skunk

[poppy42]

I have had very good luck with using a 17 HMR with 17 grain ballistic tips and headshot. I have killed 5 or 6 with that combo and none sprayed.

Good shooting. I have no doubt you have had good success with a 17 HRM. I bet there wasn’t much of a head, or brain left considering the round you used and the size of a skunks head. When I posted earlier that a head shot would cause the skunk to spray I did a silly thing in assuming that the op would use a 22 short or a 22 long rifle. My bad an I apologize for that. Let me explain a little. Anytime something is shot in the head it disrupts the nervous system. Thereby causing spasms or convulsions . now this doesn’t happen all the time, but it happens more often than not. Now the only way you can be sure this doesn’t happen is if you completely separate the brain from the rest of the nervous system. The best way to accomplish this is a well placed shot to the brain stem. In a human, the brain stem is about the size of a half dollar. In a skunk it’s probably the size of a small pea. As you can see tough to hit with a 22. I certainly can’t shoot that accurately. The other sure fire way would be to destroy the brain. Again tough to do with a 22. A lot easier with a .17 HRM.

If you shoot somthing in the heart, lungs, or major organs, it will generally rollover and die, without convulsing. And the target is a lot bigger than a brain ( think center mass) making it a lot easier to hit and make a kill with a 22.
Anyway sorry for the long post but for some reason I felt the need to explain the reasoning behind my earlier post .

[KCSO]

Since we have to remove them from town all the time we came up with this. We bait a have a heart with sardines and then cover the trap with a batting cover and a plywood base. Leaving only the end open and having a flap to close off the end. When the skunk is in the trap close off the light and they will generally not spray in the dark. Load the works into the back of a PU and haul to the disposal area. Open the end flap and open the trap and when the skunk comes out finish the job to you satisfaction. THis works about 99% of the time. The one we had spray was in the back of the truck and bounced around and let go.