Opener

[PeteRevvv]

Headshot with pheasant load will put them down- and get the most money. GFP site has them selling for $26. We shot and sold a montana silver badger for $75. They are used for high-end art brushes. Most any farmer or trapper will take them off your hands, no problem. Same for fox, coyote, racoon and skunk.

Farmers we hunt with instruct us to shoot them on site, year round (it is legal). They have lost many livestock to broken legs, wrecked pickup suspension, had fences come down. Ground birds are a prime food source for these predators and many use badger holes to make dens. They are a direct threat to farming, ranching and hosting hunters so it is taken seriously. All predators are treated this way, including wild cats (more than a quarters or two from a house).

 

[pheasanthunt]

Headshot with pheasant load will put them down- and get the most money. GFP site has them selling for $26. We shot and sold a montana silver badger for $75. They are used for high-end art brushes. Most any farmer or trapper will take them off your hands, no problem. Same for fox, coyote, racoon and skunk.

Farmers we hunt with instruct us to shoot them on site, year round (it is legal). They have lost many livestock to broken legs, wrecked pickup suspension, had fences come down. Ground birds are a prime food source for these predators and many use badger holes to make dens. They are a direct threat to farming, ranching and hosting hunters so it is taken seriously. All predators are treated this way, including wild cats (more than a quarters or two from a house).

I agree with everything you said, this is how we were instructed as Kids. And if we See a Badger in one of our fields During a pheasant hunt we stop the hunt until we take care of the Badger.

 

[PeteRevvv]

Bring this thread back to somewhat of the original topic ...

Nothing like opening weekend while the harvest is still going. A real wildlife experience can be had when you can get the combine driver to let you post the end of the field as he is coming for his last set of corn rows. We will often flag one down with a cold soda in hand as he makes his last turn and then race down to the end of the field ahead of him. The quantity and variety of animals that come pouring out of the field can look like a Cabelas shooting gallery.

From one 200 yard row we once had a half dozen deer, a covey of sharptails, a couple dozen pheasants, a coyote, badger, jackrabbits and multiple raccoons coming pouring out. We were reloading furiously and trying to process the species recognition to decide to shoot or not as they all came hell bent out of the corn. Thank god we left the dog in the truck but everything was scattered all over as he must have just about gone out of his mind having the watch it from inside.

Shows you how hard the birds will hang on to any amount of cover, no matter how little they have, how many predators are around or what is pushing them out. I've often been told by locals that we miss 90% of the birds when we push a field as they are hanging tight in the cover and not moving unless you get right on top of them.