First boolit turtle

[Texas by God]

I put out a three year old hay bale for the named bovines to clean up. Not paying attention to where I set it down- just close to the leftovers of burning brush. After eaten, the leavings make great fire tinder. Anyway, that night we had 40mph winds from the South.
I also have a bull named John who likes to wreck bales with his head.
One or both rolled the bale 80 yards into the pond, resulting in the best turtle gathering spot ever.
There was only one there today, so I drove up as close as I could, lined up the 22-'250/58gr cast....and shot over it. For some reason it stayed for a second try so I aimed a little lower and sailed him. Sorry no pics of the turtle but it was about 12" size...
Dont worry, I dont shoot towards Pawpaws house.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200219/5ebc3da8a8257a8682cfbf0b115a68a1.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200219/f5277ef2cbdf0339f7e3e8c82cb5080e.jpg

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[Bookworm]

Many years ago I had 50 acres out by Checotah, on Lake Eufala. There was an inlet protected by a shale/sand bar, the inlet would fill only when the lake was high.
The inlet was down in a swale, 3 sides were high banks, maybe 30+ feet. Lots of deadfalls, excellent places for turtles to sun.

Best turtle shooting ever. The place was infested.
Not concerned about ricochet, I could take a box of 22s and have a ball.

[rondog]

Ah, fond memories of me yoot! When I was a lad, we had a neighbor that was part of a group that leased a bunch of ponds in western OK, he used to take me fishing. Great bass and catfishing! But the ponds were infested with turtles.

After the biggest bass I ever caught in my life was eaten alive on my stringer, it was war. My dad had a scope mounted on my Remington 514 single shot .22, and I became a turtle sniper. Got really good at it too! I shot dozens of those <expletives> over a couple of summers, pretty much gave up on fishing, turtle shootin' was LOTS more fun!

Still have that old 514, it's as loyal as a hound dog, and still deadly accurate. Good times!

[jdfoxinc]

What? No turtle soup?

[Winger Ed.]

As the weather warms, that'll be their prime spot.

In our channel, we had an infestation of them, and they will destroy the fishing.
The little devils will push a game fish off their nest and eat the eggs.
They compete with catfish for the same food.

Year before last- I shot, trapped, and fished for & caught almost a hundred of them.
Last summer was the first year of decent fishing off our dock in a long time.

[Winger Ed.]

What? No turtle soup?

About the only ones ya want to eat are the alligator snapping turtles, which are rare and protected in most places.
The other water turtles are sort of up there with eating armadillos.

The Chinese buy & eat 'em. But they can carry botchalism**, and taste like mud.
I don't even know any Kajuns that eat them.


**
They also carry salmonella.
That's why they don't sell baby water turtles in the stores anymore like when we were kids.

[Tripplebeards]

Reminds me I need to thaw out one of snappers I cleaned. Wish we had alligator snappers around here. Snappers and soft shells are the eaters in my neck of the river. Never tried painters, map, or false maps which are the other species we have here.


Think I’m going to boil and crock my meat till it’s soft and try to make sweet and sour Turtle.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Which one of you guys put the turtle on the fence post? :wink:

[Texas by God]

Which one of you guys put the turtle on the fence post? :wink:
Not me, that’s too mean. Why, I even helped a lady Box Tortoise back on her belly after her lover bred her and left her on her back like the jerk that he is;-) True story; three of us were walking a mile back to the ATV after a fruitless stalk on a good pronghorn. We walked right up on the lust in the dust and just stood back and watched something few get to see. After Romeo left, we watched her lay there for a few minutes before she started moving her legs. I turned her over and we laughed about it for a while. I thought later that I hope she wasn’t supposed to lay upside down for an hour for the pregnancy to take....

[roverboy]

I killed one a while back with a Taurus 605 and 158 gr. swc.

[Markopolo]

this must be a texan only thread.. i never heard of a turtle being out in the dead of winter?? I guess that far into south america you'all don't have winters?

[Bookworm]

Whadya mean, no winter ? It was only 42 degrees yesterday !

[koger]

Thomas you have to fill me in on that cast boolit load, and have you tried it in a .223, bolt or AR?

[Texas by God]

But it was a cold forty two, wasn’t it? According to the weatherman, we are in a Neutral pattern. Not an El Niño, not a La Niña. I don’t remember shooting turtles in Jan & Feb before, and the cows are grazing on green grass as I write this. It seems to rain every 4th day. Now that I’ve talked about it; we’ll get snow and ice in March for sure. Then it will be 100 degrees a week later.

[Texas by God]

Thomas you have to fill me in on that cast boolit load, and have you tried it in a .223, bolt or AR?9.2 grs of Unique-out of the Lyman book; 58gr Lyman(I think) rngc with aluminum checks. Probably 1900 fps? Standard 14" twist. I have not tried it in .223- I only have ARs in 7" twist so I probably wont. Unless I'm hunting or accuracy testing with a .223 AR, I dont bother loading for it.

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[popper]

Just wait till you catch one of those big ones on a light weight fly rod. Worse than a 5# catfish. Yup, time for the stupid city to dump trout in the city pond for the fish roundup. Thinking they will eat al the crawdads. Nope, just bluegill & eggs. Haven't figured out that the catfish are the ones eroding the dirt bank.

[bikerbeans]

Would Pawpaw shoot back?:Fire:

BB

[Texas by God]

Would Pawpaw shoot back?:Fire:

BBYep.

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[Texas by God]

Got another yesterday. It hits with more authority than a .22 LR clearly. But not a 360 degree explosion like an ear splitting “ normal” 22-250 bullet. I like them.

[Texas by God]

I got two with one shot! The bigger one( of course) flipped into the water and his little friend landed right side up on the bale. I only carry a few rounds extra.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200401/d610ed2c95ce7770705deae5ae68b208.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200401/c9b849b93fa200d6590e42d52e5b3dcd.jpg

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[siamese4570]

My turtle gun is a handi rifle in 357 mag. It was a special run with an 18.5 inch barrel. I load a Lee 158 rf over 1.5 grains of bullseye. I have to seat the bullet flush with case mout to get enough pressure to clear the barrel. Little bit louder than a pellet rifle. Puts hurt on turtles.
siamese4570

[robinsroost]

Sounds like good sport but I don't kill anything I don't intend to eat. I have some 85 grain RNGC loaded with 5 grains of Clays for my .243 that should work nicely. Alligator snappers are good but soft shells are easier to clean

[Texas by God]

Another one bites the uh, water! About 90 yards, it sounded like a bullet hitting a deer almost.

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[missionary5155]

If ya want to have a real treat… Wrist rocket with caliber .30 (or so) lead balls.

[Texas by God]

Mike, you’ve obviously never seen me use a sling shot. It’s pretty sad!

[Texas by God]

I dont know what ducks are doing on the pond, but today when I shot another terrapin- they flew about ten feet and landed back in the water like nothing happened. This is cool.

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[WILCO]

That bale looks like a giant turtle. :)

[Shopdog]

I've been shooting some whoppers down on the river for the last cpl of years. They're starting to get the message and leaving the area. Just too dang many of them. Am usually out varmint/predator hunting and have whacked them with several different rigs. One venerable R700 7-08 sporter has quite a few "notches".Lee 285-130 with a bumped nose,bore rider which makes a nice meplat in the process. Loaded full tilt with Varget(starting JB book load). And once in awhile when windy,but blue bird otherwise days.... take the sledgehammer. 30-06 stainless/walnut R700 CDL,4-12 old Redfield. Loaded with a Lee 309-150 also backed by starting JB loads of Varget.

These are shot at an angle down,between some pretty good sized,forested hills. Mountain river,as it is settling in down in the foothills so it doesn't get any safer,well except for the turtles. Not much left to them when the '06 connects.

[Texas by God]

It may not be visible but I spined this one from the treeline with the 45gr/6.6gr Bullseye combo. The boolit sailed thru and hit the water, the toitle barely moved.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200430/e0734b9f273499716368218ecd62c2df.jpg

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[Texas by God]

Caught one sneaking to another pond this morning. What a mess. No hollow point needed I reckon.....https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200604/8091c1e50e5f6c135aff836a84911c2f.jpg

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[Der Gebirgsjager]

Wow! Those .458 African Mags will kill 'em dead, won't they? [smilie=l:

[Texas by God]

LUCKILY it didnt charge! I would have only had 5 minutes to stop it!!!

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[Texas by God]

Today I made a stalk and crept up the dam to take a medium sized one with the 44-40. It's enough gun, too.

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[rockrat]

Neighbor of a good friend had a pond overrun with turtles and asked if we would help with the problem. I had a 39A and a Ruger MKI and friend had his 22. We use a couple of boxes of 100rnds each that day. Probably 3 out of 100 escaped. Neighbor complained of the smell later, but it cleared up in about a week. He said fishing improved quite a bit later.

[3leggedturtle]

LUCKILY it didnt charge! I would have only had 5 minutes to stop it!!!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk Thats funny, I can actually picture that! But, have you ever watched a Softshell Turtle sprint across a dirt to get to a pond on the other side? They aint slow....

[lightload]

I have reduced troublesome turtle populations by using their heads as targets and letting loose with 20 or 12 ga when their heads popped up. This was on a dairy farm where the owner thought that turtles had interfered with fish population.