(09-05-2023, 03:24 PM)Snarl Wrote:(08-31-2023, 11:19 PM)Schmoe Wrote: I wasn't pissing on your turtle sniping, I probably should have said it's a FUNNIER version of whack-a-mole.p
We had a property down in Florida had a lake on it. Damned turtles. I use to shoot them with a BB gun. Sure keeps your shooting skills up.
If you'd wait, the turtles would surface after a while and do the plop-plop. It was like they were trying to keep from drowning. That's when you'd go at 'em with the .22 and finish 'em off. I could never tell if I got one or it got away when I'd shoot with the .22 first.
If you wanted to catch 'em, best way was with hot dog chunks on a string line. I'd do my best to clean out the turtles every summer. The operative word in the previous sentence being 'every'. If no one made the effort, the turtles would clean out the lake of all the good fish. If you let the turtle population go ... that would draw in the gaters.
When I first started in on the turtles there were some damned big ones ... two foot shells maybe. After, seeing a shell bigger than a foot got to be unusual. I'd still pull 50 or 60 out of the lake year to year. No telling where they were coming from.
Know what _loves_ to eat snapping turtles? Eagles. We had five nesting pairs of eagles on our property for a while. We put a fence around the base of their tree (to keep people away you know <wink-wink>). I'd go to throw those turtles in and the eagles'd be on 'em before I even moved away. Just bite right through their shells. Turtles hissing their asses off. Then ... CaRUNCH!!
Good times ... noodle salad ... except for the stank.
Holy shit, I knew all about the strength of eagle feet and talons, but I had no idea they had such strong jaws too. I've seen videos of alligators and crocodiles having to gnaw on those turtles for a minute or two before...CRUNCH. One particularly juicy turtle was being tossed around in a gator's jaws and when it finally gave out, all this blood flew out of the gator's mouth on either side. Pretty metal.