Well I was shooting the pesky squirrels with my old pellet guy and started to miss due to the CO2 leaking out. So I went out to Gander Mountain and bought a new Pellet Rifle. It's a Gamo Bone Collector which turns out to be a spring type air gun. These type of air rifles are very hard on regular rifle scope as they have a lot of shock when the spring is released suddenly when you pull the trigger. The shock is too much for most ordinary rifle scopes.

My scope was a Gamo 4X fixed which game already mounted on the rifle's barrel in the box. After a few months I noticed that the rifle's mountings have moved and the front mounts were the only ones still holding the scope to the barrel. I've since fixed that problem I hope.

Now while I was messing with the rifle and missing a lot of good opportunities of killing the two fox squirrels that were raiding my bird feeder and eating all my black sunflower seeds I finally put the live animal cage trap to use.

I strapped the metal cage to the top of the rail on my deck. I had seen these two squirrels walk along the top of this rail to get to the bird feeder. And when I got their attention by opening the back kitchen window to shoot at them with the pellet guns (rifle and a pistol) they would run along the top of the railing and off to the side of my yard where there is a big Ash tree and run up into the tree. I made the mistake of planting ivy around this tree and it growing all over the tree now making for good cover for all the squirrels. They can hide easily among the ivy leaves and vines that grow over and around the big tree.


Well the other day I found both the cage doors down and locked shut and one of the pesky squirrels inside the cage. I ended up taking a can of spray paint (white) and tried to spray paint the squirrel's tail a white color. This is so that if he were to return to the area I'd be able to recognize him. Well let me tell you this, he didn't like that at all. He would try to attack the spray can by facing into the paint spray and attacking the walls of the wire cage. I was just trying to hit his tail and not any thing else but he kept facing me so I finally stopped. I didn't want to get any in his eyes. This was one pissed off squirrel too. He was chattering the entire time he was in the cage. I had the cage attached to the top of the railing which is actually a two by four with some 18" zip ties. Two zip ties held the cage on the top rail easily.

I took my knife and cut the zip ties and moved the cage and squirrel to the back of my pick up truck and used adjustable Bunge cords to secure both ends of the cage between the two sides of the bed of the truck. It's was right up against the truck's tail gate.

I drove over to the fish and wildlife area and released the squirrel there. He ran pretty fast towards the woods across the gravel parking lot.

Two days later I caught the other pesky squirrel and transported him out of the neighborhood sans the while paint job on the tail. Both squirrels were males. The first one was very vocal and was chattering or barking at me the entire time he was in the cage. And both squirrels tried to ram the cage doors with their heads. The doors held firm and all was well in the back yard now. I have not seen anymore pesky squirrels at the feeders.

I also raised the bird feeder up about 9 ft into the air with a pole system and put a metal baffle on the pole below the feeders to deter anymore squirrels from getting at the bird seed.

Then three nights ago I noticed the security light was coming on in the back deck. When I went to look out the back door there was a big raccoon eating my bird feed from one of the other squirrel proof feeders hanging off one of the supports on the poles. I shooed him away by opening the back door and yelling at him. Then I threw out a couple of fire crackers just for good measure. Well last night he was back at it again. Another fire cracker thrown onto the deck exploded and he was gone but he will be back again.

The live animal trap worked good for the squirrels and it's big enough for a raccoon. So I'm just hoping that I can figure out what type of bait to use to lure him into the cage. I'll catch him and relocate him too.

I just hope I don't end up with a live SKUNK in the cage instead of the raccoon.