Armadillo Hunting?

[alfadan]

A ruger 10-22 with a 4x and flashlight is my 'dillar tool of choice. If they are making a mess around the house, I use a wireless driveway alarm to wake me up (usually around 4am!) and go "sneak" up on it.

A guy at work had a relative who's daughter was having a wedding on their farm. The guy fertilized and watered and got the site very nice and picture perfect. The night before the wedding, an armadillo had torn the whole place up!

[GrayTech]

Thia time of year they are primarily nocturnal with limited exposure at dawn and dusk.

In February, and March they are out a lot during the day when temps are cold and days are warm. Seen as many as 30 to 35 out driving around.

The armadillos in your area drive around?!?

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[15meter]

The armadillos in your area drive around?!?

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My kinda point of view.

[adanymous]

Ill tell you from experience, dont shoot em with carbon arrows. They run a ways and score the outside of the carbon and it breaks at the score mark every dang time. Pretty expensive way to get rid of em.

They are fun to shoot at longer ranges with varmint rifles.

They live in holes and are often flushed out after a big rain. Perfect time to troll fields looking for em. If you find a diller hole dump a 5 gallon bucket of water in it and he'll come right on out real quick.

[15meter]

Throwing rocks works very well, too. Have killed several over the years with a rock.

Sounds like me with woodchucks. 2 pound ball peen hammer from the tool box on the tractor or Knapp K9 6" "farm yard acid resistant" AKA manure boots. Both were equally lethal on whistle pigs.

[15meter]

Ill tell you from experience, dont shoot em with carbon arrows. They run a ways and score the outside of the carbon and it breaks at the score mark every dang time. Pretty expensive way to get rid of em.

They are fun to shoot at longer ranges with varmint rifles.

They live in holes and are often flushed out after a big rain. Perfect time to troll fields looking for em. If you find a diller hole dump a 5 gallon bucket of water in it and he'll come right on out real quick.

Woodchucks around here were, a 5 gallon bucket of water and a quart of gas poured on top of the water as it went down the burrow.

And a match.

Tip: The match is tossed from the BACK side of the woodchuck den.

WHUUUMP!

[wmitty]

The Armored Dillow is best dispatched with the Lahti 20 mm round. If that’s not available, a .22 will usually make ‘em jump remarkably high with a body hit. They are so blind I’ve had them walk up to me and bump into my leg whilst I was hunting deer. The highway department here in Texas subcontracted with the Mexican buzzards to remove the deceased ‘dillos from the roadways. Turns out the buzzards sued the state and won after a bunch of the clean up crews came down with leprosy…

[Winger Ed.]

Another thing we can all be grateful to the Texas Hi-Way Dept. for is the old flying disc toy --- the 'frisbe'.

It was inspired by Texas Hi-way employees peeling what we call 'Sail Rabbits' off the roads & hi-ways
after they'd been run over a few hundred times and well dried in the sun for about a week.
When they threw them at each other, you didn't try to catch it like a frisbe,
it was more like 'dodge ball' where you tried to avoid being hit with it.

[sukivel]

Well, I don't have a slug mold for the 20 gauge since I use a rifle for deer here in Missouri. I do all my own reloading for shotshell plus pistol/rifle. So it would be easier to just use a rifle as opposed to buying a slug mold for the 20 gauge. Someone was suggesting a 257 Weatherby mag, but I don't have one of those either? Would a 338 Win Mag work? But I don't have a mold for that one either?

The point is…about anything will work. Pick a gun you want to shoot, and start making possum on the half shell soup! And don’t forget the sea salt…


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[Der Gebirgsjager]

FIVE POUNDS OF POSSUM

My children are hungry
And my dog needs a bone
I ain't got a job now
So I'm just drivin' home
An hour after sundown
And much to my delight
There's five ponds of possum
In my headlights tonight.

Well there's five pounds of possum
In my headlights tonight
If I can run him over
Ev'rything'll be alright
We'll have some possum gravy
Oh what a wonderful sight
There's five pounds of possum
In my headights tonight.

Don't have to kill no chickens
Don't have to open no cans
Just a little bit closer
And I'll have him in my hands
I think the time has come now
To go from dim to bright
There's five pounds of possum
In my headlights tonight.

[sixshot]

Dang! Two full pages of replies & not one single photo, what is going on here! When I was in the military back in the 60's in Texas I shot a fair number of them with my recurve bow & wooden arrows, they always broke my arrows.

Dick

[versa-06]

Shot one with a 410 #6 when I was a kid at about 40 yds, & the thing jumped straight up about 31/2-4 feet in the air. I was about 9 years old. To me that was a funny story that had to be told to all of my friends. Then I heard Let's go Brandon did the same thing & his jumped 97 ft in the air.

[Winger Ed.]

Dang! Two full pages of replies & not one single photo, what is going on here!

They're a little camera shy, but I found a picture of one.
It's from the Texas Hi-Way Depts. 'not my job' contest.

[wmitty]

Winger, that has to be the most demonstrative picture of all time in regards to describing the “ not my job” attitude!

[Winger Ed.]

Winger, that has to be the most demonstrative picture of all time in regards to describing the “ not my job” attitude!

Oh yeah, I think it was the winner for that that year.

(Do a quickie search for 'not my job' then click 'images'.
There is some really funny ones out there).

[gwpercle]

They are deceptively easy to kill . The "shell" is only stiff leather hard and not very thick at all . 22LR or any thing you hunt squirrel / rabbits with .
I squirrel hunt with a 20 ga. and #5 shot but usually take a armadillo with the 22 LR revolver I carry on my belt , CB cap or shorts work fine ... a head shot is best .

Most armadillo's do not carry Hansen's , the few that do are usually in the deep South , Louisiana and Texas ... the bacteria doesn't thrive in cold weather areas . Reaserch has shown only about 6% in the deep south have it ...that's a low number and there is a easy way to avoid transmisson ... Cook to 155 F. - 160 F. med-well !
Do Not Undercook ...Cooking the meat well , as you would cook pork (remember trichinosis) kills the Hanses's bacteria just as it would the trichinosis bacteria .

They are edible and the meat quite good . My Mom said that during the 1930's depression Her daddy would take armadillo , squirrel and the occasional rabbit to feed them ... She called them "Hoover Hog's " ... Quote " We would have starved slap to death if not for the Hoover Hogs and such daddy shot with his 38 S&W DA belt pistol , times was hard and meat wasn't easy to get . "

After hearing Mom's stories and seeing the curved knives her daddy made to clean under the curved armadillo shells ... my brother and I decided to take a couple and try them . Taste like pork . We made a great Chili and Sauce Picante , cooked the meat well and neither of us got Hansen's .
Don't be afraid to try eating , simply cooking the meat as you would cook pork - well done - kills any bacteria ... and not every armadillo is carring it .
My Dad always insisted we try and utilize whatever we killed for food ... He didn't take to killing animals for no reason ... He said God made every animal for a reason and if we didn't need it for food then we shouldn't kill it .
Gary

[Gray Fox]

Sixshot. I was at Ft. Hood in '68 before going to 'Nam and did the same thing with the same results. My very new bride brought such actions to a halt when I made what I thought was a great instinctive shot from about 20 yards with a Bear Razorhead on a skunk that was coming right at me. The head hit horizontally right at the eye level. Tomato juice and a lot of soap does work--eventually. GF

[vonfilm]

The only armadillo that I ever shot was with a 45-70. It managed to take it down with one shot.

[Good Cheer]

Here in mid-Missouri we are having a problem with armadillos digging up everything and getting jammed in farm machinery when cutting hay, and combining. I keep a 20 gauge shotgun by the door loaded with 3/4 ounce number 6's for the squirrel problem in our pecan trees in the yard and eating all the wiring out of our cars. So, my question is, what does it take to kill these armadillos, usually at a close range? Will the shotgun do it? Or will I have to resort to my deer rifle? (45-70 with 300 grain RCBS cast projectiles)

Oh I'd definitely have to use this as an excuse for a load with three round balls!

[Winger Ed.]

The only armadillo that I ever shot was with a 45-70. It managed to take it down with one shot.

I was deer hunting with a buddy when a squirrel went out on a nearby branch, looked at him and wouldn't stop barking.
When they do that the other animals- especially deer will tend to move away from the sound.
He told me later the shot I heard wasn't a miss, it was on the squirrel.

I asked, "You shot a squirrel with a .300Win Mag"?

He said, "Yeah. I was under attack, it was him or me".