Re: Back yard ammunition....
LOL Cool! the ammo quest means it is being evicted?
wait till he curls up on the bed after you get up, to sleep in a warm spot all day! or catches mice for you.
Re: Back yard ammunition....
Pete,
I've used that very round on many a feral cat.
Lung shots drop them on the spot.
Head shots are prone to deflect.
I shoot them in a Marlin 60.
They feed fine, won't cycle the action though.
Sound slightly louder than my air rifle, but not like a gun shot.
dk
Re: Back yard ammunition....
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blue Avenger
LOL Cool! the ammo quest means it is being evicted?
wait till he curls up on the bed after you get up, to sleep in a warm spot all day! or catches mice for you.
Blue,
When my daughters were around 7 and 9 1/2 years of age they asked for a kitten. I found a lovely Calico female we named Ginger. She lived happly with us for 18 years. We have a farm not far from us where cats are dropped off by non caring owners. For around 17 years we have cared for an average of 24 cats at one time. We feel for the feral animals of what ever species and feed them and give them comfortable housing in an oversized two car garage with off the floor bedding, insulated, heated etc. There are three litter boxes in the garage which they use and are changed twice a week.
Our "friends eat exactly 66 ounces of caned food daily, 4 lbs 2 oz. with an occasional extra two cans for breakfast. They enjoy four types of Purina premium dry food with the canned stuff. We mix a blend of Purina for F.U,S, Feline urinary Syndrome, Purina ONE, a vegetable mix and a fish dry mix. They eat six 20 lb. bags a week plus 50 5 1/2 oz can of Purina meat weekly.
We change eight litter boxes twice a week, and they are feed at 8:00 am and 4:00 pm daily. Our veterinary is a Friends of Animals doctor (FOA) and charges us now $80 per neutering/spaying up from $55 with shots included. (Most local Vets charge $200 plus)
Most are trained and will follow voice commands such as "NO", "DOWN", "OUT", "STAY", and they react to the word "OUCH" and a gentle smack to the head as this is what other cats do to them when unhappy. Several and I mean several will seek us out and climb into our laps, under our chins, arms etc when we are sleeping. We feel their presence and fall back to sleep with their puring. They have come to need and love us for food, protection, comfort and health issues. Many just love us and consider us the ALPHA cats.
We are tired of the whole process. We have given away well over 150 kittens in our history. All have been spayed/neutered with shots. All have been domesticated with many hours of loving and training such as their moms would provide.
They bring us presents... Many small birds, several large rats, many small mice, a few snakes etc. They want to share with us when they are successfull in their hunts because WE are their dominate Felines in their eyes. I can just look at a large male and point a finger at him and tell him "NO!!" and he will lie down and feel guilty about what he was doing. Yes we have small scars all over our bodies and we keep Neosporin + pain within reach!!
I only wish to have available a means to stop the feral males that are dropped off at the nearby farm from mating with the feral females from the same place if and when it gets out of hand. So far we have lost beautiful loving pets to coyotes, fisher cats, being trapped and other causes. We maintain the same approx. 24 felines year round.
If and when I decide to unlawfully put down a pest I want to do it humanly. The friendly
traps do not work that well on ferill cats because we catch everything else.
Our annual budget has been for decades around $7,500 to $10,000 but has stabilized to around $7,500 again as we have neutered so many over the decades. In town we have the Branford Compassion Club with an annual budget of $75,000 with volunteers that set friendly traps and have the mobile vans neuter for reduced charges. I will be using them in short order to reduce our heard. It is a LOT of work and effort to keep the house clean, smelling fresh and the population healthy, happy and without baby kittens. We need a break at our age.
I have decided that we can't continue much longer due to health issues and need an alternative to new problem breeders that won't let us domesticate them so they can visit our terrific vet and live happily forever.
Pete :)
Re: Back yard ammunition....
Quote:
Originally Posted by deerkiller
Pete,
I've used that very round on many a feral cat.
Lung shots drop them on the spot.
Head shots are prone to deflect.
I shoot them in a Marlin 60.
They feed fine, won't cycle the action though.
Sound slightly louder than my air rifle, but not like a gun shot.
dk
DK..
I have a 1938 Marlin model 100 that was given to me as a gumbed up closet queen by a neighboor who's dad had passed away. After a couple of hours of disassemble and thorough cleaning, oiling, bees waxing it is like new. I love it because it shoots exactly where it is pointed within 100 yards and is a light and quick rifle for moving small game.
[img width=600 height=450]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v64/pdexter46/DSCN0060.jpg[/img]
[img width=600 height=450]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v64/pdexter46/DSCN0061.jpg[/img]
It is fun keeping the really old ones working like they were intended to be....
Yours is a level actin and my oldie is a short, Long & long rifle bolt. The really old ones had the "Knob" bolt cocker and the newer ones had a finger ring pull for safety purposes.
Pete .
Re: Back yard ammunition....
I know what you mean, having lived on the first farm out of town for many years. feed lots of critters. few skunks, only chased away the ones that carried a bad smell. so bad it would wake you up from a sound sleep. or very antisocial carnivores. wood chucks trying to live in the buildings had to go as did the squirrels in the attic.
Re: Back yard ammunition....
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blue Avenger
I know what you mean, having lived on the first farm out of town for many years. feed lots of critters. few skunks, only chased away the ones that carried a bad smell. so bad it would wake you up from a sound sleep. or very antisocial carnivores. wood chucks trying to live in the buildings had to go as did the squirrels in the attic.
Blue,
You mentioned sleep... What is that? We are awakened three or more time a night by onw of the cats crying to go outside, or being lonely or just being a pest. This is the real reason that we can't take it any longer. The physical work is also becoming a real problem taking many hours a day to disinfect counter tops, floors, tables, doors and more. Even though we try to neuter the males at an early age they sometimes forget and will revert to marking their territory. When I catch them I rub their noses in whatever they marked and give them a vocal adjustment. Latter I will love them to let them understand that there was a purpose to the there punishment because they have short memories. You need to catch them at the time of the act or they don't know what they are being punished for. I have broken many large stubborn neutered males from spraying by being on top of them at the moment of indiscretion.
I would love a solid nights sleep!!
Pete :'(
Re: Back yard ammunition....
I live on a "first farm from the edge of town" and due to the population of lizards and rare and/or migratory birds here, we maintain a strict "no cats or possums allowed" policy here. Deep south Texas is semi-tropical and on a major migration route, so the bird population here is quite interesting. We also get half a dozen or so different kinds of lizards, ranging from one inch to over 12 inches in length.
If we let the cats hang out here, soon the lizards and birds disappear.
I do not hesitate to dispatch a possum, with .17 HMR the cartridge of choice as it is a quick killer and unlikely to ricochet - but cats are another story. For them, I use a small animal trap, an oblong wire mesh box with a door that flops down and locks when a small animal steps upon a metal plate at the far end of the trap. I put tuna fish or salmon on the metal plate, and place the trap where I have spotted a cat hanging out. It is very effective and reliable. Often I can watch the cat going inside and getting caught from my window. Mornings are good for that.
My area is agricultural with nothing but small towns... I give the cats a ride to the nearest town and release them in an alley on the other end of town that is already well-stocked with felines. My reasoning there is that there are numerous sources of food in that area, and they have a good chance to adopt a human if they are so inclined. Also, there is nobody with a view of the alley who could see me releasing the cat and possibly object.
My son regards the cats as pests and once asked why I do not just shoot them. I explained that cats are different from possums in that many people value them as beloved pets or as hard-working rodent eliminators. Since we do not have cats on the farm, we have to put out poison to control rats and mice on a regular basis. He looked at me askance when I told him that, but since then he has shown signs that he has accepted my wisdom in this area.
The possums are destructive to my buildings and tend to get into things... They are also quite vicious and have no sense of humor at all about being trapped, so they end up in a shallow grave at the edge of my fields whenever I encounter one of them. Some may think less of me, but I am unapologetic about dispatching the possums that show up here.
My "ranch rifles" are a Savage 93R17 BTVS in .17HMR and a DPMS AR-15 in .223 for the larger varmints.
Re: Back yard ammunition....
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pete K.
Well now I have a young opossum living in the house for the past week. He doesn't bother anything as he is nocturnal and we only see him running by once in a while. The cats don't mind him. He comes out at night to eat, drink and use the newspaper. He is actually a good little critter that minds his business.
I used to use .22 BB Caps on little critters in the yard if they became to obnoxious but they became as expensive as .22LR. I did a search for "low velocity" .22LR and came up with the CCI 29 grain long rifles with a velocity of 710 fps. They claim they sound like a typical air rifle noise wise.
Do you think they would be enough to knock down unwanted critters at fairly close range, ie under 25 yards up to cat size animals humanly?
http://www.eabco.com/cgi-bin/shopper...n&key=116-0038
Thanks for your thoughts?
PS. I did order two hundred and the freight was $8.95 on a $23.00 + order!! What's up with ammunition freight costs these days?
???
Pete
*****OPOSSUM UPDATE*****
The small trash pail in the bathroom has been upset several mornings and a few used tissues etc. have been around it on the floor. I blamed it on the cats. This morning I was as usual reading the newpaper front page while on the comode. I heard a muffled small/quiet cough but there was not a critter to be found. I had just emptied the waste paper basket the night before but when I lifted it it seemed heavy. I carefully and slowly lifted out the plastic liner bag and low and behold!!! there was the small opossum all curled up sleeping on the bottom of the basket which was under the plastic liner bag !! We took a gentle trip outside into 30 degree temperatures where I dumped him onto the snow under an evergreen bush. The poor little guy was still asleep, it was daylight, he is nocturnal. He opened his eye, just one eye in a peek to see what the heck had happened to his warm den near the heater register and just sat there. He must have been thinking " this is not going to be one of my better days".
END of opossum story.... for now...
Pete :)
Re: Back yard ammunition....
that got a laugh out of me!
Re: Back yard ammunition....
