Things to consider in an urban "hunt"

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ZeSpectre

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I'm looking for some input on a situation a friend encountered just recently.

The Story;
I have a friend who lives in a long-established "bedroom community" that has become an urban center in it's own right. Lots of planned housing with little parks in the center of each. A little while ago he came home to find a fox in his semi-enclosed back yard savaging the remains of a small dog (not his). First he tried to scare it off but it completely ignored him, then he called animal control but got voicemail and since he was very concerned that his kids would be coming home from school soon he got a .22 pistol and went out on his raised back porch and shot the fox from about 10 feet away. It took 3 shots for him to be sure the fox was down.

Of course someone heard the shots and the police arrived in short order. My friend had already unloaded the pistol and locked it back in his safe so the interaction with the police was calm and professional but he was still placed in cuffs while they talked.

My friend was advised that it was unlawful to discharge a firearm in the city limits, though apparently one of the officers said "but you know, you gotta protect your kids, I understand".

Ultimately the fox was removed and tested and found positive for rabies and the charge of "unlawful discharge" was dropped and that seems to be the end of the situation.

Tactical Considerations:
My friend said that, considering the situation, he felt he was very fortunate. He was able to stand on a raised porch and fire downward at a steep angle into his soft lawn which he felt was a very good backstop. However, the situation did make him wonder what would have been a good approach if the critter had been somewhere else (say in his driveway in front of the house).

Given all the variables of your typical planned community environment the only advice I could give him was that he might have simply called the police directly and then "shadowed" the critter from a safe distance so he could tell the police precisely where it was/went. I also told him that if he was armed when he followed the critter that he'd better make damned sure he lets the police know that the armed guy is the GOOD guy and please don't shoot. :eek:

So any other general advice you can come up with for a situation like this?
 
Oh I forgot to add, my friend said "I don't understand, we never had foxes here".
I laughed and said "Man, you live in a place called FOXCHASE, how do you think it got that name?"
 
This is a situation where a powerful air rifle might attract less attention. That said I was in a situation a couple of years ago where the dogs had gotten ahold of a possum in the yard & it was damaged. I shot it in the head with a .22 pistol to put it out of its misery & nobody called anybody but the houses are pretty well spread out here & some people do have enough land to safely shoot so hearing gun shots isn't an altogether unusual thing.
 
Well..... It is a much more expensive option, but a suppressor and sub-sonic ammo does wonders for noise control. I am not recommending breaking the law by discharging a weapon where you are not allowed to, but if you are concerned about keeping noise down during any type of hunt and suppressors are legal to own and use.... It is a good choice

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Any supposedly wild animal that is behaving in an unusual manner should be suspected of rabies, even in an urban environment. That in itself is sufficient reason for added caution in dealing with the animal. That means staying out of contact distance, for the uninitiated. Rabid animals may attack without warning.

There are increasingly powerful air rifles available which are not firearms in the technical sense of the word but which may still be subject to the same legal strictures. And their cost is such that their acquisition for this sort of use might be unlikely. http://www.cabelas.com/air-rifles-benjamin-rogue-357-epcp-air-rifle.shtml

A long- barreled .22 rifle shooting CB caps might be a less expensive and equally quiet alternative, but is still a firearm...
http://www.natchezss.com/product.cfm?contentID=productDetail&prodID=CC0038&src=sim
 
Id recommend Aguila SSS's, the 60 grainers. Killed a few foxes with that one, and no exits however they will bounce. They are quieter in a rifle than an airgun IMO. That being said, the good old shovel works and doesnt break any laws. Baseball bats dont give you any reach. I prefer an old wooden hockey stick :)
 
Archery might be the answer as it is usually not illegal to practice archery in your back yard, plus it makes no noise.

I know of a situation where the police were deputed to a residence because a neighbor complained that a man was deer hunting in his back yard right in the middle of town. The kicker was that he was bow hunting and there was no law on the books against hunting in the city limits, only a law against discharging a firearm within the city limits. Check your local laws. Chances are that there is no ordinance against back yard archery.
 
A long- barreled .22 rifle shooting CB caps might be a less expensive and equally quiet alternative, but is still a firearm...
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Taken a step further, CB Shorts could be good for this purpose in a bolt action rifle. They are unlikely to feed in a semi-auto, but if you held the action closed you could manually cycle. With less power, be close, and don't miss.
 
Interesting input so far. I did talk to him about a higher powered air rifle but he said the local has the same restrictions (no discharge). Never even thought about a bow. I have serious doubts this person could have clubbed an animal to death (hocky stick et. al) and I would NEVER recommend anyone getting closer to a possibly rabid animal.

@JustinJ, he had called animal control twice and got voicemail both times. He said he never thought about an actual "911" call until well after the event even though he was seriously concerned about the safety of the kids coming home from school. It's funny the way the mind works (or doesn't).
 
FYI

I too live in a small city and all 'projectiles' are forbidden from being launched.

That includes slingshots.

So having tested all the options,I opt for CCI cb caps in the 'long' case as they are the quietest I have tested.

No more noise than the Gamo .22 pellet rifle with silencer [ legal ].

If legal in his state,THE best is a subsonic round [ under 1000 fps ] with a can on it [ term for a legal silencer ]..

Caliber can be .45 ACP/9 MM/.22 rimfire for example.

I use the CCI CB's in a bolt action or single shot T/C rifle and they are no bother to neighbors at all.

Just be sure to take head/brain shots.
 
@JustinJ, he had called animal control twice and got voicemail both times. He said he never thought about an actual "911" call until well after the event even though he was seriously concerned about the safety of the kids coming home from school. It's funny the way the mind works (or doesn't).
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Understood. I just mentioned it in regards to possible better options for the future. I would have to believe that a potentially rabid animal in such an environment would be treated as an emergency by 911.
 
We live in the woods and are over run with squirrels.

Yet I have neigbors inside of 200 yards, so I use a Benjamin .22 air rifle, which is surprisingly accurate and reasonably powerfull....

But it's far from an DRT tool...

Most of the squirrels I've dispatched with it (head shots) were still kickin' when they hit the ground and needed another plug.

I usually trap them in a box trap and deport them.... but sometimes they irk me enough to break out the Benjamin.

Now that the dog has free reign of the property (thanks to an electric fence) he does the dirty work for me. He's caught two (that I know of)
 
I would probably go with my bow. I have actually shot several rabbits (good sized cottontails) in my backyard where it is illegal to discharge a firearm but perfectly legal to shoot a bow. If I suspected it of rabies, I probably would have grabbed my crossbow to possibly try and pin it to the ground to make sure it didn't run off anywhere.
 
Check your local laws about bows. Some cities even have laws about discharging bows within XX yards of an occupied dwelling.
 
Where a suspected rabid animal is confronted, remember that the head or brain is needed for testing. Many localities recommend not shooting suspected rabid animals in the head for this reason. For instance, Missouri states as follows:

Don't kill the suspected animal unless absolutely necessary. If it must be killed, remember diagnosis is made from brain tissue; so do not shoot it in the head, hit it on the head or damage the head in any way. -- http://mdc.mo.gov/landwater-care/animal-management/animal-diseases/rabies-what-do
 
I would find out who the busybody, hoplophobic, P C neighbor was, and tear them a new one verbally while educating them about rabid animals, and child safety.

Then again in my neighborhood a shot would bring them all running over armed to help!

Big difference between urban types and us country types.
 
Fred Fuller said:
Where a suspected rabid animal is confronted, remember that the head or brain is needed for testing. Many localities recommend not shooting suspected rabid animals in the head for this reason. For instance, Missouri states as follows:

Don't kill the suspected animal unless absolutely necessary. If it must be killed, remember diagnosis is made from brain tissue; so do not shoot it in the head, hit it on the head or damage the head in any way. -- http://mdc.mo.gov/landwater-care/animal-management/animal-diseases/rabies-what-do
Click to expand...

Very true. Nothing worse than destroying your proof and preventing officals from determining if rabies problem may be affecting an area.




627PCFan said:
Check your local laws about bows. Some cities even have laws about discharging bows within XX yards of an occupied dwelling.
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It may also be a game violation. PA allows only PGC to set game laws and preempts local laws. The safety zone and legal weapon amd season come into play...of course fear of a rabid animal might change how it plays out. Still its worth considering since it overrules discharge rules (to an extent).
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bikerdoc said:
I would find out who the busybody, hoplophobic, P C neighbor was, and tear them a new one verbally while educating them about rabid animals, and child safety.

Then again in my neighborhood a shot would bring them all running over armed to help!

Big difference between urban types and us country types.
Click to expand...

Doc, your neighbors don't trust that you can make the shot? ;)

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My advice would be to call the cops directly the next time.

As far as the actual shot, I'd advise (if needed) to move to a vantage point that recreates this past one. Be above the animal so you are shooting downward and with as safe of a backstop as you can possibly get. If the shot seems "iffy", wait for the P.D. to show. They will often drag animal control out of bed for such calls.

About 10 years ago we had a rabies problem with coons around here. Cops were on the ball showing up quickly on calls of coons around in broad daylight.
 
We had something JUST like this happen when I was 10.
Animal control was useless; thankfully the local PD did not much have to do and one of the officers had a personal (bolt action) rifle handy. He came over and dispatched the animal pretty quickly. There was no "safe" line if fire in any direction though and no elevated area to shoot from.

I think your friend did the right thing; the only thing he could have done different is call 911 if Animal Control is unavailable; had they wished to go after him it may have looked better that he expended all available options before opening fire. This is a perfectly good reason to have suppressors if they are legal; 1 or 2 shots from a suppressed 22LR chambered rifle or even 223 I very much doubt most people in his area would have even known what the noise was. Many would have probably mistaken it for some kind of tool.
 
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twinny said:
if nobody has been bitten yet, why worry about the head shot? Nothing else is going to drop the critter when using something quiet, like a pellet gun or .22 CB Cap.
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Well it helps with public health if they confirm a case and use the data, location, and other variants to see if a rise has occurred in the area or if people should be warned in a general area to be more careful, etc.

More good data...is always good. :)
 
twinny said:
I would not inform them that I had discharged a firearm in the city limits, so they will never be doing any autopsies, anyway. having the critter run off, wounded, is far more of a concern. "Ditto making too much noise and having trouble with the neighbors or the cops.
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Personally if you said, officers this raccoon was acting very weird and was coming towards me...I think self defense would be recognized very easily.

Heck, didn't Rick Perry even shoot a Coyote once while walking his dog with an LCP/LCR?
 
Heck, didn't Rick Perry even shoot a Coyote once while walking his dog with an LCP/LCR?
Click to expand...

He did. But i wouldn't think for a second the average citizen would have gotten away with it.
 
A shotgun is safer than a rifle, even a .22, in a populated area, and a high-brass #6 or #5 load is perfectly adequate for foxes, raccoons, &c. One shot is almost certainly going to be all you need.

And the authorities absolutely, positively need to know about a rabid animal, whether you shoot it or they come out and do it.
 
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