I've trapped 18 skunks this summer (in town, all within 30' of my house).
Anyone crazy enough to have tried cooking one?
(I did joke about my entry to the chili cook-off at work as being Pole cat #18 chili).
I've trapped 18 skunks this summer (in town, all within 30' of my house).
Anyone crazy enough to have tried cooking one?
(I did joke about my entry to the chili cook-off at work as being Pole cat #18 chili).
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I knew a fellow that cooked and actually tried skunk atleast once !
This guy also claimed to have eaten crow (for real) , possum , coom , groundhog and muskrat !
Guy was a heck of a shot with a rifle or a shotgun . But sad to say he's been dead for well over 30 years now . Killed himself with a shotgun when I was in the 10th grade . One of my school buddies was his youngest son !
That fellow would have been about 78 now if he hadn't killed himself !
And no I don't think eating skunk caused him to kill himself .
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Back 60 odd years ago when I was courting my wife (Yep, she's still with me, thank God) I was driving 'most every night from the Walnut valley, over the Covina Hills to her home in Baldwin Park. One night it was brought to my attention - quite forcefully - that a skunk had very recently been the loser in a car encounter. About a week later, when the skunk scent had lost some of it's potency, and was being overtaken by the dead animal gasses generated by the hot Southern California sun, I came over the little rise and discovered 3 possums feasting on the now overripe skunk.
I had never had any desire to try skunk anyway, and that experience convinced me that I would never be interested in trying possum, either!
Wes
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They tell me that Skunks carry rabies, that'd be reason enough not to cook one.
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EAT A SKUNK????!!!!!! :puke: It has to be asked. Did someone hit you on the head?:shock: I am a 'mountainie' man by god. I've eaten mos' everything that trots or trips. You ain't gonna slide a skunk on my plate and me know it. :taz::taz::taz:
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I am a 'mountainie' man by god.
I wasn't aware they had actual “mountains” in Kansas ;)
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I am a 'mountainie' man by god.
I wasn't aware they had actual “mountains” in Kansas ;) If you're drunk enough to eat a skunk, they can be had most any place. I'm only about 2 hrs from the front range.
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They tell me that Skunks carry rabies, that'd be reason enough not to cook one.
Yes, they can carry rabies. There have been many verified cases in the county and surrounding towns. That is the WHY I've trapped them. These 18 will be next year's corn. (Heck, if the indians used fish I can use skunks!) (With plenty of lime.)
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The top of Raton Pass is about 3-3 1/2 hrs. 4hr to Whittington Center.
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EAT A SKUNK????!!!!!! :puke: It has to be asked. Did someone hit you on the head?:shock: I am a 'mountainie' man by god. I've eaten mos' everything that trots or trips. You ain't gonna slide a skunk on my plate and me know
THE QUESTION IS : ” HOW DO THEY SLIDE A SKUNK ON YOUR PLATE AND YOU NOT KNOW IT?".
B.E.Brickey
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Excessive indulgence in ” Taos Lighten' ” would we the only way I know.
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Trapped my 4th one this year (20 last year). Off to a good start.
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Sounds like you closing in on the Elite Expert Skunk dispatcher status.
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> Whats the surest way you have found to end up with a dead skunk and no stink?
To let some foolish person of uncertain parentage do the trapping and dispatching always works for me!
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...
Whats the surest way you have found to end up with a dead skunk and no stink?
...
This has worked 25 times so far. Hold a blanket up between you and trapped skunk and walk up to the trap. (If the skunk was caught overnight (likely) wait until next evening - it will be tired of digging.)
Gently cover the trap with the blanket. I wait 10 minutes for the skunk to get used to the dark.
Pick the trap up. It now contains grass and dirt - 5-10 lbs and will jerk when you pick it up. It is sometimes difficult to get a grip on a blanket covered trap - think it through before hand.
You need a place to drown the skunk. Large garbage cans are 2” shorter than the large have-a-heart trap (that was the FIRST one I did). I built a box of angle iron larger than the trap, lined with vynal roofing and filled with water.
In one gentle motion push the trap under the water and yank the blanket clear. Put a 1/2 cement block on top in case it's a large skunk (so it doesn't float up the trap). Walk away, come back in 5 minutes. 'possums take longer.
Wear rubber gloves emptying the trap. Burry with lime.
Only once or twice did one go off - and that was under the water. Skunks are VERY good natured. Someone has said that they don't spray in confined spaces. They would rather retreat than fight; but they ARE armed.
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What I want to know is after you trap them do you worry about getting sprayed before you kill and skin them and when you skin them do you worry about getting skunk juice on you?
Because I said so!
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When they're in the trap one just keeps away - out of range. The cats walking by make them a little edgy though.
Once they're under the blanket you're 'safe' even if one did spray before you give it a swimming lesson. Once in the water, it's all over.
Past that ? I just bury them. Someday I'll work up enough courage to skin one. I know some folks that do it.
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What I want to know is after you trap them do you worry about getting sprayed before you kill and skin them and when you skin them do you worry about getting skunk juice on you?
Do I worry about getting sprayed? There is NOTHING in life that raises my heart rate like carrying an armed nuclear weapon (under the blanket) over to the pool for a swimming lesson. After the 5th one we went to the Mexican restaurant for margareta's - celebrating cinco-de-skunko. They did not understand. After 10 or a dozen the recovery time from the event got down from an initial couple of hours to 15 or 20 minutes.
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My dad has a 20 foot 2 by 4 with a hook on the end. He attaches this in his tractor's loader bucket so he is as far as possible from the skunk, and hooks the trap with the hook and then drops it in the water tank.
Of course, he is a farmer and has said loader and a water tank. Me, I just shoot them and fix the (Hava-heart) trap!
If you have outdoor cats that you feed outdoors, you will have all kinds of interesting visitors after 9 pm. Take a light and your .22 magnum, 9mm, .38 Special, or .45 ACP and sneak up on them!
.22 LR does not kill them fast enough for me! In other words, they spray if not killed instantly.
Dale M. Lock
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I WOULD shoot 'em, but I live in town. I like the 20' 2X4.
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Skunks are tricky to skin. The scent oil sack is inside them and below the anus. Skunks brace their hind legs together to make the squeeze to squirt the oils. My brother used to trap and got one in a leg hold trap. He hoisted the skunk and trap off the ground with a pole and hand over handed it until he could club it and break the spine. Trapping really is a brutish business sometimes. Well any way he messed up the job and set the stunned but really mad skunk to spinning on the chain at arms length. Ma made him change his clothes in the garage. The only thing we had that came close to getting out the stink was gasoline. I have blocked the memory of skunk mixed with raw gas. We did not eat the skunk and Scott got $1.50 for the hide. As for shooting them, a 20 ga. with #4 shot from 15 yards straightened one out well enough for me. No spray.
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If I remember correctly, tomato juice is supposed to get the stink out of clothes and off dogs fur. Most dogs only make that kind of mistake once, but I remember one (not ours) that had made it his mission to rid the earth of skunks. Most of the time he smelled worse than the skunks.
Wes
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I see what is writtien and when I do trapping i use conibears and it kill them fast and most of the time you can not smell them .I do get some in a foothold trap . I just shot them with a 22lr round in my single six. When in the fur season there is a market for the fur and also for the essence .I do skin and put up the fur . it is extra money .I had done taxidermy on one one time and it was in a cage trap and I just put something t0 cover it and then put in a large plasic bag and then put it around the exhust pipe then gas it . I eat coon , muskrat,beaver,possum,beside deer . but never did skunk but I do have a recipe for skunk . If any on e like to have it just PM me i will give it to you .on the east coast there is a rabies out break and it is more them skunks that have it . As long you use gloves to handel them in skinning . you will be ok .
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THis one I caught last night. Diggers driven by hunger. Tim's famous chicken draws 'em in.
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TRK,
Your photo reminds me of a skunk I used to see around our neighborhood in a small town in Texas. It was about half again as large as the one you caught--not a tale about how everything is bigger in Texas. It had very long and luxuriant fur with a bit more black on the sides, but with a W-I-D-E white stripe down its back. From the rear it looked like a white puff of cotton-candy waddling across the neighborhood lawns.
Good shooting! RT
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I did a skunk calendar last year.
20 last year, 5 so far this year. (I'm driven by fear of the rabies that's going through the area.)
Beautiful, good natured animals.
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We don't get skunks in Aus and I've asked a few North Americans about the smell and whats so bad about it. It's obviously nauseating but I've never smelt one.
What happens if you get sprayed?
I'm curious!
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When a skunk spray it is to get into the eyes of the attacker to bolind them temperary to get away . also you will stink and need to take a bath in tomatoe juice to get the smell off. i know first hand about getting spray when I was small ran over one with my bick I was riden down a hill near home and had no light on it before i know it I was over it .
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I hit one earlier this year driving to work. The smell stayed with the car for about 3 weeks. Fortunately just under the car and not IN it. However the car that was right behind me got it worse - I could see that I'd clipped it and it was rithing and I'm sure spraying everything it could.
Most people encounter skunks when their dogs do battle with them. The dogs don't learn either. The smell stays for weeks.
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Diddulph,
It is hard to describe the smell of skunk spray. It is obviously an organic vs. inorganic odor. Has a penetrating quality to it, i.e., it gets WAY up you nose. If the odor is thick you can actually taste it. Yeck! As you might guess it is also persistent, i.e., it is hard to remove from persons, animals or objects. If it smelled better, every perfume maker would be using it as a base for their fragrances.
CHANGE of SUBJECT: I often thought the hide of the skunk I described in an earlier post would have made a great mountain man hat.
Good shooting! RT
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I think I get the idea.
I had a gecko crawl into my car air conditioner and die last wet season. for 3 weeks I had to drive with the windows open and no aircon in our 90% humidity. Every day I was dry reaching on the way to work... tried putting all sorts of odour neutralisers in the car but they just provided subtle back ground to the main event!
I think the word to describe it is 'cloying'...
Puke!
cheers
James
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I WOULD shoot 'em, but I live in town. I like the 20' 2X4.
I live in town & I use sub-sonic ammo. LOL Oh, by the way . . . all you guys are crazy! LOL
If someone else had of done to me what I did to myself . . . I'd have killed him. Humility is an asset. Heh - heh.
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I WOULD shoot 'em, but I live in town. I like the 20' 2X4.
I live in town & I use sub-sonic ammo. LOL Oh, by the way . . . all you guys are crazy! LOL Heck i would think a decent 22 cal pellet rifle would do the job within 10-15 yards also .
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I WOULD shoot 'em, but I live in town. I like the 20' 2X4.
I live in town & I use sub-sonic ammo. LOL Oh, by the way . . . all you guys are crazy! LOL You're a good judge of character!
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I get them in a live trap all the time because they are messing with my bees. Creek isn't deep enough to drown them in. Usally use a blue plastic tarp to cover them up load in the wheel borrow and take to the field with my 12 ga.. Once in the field I lay the shot gun next to the cage, open the cage and grab the shot gun once they are out a bit I shoot them. I found out once when I had forgot the trap and saw a skunk in it as I went out the drive. When I returned a couple hour latter the skunk was dead. I finall figured out that the bees who are not crtazy about the color black and the skunk kept moving so the bees kept stinging it to death.
Recipes here.
http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-0,skunk,FF.html
Their are others on the net also.
:D Al
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Al - thanks! the roast skunk looked a little more authentic. I'm up to 25 skunks this year (20 last year) all in my back or side yards within 50 feet of the house.
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Your welcome. Like the saying goes waste not want not. Maybe you would likeit french fried?
http://deep-fried.food.com/recipe/french-fried-skunk-75396
:D Al
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Hmmm. 75 skunks since last JUNE (2014). Might just have to skin one out.
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2,1,1,dipropyl ethy,amine is considered to be the worst smelling chemical in the world. It also smells remarkedly like skunk spray.
The oderiferousness is best treated with:
One quart H2O2 or hydrogen peroxide one third cup or baking soda one tbsp of liquid soap.
Mix together in a large bowl and apply liberally to the affected pet or area of the body or clothing. It is what my Vet recommends and works remarkably well. Otherwise you are looking at at leas three months for the smell to go away.
Brodie
PS A pellet rifle works quite well . Almost as good as a piece or rebar. If you shoot them in the head they WILL SPRAY,, or at least shoot a blob out their business end. The coyotes around here eat them if you throw the carcasses out into the back lot.
B.E.Brickey
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Even after trapping over 175 (career total) I've not yet been sprayed (thanks! Lord!) One fellow who has 5 dogs (always into skunks) recommended Dawn mixed with baking soda and water followed by hydrogen peroxide - therefore I agree with you! Pellet rifle? NO. I've hit too many woodchucks too many times with no effect. (until I can get a .30 or .45 caliber pellet rifle). Nothing here will touch a skunk left out in the yard for a day or two.
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Apparently, here in AZ near Flagstaff we have some very hungry coyotes. There are a couple who make the rounds every day. At least I see their tracks after a fresh snow. And, I have had them eat or at least skin the skunk carcasses thrown over my neighbors fence.
You can kill them with a .177 pellet to the head when trapped. We had an invasion of ground squirrels a couple of years ago which was why we were trapping, and the skunks were by-catch. For a long time a female moved in under my shed and got the labs while she was foraging in the back yard. After the first couple of times the dogs learned to get the skunks attention while the other lab came in from the side. I picked up a lot of dead skunks in my yard, and they all went over the fence into the back forty (ok not acres). Then the ground squirrels moved under the shed and real problems started. Brodie
B.E.Brickey
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I get skunks in my traps and I just shoot them and then come back after check the traps in that one area and pick it up and take it home and hang in a outside shed for about 2 days and then take it down celler and skin it with gloves and put up the skin and sell it.I am a use to the smell so it dose not matter to me.The market gose by the stripe for what the price the fur will go for.
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I've heard folks talk about recycling road-kill, quite often still fit for consumption. Let me assure you that any skunk that has not moved for 24 hours is NOT fit to eat! GW
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Skunk - never, and doubt I would, but guess I might try it if it were in front of me...
BBQ 'coon - yes and it was very good over rice as long as you skimmed all the fat/grease off the top! It had been slow cooked in a crock pot for who knows how long. Would eat it again - it was rich and good
Know a lot of guys in upper E TN that eat groundhog. Assume it is very similar to 'coon.
Also eaten fried Rocky Mtn Oysters (bull) and must admit it was some of the best tenderloin I ever ate! And even better, my Mom tricked me into eating it when I was a kid. I had eaten snapping turtle and liked it, and when I asked why the Mtn Oysters were round, she told me they used an ice cream scooper to scopp the meat out of the turtle shell. After I went back for seconds she told me what it really was! Still good and would eat them again!
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Can't say much about cooking skunk, but I do know a couple of Aggies that fried a buzzard for a roommate. The story does not end well. GW
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Cherokee buddy of mine from east Texas also recommends the blanket trick, then decapitate skunk with axe befire it can spray. But Frank Marshall said foxes won't go near skunk carcass,as bait, and they know!
73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia
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Old Coot is right on target, Hydrogen Peroxide is about the only thing that will eliminate the smell. I have a pack of very slow learning dogs and every spring is a kind of ritual around here with the dogs and skunks having a meet and greet session in my front yard. And yes, the first place they head is in the house. I have had notable success by aiming at the base of the skull where the spine connects. Take your time and pick your shot, they rarely charge. They seldom spray even a minute quantity if you do your part. As to eating, very lean reminds me texture wise to muskrat or squirrel. Mild flavor, I will use it as a substitute in beef hash. As with any omnivore, cook it completely +148F internal. It is definitely worth a try. As to concerns with rabies, any mammal can contract rabies.
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Long ago on a chicken farm far away my future bride and I lived in an old farmhouse in the boonies. One night her idiot dog wanted out real bad. Came barreling back in after a close range hit from a skunk and jumped up on our bed! It took MONTHS to get rid of the smell. Permeates and penetrates everything, to stay. We bought a small fortune of tomato juice to wash the dog and our clothes even. She was a leggy looker in a classy restaurant at that time. She smelled like skunk! I smelled like skunk. Time is the only real remedy.
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