I hunt muskrat and squirrel with trained mink

Minkenry
Thanx for sharing your video.It was just mousing around and I jumped out of my truck with iPhone in hand started videoing and gone under the snow and all I could see was the ripple of the snow I chased it down thinking it would pop out nope gone it was too cool.So I tell all the guys my family guess what I seen at 2:00am while plowing show them the video and say I haven't seen this before.the next day I go to another contract to clean up a condo near wetlands and guess what I see another mink jumping through the snow so pretty I know guys but it was nice to see wild life like that.Mind you I have never seen a Mink in my life I have seen fisher cat but never a mink so to see 2 in a couple days was weird is it mating season and that's why I am seeing them.what kind of living quarters do you have are they indoors I showed the family your videos and they all want one.Ok we got chickens how would that work lol.Great going man you look like your having a blast with it.How about training me a decoy mink for yote hunting lol.Thanx again keep up your stories I think its great.
 
Originally Posted By: twhiteyMinkenry
Thanx for sharing your video.......How about training me a decoy mink for yote hunting lol.Thanx again keep up your stories I think its great.

Here's a decoy mink for you LOL




Oh, and here's a hilarious video of a ranch mink going after a dog. Watch it all the way to the end, it's pretty funny how the video ends...

 
Originally Posted By: nonamesleft47Do you have your training process and other details documented somewhere online? How do mink differ from ferrets?
How many mink do you keep at one time?


I keep a few breeders and one or two mink for hunting, but not a ton. Maybe half a dozen to a dozen at the most.

Yes, here is a link to an article I've written on training and caring for mink. I am in the process of writing a full book, but this article will have to do for now.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Minkenry/72678726611?id=72678726611&sk=info


Originally Posted By: nonamesleft47

I've seen mink chasing squirrels through trees. It's amazing that with the squirrel panicking and running for their lives and the mink just loping along that the chases I've seen ended in a dead squirrel every time. Fascinating animals.

So you've seen mink chase squirrels down in the trees? Are you sure it was a mink? Martens and fishers are much better climbers than mink, and they are similarly shaped.

Here's a fisher chasing a squirrel-

Are you sure it was a mink? And how many times have you seen this? Can you tell your experiences in greater detail please, I want to hear more!
 
I heard a mink ,squirrel battle once. They were in a pile of old flood debris and the mink was screaming and the squirrel was squalling at the top of their voices for a long time . I slowly worked my way up til I could see down into the mess and they were nose to nose but neither one had the nerve to make the first move. I finally stuck a piece of wood down in there and they both came flying out in different directions. A guy told me of the same thing in a standing corn field with a mink and a fox.......neither would back down. Jim
 
Over the last few months I've been writing a book on Minkenry. I just did an inventory on my book, and so far I've written 76 pages. Wow, that's a lot! But I still have plenty to write! I hope you guys enjoy the finished product when I am finally done!
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I just learned that the first known rabbit hunt with a mink in Europe was successful! The minkener who hunted with the mink is an experienced ferreter, and she used the mink like a ferret to bolt the rabbits into nets, and then in the end had her cache in her box. I don't know anymore details than that, but it's pretty exciting for me to see minkenry spreading! :-D
 
Originally Posted By: KillerBeardo you have to have rabbit holes to use ferrets or mink if so how do you find rabbit holes?

No, the American rabbits don't dig holes. They only go in holes dug by other animals. I don't have enough rabbits near where I live to bother trying to hunt them.
 
I don't know if I am the only one or not but watching that mink wrestle that muskrat all I could think about was a tuffman contest. One guy larger but the other guy schooled in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. The skilled fighter won. Now that is combat with no rules. Glad that I can go to work to make money to go to the grocery store and I don't have to go kill supper with my bare hands to eat.

Very interesting videos, thanks for sharing.
 
Alright, I'm nominating this as the coolest thing I've seen on this site. I would love to see a mink in action in a ground squirrel colony.
 
Originally Posted By: woodguruAlright, I'm nominating this as the coolest thing I've seen on this site. I would love to see a mink in action in a ground squirrel colony.



I'll try to make a good video of that when the squirrels come out of hibernation. I tried last fall, but all the videos I took pretty much sucked. This is the only one that was halfway decent.....

 
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Last weekend I decided to mix things up, and do a little minkenry and falconry in the same day. It's been a long time since I've flown birds, and it was a blast! Friday we started out watching several merlins fly on flocks of starlings near some mink farms in the river bottoms, then moved on to hunting rabbits out in the desert. We didn't have any luck catching rabbits with the goshawk, because the weather was just too warm, making the hawk lazy for the weight she was at. So we hooded the hawk, and pulled out my mink, and she nailed a rabbit the second hole she went down! She rode the rabbit out of the hole, lost the rabbit for a moment, then chased the rabbit around the sage brush until it tried to put into a brush pile where she caught it a second time.

On Saturday we spent the morning watching the big falcons stoop racing homers. After watching a bunch of flights, we then went out to find more rabbits. One guy tried to fly a male goshawk, but didn't have any luck. The guy with the female did Harris hawk didn't get anything ether. I got bored of watching birds not catch anything, so I skipped out of the flight with the second goshawk, and went to a near by field to work rabbits with my mink.

She ran around searching holes for rabbits without any luck. After 30-40 minutes of not chasing any rabbits in the gully, we picked Thioⁿba up and carried her to a bunch of brush piles where we quickly found some rabbits. Here's the video of our hunt....


 
thats amazing, do you ever shoot the muskrats/squirrels the minks chasing or do you always let it catch them?
 


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