Porcupine Hunting Legal or not

Three words:

I HATE PORKIES!!!!:runaway:

The first thing that I ever shot in my life was a porkie, and I have been in an undeclared state of war with them ever since. In my opinion, there is no animal on the face of the earth that deserves extinction like this one does.

These little buggers get into everything and anything they possibly can, and nothing is sacred from their ravenous appetite. A short list of things I have lost to porkies:

[1] About 900 square feet of plywood. I had several sheets in the barn. All of them are now about 3/4 inches x 3/4 eaten. (I tell all of my friends that come over that it's the work of the infamous Southern Ontario Barn Shark.)

[2] Two wooden tables and a wooden sawhorse.

[3] A pair of rubber boots.

[4] A pair of hunting boots. (Discovered the perpetrator while trying to put said boots on. Talk about pins and needles....)

[5] The brake pedal and gear shifter on my lawn tractor.

[6] The brake line on my brother in law's car.

[7] The door to the barn. All four of them.

[8] The door to the garage.

[9] A door I just had lying around.

[10] The door to my deer blind.

[11] The door to my garden shed. This door s**t is getting old.....:mad:

[12] My gas trimmer.

[13] A pair of jumper cables.

[14] About 300 trees.

[15] About 80 man hours of time trying to pull quills out of my two dogs.

These things will drive you to drink. (Trust me on this....)

The moral of the story is...

If you see a porkie, SHOOT THE DAMN THING. Considered as vermin, and so they should be.

Have I tried eating one? Yes. My dad, having survived the last war, will eat anything that has stopped moving for more than 4-5 seconds. How did it taste? Let me see, try marinating your meat in varsol for a few hours and you should get the picture.

Dirty, disgusting, smelly, and nasty. Sort of like a room-mate I had once, but I couldn't shoot him and besides, he left my plywood alone.:D
 
scout3006 said:
If you see a porkie, SHOOT THE DAMN THING. Considered as vermin, and so they should be.
Click to expand...

Jeez, and to think I thought I hated the damn things.

scout3006 you are the undisputed champion porkie hater in these parts.

I'll settle for second place.;)
 
I don't know if "hunting" is the correct term if you could use a ball peen hammer in lieu of a more correct hunting tool.

Surprised no one has mentioned hitting the darn things with vehicles. They sure wake you up.
 
A number of years ago, after I finished my hunters safety test (in Ontario), I asked the CO about the legality of shooting porcupines. He told me that they were pests and that in his opinion, a small game permit wasn't even needed to shoot them.
 
My grandfather, who lived through the Depression, always used to say to never waste a porcupine, you never know when you might need one.
Having said that, he wasted a good few when they got into his shed, tools, or dog. Personally, I've never eaten meat so bad that excessive dosages of hot sauce couldn't make bearable. Never tried porcupine yet, though?
 
Porcuipine is a survival animal.

Its the only animal you can walk up to and whack it over the head if you are in a tough spot

Let 'em be (unless they are eating everything you own like Scout3006:D )
 
Last edited:
I have eaten them and found it good, prepared by an old trapper years ago. I have also tried to get the hide off of one to prep it myself, not so good.
When I lived in New England, I went handgun hunting for deer each year. I put a nice tree stand up in a stand of hardwoods, had a great view.
I was working my way slowly in there opening morning just at dawn and heard lots of rustling around my stand. After awhile I worked in and saw that is wasn't really a deer trying to climb up my stick ladder but a big fat porcupine had made himself comfortable on my orange foam pillow seat. The kind they sell everywhere for hunting. I was a little leary about climbing up there to talk him out but eventually I started to climb with my Freedom Arms on my hip. As soon as I started he got his back up and climbed a little higher and starting making some noises at me. I didn't see this going anywhere good so I went off to still hunt until about noon. I came back then in the bright October midday sun. He was porker tanning on my pillow again. I finally figured he just had to go, since they were legal to shoot anyway. I climbed a few wrungs again with the same result. He climbed six feet higher and turned to keep an eye on me. Then with whatever logic I was using, I thought I am going to get you down porker and pulled my .454. Well the 300 grain XTP hit dead center on the porker and the noise deafened me for a bit so that I didn't hear a thing. But I did see the big porker fall and land with his quills stuck out straight, right in the center of my hunting cushion! Then the shower of quills hit everywhere.
I went up and cleaned him out. The pillow was destroyed and the tree stand ruined for that year. There were quills everywhere half of them sticking out of the tree, the plywood, everything. My big hunting coat still gives me a poke now and then as another quill makes it's way out. And this happened in 1993. Darn porkers! I shot a few more that year for no other reason than revenge. I did try to skin one, but that's another story.
I learned that year what damage exploding porcupines can do. I went on to shoot them with a few other pistols that year and the next to see how they'd react.
The porcupine can absorb many .22LRs from a revolver. A .223 Contender with blow a piece off and kill them quick. A .45 ACP 1911 is about perfect, the bullets don't always exit but always kill. The .454 Casull with 300 XTPs over 1700 fps. at less than 5 yards if about equivelant to a porker swallowing a grenade, stand back and preferably not under!
Just my experience with porkers. When I see one now, I watch them and chuckle at my younger self. It's a good hunting memory regardless.
 
Last edited:
Look at this poor guy:

Terrier_Porcupine2.jpg


Terrier_Porcupine1.jpg
 
Casull said:
I have eaten then and found it good, prepared by an old trapper years ago. I have also tried to get the hide off of one to prep it myself, not so good.
When I lived in New England, I went handgun hunting for deer each year. I put a nice tree stand up in a stand of hardwoods, had a great view.
I was working my way slowly in there opening morning just at dawn and heard lots of rustling around my stand. After awhile I worked in and saw that is wasn't really a deer trying to climb up my stick ladder but a big fat porcupine has made himself comfortable on my orage foam pillow seat. The kind they sell everywhere for hunting. I was a little leary about climbing up there to talk him out but eventually I started to climb with my Freedom Arms on my hip. As soon as I started he got his back up and climbed a little higher and starting making some noises at me. I didn't see this going anywhere good so I went off to still hunt until about noon. I came back then in the bright October midday sun. He was porker tanning on my pillow again. I finally figured he just had to go, since they were legal to shoot anyway. I climbed a few wrungs again with the same result. He climber six feet higher and turned to keep an eye on me. Then with whatever logic I was using, I though I am going to get you down porker and pulled my .454. Well the 300 grain XTP hit dead center on the porker and the noise deafened me for a bit so that I didn't hear a thing. But I did see the big porker fall and land with his quills stuck out straight, right in the center of my hunting cushion! Then the shower of quills hit everywhere.
I went up and cleaned him out. The pillow was destroyed and the tree stand ruined for that year. There were quills everywhere half of them sticking out of the tree, the plywood, everything. My big hunting coat still gives me a poke now and then as another quill makes it's way out. And this happened in 1993. Darn porkers! I shot a few more that year for no other reason than revenge. I did try to skin one, but that's another story.
I learned that year what damage exploding porcupines can do. I went on to shoot them with a few other pistols that year and the next to see how they'd react.
The porcupine can absorb many .22LRs from a revolver. A .223 Contender with blow a piece off and kill them quick. A .45 ACP 1911 is about perfect, the bullets don't always exit but always kill. The .454 Casull with 300 XTPs over 1700 fps. at less than 5 yards if about equivelant to a porker swallowing a grenade, stand back and preferably not under!
Just my experience with porkers. When I see one now, I watch them and chuckle at my younger self. It's a good hunting memory regardless.
Click to expand...


LOL i can picture ya doing that :D made a hell of a mess i bet.

Your right about the 22s i shot one like 9 times and it still kept swinging around so i couldnt get a clear shot at its head! If i remember right i got him in the head a few times and he still put up a fight.

I had one as a pet once it was really tame you could pet him as long as you petted in the direction of the Quills ;) He was docile and not a bad pet really, They have a musky kinda smell so i dont think id eat one. unless i was straveing of course.
And No the pet one was not the one i shot!
that one way up near Wells B.C eating everthing around the cabin. + i had two dogs i didnt want them to end up looking like that Pitbull porky cross! :rolleyes:
 
I don't agree with killing for no good reason. As with any animal they have there place and deserve some respect.

I was hunting rabbits once in winter and came accross a big porky up a tree. I figured I'd test out the theory I'd heard about them being a "survival food source". I got a good club and shook the critter out of his tree. That was not too hard except the part about jumping out of the way when he almost fell on top of me. Then I beat him on the head a few times to kill him. Skinning and gutting was a bit tricky but I got it done. Then I took him home to cook. I boiled him up and striped the meat from the bones. I made a "porcupine pie' with dumplings and a crust on top. A female cousin helpped me make the dumplings and crust. She would never eat any wild game. Not even pheasant or grouse. But she was a Niel Diamond fan and just had to try the Porcupine pie. And she liked it.

Robin down under
 
Mumptia said:
Porcuipine is a survival animal.

Its the only animal you can walk up to and whack it over the head if you are in a tough spot

Let 'em be (unless they are eating everything you own like Scout3006:D )
Click to expand...
Yeah well maybe they are survival animals but I'm in Southern Ontario and at worst no more than a couple hours walk from a 7/11.

So all porkies get shot. No exceptions.
 
That picture of the dog reminds me why I kill every porcupine I see. I got down out of my tree stand one day ran out in the field and killed five porkys with stick. The guys in the other stands thought I went insane.
I will stop the truck and kill them with my tire billy if I see them on the road or in the ditch anywhere near my properties.
They are a dangerous and destructive varmint and the only thing that has a use for them is a Fisher!
 
The only good porcupine is a dead porcupine, and I do have a few porcupine stories as well. My favourite:

My wife and I were in the old hunt camp up near Haliburton a long time ago (before we had kids, so this is ancient history). We were about to go to bed, when I heard this rocka-rocka-rocka sound. Figured it had to be a pot on the wood stove that had got onto a high spot or something, but afyter I moved all the pots around, I heard that same rocka-rocka-rocka sound. Then all of a sudden a high-pitched scream that made every hair on the back of my neck go straight up............

Well I wasn't too long grabbing my shotgun and loading it with 00 Buck, and out into the darkness with the shotgun and a flashlight. Behind the cabin, I heard rocka-rocka-rocka and that damned scream again, coming from under The Old Black Duck, which was an unseaworthy old boat that had tipped and drowned one member of the hunt camp many years before.

I kicked The Old Black Duck hard on the gunwale, to put it right side up, and there were two very surprised porkies humping, face to face (makes sense when you think of it, right?). I hit them with 00 Buck at about three yards, ruined their love session and The Old Black Duck.

Doug
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom