Varmint encounter: Rare opportunity

[HomeBrew2]

Almost 10 years ago I was seated around a fire at night with friends. Suddenly, the "hostess" yelled out, "There's a gopher, kill it!!!" My #12 Redwing obliged, instantly, and the task was completed (... instantly as soon as I could focus on the blur of what looked like a gopher /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Tonight, I proceed out to the barby to char a pair of porky burgers (one for dindin, one for dessert) and as I approach the 400° mother-of-god, a gopher scoots out in front of me from the darkness of the underside of patio glider. An instaneous smack (instaneous, after I could focus on him and put my beer down) with my coveted 4"x6" stainless spatula rendered him ready for a nearby ferrel cat (the cat that should have relieved me of the duty ... not that I didn't revel in the glory).
Little pleasures don't seem to come often enough /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
Life is good, cheers!

 

[Birdhunter1]

You shoulda grilled it for the cat.
Question is did you still use your meat flipper afterwards?

 

[ByronBob]

Not knowing what gophers do are they a nuisence of some kind?

 

[rdln]

Kalifornea needs more people like you

 

[edski]

Can't agree more...it's the simple pleasures.

Not many women appreciate a masterfully wielded spatula.
I tried explaining a similar "simple pleasure" to my wife once, unsuccessfully.

I gave hear another example, the "Bird on a wire." (no offense Bird)
As a boy you're walking down the road and see a bird on a wire. You then pickup a rock, take aim, and throw it.
Amazing, you hit the bird, it drops to the ground dead.
You feel bad about the bird. It was just a songbird minding its own business.
Sometime latter you're walking down the road and see another bird on a wire.
You then pickup a rock, take aim, and throw it. Miss.
You don't remember how bad you felt, just the rush, the excitment of having hit that one. It's a guy thing.

Still not believing me she polls the students in one of her classes. Too make the story short, 100% of her boys raised their hands, admitting to the above, and 100% of the girls looked at them with shock and horror.

Maybe I should have used the 70% off shoe sale analogy. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[ByronBob]

Maybe I should have used the 70% off shoe sale analogy.

Oh, now you'd be on her wave length. She'd say something like

"Well honey I didn't need these shoes but they were 70% off. They were just sitting there on the shelf minding their own business. And I thought in the back of my mind

1) Look at the money I'd be saving to buy them now. I'll never wear them because I don't need them but it'd be a reason to buy a matching dress right?
2) If I don't buy them now then some other woman will come along and buy them because their 70% off. And being the competative women we are I can't allow that!!

YOU would look in amazement at the story just like your wife did with the bird. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Taylortractornut]

I know the exact same feeling you got with offing the gopher lol. We had some neighborhood dogs kill off about 800 dollars worth of registered Boer goats in our pen. Dad peppered 2 of them we put the goats up as we knew the dogs wqould be back so we locked them in the Brood pen. the nexxt day we came in and the dogs had gone under the electric fence and were working on the brood fence. Lets just say they havent been back. one did go down the road looking for his buddies but never stepped into our fence. 2 sides to it Dad and I both felt bad about shooting the dogs on the otherside they wont be killin any more goats either.

 

[SPIKER]

gophers (what we call ground hogs here or woodchucks) are pretty big, as in will go up to and in some cases over 30 lbs. now a ground squirell or a prearry dog are only slightly bigger than a rat, (not a NYCity rat mind you those are closer to say a wolf in size /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif ) but anyhow i have done that many times wacked a darn goo dmany ground hogs wiht the trusty 10-22 and even got a few using well bigger and even smaller items of choice. best one was a stone dead shot involving my bb-gun & a 20 lber that was quite shy about sticking his head out. I debated shooting at him with the pellet gun as I figured it would only wound him but when he saw me & ran I was like a dog with quick reflexes pulled up the bb gun & shot, the thing was dead instantly by a shot straight to the brain through it's ear. dropped face first tumbled over onto it;s back feet in the air... /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif the bar owner neibor saw me do it and laughed his butt off said he never saw anything like that before & he was a wwII destroyer gunner!

anyhow sorry for rambling... anyhow just wondering which critter ya got...

SPIKER

 

[beenthere]

There are chipmunks, ground squirrels, gophers, woodchucks, and prairie dogs. I believe they are none of the same (but lots of confusion between them, especially the ground squirrels and gophers).

To me, the smallest is the chipmunk, and has distinct stripes down the back, the next is the ground squirrel that is thin as the chipmunk, but a longer body. Next up is the gopher, that is more like a grey squirrel in body size. Next is the prairie dog, which is short tailed and further west of the Mississippi, and the woodchuck (ground hog) is the larger of the bunch and dark in color whereas the others are more of a tan color.
Just the way I've learned them, which doesn't mean it is right. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[HomeBrew2]

Life just gets better ... not sure if it's a [pocket]gopher, mole or vole but, it ain't just takin' a nap /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif