Killed a Possom

[Mortblanc]

Since there are no sections in this division about actual hunting I will place this in the guns section, since I used a gun in the dispatch.

I killed a possum this morning. One of these guys.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http...JUBEPwdMAo

They are nasty primitive little critters, resembling an extremely large rat. They eat birds, bird eggs and baby birds, and since I have all three on my place the possum had to go.

In a SHTF situation I would have eaten the beast. They are best cooked with veggies as a roast. They are also very greasy.

Their hides make excellent shoe laces and the possum hide is the traditional covering for a banjo head.

Back in our less civilized times, when I was a kid, possums were considered "good eating" and were prized road kill pickings.

Being slow and waddly, They could also be easily dispatched with a big stick when found in the feed bin or chicken house. No one wasted a cartridge on them back then.

But they are tough to kill! You will have to whack them over the head several times before they stop hissing and snapping their needle sharp teeth at you.

A .22 will require two or three rounds to kill one, even when shot in fatal areas. If one is not careful they will carry your bullet off into the bush to die where you can not retrieve them.

[bigpaul]

looks like a prickly rat!!

[Mortblanc]

Yep!

And some of them will push 20 pounds, though they are usually around 5-6. I have run into some absolutely huge ones in urban settings where they have ample food and few predators.

They are an ancient animal left from the early development of the mammal. Probably one of the most successful designs of the ages.

They are omnivores and will eat absolutely anything, scavengers that will take live animals when available. They climb like squirrels and nest in hollow logs and trees and occasionally under houses and in attics. Nothing like crawling into the crawl space for a repair and finding one of them nesting in your area.

They also breed profusely, and it is not unusual for a mother possum to have 10-12 babies riding along on her back.

[NorthernRaider]

Monty you have zero, nil, nada credability on this forum til you produce a picture of you and a freshly killed Jackalope

[ErikEst]

absolutely disgusting animal!

but may be in the different circumstances good replenishment

[Carnebwen]

omg you heartless monster, something about men being all evil and generic daily mail response to every article about "man catches/kills/finds/animal or somesort).

Possums look like they are annoying. Nice work making it useful.

[Skean Dhude]

It sounds like it would be a formidable foe if it attacked humans. Any of them do that while you are beating them to death?

[Mortblanc]

I am sure they will give a nasty bite with that mouth full if needle sharp teeth. I have never suffered such fate myself being nimble afoot and possessing a trusty club.

I must admit to being chased across the lawn once when I broke a section of 2x2 across the rump of a particularly large possum as he dove under the fence gate. That just irritated him and he decided to teach me who really owned that garden.

I would have sworn it was the size of a China-Poland hog at that moment.

I managed to outran him but he had me cornered in the house. My kids were preteens at that time and they got a real laugh out of the situation.

In a SHTF situation it will be animals like this that save the day. I once resided among a group of Central American Natives and found that 1/3 of their meat protein was provided by the women and children killing small mammals, like the possum, birds and snakes using only sticks and clubs. Knock them in the head and throw them in the bag. Take them home, skin them and toss them in the stew pot. You truly never knew what that chunk of meat in your bowl was, didn't care and definitely did not ask!

I did ask once and it caused a bad row because no one could agree on what that particular chunk resembled. Could have been possum, could have been parrot, didn't look like snake, more than likely was a chunk of monkey.

Real laugh was that none of that bunch would touch Spam!