muskrat?

Jimmy, most places consider a muskrat a fur bearer and trapping is the prescribed method. If you're eliminating pests that may be damaging a pond levy that's another story.

As an ex-trapper and coon hound runner I make it a habit to not shoot something like a called coon or a muskrat so that somebody who focuses on them and the appropriate methods get to enjoy them. Again, pest control is a whole 'nuther issue.
 
Last year when the muskrat prices were high my son and I floated the river throwing spinners for trout and shooting muskrats with 22 CB rounds. We both have trapping licenses which are required here. We shot 14 one afternoon and 10 the next time. We skinned them all and sold them along with the ones we trapped. Averaged $4 a piece last January for 43 rats. The 22 CB rounds worked great and kept the skips to a minimum. We hunt a section of river that doesn't have any houses along it and we kept our shots to less than 20 yards. Sounds easy but hitting a swimming muskrat in the head from a canoe is a fairly tough act. We used a fishing dip net to scoop them up. CBs went in but didn't come out. After shooting them we have almost decided it was more fun and profitable than trapping. No stolen traps and warm rats skin fast and easy.
 
well by golly joef both NH and VT have a muskrat HUNTING season in addition to trapping seasons. as a fellow ex- trapper and coonhound hunter(leopard curs and treeing walkers)I also DO make a habit of hunting and shooting coon using an electronic caller, ALSO legal where i live.

so I guess my methods are both appropriate and legal and i am focusing and enjoying them, maybe you should ask a few questions and do a little research next time before you begin the lecture?

p.s. coon CALLING is getting to be a very popular sport,FYI.
 
hey jcl, thats another method we use, been hunting muskrats along the connecticutt river since i was a kid. i find it quicker n funner to hunt them then trap, like you said no stolen traps and warm rats!...if you want you can really rack up the numbers like you guys did. I got 2 but could have had 4-5, was taking it easy haha. if im land hunting i usually wait till they come ashore, stalk n pop em.
 
FROM THE NH F&G WEB SITE, KNOWLEDGE IS POWER:
----------------------------
New Hampshire's Offbeat Hunting Seasons

New Hampshire's deer hunting season is winding down... but wait there's more! New Hampshire has the distinction of having some unique hunting seasons that may not be shared by our sister states.

Take, for instance, the fisher. Yes, you can take fisher by trapping during the December trapping season only, but hunters have an extended fisher hunting season. Beginning a couple of years ago, the fisher hunting season was extended through the month of January, with the current season running from December 1 until January 31. The bag limit varies by WMU, so consult the Hunting Digest for the area you hunt.

And the fisher is not the only furbearer with a hunting season in good old New Hampshire. While you certainly would expect other furbearers, such as coyotes, foxes and raccoons, to have a hunting season, but did you know you can hunt muskrats and mink, too? Sure you can. For these species the hunting season runs concurrently with the trapping season, generally running from late October or November 1 until April. But beaver and river otter may NOT be taken by hunting. Again, consult the Hunting Digest for specifics for the WMU you hunt in.

Skunks, weasels, red squirrels, opossums and woodchucks have a "no closed" season to hunting. And don't forget the unique coyote night hunting season that runs from January 1 to March 31.
 
I wish we could shoot muskrats here in Wisconsin. After a November duck hunting trip last year we saw probably 3 dozen swimming around. Would have been fun shooting with a bow fishing rig or a .22
 
I shot one a year ago here in Belgium. We have a little river in the area where we have a lot of trouble with muskrats. One day, I went with a friend of mine to the river to check them out. He went around while I stood near the river to wait for them to come. One came in and I let it come in till it was close enough to give him a deadly shot. I shot him and he dove under but because I hit him, he couldn't stay very long under the water so after 2 minutes or so, he came back to the surface. Then I gave him a head shot and that was my first muskrat /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
No need to get excited there Jimmy, relax and live a bit longer.

Glad to hear that it uis legal in your neck of the woods.

BTW, I'm not sure where I lectured you. You asked if anyone ever hunted muskrats and I stated how it was where I hunt. I also included my own standards on how I handle things like that.
You might want to remember that you asked the question before getting mouthy and jumping to conclusions.

A bit touchy are we? Unbunch those pantie and live abit!
 
at least im not ignorant and a know it all joef. i asked if anyone hunted muskrats not a diatribe on "prescribed" or "appropriate" methods on a subject you obviously know nothing about...im not overly touchy but i do have a low-tolerance-for-stupid meter...you wear panties in the "midwest"..to each his own, we are fruit of the loomers generally here in NH.

moving right along....:)....huntnfish, whats the story behind that big honkin fish in the pic?
 
your def sorry, and im not on here to argue with the likes of you, everyone on this thread put up some interesting facts about their muskrat hunting experiences except you, so id say you bored and have nothing to do and do most of your hunting off the couch, so im going to ignore you and suggest you go pick a fight somewhere else, later joey.
 
another muskrat hunting fact, in Vermont, there is a 2 week spring season to hunt them, which coincides with the spring floods usually, so you catch them swimming around alot and have a better chance of hunting them. i live on the border of NH and VT along the conn. river, awesome hunting fishing, etc. when the rats flood out in the spring youll find them all over, fields, yards, garage, road etc. they can be ferocious little mothers when they get caught on land. one of my coomhounds grabbed one and got his nose laid wide open.
 
nice gun foxhunter...wut do you use for fox hunting?...i went out ratting today but my hotspot was frozen over, we are expecting a big storm tonight and its coldddddddd
 
Cold is right Jimmy, we could see 10 inches by tomorrow night.

And don't worry about what some people say. Just do your thing!
 
Quote:
nice gun foxhunter...wut do you use for fox hunting?...i went out ratting today but my hotspot was frozen over, we are expecting a big storm tonight and its coldddddddd



The gun with the scope. It's a gun with 2 barrels. One that has a 12ga and the other one has a .222. I really like the .222 for fox hunting and cat hunting. It's a fast and deadly bullet. The only bad thing about it, is that when you hit a piece of grass or so. The bullet can easily go another way.
Ow and by cats, I mean wild domestic cats. Out here it is allowed to shoot them. A lot of people here are too stupid to know that there are shelters where you can put your animals when you're on vacation. So what do they do? They let them free in the wild. And a domestic cat can get pretty destructive when they're in the wild. They can really hurt your rabbit population and in spring, they destroy a lot of phaesant nests
 


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