Armadillo Hunting?

[steve urquell]

I shoot them at dusk with my suppressed 9mm with 160gr FN at 900fps. Kills them really well. I have killed >25 here in NW AR. I found .22LR to be a little too light, .22 mag was good, .223 splits them from top to bottom and disposal is nasty.

[Rapier]

Neighbor got tired of them tearing up his place, like his yard and garden, and started building live, drop door traps for them. Works well after the trap is seasoned, by leaving one in the tap for a couple days. The scent of them, without bait, attracts the others into the trap. The neighbor sells the traps with instructions. You can first bait the trap, to get them to enter, after the first one is trapped they just they go in the trap right to the scent which is the attractant.

I had a problem with them years ago, but trapped them all out. Getting near time to get two or three traps again. You do nothing but keep the used trap in a plastic bag for storage. The trap dimensions are fairly well set, The trap appears to be a tunnel opening with bottom sides and top with solid drop doors in wood slots from a middle trigger.

Only thing you do is set the traps out.

[Hogtamer]

With a recurve and wooden arrows I found the most efficient dilla killa was a .38 hull glued on the untapered end of arrow. Cracks ‘em like a walnut.

[Barry54]

I shoot them at dusk with my suppressed 9mm with 160gr FN at 900fps. Kills them really well. I have killed >25 here in NW AR. I found .22LR to be a little too light, .22 mag was good, .223 splits them from top to bottom and disposal is nasty.

I’d like to hear all about that 9mm load!

[barnetmill]

One of my bulldogs kills them quite regularly in Florida. I wish he did not since they will dig up yellow jacket nests, but since I am planning to start a garden soon that will not be off the ground, maybe they are just better gone. i generally find the carcasses by smell. One of the other bulldogs likes to roll on the rotten carcass.
he has a large head that is also wide with bulging jaw muscle. the other critters like raccoons, possums, cats, etc seemed to have learned to stay away or at not to get caught by him.

[gumbo333]

If you have ‘Dillos digging in your yard you must have some kind of bugs/ worms residing there, right?

[Winger Ed.]

If you have ‘Dillos digging in your yard you must have some kind of bugs/ worms residing there, right?

Yes.
They also don't have teeth,
so they root around for bugs & grubs under surface if they can't find them on top of the ground.

We have plenty of them around here, but we don't have flower beds to sort of attract them.
They cruise through the yard 2-3 times a week.

Our ground is pretty hard packed clay they can't really dig in, so I leave them alone.
The neighbors with their fancy city yards,,,, not so much.

[steve urquell]

I’d like to hear all about that 9mm load!

Check out this thread. The load data is very dependent on the barrel throat depth so I will only post it via PM if you want.
https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...F-in-9mm/page3

[alfadan]

They seem to follow moon phases. During a new moon they seem to be out more.

[Winger Ed.]

They seem to follow moon phases. During a new moon they seem to be out more.

They can see better then, and we can see them better.
They aren't blind, but like a skunk, they really don't see very well either.

[Good Cheer]

If you have a yard light to attract bugs they'll love you.

[gwpercle]

With the cost of meat , in the store , being almost insanely high , don't forget the Armadillo is very edible and quite tasty .
Here in Louisiana , there is no daily limit , no closed season and if they are doing damage to your property , crops , buildings etc.... you don't even need a small game hunting liscense to kill all you want .
Clean and freeze the meat ... cook like pork or chicken .
They are also known as " Hoover Hogs" ... they ain't a problem if they taste good ...
That's what I call dinner !
Gary

[alfadan]

I don't know, I'd have to be incredibly hungry to eat one. They're so ugly, I feel bad for my bullets when they hit 'em.

[Winger Ed.]

I never got hungry or drunk enough to eat one of them, or a possum for that matter.

I figure if before I got that hungry,
I go dumpster diving at some apartment complexes to gather up & cash in a few trash bags of Alum. cans.
Then go buy something at the grocery store ----
(where I've heard no animals were harmed to get them on those styrofoam trays under clear plastic wrap).

[barnetmill]

It is what IIRC Justin Wilson called possum on the half shell.
My dogs kill them all of the time, but they prefer that they get well seasoned before the dogs will eat them. Seasoned is well rotted and they pull the meat off easily. Like a stewed chicken from a pressure cooker.

They do have a low body temperature and can carry leprosy.

In the southern United States, some armadillos are naturally infected with the bacteria that cause Hansen's disease in people and it may be possible that they can spread it to people. However, the risk is very low and most people who come into contact with armadillos are unlikely to get Hansen's disease.

Transmission | Hansen's Disease (Leprosy) - CDC
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (.gov

[Alan]

Don, if a .22 will work anything you have short of throwing rocks is likely to work!

We killed them by the HUNDREDS with .22 Shorts. Before the coyotes got to N. Louisiana they would be out in the evening in herds of 20-30, in pastures and yards. The damage they could do to a yard in one night was rivaled only by hogs. Dad would load the neighborhood boys up in the back of his '62 Falcon and furnish them with all the shorts they could shoot, and drive them around the back roads and let them mow down any 'dillos we could find.

When they coyotes moved in they took care of about 90% of the problem. We would rather have had the 'dillos.

[Good Cheer]

Yeah, from all indications expect deer and armadillos to become scare again.

[barnetmill]

Yeah, from all indications expect deer and armadillos to become scare again.

We do have significant armadillos in my area of Pace-Milton, Florida. My dogs kill about one every six weeks and we do have coyotes. Maybe without the coyotes there would be more.

[steve urquell]

I killed 2 over the last few days. Had a FTE problem with my pistol and fixed it today by switching a 15lb recoil spring out for a 17lb. Shot several mags on steel to confirm function. My dillo gun below.

[barnetmill]

I do not know if it has been mentioned but the armadillo is not native to most of the USA but it is now all over the southern portions of the usa.
The current (circa 2009–2010) range (shaded red), and predicted future range (shaded pink) of the nine-banded armadillo in the USA


The armadillo crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico in the late 19th century, and was introduced in Florida at about the same time by humans. By 1995, the species had become well established in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida, and had been sighted as far afield as Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, and South Carolina. A decade later, the armadillo had become established in all of those areas and continued its migration, being sighted as far north as southern Nebraska, southern Illinois, and southern Indiana.[11] The primary cause of this rapid expansion is explained simply by the species having few natural predators within the United States, little desire on the part of Americans to hunt or eat the armadillo, and the animals' high reproductive rate. The northern expansion of the armadillo is expected to continue until the species reaches as far north as Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut, and all points southward on the East Coast of the United States. Further northward and westward expansion will probably be limited by the armadillo's poor tolerance of harsh winters, due to its lack of insulating fat and its inability to hibernate.[11] As of 2009, newspaper reports indicated the nine-banded armadillo seems to have expanded its range northward as far as Omaha, Nebraska in the west, and Kentucky Dam and Evansville, Indiana, in the east.[12][13][14] In 1995, armadillos were only seen in the southern tip of South Carolina, and within two to three years, they had swept across most of the state.[9] In late 2009, North Carolina began considering the establishment of a hunting season for armadillo, following reports that the species has been moving into the southern reaches of the state (roughly between the areas of Charlotte and Wilmington).[15][16] Outside the United States, the nine-banded armadillo ranges southward through Central and South America into northern Argentina and Uruguay, where it is still expanding its range.[9]