There's a marmot in my truck

Time to start the, "Is the .177 Pellet Pistol ethically enough gun for Marmot" poll right away.

1)Always
2)Never
3)Only in the hands of an expert marksman.
4)Depends on the rifle twist and bullet selection.
5)Only inside of 100 yards.

Followed by the Long Range .177 Pellet Pistol Thread. I can hit a marmot at 250 yards with it, but is it ethical?
 
Neffa3's description of the marmot extraction was funny, familiar and a little sad. I've done wildlife rescue of injured and displaced wildlife for the DOW/CPW over many years. I've caught most everything from hummingbirds to hawks, eagles, owls and Great Blue Herons. Some snakes and mammals too. A few years ago one of the rescue volunteers got a call about a marmot in an auto repair yard. After seeing the marmot splash through a tub of oil and water and scurry under a truck, Patty called for backup.

Apparently a truck had all the engine compartment wiring chewed up by a rodent and the truck was towed about 50 miles from Collbran to Grand Junction for repair. The poor juvenile marmot rode the whole way and was now holed up in the narrow transmission well above the transmission. Our goal was to catch him, clean the oily fur and release him in suitable marmot habitat near where he had lived.

We tried catch poles but in the few instances we could fit the loop around his head, the marmot gave us the oily slip. There's not much neck on a marmot. We tried poking, coaxing with food, compressed air and forceful spray of water. Patty, Dean and I got soaked crawling under that truck--over an oily slab at a mechanics shop. In all of this we were trying not to harm the marmot or get bit. Finally, while I was distracting the critter, Dean was able get ahold of his tail and yank him out, we quickly rolled out from under the truck and we dropped little marmot into a pet carrier.

I think it took 2 1/2 hours to catch that marmot and it was the toughest wildlife capture we'd ever done (in a combined 30 years of wildlife rescue experience. Patty took the little guy home to release him the next morning in the mountains. But by morning the marmot had let itself out of the pet carrier and ran off, never to be seen again. Hopefully far from any other vehicle. Our small consolation was that the marmot was only a mile from decent marmot habitat.

I still like and admire marmots.
 
Time to start the, "Is the .177 Pellet Pistol ethically enough gun for Marmot" poll right away.

1)Always
2)Never
3)Only in the hands of an expert marksman.
4)Depends on the rifle twist and bullet selection.
5)Only inside of 100 yards.
Or not
 
I'm sitting here watching a Columbo with Mrs kansasdad and scrolling through HuntTalk threads trying to catch up on things. And I come to this thread.

Daunting in length at 8 pages long, and I'm immediately hooked. At about page 2 I suppress a laugh, and she looks over at me with a quizzical look. I explain.

She gives me the "whatever" look, and keeps watching Inspector Columbo work over the murderer with inane questions. Page three flies by and I am enjoying the suggestions, barbs and comebacks. Cleverness amongst HuntTalkers exhibited on the following pages, and I mentally applaud several sharp posters.

And then I come to post #113.......neffa3's gem of comedic genius. I start laughing, which grows into belly laughs, and now I can't breathe (Not that kind of "I can't breathe" for sure!). She looks at me, Columbo on pause, and asks, "What's so funny". I condense the thread's storyline up to post #113 and I try to read it.

I start reading, and I'm able to finish the first paragraph fully intact. But because I've read the whole thing, I know what is coming and start to break up. I try to start the Red Ryder lines and fail about three times, each time laughing harder.......puffs of air......OMGoodness!! I can't open my eyes, and I'm struggling to get air to go in to my lungs instead of exiting at hurricaine force gales of breathe.

A mere thumbs up simply won't do neffa3 . Comedy thru real life happenings, and I thank you for starting the thread and fulfilling its promise.

A hearty well done to all who drove the story along, and a huge appreciation for the various meme and images mastership of the HT crowd.

WELL DONE LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!
 

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