Never really given too much thought about porcupines, My dogs come up with a quill of two every so often but fortunately havent had the dog er trip yet. Recently while sitting in a blind waiting for some pigs my cousin saw one of our red deer with a mouth full of porcupine quills... Slobbering profusely and probably cant eat/drink. Probably gonna put him out of his misery tomorrow depending on how he has held up since last weekend, but either way I think its time for a porcupocalypse.....

Anyone specifically gone after these [censored]. I hear they hang out in trees, but nap in burrows. Any tips on tracking them down?

Our Pyrenees used to find one once in a while, but it usually only took once. We don't have many in our area. Unless they were being a nuisance around the house I wouldn't kill one.

If the old guys I know had there way, there'd be no pigs, no coyotes, no bobcats, no mountain lions, etc etc. I get a lot of good info from them, but they dont seem to really know why they say what they say. I dont like killing things, generally speaking, unless there is a damn good reason. And having to put down one of my "pets" is a good enough reason for me at this point. I wonder what the hell was going on that a deer would go after a porcupine? Musta been curious and got smacked. Had to be a pretty good size on as the front of his schnozz and his whole right cheek is covered. Cant see it in the pic but its pretty bad.

Hate em...

Dammit. Dog is a spitting image of my old dog "buddy". He wandered up as a pup while I was washing a car at work and he lived to 14.

Side note, used to live in Natalia, TX, my dogs would come home after a wild night looking like that except it was cactus needles. Spent hours plucking them out with pliers/tweezers. Cant imagine doing that with porky quills..

Any chance you could dart him and pull the quills? No clue what that would cost.

Kill'em all.

They are highly nocturnal. Spot light'em just like pigs. The ones on our place come out into the winter wheat and graze at night. Very easy to get close and kill since they don't have any predators.

Thought about it...but do they make 308 tranq bullets? Seriously though that would be a skill in itself to get close enough to get a shot, cant imagine there is much range on those guns. Buddy of mine said "Shoot, get me a rope and me an Chad kin rope him on the 4 wheeler and hog tie him".

I would pay good money to see that....you miss a leg and that thing would absolute kick the living [censored] out of you...so the decision was made to wait a week and see what he looks like. Dont see them coming out on their own but I wouldnt know...

You can also just run'em down in your car (not recommended). Running 70 miles and hour on a fm road the other night and this prickly beast stepped out and kissed my bumper. Cost me a bumper cover. Luckily it didn't blow the tire, but took a while to extract all the spines.

Oh yea, I see em lose at frogger on a daily basis, all up and down hwy 16. Never hit one though. Wonder if I could collect them all and sell em to the poleese to help stop high speed chases?

I have trapped them with a live catch trap and a small piece of a salt block for bait. I also killed a bunch of them in the daylight at protein feeders. Set you a TC up and find out their time to hit a feeder. Put out some protein or blocks and they will move in once they smell them.

I have been quilled by a porcupine before. No bueno.

Poor little porkys one bite out of a cabin or a pooch gets swated and every body declares war lol.

Slow and easy to remove if you need to.

I catch a lot in snares.

You can also walk up to them inside the ho g panels and club them over the head it takes them about 30 sec.to get iver the hog panels

We snare them suckers coming under the fence all of the time. I have one at a feeder now that shows up at 2:30am. Going to have to get serious about getting rid of him.
Seen a bunch dead on the road lately.

We had Deer Tranquilizer and considered it...
But Keith and I took turns and just pulled them out while one would hold Blue...

Poor guy would just look at us with that shoot me look, he made a full recovery

I have heard if you clip the ends of the larger quills it will make them less painful & easier to pull, don't know if that is true or just an old wife's tale.

After seeing what those things will do to a dog I'd shoot every one of them.

I'm in the kill 'em all camp. Rancher I know had a GSP that wouldn't stop hunting them and getting whacked, never learned. He put the dog down.

My lab is 2 and my blue lacy is 3. They have yet to get nailed by a skunk or porcupine. Can't hardly believe it with the way they tear out to check the perimeter at night.

Update....didnt see him while sitting or stalking. But he was on the camera at the trough feeder all week. Even came in for a close up (pic when I get home). Looks like maybe all the quills are in his upper cheek/nose and not tangled up with each other in the lips. He seemed to be all over the food and doesnt look any worse for wear. I am going to leave him be and see what happens. Didnt get a chance to do any porky hunting....seems like time goes by twice as fast when out on the ranch...damn...

BTW, this deer got out after the flooding in May knocked out a section of our high fence. We got it back up and he is the only fugitive. Funny thing is he seems to have a little of the "stockholm syndrome" as all he does is try to get back into the high fence. I have a couple times chased him around trying to get him in the open gate but he never does what I want him to. Guess I'll just let him do what he wants. He is quite a bit bigger than the whitetails he shares the trough with, probably enough meat for a few people...

That should get the ever popular gentlemen's discussion going again.

yeah.. they started to be a problem 20 yrs ago hunting hogs around Medina Lake...
we killed every one we saw...(hogs and quills)
neither belong here...