A couple porcupines from last night

[carpsniperg2]

Hadn't got out in awhile and wanted to go out for a little trip last night. I gave one of the newer members a call "twosixfourwins". Erick and his girlfriend Megan joined me on my little trip. They have not been in washington long enough to get there stuff yet so I got to be the shooter. Very rare in my case I was showing him some of our land and such and I got to one of my favorite spots and I just said "this is one of my best spots" when I spotted one. Little bugger took off running as soon as I saw him. He got out to about 80 yards or so before I could get him with the 22. Mid sized quill pig. I call his type a high back. The quills get really long as they go up the back. There seems to be about 4 different types of them around. Got to the next spot and I said this is my 2nd favorite spot and what do you know there is another one. He was out grazing in a field. Longer shot then I like for the 22 at about 150 yards but I was able to get the job done. The second one is one of the nicest ones I have seen in a long time. Big quill pig with a lot of long guard hair! The one was avg with about 6" long hair on the average and the normal 1/2 ounce range. The nice one was right at 3/4 of a ounce and around 7" on the average. Not a bad night for about a hour trip out. Guard hair is pretty decent price right now at about 30.00 a ounce. I will wait tell it gets a little better and get around 35-40 for a ounce. So about a 50.00 night not a bad night at all. I was more after the porcupines then anything. Looked in a couple small spots for yotes and heard several talking but they were scared to show there faces

[buglebuster]

So is there only a little bit of the hair you use?

[carpsniperg2]

Yes the hair is the only thing worth any money on them. Most buyers want 5" minimum, some will take down to 4". Use to be a bounty on them and you could get money for each one from the timber companies. They kill thousands of tree's each year and have put quills in about 40+ of our beef cattle over the years. Nothing like spending a day chasing cows and pulling quills. Plus my dogs have got into them more then a few times. I hate the little buggers!

[Ripper]

Sounds like a fun night Carp. I've never shot one before, hell, I've only seen one ever. I'll shoot the next one I see.

[FALFire]

I have one in the freezer right now, I'll kill every one of them I find, they are real hard on trees.

[seth30]

I have tons of dead ones on the roads, and seen signs of them about 12 feet up a tree where there is a section of no bark and a pile of scat at the base of the tree.  Are they a aware animal and scare easily?

[pjb3]

Next time someone gets one, can I get it? I love mounting them. Well only did one and sold it but want another one

[TwoSixFourWins]

Good times right there. Pulled a broken off quill out of my finger the next morning. We should go again! Once I get all squared away with licenses I'll bring some of my toys out to play with.

[carpsniperg2]

  The big one was a bit of pack Maybe I should have gave you my gloves

Next time someone gets one, can I get it? I love mounting them. Well only did one and sold it but want another one

I don't have a lot of freezer space right now, but I will keep it in mind the next time I kill a good one like the better one in this case.

I have tons of dead ones on the roads, and seen signs of them about 12 feet up a tree where there is a section of no bark and a pile of scat at the base of the tree.  Are they a aware animal and scare easily?

You really should stop and grab the guard hair out of them there is around 10-15.00's worth on each of them and it takes about 10 mins to do. A little longer if you are new to it. Just keep the hair that is over 5" long. I lay mine out flat for the night and let them stiffen up a little. Then pluck them the next day, the hair still pulls very well and they don't roll around as much.

[pjb3]

Next time someone gets one, can I get it? I love mounting them. Well only did one and sold it but want another one

I don't have a lot of freezer space right now, but I will keep it in mind the next time I kill a good one like the better one in this case.



U could skin it for me?

Thanks and if you get one, let me know and I'll figure a way to meet you or something

[seth30]

How does the law apply to them then?  the ones I always see dead are road kill, and one of the reasons I dotn pick them up is its illegal to pick up road kill, or do porcupines fall into a special law themselves

[jackmaster]

gotta be honest here, i have never met anyone who actually goes out and targets porcupine, didnt know there were a call for them, i think i have seen 2 porks in my life, come to think of it i have seen 3, now my hounds seem to find them quite often back in the day, so how do you hunt porks if you dont mind me askn

[seth30]

Sorry to thread jack earlier   Looks like a great night out, and congrats on getting two of those  pigs! 

[TheHunt]

Interesting...  I did a google search and the only market for that is Native American's.  Is that correct?  I was initially thinking it might be fly fishermen

[carpsniperg2]

There is a few uses them, the main one is for paint brushes. There is a also a lot of stuff that native Americans use the hair for. Like wrist bands and adding beads to head dresses and clothes. I would imagine that you could use them for fly tying as well

gotta be honest here, i have never met anyone who actually goes out and targets porcupine, didnt know there were a call for them, i think i have seen 2 porks in my life, come to think of it i have seen 3, now my hounds seem to find them quite often back in the day, so how do you hunt porks if you dont mind me askn

There use to be a good bounty on them. You could get 10-15.00 for each nose broght in. Then you got a out half a oz from the avg pig. Which is about 10-15 depending on the market for them. So that use to make them worth 20-30 each and sometimes even more.

The porcupines are unclassified wildlife.

To hunt them you really have 2 methods. During the day you have to get into some areas with good timber stands. You can spot the tree's that have had them living in them. They eat the bark from the tree and kill the tree. This is mainly in the winter months. Also the droppings at the base of a tree are a tell tale sign of them in the tree or in the area.

Next is night hunting. They come down and move around a lot at night. Not so much in the winter, they move just from one tree to the next. They come out into area's to graze just like deer. Both these to were in spots that tend to always have them in the area. Both were out feeding in a field. They like areas with a lot of tall grass and ditches with good pasture next to big tree's.