KY Croc hunt or a poor man's alligator

19 June 2020, 23:39

LHeym500

Location: Farm pound in front of the house.

Rifle: New FN S.C. FN Model 70 Alaskan (I named her Tink).

Load: Hornady SpirePoint (PP) Dangerous Game .270
Interlock. The average velocity over my magneto speed for 4 rounds was 2862.

Game: Mud Turtle.
Guide: DYI.

My wife has been on to me to kill a mud turtle that has invaded our small farm pound in front of the house. I have not been very egger to lay in the tall weeds of the bank getting eaten alive by misquotes and ticks for one little mud turrtle. The temperatures have been hovering around 95 for the previous two weeks.

Well, as some of you have read, I bought Tink new in the box off of member Ken Cline here on AR. I took her to the field and was shooting the center out of six inch pie plates at 50 yards.

The wheather broke this week. Tuesday was 70 degrees American with a good breeze keeping the bugs down. My wife was gone to town and would not be back to 10:00 p.m. I looked at the Tink. "You need to go shooting." I told myself as I reached for her.

I started out the door and looked over at the pond. Sure enough the mud turtle had just breached the surface. I started across the yard down into the field. The turtle dived like a German submarine in WWI.

I took a sniper position 15 feet off the bank of the pond where I thought the turtle would come up. The high bank weeds gave me some cover. In about an hour the turtle just appeared as if drawn right in front of the barrel. The head was out of the water. I took a hold right under the head.

The result was a nuclear bomb mushroom cloud rising from the water. I could see nothing but the gushier of water blasting up. A chunk that reached above the water column caught my eye. It fell back to the water surface to be eaten by a waiting bass.

The top of the water looked like the kill scene from JAWS only worse. The bass and bluegill ate well.

I have taken game with my 375 Rugers loaded similar. This is my first kill with a true, blue, thoroughbred 375 HH.

20 June 2020, 00:14

surefire7

I've heard of the mud turtle in whispers and hushed tones around safari campfires. Isn't it part of the big seven, or is it the tiny ten?

Good thing you were wise enough to 'use enough gun'!

Too bad there wasn't enough left for a shoulder mount. Bad luck I guess...

20 June 2020, 03:05

LHeym500

The carcass floated up this afternoon. The wife is happy.

I should have used a solid.

20 June 2020, 05:38

Hannay

Thanks for the hunt report!

Glad to hear there was sufficient penetration even without using a 67% meplat bullet!

20 June 2020, 09:48

georgeld

How big was it?

Next door had two ? 20" dia and
95lbs. One died coming out of hibernation.
The other one's a round shaped guy. Dozer,
bastard gets out and walks the middle of the
street until someone calls it in. Got as a
little nugget the size of a walnut 22yrs ago.

sure keeps the back yard grass clipped off
SHORT.

George

20 June 2020, 19:09

LHeym500

The real big ones like you described are Alligator Snapping Turtles. They get to be a couple of hundred pounds. You are not allowed to kill any Alligator Snappers in KY.

This was just your common snapper which is open season. He was just normal, not a big Common, 15 pounds based on previous experience. He was rendered blown apart like he was 5 pounds.

21 June 2020, 06:50

Aspen Hill Adventures

Gosh, I love my pond snappers!

They can come in handy if y'all ever have a rioter/looter issue. They really appreciate a clean up detail and are very professional.

11 July 2020, 00:30

theback40

What was the wifes worry?
I like the fact they clean up dead fish and crap, keeps the ponds clean.

14 July 2020, 22:42

LHeym500

We do not have a problem with dead fish. She thinks they catch/eat fish.

They are on open season.

Her response when I told her was typical wife, “That was suppose to be done last week.”

15 July 2020, 00:33

theback40

I'm sure they do some, but I always thought a trade off for the job they do cleaning up leaches and other junk.

16 July 2020, 23:30

bluefish

Saw big snapper in the lake at camp last weekend which I estimated to be about 18" from front of shell to the back.

17 July 2020, 17:12

ledvm

Well done Josh!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
J. Lane Easter, DVM

A born Texan has instilled in his system a mind-set of no retreat or no surrender. I wish everyone the world over had the dominating spirit that motivates Texans.– Billy Clayton, Speaker of the Texas House

No state commands such fierce pride and loyalty. Lesser mortals are pitied for their misfortune in not being born in Texas.— Queen Elizabeth II on her visit to Texas in May, 1991.

17 July 2020, 18:05

LHeym500

Thank you Doctor.

Is horse racing not a thing in Texas? I never see a Texas horse in the Derby.

26 July 2020, 18:30

Johnny reb

They do eat a lot of fish. I think there favorite is duck. I’ve seen them snatch some good sized ducks. Also turtle is some of the best meat you will ever eat.

26 July 2020, 20:15

LHeym500

We do not keep ducks anymore, but we kept a little white male and female as a pet. My Wife believes a snapper got them as the corpse was in the water. I think it was a mink or weasel as the heads were chewed off.

She likes fish. She loved our little duck. Turtles are going to be turtles. She is going to be her. I got to take my new 375 “hunting.”

Circle of life and all that.

I can’t kill foxes, so we all have our soft spots.

27 July 2020, 22:51

crbutler

Around here we have snapping turtles as well.

I hate the things with a passion - only I get to kill my ducks!

Anyhow, we used to have a bunch of big 20#+ snappers. Over 5 years of dedicated killing, I haven’t seen any in over 5 years since then. Now we have the cute little painted turtles that I never saw before I started shooting snappers. I see at least a dozen a week.

My preferred snapper gun is a .25-06... if you hit them right, the top shell goes up like a rocket.

29 July 2020, 12:04

Nakihunter

Great writing.

I once wrote a similar story about hunting striped palm squirrels (slightly larger than American chipmunks) in India with a 22 air rifle.

Such hunting as a kid is what develops into our real passion in later years

30 July 2020, 06:55

Grizzly Adams1

quote:
Originally posted by Aspen Hill Adventures:
Gosh, I love my pond snappers!

They can come in handy if y'all ever have a rioter/looter issue. They really appreciate a clean up detail and are very professional.

You ever watch the series Nip and Tuck ? There's a scene where they tie a bunch of hams to a body and feed it to alligators.

Grizz

02 August 2020, 09:55

georgeld

Josh:

Dozer is not a snapper of anykind.

I'll ask Jaime what species he is.
I've seen the same one's on utube
turtle vids that are huge. One
was 109 years old and seems like 600lbs.

The few snappers I've seen have had flat
shells. One was about 20" dia crossing
a construction road at a mine among the
185 ton Euc's. I stopped to get it off
the road. The boss came to get me out
of there too.

We got him to the side and he reared back, hissed and made a jump at me. Then
as he was on the edge of the bank, rolled off and down about 75 feet to a pond. Just a perfect place for him to go.

The way that 'show' went I was damned
glad not to be within reach of him.

George

02 August 2020, 10:06

LHeym500

Please let us know what he is.

This is an Alligator snapper https://turtlesurvival.org/wp-...oads/2018/10/AST.jpg

For comparison here is a common snapper https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik..._Snapping_Turtle.jpg

I did not know there was another big turtle walking around here.

04 August 2020, 19:09

DLS

quote:
Originally posted by LHeym500:
Location: Farm pound in front of the house.

Rifle: New FN S.C. FN Model 70 Alaskan (I named her Tink).

Load: Hornady SpirePoint (PP) Dangerous Game .270
Interlock. The average velocity over my magneto speed for 4 rounds was 2862.

Game: Mud Turtle.
Guide: DYI.

My wife has been on to me to kill a mud turtle that has invaded our small farm pound in front of the house. I have not been very egger to lay in the tall weeds of the bank getting eaten alive by misquotes and ticks for one little mud turrtle. The temperatures have been hovering around 95 for the previous two weeks.

Well, as some of you have read, I bought Tink new in the box off of member Ken Cline here on AR. I took her to the field and was shooting the center out of six inch pie plates at 50 yards.

The wheather broke this week. Tuesday was 70 degrees American with a good breeze keeping the bugs down. My wife was gone to town and would not be back to 10:00 p.m. I looked at the Tink. "You need to go shooting." I told myself as I reached for her.

I started out the door and looked over at the pond. Sure enough the mud turtle had just breached the surface. I started across the yard down into the field. The turtle dived like a German submarine in WWI.

I took a sniper position 15 feet off the bank of the pond where I thought the turtle would come up. The high bank weeds gave me some cover. In about an hour the turtle just appeared as if drawn right in front of the barrel. The head was out of the water. I took a hold right under the head.

The reslut was a nuclear bomb mushroom cloud rising from the water. I could see nothing but the gushier of water blasting up. A chunk that reached above the water column caught my eye. It fell back to the water surface to be eaten by a waiting bass.

The top of the water looked like the kill scene from JAWS only worse. The bass and bluegill ate well.

I have taken game with my 375 Rugers loaded similar. This is my first kill with a true, blue, thoroughbred 375 HH.

I’m glad you Used Enough Gun. I think Ruark must be smiling down on you.