Varmit weapon

[Dutch]

I am plagued with armadillos and in warm weather ground hogs.  I'm needing to pick up something that will do 100 yd shots with or without a scope.  I assume I would probably need something low velocity.  I really don't know about that area of shooting.  All I've ever done is 22 rim fire and high velocity rifles.

I don't want an expensive weapon as it is going to live on my Kawasaki mule and be treated like a stick of wood.  I'm pretty sure I want a semi automatic just in case the first shot misses.   Any one have a recommendation?

[fishinwrench]

100 yard shot on an armadillo or groundhog.....you are definitely gonna need a scoped rifle.    A Remington 700 or Winchester 70 would be my personal pick.  And probably in 6mm or .243 so it serves multiple duty.     Of course your gonna need a fine set of optics for it (4-16x).  

If you hadn't said 100 yards then I'd have steered you towards a .25 Cal airgun.

It's real easy to get closer to an armadillo.  😊

[Bushbeater]

I'm bothered by the armadillo's also, but I never see the durn things. Every morning though the yard is tore up again. I have a 22 cal Nitro Venom, would that work or do I need a 25?  I'm thinking about the 25 cal with a laser scope, and perhaps some type of webcam to alert me when there active. Shots would be 35 to 50 yards max, most about 50-60 feet.

[fishinwrench]

23 minutes ago, Bushbeater said:

I have a 22 cal Nitro Venom, would that work or do I need a 25? 

It will work just fine.   I have taken 1 at 35-40 yards, and another at a bit over 50.  Dropped both deader than a hammer with 18.13gr. JSB's.  The one at 50+ was a little guy about the size of a chipmunk and a shoulder shot through his "shell" still took him out.

[Gavin]

You could shot gun a dillo real easy, Have killed them with a random stick on the ground when  it is windy. An M-16 style in 5.56mm is very easy to shoot and a good one will put ten rounds in a 10” circle at 500 meters. Open sights. It happens all the time at Camp Pendleton.

[dan hufferd]

Rottweiler.

You don't have to oil him.

I am raising a new puppy now, but when his grandpa lived here we always had at least 3 dead armadillo's in the yard. The record for one night was 9 armadillos, 3 raccoons.

All this happens while you sleep. You have to be quick with the shovel, those suckers go to stinking quick. 

[BilletHead]

         Oh how I despise armadillos,

    Yes very nocturnal and hard to get rid of. Finally got them slowed down at least in the yard and now that this has been brought up it will now be jinxed! Have taken them out with the .22 and .25 air rifle .17 HMR and .22 rimfire.  Like Gavin said if you are sneaky walk right up on them. The machete works real nice, three have fell victim to that and one was a double while the Mrs. and I were loading up for a duck hunt at dark thirty. They were under the apple tree grubbing around the grass was wet and as the Mrs. held the light I went in swinging. That was a head shot and second on across the back.   When we get a long freeze spell they will show up more in the daylight being hungry looking for thawed ground. The things are protected but you can protect your place from damage. So those that you see damage but not them? Find their hole or den. I kept a 120 conibar trap when I sold all my traps. For those who don't know it is the double spring version of the 110. Muskrat, and mink size. An armadillo can't get it's body through it but the trap will smash it's head .

    I did some looking up about them. Hard to live trap. You can try to funnel them into a trap and i have tried and failed. A friend told me about box traps. Look that up if you want. The trap needs to be baited with armadillo poop to get them in it. Videos of it. You can buy plans for the trap, complete kits and even armadillo poop. I don't think i am ready to stoop for poop quite yet . 

http://thearmadillotrap.com/buy.html

BilletHead

[Dutch]

12 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

100 yard shot on an armadillo or groundhog.....you are definitely gonna need a scoped rifle.    A Remington 700 or Winchester 70 would be my personal pick.  And probably in 6mm or .243 so it serves multiple duty.     Of course your gonna need a fine set of optics for it (4-16x).  

If you hadn't said 100 yards then I'd have steered you towards a .25 Cal airgun.

It's real easy to get closer to an armadillo.  😊

Wrench, got all 3 of them with prime optics.  None of them are going to live in the mule.

Maybe I should have mentioned this is on a hilly 400 acre farm in Stone County where ricochet is a concern.  A lot of times we see the dillos when we move from 1 area to another and they won't let us get closer than 50-100 yds.  A lot of the ground hogs live in and around the barn.  Just after daylight seems to be the best time for them with probably a 75 yd shot.  (I thought about smoke bombs in the barn but would hate to catch it on fire as it is a mortice and tendon building built in the late 1800s from stone and lumber taken off the farm.)

I'm trying to get this set up because in the spring I will have dependable renters in the farm house and would like to have everything in place.

[snagged in outlet 3]

We had ground hogs in a car shed at my mom's house and we never could get rid of them.  Freak you out when you come home late and they almost bowl you over in the dark.

[MOPanfisher]

Beat up Marlin bolt action 22 WMR.  Will easily handle a 100 yat shot, cheap and easy to find, plenty accurate.  Not as cool a some other options but will work well.  If an AR is more your preference they are cheap right now also.