Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[GrizG]

Mark, I have a bull barrel 10/22 and a Ruger 77/17 that are both tack drivers. I’d go rimfire over air rifle at your place. The .177 is definitely loader than the .22. But that little bullet destroys critters

A long barrel and CB longs isn't noticeable in an urban setting... the ambient noise level masks the shot. A guy I know lived in a close urban neighborhood. He would shoot chucks in his backyard and never had any problems... They were causing damage to his buildings and plantings and annoyed his dog.

 

[GrizG]

The best thing to protect your garden from deer, woodchucks and rats (yea, rats were eating my tomato's as soon as they got ripe) is a solar electric fence.

Since I use elevated rows and the ground was not level, I put boards in the ground inside the bottom wire about 1/2" away from it so that nothing could get in w/o getting touched. Worked great!

The only other way to get stop woodchucks is to get rid of them. I would catch them in the have-a-heart and bring them in the garage, put a 2X6 in back of it, put my earmuffs on and the 10/22 went to work.

I liked the electric fence idea enough that I looked into them for my framed raised bed garden. I found out that local law forbids electric fences... no barbed wire or contra wire either! Short of galvanized hardware cloth fence under and above the beds I'm not sure anything else would really work to keep the wild and domestic critters out. The wild ones eat there and the domestic ones crap there... I've got some formerly downstate neighbors who would raise a stink if they heard the cats getting zapped! I considered trip wires with 12 gauge blanks but that would undoubtedly be a problem too. I cannot have any fun on my property... and the Brooklyn folks that moved in next to my parents put a crimp on fun stuff there too.

I've shot more than a few chucks in a Havahart trap in my garage. I use a .22 revolver and CB Longs. I found that brain shots don't exit. Chucks are a never ending problem as I no sooner get rid of the chucks and new ones move in! Recently sink holes have started developing around my equipment and lumber shed as the chucks have the ground extensively hollowed up. No way could I put a garage on a monolithic slab up in place of the shed... Not unless I dig the whole area out down to the bed rock and fill it with compacted item 4. At that rate a poured concrete foundation probably makes more sense as the chucks couldn't burrow through or under the concrete on bed rock.

Chucks have cost me in so many ways over the years. One chewed the lower O2 sensor wires off in my new car one time... that one didn't live long after that.