Skunks

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Yesterday, I was sitting in my living room with my wife and lo and behold, I saw a skunk ambling across the neighbor's field directly toward my house. He was out a couple hundred yards and closing (relatively) fast!

I gave some thought to picking it off but a quick search online had me believing that killing it would actually cause it to release its scent. It would be a nice pelt to have but not knowing anything about skunk processing, I decided to let it walk.

Anyone here actually have experience shooting & skinning skunks without releasing their scent? Or, is it possible to process them and successfully remove the scent afterward? Have any trappers out there had to dispatch skunks?

skunk.jpg
 
I used to trap skunks and was also a fur buyer( so I put up a few). To dispatch a trapped skunk without spraying I'd just mix sardines with some antifreeze and slowly and talking quietly move in towards the skunk and place them so he could eat them. I'd then leave and come back in a while and he'd be dead. The talking slow and moving in slowly usually calms them down enough to enable you to get close enough to drop off the sardines.

You skin them like a normal critter but they have to teats near the anus that are for spraying. You carefully cut around them and then proceed skinning as normal.

To remove their stink mix in a 5 gal. pail:
1 quart of hydrogen peroxide
1/4 cup baking soda
1 tsp of liquid dishwashing soap
Now you can put the unskinned skunk in this mixture and swirl it around and then rinse it with water and then skin it. But I prefer to put the pulled hide in this mixture, rinse it a couple times and then flesh it afterwords.

I hope that answers your question, if not PM me and I'll try and give you a better answer.
 
Yoteboy, I will hoist a beer for you tonight because that is the most well thought out and unambiguous answer I have seen here in quite a while. Congrats.
 
25-06 with 90gr cxp1s they don't spray just loose their head and chest and front legs. Its hard on the hide tho. I got an almost white one on the farm. Black legs and cheeks all the rest white. He cot me twice were I though hed spray me but didn't so I let him live but hed make a great mount
 
shot one in the head with my 17hmr, cut his head right off and he sprayed.

shot another one couple weeks later, got him in the spine when he was running away, dropped dead and didnt spray. Its a crap-shoot I think when shooting them.
 
Yoteboy said:
I used to trap skunks and was also a fur buyer( so I put up a few). To dispatch a trapped skunk without spraying I'd just mix sardines with some antifreeze and slowly and talking quietly move in towards the skunk and place them so he could eat them. I'd then leave and come back in a while and he'd be dead. The talking slow and moving in slowly usually calms them down enough to enable you to get close enough to drop off the sardines.

You skin them like a normal critter but they have to teats near the anus that are for spraying. You carefully cut around them and then proceed skinning as normal.

To remove their stink mix in a 5 gal. pail:
1 quart of hydrogen peroxide
1/4 cup baking soda
1 tsp of liquid dishwashing soap
Now you can put the unskinned skunk in this mixture and swirl it around and then rinse it with water and then skin it. But I prefer to put the pulled hide in this mixture, rinse it a couple times and then flesh it afterwords.

I hope that answers your question, if not PM me and I'll try and give you a better answer.
Click to expand...

Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!
 
I used to use a live trap but lately I've taken to shooting them with my 12 g & 3 inch #4 lead shot. I have shot three so far with no spray. I shoot for the head from about 30 feet.

When I use the live trap at the cottage I used to drown them in the lake. I'd approach the trap from one end and drop a pre-cut sheet of poly over the trap (NO SUDDEN MOVES PLEASE!!) I cut a slot through the poly so I can tie a rope to the trap handle. Then I lift the trap SLOWLY & CAREFULLY onto the wheelbarrow and trundle the sob down to the dock and drop the trap into water deep enough that he/she can't use nose as a snorkel. This has worked like a damn.

I was the "go-to-guy-for-skunks" in our cottage subdivision and I have offed quit few without "accidents".

I believe that an adult skunk won't spray in a live trap, either because he is in too close quarters with himself or because he can't raise his tail or brace his hind legs properly.

I did get nailed by a small juvenile once because I got careless walking up to the trap and he whirled around and raised his tail and let me have it from about four feet. I had been given to understand the young ones had no scent. WRONG! (Except maybe the real babies.) It is nowhere near as bad as in the case of a mature one though!
Anyway the drowning option is not available to me here at home and opening the trap door and waiting with the 12g until he steps out is less of a hassle. Of course I have no near neighbors here so there is no problem with shooting.

I have always used an open can of sardines for bait in the trap.

I will try Yoteboy's antifreeze recipe next time I use the trap and see how that goes.
Aside from the obvious and traditional bad news about skunks they are very prone to rabies and I have a couple of labradors to be kept out of trouble.:shotgun:
 
Lex said:
When I use the live trap at the cottage I used to drown them in the lake.

I'd approach the trap from one end and drop a pre-cut sheet of poly over the trap (NO SUDDEN MOVES PLEASE!!) I cut a slot through the poly so I can tie a rope to the trap handle.
Then I lift the trap SLOWLY & CAREFULLY onto the wheelbarrow and trundle the sob down to the dock and drop the trap into water deep enough that he/she can't use nose as a snorkel.
This has worked like a damn.
Click to expand...

I don't think you'll be winning any humanitarian awards for this one...

:rolleyes:
 
Saw two of the stinkers on my way to work this morning. The bad news is my 8 month old rottie likes to play with my black and white cat. She pins him with a paw and mouths his head (the big head). I can't see a skunk taking that well.
 
If you can live trap it, you're off to a good start.

Use a live trap that's wrapped in a heavy duty black garbage bag (or 4) with just the entrance open, and the bag mouth rolled back. Skunks don't seem to have a problem with going into confined spaces, so they'll enter if they smell food. Once the trap closes, approach quietly from the non-door end, pull the bag down over the door and it's very unlikely that the skunk will spray. I guess they've learned over the years that letting off your stink in a very confined space is not going to help them much.

As far as offing the skunk goes, we've always released ours.
Maybe put the cage in a garbage can full of water (or lake) and when only the head is above water, pop it with a .22 between the eyes? I hate the idea of drowning any animal, and this way would limit the chances of the skunk going off while making it's death quick. If it did let go, just use the hydrogen peroxide to clean it.

Also, set up the garbage can far away from anything, so if it lets loose in the water you can just pour it out rather than trying to drag it away and getting it all over yourself.

Finally, be careful skinning it - skunks are rabies carriers, and cutting yourself accidentally while skinning means a trip to the doc for rabies shots.
 
I usually get 4 or 5 a year with the back tires on my truck... does that count? lol

If I can, I shoot em with a .22 mag. destroy the head, no spray.

I got sprayed twice by the same SOB about 10 years ago... I have no love loss for them
( he got 3 rounds of bb magnums. nothing but fur and a stain left over )

How does that de-stink recipe work on dogs/people?
 
Heres what I would do if I wanted a skunk skin:

Step 1: Shoot it downwind of your house.

Step 2: Search online for skunk skins and let someone else get sprayed

Step 3: Shoot magpies in morning when you wake up which are feeding on said skunk carcass, check mailbox.

Honestly I would leave something like that to someone who knows what they are doing with it or have them come over and do it with me. No skunk skin is worth getting sprayed for.
 
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