Surviving a Badger charge

Talk about hunting the hunters and their prey.
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Hotshot
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Surviving a Badger charge

Post by Hotshot »

This Badger showed up at our prairie dog shoot last week in Central Montana. I always ask the rancher about badgers because some like the buggers. Most ranchers hate the big holes they leave and will tell you some stories about stuck or broken trucks and bad injuries to livestock, but some view the badger as a helper in the disposal of prairie dogs, so I always ask if I can shoot 'em.

First shot on this badger was 370 yards and just the back half was showing. When I hit him the bullet sound was PLUNK and he flinched hard. Then he started charging right at us on the fight. We were laughing so hard that I missed the next shot and he charged even harder. At about 350 yards he was looking right at us and coming for a fight, when I hit him a second time in the right chest. This shot really slowed him down and he hid behind a mound of dirt. I fired a fourth shot even though we could barely see him peeking from the mound and dirt flew from an inch below face and he was on the charge again. He stopped with head up and I finished him with a third hit right under the chin. No exit holes, but he felt like a big bag of mush. I was using 39gr SBK's from a Savage FV in 204.

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Sorry about the black shadows in the pictures, boys. I'm still learning this camera stuff. I tried to shoot one back to the truck so you could see the varmint's view of us as he charged. That picture didn't come out at all. I took others before and after with good results untill I left it on and the batteries went dead.
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Hotshot
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Re: Surviving a Badger charge

Post by Hotshot »

Sorry I forgot to resize the pix. I have one belly up that I can't seem to post, I got the other view twice for some reason. I,ll try to fix that later.
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Hotshot
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Re: Surviving a Badger charge

Post by Hotshot »

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Another attempt at posting a photo. I sure am getting a lot of practice from this last pd shoot.
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Rick in Oregon
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Re: Surviving a Badger charge

Post by Rick in Oregon »

Hotshot: Reading your badger episode, and the reaction of the critter under fire, reminded me of my similar experience a month ago with the same critter, caliber, and bullet.

My badger was unaware of my presence, being much more interested in chomping a recently dispatched ground squirrel I had launched from his mound. Range was 226 yards using my custom 204 with the 39 SBK. The bullet entered the right shoulder, the badger just rolled over dead without a twitch.

Close inspection showed no exit, just gurgling mush inside. Only a single spot of blood showed where the bullet had struck. Same critter, bullet and caliber, and a completely different reaction. It just goes to show you can't judge any incident related to animal, bullet or caliber by one encounter in the field.

We all love "charging" critter stories....thanks for posting. :D
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Pydpiper
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Re: Surviving a Badger charge

Post by Pydpiper »

That was a great story! :D
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