Porcupine Hunt

[Jinx]

Had a great hunt over the weekend in the Freestate in South Africa. Went to my uncle to help shoot some porcupines. They are a real pest over here and can cause alot of damage to crops.

We hunt them at night being that they are nocturnal creatures. The quills are very sharp and can injure you if you happen to run into them. I am holding a 22 Hornet with a 4x32 wide angle scope and use 46 grain soft point ammo. The started well with 3 good sized porcupines. The 4th one ran lateraly and tried to shoot it in the head. It fell after the first shot, we loaded it because it seemed dead. Just as we were chasing the next one we realised it was still alive. It raised it's quilss and I got two in the calf so did my cousen (in picture). Scared the hell out of us. Here are a few pictures. Shot 16 in total.

Friday Evening

Satudat Evenings kill

Good Size

 

[Stormrider]

That looks like it was a lot of fun!!!

 

[yorke-1]

That sounds like a blast. I've recently started hunting porcupine here in Washington. I've shot a few, but nothing like what you have there.

I shot this one on Easter. I went for a walk with my Father-in-Law to try out my new MKIII Hunter. The first shot out of that gun was at the porcupine.

 

[Jinx]

what do you do with them over there? Nice looking rig.

 

[yorke-1]

If I manage to make a clean head shot, I'll eat them. But if one quill hits the meat, the critter becomes coyote bait. I know a few people who make crafts and jewelry out of the quills as well. They would love to get their hands on some of those industrial size quills you've got over there. I want to have a full mount done of the next good sized porcupine that I get.

The handgun in the picture has quickly become my go to gun for small game hunting. From a solid rest, it can hit a rabbit at 100yds 80% of the time with the iron sights. The misses are always my fault. The only problem is that it's a little lite for stuff the size of raccoons and porcupines. Sometimes the little 22lr doesn't convince the animals that their dead, even with a solid hit to the head.

 

[Jinx]

Can you mount a scope on it? How accurate are hollow points? The female porcupines make good eatin but the males smell very bad. The quills are used over here by florists and designers.

When we have planted our crops distance becomes a problem because we can't drive into the fields. The Hornet is only accurate up to 150 metres. We then use my uncle's 7mm Win Mag or my 264 Win Mag, not much left after that

 

[dogdinger]

try some remington yellow jacket ammo in that ruger. after having killed hundreds of coyotes with 22's , it is the best 22 ammo i have ever shot.....AJ

 

[yorke-1]

I can, and have, tried mounting both a scope and red dot on the gun. They certainly make the groups shrink, but they make the gun a little clumsy. It's already pretty heavy. Ruger lists the weight at a healthy 41oz. I have Contenders that weigh about that much, but in more substantial calibers. I fact, when I shot the porcupine in the picture I also had my Contender in 7mm TCU and a red dot mounted on it with me. The fiber optic sights just work better in the dark for me. Right now though, I carry a 2x scope in a set of Warne quick release rings in my pack. You can see the Weaver rail mounted on there in the picture. All I need to do is slap on the scope, and its already sighted in and ready to go if I want it.

I have tried the Yellow Jackets in there, I was getting inconsistent groups. One would be a wall hanger, and the next group would be a shotgun pattern. Of all the hunting ammo I've tried in the gun, the Federal 38gr Copper HP shoots the best. But it can't be the stuff in the bulk pack. It has to be the 50ct boxes. This works out great because my Remington 597 likes the same load. So I buy 3 bricks at a time to keep up a good stockpile. From a good bench rest, it will shoot a hair over an inch for 5 shots at 25yds with the iron sights. With the scope on there it will do 1.5" at 50yds for 5 shots. As soon as I get a chance I want to try some of the CCI Stingers in there. Those really tear stuff up.

 

[bowhunthard88]

yeh, CCI stingers are f***n awesome, pretty accurate out to 100yds. too. Tried them in 3 different guns. Still not as nice as the 17 HMR tho LOL.