Ever shot anything you weren't hunting??

[whichwatch]

Several years ago I was deer hunting in some thick woods. I decided it was about time to head back to the truck and instead of going back thru the timber I would take the road, making walking much easier and faster. As I approached a farmhouse a very agitated german shepherd came straight at me, stopping only a few feet from me. The hair on his neck was standing straight up and the upper lip was curled up showing the pearly whites. Every time I tried to take a step things would get worse. I figured at some point someone from the house would call the dog back. I knew someone was home as I saw them look out the window. Also I was hoping someone would come along in a truck and I could hop in the back and get a ride to where I was parked, well that never happened.
This went on for what seemed like forever. I decided that I was going to shoot he dog since I was on public property and not trespassing or anything else illegal. I had my Model 29 with me under my coat as I always do, just as I started to pull it out of the shoulder holster and cock the hammer someone stepped out of the house and whistled and the dog turned and headed back to the house. Either they saw what I was about to do or they had enough of a good time watching the entire show from the house. Killing the dog was my last option and there were no more. If that dog only knew.............

 

[Cholo]

It was just getting dark and I was about to leave my deer stand when about 12 coyotes came running down a ridge about 100 yds. away. I picked out the largest in my scope and shot it on the move. It ran straight at me and disappeared. I waited a few minutes and it was difficult to see without a flashlight. It was laying in a stump hole and sure looked dead. I snicked off the safety of my tang safety Ruger .243 and poked it in the ribs. It immediately snapped my barrel. I immediately pulled the trigger :wink:

 

[wwb]

Red Squirrels if they are within 50 yards of the cabin. The destructive little buggers have chewed their way into the shack on several occasions. Fix that hole and block it off with metal, and they make another hole.
We keep an old Marlin bolt-action .22 handy, but we have been known to employ shotguns, rimfire and centefire handguns, and rifles up to and including an 06 if that was what happened to be readily available when a squirrel was spotted.

 

[gramps]

I was turkey hunting one morning. The only turkey to answer my calls were across Center Hill Lake, so they weren't coming. Well this one raucous crow set up behind me yelling to all who would listen "THE HUNTER IS HERE---BEWARE BEWARE." Damn his hide. For all the commotion he was making I couldn't hear anything else. I threw sticks at him, but he wouldn't leave. The #4 shot shredded him. The sound of silence.
gramps

 

[RKBA4CA]

Shot numerous crows.

 

[Montelores]

Red Squirrels if they are within 50 yards of the cabin. The destructive little buggers have chewed their way into the shack on several occasions. Fix that hole and block it off with metal, and they make another hole.
We keep an old Marlin bolt-action .22 handy, but we have been known to employ shotguns, rimfire and centefire handguns, and rifles up to and including an 06 if that was what happened to be readily available when a squirrel was spotted.

If you have an attic space (non-living area), a small dish of ammonia can deter the squirrels.

"Bounce" dryer sheets seems to drive away rodents, too.

.22 ammo is too valuable, and a .30-06 is too big. :shock:

Monty

 

[Mike Armstrong]

I've been VERY tempted by blue jays that follow hunters and sound the alarm all thru the woods; likewise crows. Never shot them, tho. Usually they will go away. Usually.

My main temptation has been porkies, an animal I detest more than all the snakes on earth, since I've had several dogs who just couldn't resist a mouthful of porkie quills. Aghhhh. On the other hand, the only one I ever shot hung onto the Ponderosa he was in until I stood right under him and then dropped dead very nearly on my head.....

I don't shoot snakes unless they are near houses (includes outhouses), but one time I went deer hunting with my brother in the Asotin Creek breaks in southernmost-and-easternest Eastern Washington. He took one side of a big finger ridge; I took the other. I saw nothing but was heartened to hear his .300 Savage boom out. Then again. And again and again and again and again. When I met him in the wheat stubble at the top of the breaks, he had a handful of rattles....Needless to say, they were thin eatin' and the deer had departed for some quieter gully.

 

[Snake45]

Red Squirrels if they are within 50 yards of the cabin. The destructive little buggers have chewed their way into the shack on several occasions. Fix that hole and block it off with metal, and they make another hole.
We keep an old Marlin bolt-action .22 handy, but we have been known to employ shotguns, rimfire and centefire handguns, and rifles up to and including an 06 if that was what happened to be readily available when a squirrel was spotted.

If you have an attic space (non-living area), a small dish of ammonia can deter the squirrels.

"Bounce" dryer sheets seems to drive away rodents, too.

.22 ammo is too valuable, and a .30-06 is too big. :shock:

Monty

Something might deter a squirrel from moving in, but once one has moved in, that is his home and he is there to stay and nothing you can do will deter him or keep him out of there. The only two things you can do is trap him (more likely, THEM by that point) and take them more than 10 miles away to dump them (or they will find their way back), or kill them.

 

[Chuck 100 yd]

Mike Armstrong , Mike, I can attest to your story. While fishing the Powder river fork of the snake river,not far from where you were, I beached the boat so a friend could take a leak. He jumped off and started to do his job and was surprised as he was wetting down a very large and unhappy rattler. It did not take long for him to get back in the boat. We did not have a gun with us that trip or it would have been put to use.

 

[Major T]

Lots of times. Mostly coyote and fox. Occasionally a raccoon shows in daylight. In far west Texas, boss rancher wanted all porcupines to be dead. In south Texas, there is frequently a surplus of javalina. Once on our spring hog and coyote hunt, I had a whole herd of the javalina around a food plot near my stand. After trying to run them off, I finally opened fire. I got five for five (all the rifle held), but it was both a mistake and a blessing. After a warm day or so, the stench was horrible, but the smell became a coyote magnet.

Turkey, while deer or even quail hunting is a bonus (during concurrent seasons) Or vice versa. We leave the rattlesnakes dead where we find them. Hopefully they never find us first.

I see an occasional bobcat, but I have never bagged one. I bumped into a cougar out west one time, but it disappeared into the brush without the opportunity for a decent shot. To me the incidental opportunities, add to a hunt. Maybe I'm not serious enough about the primary quarry. Most of my hunting is on private land. Jack

 

[hittman]

I did this twice ..... sort of. Once during the last day of a miserable cold and rainy and unsuccessful deer hunt, I killed a coyote at about 10 yards. Another time what I thought was a young, maybe yearling, doe walked directly towards the tree I was in and sat down at the base of the tree. That's right, squatted like a dog or cat would sit. I peered over the edge of the stand and saw that she'd been shot in the hind quarter .... and probably a day or more earlier. So ..... that's what I used my tag on that year. Turned out it was a button buck.

 

[Old Judge Creek]

Yuppers... lots of times in my 60 plus years of playing in the wild and untamed places.

I posted here about 4 years ago about an experience with a feral dog pack that could have had a VERY bad ending had I not "heard something" and a) had a climbable tree handy and b) my trusty old Ruger Blackhawk 357 on my belt.

More often than not, the problem was me scaring the bejeezis out of some poor critter that was minding his own business but wasn't too busy to return the favor (in spades).

The absolute worst was once when I sat down in front of a tree once not knowing there was a treed bobcat in it. Ol Bob Cat SCREAMED and jumped outta that tree OVER ME! and hit the ground darn near close enough for me to kick him! His legs were all blurry like a cartoon character. He went south and I almost went in my pants.

Neither one of us had time to wrap a finger around a trigger......

 

[Bkat]

It was laying in a stump hole and sure looked dead. I snicked off the safety of my tang safety Ruger .243 and poked it in the ribs. It immediately snapped my barrel. I immediately pulled the trigger :wink:

You gotta watch out for those coyotes that play possum. Usually they'll hang upside down by their tails from a branch, pretending to be dead. It's just a trick! Don't believe it!

I didn't want one, but once helped a buddy who wanted a javelina on our southwest Texas hunting lease. We had a bunch of six to eight who bolted across the ranch road in front of my jeep. We bailed out, he ran to the right of them and I took off to their left to try and turn them towards him. About 50 yards later one comes streaking over the top of a small mound straight at me and my knees. I
yelled, nothing happened, so I fired my rifle from the hip when he was no more
than six or seven yards from me. I missed of course, but he did a 90 degree turn
on a dime right in front of me and kept going. The image I remember is the
almost human look of fear and surprise in his eyes when he skidded and turned
and actually locked eyes with me. I don't think he ever saw me until I fired the
shot.

Bkat

 

[GasGuzzler]

"Bounce" dryer sheets seems to drive away rodents, too.

We recommend dryer sheets for our customers that leave after paying for rodent damage to engine wiring harnesses. Rodents love the dye in pink wiring.

 

[DGW1949]

Several years ago I was deer hunting in some thick woods. I decided it was about time to head back to the truck and instead of going back thru the timber I would take the road, making walking much easier and faster. As I approached a farmhouse a very agitated german shepherd came straight at me, stopping only a few feet from me. The hair on his neck was standing straight up and the upper lip was curled up showing the pearly whites. Every time I tried to take a step things would get worse. I figured at some point someone from the house would call the dog back. I knew someone was home as I saw them look out the window. Also I was hoping someone would come along in a truck and I could hop in the back and get a ride to where I was parked, well that never happened.
This went on for what seemed like forever. I decided that I was going to shoot he dog since I was on public property and not trespassing or anything else illegal. I had my Model 29 with me under my coat as I always do, just as I started to pull it out of the shoulder holster and cock the hammer someone stepped out of the house and whistled and the dog turned and headed back to the house. Either they saw what I was about to do or they had enough of a good time watching the entire show from the house. Killing the dog was my last option and there were no more. If that dog only knew.............

I know a man who shot a guy for killing his dog.
The circumstances of the incident weren't much different than what you described.
Aint saying you would have been wrong, just saying that shooting another man's dog probably aint something I'd do while walking towards his house, and all his dog had done up to that point is warn me to stay away.

Glad your situation got defused.
All's well that ends well.

DGW

 

[Corbi]

Usually it is either coyotes or hogs while deer hunting.

A couple of years ago I was in my tree stand and a pair of coyotes crossed out at about 50 yards. I nailed one of them with the 50cal. It went down with just a whip of the tail. I thought to myself "now there is a good yote :lol: " Well, I then sat there and watched several deer come down the trail, wind the dead dog, startle and go the other way.....even dead he wasn't a good yote! :evil:

Loose, feral or plain ole wild dogs are a real problem. Last year I was preseason scouting in some new area. I saw three dogs at a distance down on a dry lake bed. I was maybe 2 miles from a road. They saw me and started toward me. At first I thought maybe there was a hiker with the dogs. As they got closer I saw they were kind of unkept and aggressive. They were growling and barking with their hair up and showing their teeth. When they got inside about 20 yards I hit the biggest one with the 44mag Redhawk. He broke off and made his way back to the lake shore where he went down. I saw the other 2 a few more times but they stayed their distance.

Corbi

 

[Nasty Ned]

Yup, I've never set out to hunt turkeys, but, I've shot my fair share, Nuff said.

NN

 

[Joe S.]

After deer season closed i was woods walkingwith an old 22 i had and happened upon a pack of feral dogs. Had my 38 in my pocket zipped up. One broke loose and charged me. I shot it in the face with my 22. Luckily that changed his mind. I put two more in him as he ran off. Saw buzzards afew days later. He looked like a pit bull.

From then on i have a centerfire pistol or rifle easily accessible. Not just rimfire.

People that throw dogs out (we have that a lot where i hunt) are sorry individuals.

 

[Cholo]

I was not pleased, I didn't want to get run over and I didn't want to have to pay for a bull I shot. Took the safety off and slowly backed up. Fortunately the bull didn't pursue me. Don

This topic is about shooting something. Did you shoot your pants? :wink:

 

[GasGuzzler]

LOLOLOLOLOLOL