Callin' all varmint hunters!!

[WadePatton]

I wouldn't eat bobcat. Or any other carnivore, frankly.

no but i'll skin 'em and tan the fur. beautiful. i vowed this route after taxidermist screwed up the big one i got long time ago. have one in the freezer.

snakes-best one i did was integrated into a stew. worst, smoked--but then i wasn't the smoker. next one i work over will get smoked and then, if i don't like it at that point-integrated into a stew or other combo dish.

[Tom]

Tangential story about cats. Went to Glacier Park with Karen. Hiked all around bear country reasonably nervous about the bears but never really had a hair on the back of the neck feeling. We were staying just outside the park by the foot of Lake MacDonald and one morning I went for a run. I got this all creepy feeling and was laughing to myself about it. Kid from Vermont can't run on a road in the trees without getting all spooky. Then we read the paper - apparently a family of cats was scaring the hell out of people in the campground, someone would turn around and there would be a big one just kind of regarding them. I bet I was being watched as I ran and primordial stuff kicked in.

Tangent on tangent... Karen wasn't afraid of the bears because you have to negotiate with them but the cats scared her because you have to confront them and I wasn't exactly the opposite but I was better with the cats than the bears.

[steve garro]

The given life span for a cat in Sedona is 6mths.........
I would commute there from Flag to work at Mountain Bike Heaven (RIP) & sleep in the desert just above and outside of town, looking down upon it.
I would sit down with a 40oz and watch the 'yotes gather - they would play, yip, howl, lick & they gather at last light to go reek mayhem on the critters & garbage cans.
Groups of 5-12+
Now, you guys ever seen or dealt with Coatimundis or Javelinas?
How about ringtail cats?
Here in AZ believe it or not the scariest critter (way behind Humans) is the common deermouse.........
- Garro.

[dgaddis]

The given life span for a cat in Sedona is 6mths.........
I would commute there from Flag to work at Mountain Bike Heaven (RIP) & sleep in the desert just above and outside of town, looking down upon it.
I would sit down with a 40oz and watch the 'yotes gather - they would play, yip, howl, lick & they gather at last light to go reek mayhem on the critters & garbage cans.
Groups of 5-12+
Now, you guys ever seen or dealt with Coatimundis or Javelinas?
How about ringtail cats?
Here in AZ believe it or not the scariest critter (way behind Humans) is the common deermouse.........
- Garro.

Garro, I love your stories. You need to write an autobiography.

[christian]

Hanta virus?

The animal with which I'd like least to tangle with in the woods, generally, is good old sus scrofa. Love you pigs, but best on my plate!

[Britishbane]

Garro, I love your stories. You need to write an autobiography.

The given life span for a cat in Sedona is 6mths.........
I would commute there from Flag to work at Mountain Bike Heaven (RIP) & sleep in the desert just above and outside of town, looking down upon it.
I would sit down with a 40oz and watch the 'yotes gather - they would play, yip, howl, lick & they gather at last light to go reek mayhem on the critters & garbage cans.
Groups of 5-12+
Now, you guys ever seen or dealt with Coatimundis or Javelinas?
How about ringtail cats?
Here in AZ believe it or not the scariest critter (way behind Humans) is the common deermouse.........
- Garro.

I grew up eating squirrells - we have huge ones - Aberts - You brown them in a 14q dutch oven, then add onions, garlic & red chile, then simmer, remove the bones, and make tamales.
Deeeeeee-lish!
- Garro.

Lets get these added to the garroisms sub-forum. Keep 'em coming Steve!

[vertical_doug]

I just think it's a goddam same to shoot big cats. If I was a sheep rancher, I suspect I'd think differently. So many opinions are situationally formed. I am pretty sure I got stalked bigtime one night while camping up in Washington state...and I used to look at the families out hiking in the mtns...letting Dick and Jane run far ahead unsupervised...and think; You know those tots are good-sized dinner for Mr. Cat, right??? It looks like the kitty in the pic expired from natural causes(?) Hope so, anyway.

You get about 1 confirmed fatality every other year from mountain lion attacks in US & Canada. Really rare, but unfortunately that rare headline sticks in people's mind.

[vertical_doug]

I grew up eating squirrells - we have huge ones - Aberts - You brown them in a 14q dutch oven, then add onions, garlic & red chile, then simmer, remove the bones, and make tamales.
Deeeeeee-lish!
- Garro.

I hope you keep it sporting and shoot them with a 22. Shooting squirrel with a 410 or 20 gauge just isn't sporting. And makes eating the meat with those little beads a pain in the ass.

[steve garro]

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Lets get these added to the garroisms sub-forum. Keep 'em coming Steve!

Aw hell................you guys ain't heard the 1/2 of it all.
- Garro.

[steve garro]

Joe,%20Art,%20Steve,%20John,%20Deloras%20001.jpg

I hope you keep it sporting and shoot them with a 22. Shooting squirrel with a 410 or 20 gauge just isn't sporting. And makes eating the meat with those little beads a pain in the ass.

Damn straight.
Take their heads straight off with my old Marlin tube-feed bolt action .22 magnum 14 shot microgroove barrell with a 5x scope
Daddy didn't raise no hack.
His mom used to send the boys out with one bullet as they were so poor & if they came home with nothing or worse nothing + no bullet they would get whupped.
True story - they were POOR.
that is my dad front right, homemade clothes.......theur underclothes were made from floursacks.
- Garro.

[j44ke]

You get about 1 confirmed fatality every other year from mountain lion attacks in US & Canada. Really rare, but unfortunately that rare headline sticks in people's mind.

Something primordial (as Tom said) about a big cat that can eat people. Like it isn't even part of the imagination. More like carved into the underside of the human skull. Cat will eat me. Snakes are like that too. Probably something that kept a common ancestor alive long enough they made more of themselves with similar deeply ingrained paranoias.

[dgaddis]

Something primordial (as Tom said) about a big cat that can eat people. Like it isn't even part of the imagination. More like carved into the underside of the human skull. Cat will eat me. Snakes are like that too. Probably something that kept a common ancestor alive long enough they made more of themselves with similar deeply ingrained paranoias.

Something like this. An 8lbs house cat HATES you, imagine this thing...


For scale....

[vertical_doug]

Something primordial (as Tom said) about a big cat that can eat people. Like it isn't even part of the imagination. More like carved into the underside of the human skull. Cat will eat me. Snakes are like that too. Probably something that kept a common ancestor alive long enough they made more of themselves with similar deeply ingrained paranoias.

Without doubt, the apex predator in the United States is the Automobile. Every ride, I see examples where I am glad I am not a critter.

OT, the british gov is starting a huge badger cull in the countryside starting Saturday. They say it is needed to stop the spread of bovine TB. It seems a shame to kill 1000's of badgers.

[christian]

It seems a shame to kill 1000's of badgers.

These seems odd, coming from a Minnesotan. I'd expect you to be pro-Badger slaughter.

[vertical_doug]

These seems odd, coming from a Minnesotan. I'd expect you to be pro-Badger slaughter.

If I don't eat it, I wont kill it.

[caleb]

These seems odd, coming from a Minnesotan. I'd expect you to be pro-Badger slaughter.

Yup.

[RickM]

Without doubt, the apex predator in the United States is the Automobile. Every ride, I see examples where I am glad I am not a critter.

OT, the british gov is starting a huge badger cull in the countryside starting Saturday. They say it is needed to stop the spread of bovine TB. It seems a shame to kill 1000's of badgers.

Yabbut, I'll offer up that the most dangerous animal in N.A. may be the whitetail deer.

[RickM]

Garro -- I didn't grow up anywhere near as strapped as your old man, but when were kids, we had the "one round" rule too...until we were about 14. Pop didn't want us just shooting up the woods out of boredon.

[Tom]

Must have forgotten their tie downs because we normally would just strap that buck to the fender on the way to the checking station.

[rowdyhillrambler]

My mom and i always lived with my grandparents growing up. We weren't poor, just blue collar working country people.. Man, i would take that every time over having lived with my father who was very well off.

We pretty much ate beans, greens and cornbead 8 days a week. My grandma would leave a pot of beans on the stove 24 hours a day, when it got low you put more beans in. Theoretically, there could have been 10 year old beans in the pot.

Weekends was a different story. Squirrel brains, scrambled eggs, cathead bisuits and blackstrap molasses!! My Pop was a man of utter most respect for Ole mom nature, and was so soft hearted he hated to kill anything. But, he would shoot a possum, coon, rabbit, occassionally turkey or deer. He would think about that so hard he would have a hard time eating.. we essentially ate vegetarian, just cause.

I became strictly vegetarian when i was 12, and vegan from 19-32 when it almost killed me.

I started eating meat again 3 years ago. I still choose a mostly veggie diet. We do not buy meat, but i will eat anything in the buffet of the woods. My wife sometimes has a hard time with me not buying chicken at the store, but no problem raising them for eggs and meat. I am lucky, we have goat, deer a 15 acre full of fish in the front yard, turkey, wild hogs 2 miles down holler, and anything else she might try. If we don't have it, we don't eat it.

A starving man should be willing to eat anything, but the lucky man has an option..