Anyone ever hunt porcupines?

If you have snow on the ground their trails are easy to follow. They'll usually be up in an evergreen tree or in a rocky area. If their den is in rocks you'll see piles of their manure around the entrance.
As stated above there's no challenge in killing one, a hammer hit to their forehead does them in.
 
Last winter, after hunting crows, I was walking back to the truck and spotted a porky walking along the edge of the logging road.

Never had any interest in them before, but since Pa adopted open season on them last year in order to offset the damage they cause to the forests, I figured I would do my civic duty and eradicate the spiny rodent.

I was very surprised when it just kept chuggin along after I shot it with a 12ga highbrass #6 shell from 10yds away.

Upon inspection, it appeared the porky quills deflected the shot pellets.

I backed off and fired another round, Second shot wounded him pretty good, and I took a third shot from just a few feet away to quickly end the critters suffering.

I think I would have been better suited if I just whacked it across its nose with a stick.
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Good luck hunting them, I suggest a centerfire cartridge of some sort -vs- shotgun.
 
Originally Posted By: duckhunter_67502Its bad luck to kill a porcupine. In the old days they were trappers survival food. If a fella was lost or stranded in the woods he could always find a porcupine to eat, and they were easy to kill.

Inuits believe its bad luck not to kill a porky, they believe if you come across one and let it live then they will tell all the other animals you are there and ruin your hunting.
 
I've always left them alone but, many years ago we were hunting Huns in deep snow and found maybe 25 Porkys in a stand of willows. The fellow with me had a NAA 22LR (tiny revolver) and shot a few of them.

As was said earlier, as kids, we were taught that they were survival food for lost souls.

As I think about it, I DID shoot several that were too close to the cows. Got tired of having to run cows several miles to a squeeze chute and pull quills out of their noses.
 
yea, I live in Michigan and whenever I've seen one they just sit in a tree clueless as can be. Hey 2muchgun, do you hunt coyote in Michigan and how good do you do? I havent had much luck calling any in. Just wondering if you could shoot me some advice. Thanks.
 
about a half hour before dusk, they come down from the trees to eat grubs and bugs around here in the summer.

i got 2 last week using a .25 cal airgun Marauder.

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1 shot in the head by the ear, and he dropped, never even twitched
 
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