It just wouldn’t be right if I didn’t show you one of my two catches from yesterday…pretty little kittie!  Not so when you are looking at his defense mechanism almost eye to…well, you know.

I have a really nice little 22 pistol that I carry with me on the trap line to take care of little guys like this one, my biggest problem however is getting the bullet to fly where I want it to fly.  Would you say I need more practice shooting it?  The answer is obviously YES!

So, from this distance to the skunk, I made my attempt to “one shot” dispatch him.  After eight failed tries, I finally got number nine to go where it needed to go.  And then I got the heck out of there!  Not a good odor was in the air and for some odd reason, the odor seems to be heavier than air and since I was down in a gully looking up, it found me quickly.

The second skunk I caught yesterday was below me when I dispatched him (with one shot I might add) and it  sprayed in the opposite direction and I was glad for that.  The odor around the area still was not pretty and like Skinner Man told us the other day, when you get a direct hit from one of those little guys, the odor starts to smell more like “Starburst Candies” after about 15 minutes.  Another example of “Olfactory Overload”.

Away from the skunks now for awhile, I just have to show you one of my missed rat traps!

I have never liked these traps, they just aren’t “Victor” brand.  They rust terribly, they are stiff springed, the bolt and nut swivel that holds the pan is tacky and they take a lot of adjusting to finally make them work properly.  This one got through our local quality check, where the bottom of the pan connector meets the stop loss spring.  I picked this trap up from its place in the swamp and brought it straight to the toy for this picture.  An untrained trappers eye would have looked at this set and made the decision that the trap was still fine and no rats had visited the site that night.

A good look at the trap up close shows exactly how a lucky rat got away to live another day.

Notice too just how close the “dog” is from being released from the pan trigger.  That was one very lucky rat.  Rest assured this trap pan will never again be hindered from firing because of the stop loss spring under it…I fixed it REAL good!

By the way, these traps are called “Bridger Stop Loss” and as far as I’m concerned are the worst traps of its kind out there.  That is just this trappers opinion and does not reflect the opinion of any of my advertisers nor affiliates.  Just sayin!

Bears Butt

February 16, 2014