.22lr & possum-one shot kill,what works?

[Matt G]

Depends. Are you talking #9 light trap loads to the body? No good. Are you talking Heavy Field #5 loads to the head? That'd work.

I've found that skunks are incredibly resilient. I've shot one in an urban environment with a couple of CB caps to the head, and thought I had killed it, only to find it half an hour later dragging itself along through the leaves. I was extremely unhappy about this (not wanting any animal to suffer at my hands.), and shot it again, at point blank, with another CB cap. I sat and watched. 10 minutes later, it got up and began to crawl off again. "Playing possum" is a very real technique, and will fool you. I finally had to use a club to finish it. I wished I'd never started with it. Art, as usual, is absolutely correct. If it's not actively messing with you and you're not in HIGH ALERT for rabies, leave the critter alone. My rule of thumb is to pop 'em during the summer if I see 'em in the daytime, as they're nocturnal. I give 'em an hour or so leeway for twighlight and dawn.

I was working patrol one night and came across a large opossum that someone had run over, breaking its back. This was on the edge of a residential neighborhood, so I decided shooting it was not the way to go. I drew my ASP expandable baton, extended it to its 26", and took a mighty swing at the back of its head. Thwock. That matted fur and rolled skin absorbs a lot of impact, and the tip of the ASP is the lightest part of it. It's for imparting quick energy (meaning tip speed), but with minimal momentum that could break bones. It took me 3 hard swings to effectively dispatch that poor marsupial, and my whole intent was to put the critter out of its misery! I swore that next time I would either run over the next one or fade the heat for discharging my weapon.

While a .22 will work, use full-power .22s, only take a head shot, put it in the ear, and don't be afraid to use a follow-up or two. Oh, and my new favorite varmint .22 load is the Winchester Power Point.
But if you can... why not let it live?

 

[BeLikeTrey]

Heck I've used a pellet pistol

Won't ever do it again but third shot was the charm, got one into the head and the nerves in the body went crazy. Was a scary feeling to have the dog bring you a "dead" opossum and take it away and throw it in the garbage. 5-10 minutes later finish a beer and go to throw it away and get a nice hiss at you. pop pop pop and lots o flop. but from now on the 60 grain SSS is my way to go-deforms really nicely on impact and has plenty of umph to get through the head at moderate ranges. I aim at the base of the ear. no worries since. I hate the suffering too.

 

[Geno]

Depends on day-time, or night-time hunting

In day I would use the Remington solid target, go for a head shot. For night I use CBs. If for day, you want more power, try the Remington "Thunder Bolt" as they too are quite accurate. The CBs will NOT cycle your 597 action. I suggest a bolt, or manually cycle. Safe shooting!

 

[imevilnagoodway]

finally killed my opossum

first of all i want to let yall know those opossums are not easy to kill 1 had been bothering me by keeping me up all night scratching around in my pipes i had eventually shot it between the eyes with my crossbow pistol which it in turn ran away looking like a unicorn but things had got quiet and i assumed it bled out somewhere until recently it started running along my pipes again and again i found him on my porch eating the cat food i had outside so i opened the door and shot him again between the eyes with my crossbow pistol but apparently hit a more tender spot this time because he opened his mouth real big and started doing a dance after he got his composure back he started to walk off again and i wasn't going to have that so i used my now empty crossbow pistol as a hammer and went to town and lets just say it might not have been a one shot kill but i did kill him with a crossbow pistol and i would just like to say if you are being bothered by one of these guys and do get the chance to kill him have a little fun when your done

 

[Art Eatman]

Guns. Huh. My grandfather just grabbed them by the tail and swung them agains a fence post or tree. Back-breaker. Then you just "sqush" their little heads. No biggie.

, Art

 

[LeonCarr]

Possums and Skunks:

Possums - A .22LR, with souped up ammo like CCI Stingers, works OK when placed properly in the head or in the tear duct of the eye if you can get close and hold steady. A .22 magnum with JHPs, or a .38 or .357 revolver loaded with .38 wadcutters(my favorite , and not too loud if you only shoot once), will usually anchor them with one shot to the head or one shot through the heart. Possums are tough critters, and as far as eating them goes, the country ones are better to eat than the city ones. The country ones eat herbs and roots and stuff, the city ones eat out of dumpsters .

Skunks - When I worked as a Deputy Sheriff, the County Sheriff (usually known as the "High Sheriff" here in Texas) told us, "If you see a skunk, shoot it". That year the county had five cases of rabies, one was a pit bull and the rest were skunks. Most of the skunks I shot were shot with a Glock 22 .40 loaded with 155 grain Hydra-Shoks, and were usually DRT (Dead Right There), and the 12 gauge 870P loaded with birdshot or buckshot worked well also, as long as the birdshot was at least number 6. Keep in mind that IME if you don't shoot them in the head, they will spray.

Mini-14s and AR-15s work well for possums and skunks also, but are very loud .

To stay on thread, the .22 shorts/.22LRs are quiet, but not as effective as .22 magnums or the bigger calibers. With the bigger stuff, just shoot once .

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

 

[49hudson]

A Louisville Slugger works on small critters llike possium, weasels, etc..
My Grandfather 's recipe for possium.
1. kill, clean and skin possium.
2.nail possium to a clean pine board and place sweet potatos and brown sugar around possium.
3. place in oven at 375 deg. F. for two hours.
4. take out of oven, pull out nails, throw possium away and eat the board and taters.

 

[TwoGun]

Try QuickShot. The are pregragmented .22 rounds. The work excedingly well on large skunks and porccipines. My wife had a friend when she was growing up on the ranch who got bit by a skunk and had to have all the injections and it left a lasting impression on her. So its always open season on skunks here since we have two kids. The QuickShot does the job, if you place the shot where it should be.

My oldest daughter seems to get the bulk of the dispatching duties. She has had numerous one shot kills on polecats. I've done in a number of porccipines and the are substantialy larger than skunks are. But bullet placement is more inportant than the bullet. That doens't mean that you shouldn't choose the bullet for the job however.

Good Luck!

 

[Bottom Gun]

We get a lot of rabid skunks around here so I don't like having them around. They also like to get in my crawl space and have litters. It's usually only a matter of time before they tangle with one of the dogs or cats and I'm tried of it.

One year my neighbor was feeding the darned things daily and consequently they bred like crazy. I took over three dozen out in two months time. One of my other neighbors took over 20 and a third neighbor told me she shot close to ten of them. We were infested with the darned things.

I've trapped and shot scores of skunks. I usually put a .22 into their heads. So far every single one has let go after I shot them. When they die, the muscles relax and out comes the old juice.

I used to use a homemade wooden trap which I could walk up to and open from behind without them seeing me. I would then wait until they exited the trap and then I would dump them with a head shot. That method kept my trap clean.
They finally chewed the wooden trap to pieces so I started using a Hav-a-hart wire mesh trap.

I had to change my technique when I switched to the wire trap:

Walk up to the trap behind a sheet, tarp, or old shower curtain. They won't spray if they can't see you.
I cover the trap with the sheet and then I put the trap into a plastic garbage can and fill the can with water. The can I use isn't deep enough to drown them because about 2 inches of trap sticks out of the water when the can is full.
While they are treading water with their noses sticking through the mesh, I walk up and put a CB cap or a .22 short into their brains. That saves a lot or wear and tear on my trap because I always seem to hit mesh when I shoot from any distance.

They still let go in the water when they die and the muscles relax but there is lots of water in the can to dilute it so the odor isn't very strong and it doesn't last long.

If my trash can was deeper, I would simply let them drown but I can't find a deeper one.

 

[esldude]

You guys must have some tough possums. I shot one with a 177 pellet gun. A rather powerful one in a PCP design. Using 11 gr. Crossman Premiers I got a heart lung shot in the perfect position. It started to moan a bit as it fell to the ground. Twitched a few seconds and was dead in 30 seconds. Felt bad about shooting it really. For the most part, if you don't bother them, they don't bother you. Mostly eat insects. This one however was getting in the basement, and had to go.

I had a 12x scope, and was only 15 yards away, so the placement was quite precise. Maybe that was the problem, bad shot placement. I would think any 22LR would be plenty for them. Even with subsonic ammo.

 

[JMusic]

I've shot them with alot of different calipers. From Benjamin pump air rifles to 12 gauge shotguns. I remember one time shooting one between the eyes with a 22 pistol. I was using CCI Hollow points he was on a lower limb having been tree'd by some coon hounds. A constant stream of blood poured out of him for about a minute then he hit the ground fighting with the dogs. "They are easily killed but do not die fast." Thank God they are not the size of cows.
Jim

 

[El Tejon]

Marsupials scare me. Cause they're fast!

I can tell you that a 1911 loaded with Black Hills 230 gr. JHP is highly effective on Mr. Possum. One shot stop; one shot mess!

Word to the wise, do not stand in your brother's chicken coop when you shoot said possum. What did you say, Matt?

 

[JackOfAllTradesMasterAtNone]

A relative got one of those traps to catch a bothersom Opossum.. Caught it she did. So she brought it to me to dispose of. I'll tell ya, after unloading a Ruger Single Six in .22mag on the thing to places that should have been considered kill shots, I pulled out the .357mag. Still took that sucker quite a while to stop hissing.

Uncle called my nephew. Hey there's a gray critter up in the tree. Been bothersome to the dogs. So nephew calls, says let's go kill it. Dunno what it is, but let's go kill it. Honestly, we couldn't tell what it was up in the tree. "Shoot it, it'll turn and move, we'll figure out what it is." So he pops it with my Glenfield .22. Man that thing got pissed! Big ole Coon. Ten rounds later, (and Toby's a pretty good shot, and once out on the branch, I put a 300grn slug from my .44mag into him), this thing's coming out on a branch looking for vengence. Growling. He dropped to the ground groweling and thrashing. "Hey, go in and put him out". Toby say's "Heck no, You put another round from the .44 into him before I'm goin in that tall grass".

I never underestimate the resiliency of some small critters. Cats don't like to die. Coons and Opossums either.

"Are you talking Heavy Field #5 loads to the head? "

I prefer some Double OT Buck from a 12ga!

-Steve

 

[Art Eatman]

My uncle had a big old crazy red Doberman that didn't think any small critter was tough. His idea was to run up and just get a mouthful of head and Crunch!

Sorta startling to watch him run up to an old boar coon that was all ready to fight--and one Crunch! and it was all over. He'd grab an armadillo across the back and shake his head will crunching. Sounded sorta like a kid eating Fritos.

My grandma didn't have any trouble with varmints messing with her chickens...

Art

 

[MPFreeman]

I've killed two this year in my Chicken Coop.

#1. Found him inside one of the chicken stalls. He was laying down and I thought it was a cat, since I could only see his back. I petted the nice kitty, and he nearly bit my hand. I then went into the house, grabbed a lever .22LR with .22LR CCI stingers, and put three in its face from about 12 inches away. That thing was tough. It would not have gone down with one shot quickly IMHO. He twitched and screamed at me for about 20-30 seconds.

#2. On the other side of our Coop we store firewood. Two of my sons (aged 4&7) and I were stacking firewood in there. Out comes Possum from under the wood pile and started hissing at my 4 y.o. son. I quickly ushered the boys into the truck and went back into the coop. I drew my 1911 loaded with Black Hills 230g JHP from my hip and shot. The round entered the critter's back and exited his chest. He immediately stopped moving and maybe twitched 5 seconds. However, I shot this thing INSIDE the coop and I listened to a bell ring inside my head for about 7 seconds.

I recommend the bigger rounds for killing possums while using Hearing protection.