doorstep.

Other than that, great thinking on the Ether. Makes you wonder if there isn't a little german in your background.....Bad Karma!

Bruce


If anybody's got one, the PETA National Headquarters is just downtown!

[omgb]

I feel the urge to add one more Skunk story to the melieux. Until three years ago, we had a swamp cooler on the roof instead of central air. This incident I'm about to relate was the trigger for the $7,000 upgrade. A swamp cooler, for the uninitiated, is a large box. The four walls of said box contain wood excelsior pads. A water pan in the bottom of the box holds several gallons of water which is circulated to the top of the box and allowed to flow down over the pads. A squirrel cage fan located in the center draws air through the pads and pumps it down into the house below. When the temp is high outside and the humidity low, this thing can actually knock 20 degrees or more off the inside temp. however, it has a serious flaw. It takes outside air and pumps it by the butt load into the house. Now, so long as that air is pollution free, all is copacetic. Add smoke from a forest fire, fireworks or whatever and the whole house can become unlivable pronto.

There is a slope running uphill away from my house about 20 feet from the back of my roof line. This is pretty wild country and that slope is a highway for coyotes, deer, snakes, teenagers and unfortunately, skunks. One day, with the cooler going like an 18 wheeler barreling down the Continental Divide in Mexican overdrive, my two dogs tangled with a pair of skunks up on that slope. As luck would have it, these two rascals unloaded their "eau de polecat" directly at my roof line. The cooler slurped it up and in less time than it takes to say "OMG" the entire house, right down to the carpet, was chock full of nature's version of Seran Gas. It took fresh paint, new carpet and more elbow grease than I care to recall to just make the house livable again. The wife of course, got her central air.

[Old Ironsights]

Back in the day I did a little Skunk trapping. You get them into a cage trap that is too small for them to lift their tails and they can't spray.

We would lung them with low power .22 solids (no-shock kill) then use a syringe to pull the scent before skinning. The guy I was working with sold the stuff to perfume makers.

[DLCTEX]

I catch skunks in a live trap using cat food for bait. Throw an old blanket over the trap, pick it up and take it away. Never get sprayed. If you can get a skunk picked up by it's tail, it can't spray. It's hard to put down safely though. My great grand father told me about this when I was a kid. It takes a lot of manuvering to grab the tail, Haven't tried it since I got grown though. Chased one out of a pipe with propane and caught it in a burlap bag, it didn't spray. Tried the spine shot many times when trapping, only worked once. Skunk spray earned me many excused absences from school, just bad luck?

[Old Ironsights]

Tried the spine shot many times when trapping, only worked once. Skunk spray earned me many excused absences from school, just bad luck?Nope. Just tough to do right. That's why, as "inhumane" as it is, we would lung them.

[7br]

I shoot at a fairly nice range. There is a bathroom with the mens on one side, womens on the other. The piping runs between the two with a door accessable from the womens restroom. Several years ago, a momma skunk took up residence under the slab that the restrooms are built on. I decided on flooding them out one day. I opened the womens restroom to get the hose, hooked it up to the outdoor faucet and let it flow. After about 15 minutes, momma comes out and starts poking around. Baby no. 1 poked its head above the slab and momma walks over and grabs it by the scruff of the neck. Momma then does an about face and deposits it in the womens bathroom. Baby no. 2 poked its head up and momma repeated the prior performance. Baby no 3 got the same treatment while babes 4 and 5 followed momma into the womens restroom.

At this point, I have six skunks in the nice, dry and cool womens restroom. Momma is in no hurry to exit the place. After several minutes of thunkin, I sneaked into the mens room and shoved the hose in the exhaust vent to the piping. Half an hour later, Momma and babes waddle out of the bathroom and beeline for a hole under the club house.

I had succeeded in flooding the women's restroom and relocating the skunks to the clubhouse. The only consolation was that no spraying was involved.

The skunks mysteriously died of lead posioning a month or so later.

[redneckdan]

The skunks mysteriously died of lead posioning a month or so later.



gee, don't ya hate it when that happens...[smilie=1:

[KCSO]

Our old trapline trick was to put a hypodermic syringe on the end of a pole and fill it with acetone. You could just walk up and poke them with the syringe and a couple of minutes later they dropped dead without spraying. They wont spray if yu are facing them and the hypo didn't seem to bother them. We were trapping for scent at the time and we really like to keep them as full as possible.

[LET-CA]

I met a gentleman in Colorado many years ago who owned a beekeeping business right next to a polo club. He was forever battleing skunks because they like to eat bees out of the hives. He'd grab his rifle and gently herd them over to the polo club and dispatch them on the polo club's playing field. To my knowledge, they never had the common sense to figure out the source of their curse.

[MT Gianni]

Our old trapline trick was to put a hypodermic syringe on the end of a pole and fill it with acetone. You could just walk up and poke them with the syringe and a couple of minutes later they dropped dead without spraying. They wont spray if yu are facing them and the hypo didn't seem to bother them. We were trapping for scent at the time and we really like to keep them as full as possible.
These were in my wife's flower beds in the front yard. It really makes you plan your shots, ie- open door a crack, peek out screen, open screen door, extend 38 and shoot. long time ago and the only time I really targeted skunks as a trapper. Gianni.

[David R]

This has been good reading, I think I can smell one now.

Thanks
David

[Duckiller]

While in high school my brother ran a trapline for muskrats. Occassionly he would catch a skunk. To release it he would sneek up on it and grab its tail, lifting hind legs off the ground. He would release the leg hold and throw the skunk a goodly distance away. No problem. Once and uncle went with him just to enjoy to outdoors. That day he had a skunk in a trap. Uncle claimed he did nothing,bro says uncle distracted him at a CRITICAL point. Bro got sprayed full on at close range. Uncle made him ride on tailgate of suburban. Our mother would not let him in the house. Made him strip outside in the middle of a snow storm. Clothes were burned. We never took a gun when checking trapline. Muskrats that did not drown were dispatched with a stout stick with a knob on end. At that time price for skunk pelts wasn't very much.

[Dr.Doug]

Skunks are attracted to our place by the cat food, which is left in a strategic location under a motion light. When the light kicks on, it shines in our bedroom window. Many's the night I've leapt out of bed to see what furry creature has come to visit. (my wife laughs at me)

After harvesting several skunks one summer, I happened to look back toward the house, and saw my wife was standing by the door watching. Cheering me on, no doubt. THEN I realized she was there so she could rapidly lock the door if I were sprayed! (now I grab my keys as well as my rifle)

I have 2 small tips to add to this wealth of knowlege:

1) If a skunk leaves a puddle on your driveway (concrete), a little gasoline removes the smell rapidly. Just use enough to cover the spot, and as it evaporates, so does the smell.

2) A standard post-hole digger is a great tool for burying the dearly departed- just be sure to drop him in south-end first, or he may come back to haunt you!


Doug

[versifier]

They should bottle that crap, i bet it would work better than pepper spray....

They do. It's called mercaptan and one of it's components (phenol- or butyl-, I can't remember which) is what is used to impart the odor to otherwise odorless propane and LNG. The synthesis isn't too difficult, but I not so fondly remember my chem class being cancelled and the whole buliding evacuated when some clumsy fool knocked over a flask of it near the building's air intake. [smilie=1: As luck would have it, I was not that fool. He was, however, my lab partner, so I was on the other side of a small lab bench from ground zero. I will never forget the look of abject horror on the professor's face as he realized what had happened. He was right behind me out the door yelling "Everyone get out of here fast!" I did manage to pass the course, but everyone called my partner "Pepe" afterwards. It still can't compare with the real thing, though.

[Gussy]

Many years back I was hunting pheasant in a marsh, next to my house, when my 2 labs got very birdy and I follow them in ready for some shooting...........then the smell hit. out came the labs foaming at the mouth and try to clear their eyes. Out came the skunk and he quickly ate some #6 shot. As I was walking away I looked back and here came my big lab with said kill in his mouth. Great retriever.

I figured that hunt was over and headed back to the house. 10 minutes later, almost home, the old lab got birdy. I looked at him and said yeah right, your nose isn't working so good. As I walked away from him toward the house, I watched 6 roosters come up. All just out of range since I didn't follow him.
Gus

[DOUBLEJK]

Good Thread...
Sure brings back the olfactory memories....:Fire:
One winters eve many years back I was pickin' up my conveyor man at the power plant I werk at and as he got in the truck we spied a skunk under the scrap pipe rack behind the maintenance shop...
We proceded ta really rile him good with some well aimed snow balls n had him runnin' back n forth under that pipe rack like one a them ducks in a shootin' gallery....
Bout that time the 2 mechanics on night duty got curious what the heck that wackin' on thier back wall was n opened the door to the shop fer a look see....bad move....that door was right at the end of said scrap pipe rack n the beleaguered skunk ran right in....he gave a good squirt ta our only female employee who was holdin' the door open.....we beat a very hasty retreat ta the other door n waited a bit n went in......you could smell that gal's new perfume fer long time...[smilie=1:

[MT Gianni]

They do. It's called mercaptan and one of it's components (phenol- or butyl-, I can't remember which) is what is used to impart the odor to otherwise odorless propane and LNG. The synthesis isn't too difficult, but I not so fondly remember my chem class being cancelled and the whole buliding evacuated when some clumsy fool knocked over a flask of it near the building's air intake. [smilie=1: As luck would have it, I was not that fool. He was, however, my lab partner, so I was on the other side of a small lab bench from ground zero. I will never forget the look of abject horror on the professor's face as he realized what had happened. He was right behind me out the door yelling "Everyone get out of here fast!" I did manage to pass the course, but everyone called my partner "Pepe" afterwards. It still can't compare with the real thing, though.
About 25 years ago we would have a tanker truck of mercaptan come in and refill our 125 gallon odorizer and burn off the 600lbs pressure in the tank to get it to a safe fillable level. That had some smell to it but nothing like going back to the smaller taps and filling the 20 gallon drips with a gallon bottle. You would drive to the far end of the system, lock the honey wagon trailer in a fenced station drive to town and eat a big breakfast followed by a milk shake. Leather boots and belts stayed in the truck for rubber boots. Then drive to the farthest farm tap and fill all day long. If you tried to eat before the next day it would probably come back to visit you. Leather would absorb the smell and hold it for at least a month. Purex or clorox is a neutralizer but eats your clothes also. 1 drop was enough to put odor intoabout 5000 cubic feet of gas, and one spill was a haznat clean up but never happened on my watch. Gianni.

[BD]

Years ago, in another life, I was managing a whitewater rafting company which ran on the Gauley river in WV every fall when the Army Corps of Enginners drew down the lake behind Summersville Dam. The last few years I worked there we based our guide crew out of a campground near the little Summersville airport. That situation was chronically plaqued by two things: skunks and speed traps on Rt 19 through Summersville.
The owner of the campground would supply us with CB caps to hunt the skunks at night, during the week when the campground was mostly empty. On a busy night we'd kill 15 or 20 skunks with some pretty mixed results. Some beer may have been involved at times, and disposing of the poorly hit skunks fell to the poor soul who'd made the bad shot. Eventually we came upon a solution which worked pretty well. We had a pretty fair archer among us and the solution involved using an old broadhead with one of those Zwicky bird catchers on the shaft of the arrow. We'd drive slowly through the campground with Joe, (the archer), standing up in the back of the truck, wearing a headlamp and holding the bow at the ready. When we came upon a skunk joe would quill it to the ground, which kept it from being able to spray, and one of us would jump out and finish it at close range with a CB cap to the head. Then we could lift the skunk up on the arrow and shake it into a feed sack. When we had a couple of sacks full we'd drive on out to where the latest speed trap had been set up and deposit the dead skunks. One load of birdshot into the pile on the way out activated the speed trap deterant.
I would generally bring a couple of coolers of frozen moose meat along down to help keep our food bills low and our guide camp came to be known as "The Road Kill Cafe".
BD

[KCSO]

Gussy
I shouldn't have laughed. Last night I found a momma and 4 kits living under the neighbor lady's shed. Now I have a family to get rid of.

[Antietamgw]

When I was a kid 30some years ago I had a '49 Chevy pickup that I liked alot. I'd done a bunch of work on it and was right proud of it. I went back our logging road one day to pick up some firewood and ended up with a flat. Figured I'd come back later with the loader tractor and save some work and time. Other stuff happened and I didn't get back until the next day. By that time some kids who lived in a house that joined our woodlot had busted out the windows and beat up all my fresh body work. I was really pissed off and we had a little trouble on the school bus the next day (now I was riding instead of driving, not good for a young stud looking for dates). About a week later I was still hunting the logging road for squirrels and saw what appeared to a striped squirrel in their back yard near their trash cans. No one looked to be home so I figured it was fair game. Held center mass, squeezed and the striped squirrel did what striped squirrels do. Their dog came running out from the other side of the house and got involved for a short while. All this was probably 15-20 yards from the clothes line, which had clothes on it. I never heard anything about it, I think they figured their dog killed it.

[Frank46]

Versifier, I worked in a lng plant in new york before I retired. The mercaptan came in a huge bottle not unlike a propane 20lb bottle. Great stuff, remember the apple blossom stuff some pranksters got around halloween. This stuff in concentrated form would gag a maggot. Frank

[Blackthorne45]

This little story took place a few years ago, during the summer. Wife looks out on the front porch about 11:00 at night and thinks she sees one of our cats on the porch and goes out to play with it. you can guess what happened to her when her stripped cat decided it didn't want to play. From then on she turns the light on before going out to play with the kitties.
She spent half the night trying to get the smell off, and I still remind her of the incident from time to time.