Armadillo problem

[trekker111]

+1 on the live trap and boards to funnel it in.

Another reason a single shot 22 rifle will always be in the tool cabinet. You can't beat a 22 cb cap for discreet pest elimination. The only issue is they won't feed in most repeating arms, and aren't powerful enough to cycle a semi-auto, but a single shot is just right.

[blademan]

Disclaimer: not an expert. Never played with colibri rounds. Just ran the numbers.
 
   Given the ballistic similarity between a .22 pellet from a mid range (power wise) pellet rifle, and a .22 colibri, this may not be the best tool for armadillo dispatching. I've looked at the skeleton or a dillo and it looks like a .22 would kill it at full power, but barely. Anything less outside of a dispatching shot to the underside of the animal once it is trapped would probably be of little effect in the best case and crule in the worst case. I know we are talking about dillos here, but when I consider killing any animal in other than an emergency or self defense situation, I play this game in my head: I am going to be killed, I have no choice in the matter. What I do have a choice about is the method and qaulity of my death.
   In this scenario, I'm going to be choose the fastest and least painful method I can. So I apply that to my decision of how to kill the animal.
    But like I said, I've never done it, so a colibri may work just fine.

[OKCPrepper]

I have dispatched several Armadillo's in the past couple weeks, and a .22LR doesn't do well at putting them down quickly. The bigger they are the tougher the shell seems to be. I got a big one a while back, put way to many 22's into him but he wasn't dead. A friend came up with a 9mm pistol and ended up putting 6 rounds in in point blank to put him down. That's a big waste of ammo, I think I will try a .223 next time I'm out walking the property.

[trekker111]

I have dispatched several Armadillo's in the past couple weeks, and a .22LR doesn't do well at putting them down quickly. The bigger they are the tougher the shell seems to be. I got a big one a while back, put way to many 22's into him but he wasn't dead. A friend came up with a 9mm pistol and ended up putting 6 rounds in in point blank to put him down. That's a big waste of ammo, I think I will try a .223 next time I'm out walking the property.

I think there are some shot placement issues going on here, i've killed them dead as a hammer with one shot from a 22.

[blademan]

Wow, six 9mm plus other rounds? That's one tought dillo, I don't care about where the shots were. Blood loss is blood loss.
  Wow. I would definitely avoid colibris then.
   I didn't know we had zombie dillos in OK! That's pretty wild.
Remeber, head shots!

[jlknauff]

The little bastard didn't get hung up in my snares (he moved them though) and tore my garden up again!

[cheryl1]

Ok, you need a few days off of work, a hunting blind, night vision goggles, and a hand cannon.

[jlknauff]

Well, the little bastard got past my snares a few times, then got snagged up in one, but broke the wire. It was 20 gauge and seemed strong enough, but I guess I was wrong.

I ended up buying a box trap from Lowes. Now it's over for him.

[jlknauff]

Finally got him...it was an opossum, not an armadillo. (Or maybe I have both.) I learned a valuable lesson though: a 10 pump .177 cal pellet gun is NOT suitable for dispatching said critter. I put close to 15 rounds into him, including 10 rounds to the head. He was VERY angry but still very much alive. 

[Scottman]

Seems a bow/crossbow would be good. Or a 30 or 40 grain subsonic 22 with the longest barreled 22 rifle you have (assuming you don't have a suppressor).

Good luck. Traps work. I've killed plenty of possums with chest/neck shots with cbs- 30 grain.

[jlknauff]

Unfortunately, a .22 is not an option; I live in the suburbs. For now.

[Freebirde]

How about a lance or spear?

[jlknauff]

Sort of...a thin rod with a sharp end would work, but nothing with a broad head; the holes are too small.

[trekker111]

If a gun is out of the question, and you need the dispatch an animal in a live trap, research humane euthanasia techniques in your state. The legal ways to dispatch an animal vary wildly from state to state. Some techniques which are legal in my state and we considered when I owned a nuisance wildlife business are:

Drowning - submerge trap in a barrel of water.
Asphyxiation - build a box large enough to enclose the trap. Plumb a hose on one end, a valve and a short outlet hose on the other end. Hook one end of the hose to the exhaust of a vehicle, flood the box with the trap inside with exhaust fumes until the critter expires. The longer the inlet pipe the better, to refrain from cooking the animal.

Asphyxia via a chamber and tanked CO, or CO2

These methods are rather crude, and we decided against them. If you check the discharging ordnance in your area there may be an exception for dispatching large pests.

 The method we decided on for dispatching trapped animals when in an area where we couldn't shoot them, was to drive out into the country and shoot it.

We always used cb caps in a 22 pistol.

[blademan]

Sorry to hear about your difficulty in dispatching the possum.
   A .22 or .25 air rifle which can be had for for $300 or less. It will do the job at range and in a trap on a possum. Check out the Benjamin Trail NP in .25. Not sure it would do anything but be cruel to an armadillo but for softer pests, it will serve. I hope this helps: most mamals have a vunerable spot where their spinal cord goes into their skull. Its usually a soft spot at the base of the skull, a shot placed here is similar to hitting the off switch.
   You may know this, just trying to offer helpful information.

[TexGuy]

Is everyone in this topic just to lazy or so hard up to kill something that you can't take it to the woods to let it go?

[Freebirde]

Is everyone in this topic just to lazy or so hard up to kill something that you can't take it to the woods to let it go?

In Tennessee it is illegal to relocate wildlife without a permit from TWRA.

[TexGuy]

HAHAHA that sounds about right. So I changed my mind, kill it!!! 

[Cedar]

Is everyone in this topic just to lazy or so hard up to kill something that you can't take it to the woods to let it go?

Illegal in Oregon without a trapping permit and then they have to be released on Federal lands, not state or county. And depending on the animal, such as a raccoon, it only has a 50% chance of living statistically speaking by relocating it. In my area, you would just be handing off a nuisance problem to someone else or if you did not take it more than 30-40 miles away it may come back sooner than later.

Cedar

[Cedar]

Finally got him...it was an opossum,  I put close to 15 rounds into him, including 10 rounds to the head. He was VERY angry but still very much alive. 

We found a possum living in a barrel by my friends rabbitry and he shot one point blank in the head with a crossbow arrow like this..


and it still took 20 mins for the thing to die. They are tough beasts.

Cedar

[blademan]

I posted something on this earlier. It was either deleted (probably not, didn't get a note.) Or got eaten. Short version, relocating is difficult for the reasons listed below and some others.
   And wow, 20 mins to die after that went through its head? Holy crap. Well that's why I made the spinal shot comment earlier. Maybe a 28 ga with a slug would be better hate to see even a pest suffer like that. That's crazy.

[trekker111]

Is everyone in this topic just to lazy or so hard up to kill something that you can't take it to the woods to let it go?

In south carolina it is illegal also. The animal either has to be killed, or released back onto the same property it was trapped on, which would defeat the purpose of trapping it in the first place.

Also relocated animals have a high mortality rate, and urban wildlife has a higher incidence of disease which could spread to to.rural populations.

[nelson96]

If I read the words dispatch and euthanasia one more time, I think I'm going to be sick.  And are we really worried about getting caught trapping it and letting it go, really?  I suppose there are some of us that never go over the speed limit on the road too?  Are we really talking about letting it go?  Would you let a mouse go that was caught in your house, eating your food, and shitting in you underwear drawer?  Just because the possum violated you outside versus inside, what's the difference? . . .  Kill it!

[blademan]

Fist bump nelson. Kinda my feelings on the matter too. The question of killing or using another solution boils down to this: is the animal a "pest" or is it a important part of your local ecosystem? If its more pest than pal, bang. If its useful and I can modify my behavior in a reasonable way to cause it to not bother me, then that's what I would choose. Usually, its just faster, better and easier to pop it and dispose of it safely.

[Cedar]

My issue with killing it VS trapping it, was I was in city limits. Have to trap it to take it away out of city limits to kill it.

Cedar

[nelson96]

My issue with killing it VS trapping it, was I was in city limits. Have to trap it to take it away out of city limits to kill it.

Agreed. . . . .  Thanks for helping me keep the Thai food down that I had for dinner tonight by using proper wording 

[blademan]

What a silly law. I understand the resoning behind it. Still silly. Just have a disposal procedure in place and enforce it when appropriate.

[flippydidit]

Agreed. . . . .  Thanks for helping me keep the Thai food down that I had for dinner tonight by using proper wording 

Interesting.  I trapped some raccoons and feral cats not too long ago.  The Thai place requested that I deliver them to their restaurant.....  Just kidding.  Sort of.....

What a silly law. I understand the resoning behind it. Still silly. Just have a disposal procedure in place and enforce it when appropriate.

My wife and I have a "pre-meditated list".  It's a list of varmints that we dispatch (shoot) without "due process".  The usual suspects are on that list (raccoons, opossum, poisonous snakes, etc).  After a couple months of moving into our place, the front lawn was annihilated.  My wife asked what did it.  It was obviously feral pig, so I told her.  She said, "Well pigs are now on the list."

[blademan]

If you know what you are doing or know someone who knows what they are doing, putting down feral hogs can be a good pest to have once you put them down. And if they are in your front yard, you should be putting them down actively and enthusiasctically and as often as needed. Good luck flippy. Those things can be horrible. Find a good butcher.

[Freebirde]

If you know what you are doing or know someone who knows what they are doing, putting down feral hogs can be a good pest to have once you put them down. And if they are in your front yard, you should be putting them down actively and enthusiasctically and as often as needed. Good luck flippy. Those things can be horrible. Find a good butcher.

And build a smokehouse!