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You won't believe it! Muskrat Hunting with Brocc the Mink.


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brill that, the lurcher bitch is really work well for you, marking , and catching , and the mink  a real good team you got there, that last muskrat  looked like it had bit of life left in it, still got a bite to it i reckon watch your fingers  lol.  do they carry disease like brown rats ?  dead one beter to handle i have thought .!  .!  where are you actually walking  is it a drainage from the field   , that lead to your sewage  system  you have over there  ?  and i think you need  longer wellingtons lol  or are they all in one waders  .?     

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15 hours ago, bird said:

brill that, the lurcher bitch is really work well for you, marking , and catching , and the mink  a real good team you got there, that last muskrat  looked like it had bit of life left in it, still got a bite to it i reckon watch your fingers  lol.  do they carry disease like brown rats ?  dead one beter to handle i have thought .!  .!  where are you actually walking  is it a drainage from the field   , that lead to your sewage  system  you have over there  ?  and i think you need  longer wellingtons lol  or are they all in one waders  .?     

The last muskrat was caught fully alive and completely uninjured. I just grabbed it by it's tail as it tried to swim away. Neither the mink or dog touched it before hand. Re-watching the video actually made me nervous, as the rat was trying to swing up and bite me several times when I wasn't looking. It REALLY HURTS when they do that! I have a finger that still doesn't work quite right from the last time that happened.

Muskrats are actually pretty clean animals and mostly vegetarian. They are much like a rabbit that swims, rather being like a nasty brown or black rat that most people think of when they say the word "rat". Muskrats were once commonly eaten in fancy restaurants under the name "marsh hare", and there are still a fair number of outdoorsmen who eat them. I think they are very tasty, and it remind me of eating lean beef. 

The place we are hunting is actually the opposite of what you are thinking of. We live in the desert, so we don't drain our fields, we bring water to them. This is what we call an irrigation canal. Because it doesn't rain very much or very often here, we get almost all of our water from the mountains. In the winter the snow builds up in the mountains and because the snow is so incredibly deep, and the higher altitude keeps the snow cool even during the warmer summer months, this snow slowly melts off all spring and summer, giving us water for the entire year. In addition to drinking water, we use this water for watering crops. Back when this desert valley was first being settled by the pioneers, they dug extensive irrigation canals to bring this mountain water to their crops on what would have otherwise be dry desert land. These canals are filled in the spring just in time for crops to be planted, and then the dam shuts off the flow of water in the fall when the crops are no longer growing, saving the water for the next growing season. In the middle of April the puddle I am walking in during this video, would be deep enough that I would need to swim. As soon as they shut the water off in the middle of October, I quickly take advantage of the opportunity to start hunting muskrats in the canals. It is VERY VERY difficult to capture muskrats in the muddy canal water when the water is chest deep or deeper, but when it is shin deep or less, my mink and I have the advantage. Because of their seasonal water levels, these canals make for great muskrat hunting from the middle of October, till the middle of April when they fill with deep water again. The rest of the year we don't do much muskrat hunting anywhere, because their fur has no value, and they are also having their babies. What little muskrat hunting we do, can only be done in small creeks or lakes with clear water. The canals are useless to try and hunt when they are full, as the deep muddy water is far too easy for the muskrat to hide in. If the water was clear, we would still have a chance, but being both deep and muddy makes it very difficult. 

I was wearing waders, not just rubber boots. I'd have wet cold feed if I only had short rubber boots on! 

Edited by Minkenry
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4 hours ago, roybo said:

Amazing the bond you must have with that mink:thumbs:

Thanks, yeah Brocc is a pretty cool mink! Unusually friendly for a mink that's for sure! He's also a surprisingly bold hunter. He just goes in and grabs whatever he's after! No fear, no hesitation! And then he turns around and is friendly with humans like he was hand raised or something! Pretty unique for a mink who wasn't handled until almost a year old! 

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It's good what your doing with the mink and making your videos, very informative and interesting I didn't know anything about the mink other then guys who rap love wearing there fur and telling everybody it's a mink! They must be killed off in the thousands to make coats as they are only very small? Do you work with ferrets and minks or just the mink? 

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4 hours ago, Lowther said:

It's good what your doing with the mink and making your videos, very informative and interesting I didn't know anything about the mink other then guys who rap love wearing there fur and telling everybody it's a mink! They must be killed off in the thousands to make coats as they are only very small? Do you work with ferrets and minks or just the mink? 

I've had a couple ferrets a long time ago, but I stick to just mink now. They are far more versatile than ferrets, and fit what I want to accomplish better than a ferret can. If I lived where you do, with large numbers of burrowing rabbits, then I could see value in having a ferret. But where I live we only rabbit hunt on occasions, so not worth getting a ferret for that job specifically.  

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5 minutes ago, Minkenry said:

I've had a couple ferrets a long time ago, but I stick to just mink now. They are far more versatile than ferrets, and fit what I want to accomplish better than a ferret can. If I lived where you do, with large numbers of burrowing rabbits, then I could see value in having a ferret. But where I live we only rabbit hunt on occasions, so not worth getting a ferret for that job specifically.  

Well you pretty much answered all the follow on questions I had haha but yeah it looks like they are pretty nifty for your side of the pond and they come across as like the marines if the ferrets were the army haha, what's the laws about mink in England are they around over here? 

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37 minutes ago, Lowther said:

Well you pretty much answered all the follow on questions I had haha but yeah it looks like they are pretty nifty for your side of the pond and they come across as like the marines if the ferrets were the army haha, what's the laws about mink in England are they around over here? 

I'm not sure what the laws are on your side of the pond when it comes to mink. 

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12 minutes ago, Lowther said:

Looked into it you need a DEFRA license if you wanna keep one and everyone over here pretty much hates them and say they're f***ing up our nature, wildlife etc... I think us brits have to stick to ferrets, shame! 

Yeah, it's really quite a shame. I could see you guys having a lot of fun going from fishing, to ratting, to catching the invasive grey squirrels. They take a lot more patients and talent than ferrets do, but if you have the time and are willing to make the effort, they really are a blast to hunt and fish with! If you're just bolting rabbits, the ferret would be better for the job because the mink would make far too many kills underground. But if you're wanting to do a little rabbit hunting on the side, mixed in with hunting coots, fishing, ratting, etc. mink really can be made into quite the helpful little hunting companion.  

Edited by Minkenry
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2 hours ago, W. Katchum said:

Who would know?? Could say it was a ferret an nobody could would know any different, if ye want one get one

LOL Mink are totally illegal to keep in France, and yet there are more pet mink in France than any other country I'm aware of! They take their mink out in public, and go to a regular vet, and everything. They just tell everyone that it's a ferret, and no one questions it. I think if you got an albino mink, it would be especially difficult for anyone to tell. I had an albino mink for a while, and I once had some chap from the UK get online and argue with me for quite sometime, claiming that the animal in my video was really a white ferret, and I was just trying to get attention claiming it was a mink! LOL This is the video he was commenting on........

 

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17 minutes ago, peterhunter86 said:

Fair play to you Joe I remember looking at some of you're first videos and thinking the men in White coat's are coming for you when you said you would train them mink and you did,    

 

I doff my hat to you.

Thanks :-) 

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