The neighbor called me early this morning to say I'd caught a possum in a leg spring snare.
It was a large male. I dispatched it by whacking it on the base of the skull with the back of my '9.
If I have a .22 rifle with me, I will sometimes shoot trapped possums. Other times when I've been checking a trapline I will carry a wooden club.
I've used the BK9 as a club a couple of times now, and it performs very well. The knife has a nice weight which enables me to swing it at a reasonable velocity and it hits with quite a thump. The energy of the blow is transferred to the unfortunate possum's skull over a relatively small area compared to the club, so the blow is not cushioned. It is very effective.
As is my habit, I plucked the longer fur from the possum in case someone in my family wants to sell it. It is a pity to waste the harvest. I pluck only the longer fur. I believe that the strands should be longer than the width of my thumbnail, so the belly and leg fur generally doesn't qualify. Here is a picture of the partially plucked possum:
This possum is going to be fed to the dog. I don't like to give her bones, even though I know they'd be good for her, because she sometimes buries the danged things in the garden which can involve damage to precious plants. So what I generally do is boil the whole animal, then spend a bit of time pulling all the meat off the bones.
It was breakfast time when I returned home with the possum. So it wasn't appropriate to dump it on the kitchen bench and make a stinking mess. Instead, I took a large pot outside and held the possum above it with one hand. I used the other hand to chop hunks off the dangling carcass with my big, black, nine-inch cleaver. It only took a few swift swings with the blade to do the job.
An excellent tool.
It was a large male. I dispatched it by whacking it on the base of the skull with the back of my '9.
If I have a .22 rifle with me, I will sometimes shoot trapped possums. Other times when I've been checking a trapline I will carry a wooden club.
I've used the BK9 as a club a couple of times now, and it performs very well. The knife has a nice weight which enables me to swing it at a reasonable velocity and it hits with quite a thump. The energy of the blow is transferred to the unfortunate possum's skull over a relatively small area compared to the club, so the blow is not cushioned. It is very effective.
As is my habit, I plucked the longer fur from the possum in case someone in my family wants to sell it. It is a pity to waste the harvest. I pluck only the longer fur. I believe that the strands should be longer than the width of my thumbnail, so the belly and leg fur generally doesn't qualify. Here is a picture of the partially plucked possum:
This possum is going to be fed to the dog. I don't like to give her bones, even though I know they'd be good for her, because she sometimes buries the danged things in the garden which can involve damage to precious plants. So what I generally do is boil the whole animal, then spend a bit of time pulling all the meat off the bones.
It was breakfast time when I returned home with the possum. So it wasn't appropriate to dump it on the kitchen bench and make a stinking mess. Instead, I took a large pot outside and held the possum above it with one hand. I used the other hand to chop hunks off the dangling carcass with my big, black, nine-inch cleaver. It only took a few swift swings with the blade to do the job.
An excellent tool.
