If you guys thought killer squirrels were bad...

Status
Not open for further replies.
We've had a problem with rabid racoons (and other animals) here for quite a while. I once hit a racoon COM with a .30 Carbine and it ran off (but didn't get far).

I live in a neighborhood now where the houses are too close to use even a .22LR. I now use a .177 high velocity air rifle with a pointed pellet. I wait until they're close enough to get a clean head shot. You put one in their ear and they drop.

A guy at work has an infestation problem similar to the people in the article but on a much smaller scale (maybe two cats this year) and he uses a bow. We had a "who-can-get-the-most-racoons" contest going there for a while but he smoked me - he's into double digits. Of course, I shoot them from my kitchen window, he has a tree stand.
 
Hope you were joking there. Anything deserves a better death than that.
Click to expand...

No, I'm not. With a properly placed shot through through the vitals, letting him think he got away before he goes to sleep his last time lets the sneek and peek critters have their one last victory and is more humane than many other methods.

I certainly believe it more humane than "shoot him 10 times and wait til he stops twitching'.
 
"Trap and release"...

Have raccoons become endangered or something? Geez... if they've lost their fear of humans, and get all their food from humans, they've probably lost their ability to survive off what nature survives.

Sounds to me that it's time to offer a bounty on tails. I don't know the area, so I don't know how dangerous a .22 would be, but it's that or move somewhere else, and leave your house to the critters...
 
Back to the locality.....

It's most probably in an urban area where firearm discharge is illegal. And in WA State, a silencer can be owned (following the Federal laws) but not used. No kidding, people go to Idaho to shoot with their "cans".

So I mentioned some other lethal means. I am not sure of arrows or bolts in terms of the law. But I think one should consider the laws. Be a real shame to loose your CCW permit because you put a crossbow bolt into a varmit (4-legged I mean, and why do I hear Yosemite Sam?).

We need Dan Belushi in an episode of "Samurai 'Coon Hunter".

Bart Noir
 
It's most probably in an urban area where firearm discharge is illegal.
Click to expand...
It probably is. I think the area is suburban. I don't buy into the idea that a firearm is completely useless in such an area. A smallbore rifle in the hands of a well trained and exceptionally careful animal control expert could do a lot of good. Obviously rule #4 would be paramount, so he would have to construct a baited kill zone with special attention to where his bullet would go if he missed. Obviously, trotting down the alley with a .410 blasting the neighbors' garbage cans would not be a good idea.
 
My Dad has a High Standard HD Military that he used to hunt coons with as a kids. Of course, he had dogs to tree them. .22 LR is plenty for racoons. Plenty for possum as well.
 
Clubs!

They're not just for seals anymore.....:neener:

Seriously, I have shot skunks, raccoons, various predators and never had to use more than a .22. Some lived through the initial shot, but it sure slowed them down alot for the second.

The other option is a really, really ticked off English Mastiff. Watched one EAT a bowling ball.
 
I remember BBQ-ing a salmon on my back porch and seeing those beady eyes staring back from the branches of the nearest tree (it gets dark early in the winter). I'm not sure they waited until the grill was cool before going after the crisped skin...
Click to expand...

My neighbor likes to grill on his back porch -- which is a story above the ground, since his house is built on a steep slope. We live about a quarter mile away, and the county road is more than three quarters of a mile from his house -- so we really live in the woods.

He had a problem raccoon, and after several attempts finally live-trapped it. We took it 40 miles to the national forest and released it -- but not before spray-painting it orange.

Two nights later, his cat mosied out onto the back porch and you never heard such a racket -- it had come face to face with the punkest-looking raccoon you ever saw!:D
 
Once you trap one, you better kill it, cause there's no catching it a second time.
Click to expand...

When I was in Singapore, there was a troop of monkeys so obnoxious the other monkeys ran them off (the center of the island is jungle, and is the water catchment area.) Having no place to go, they took up residence in a block of high rise apartments.

Now apartment buildings in Singapore aren't hermetically sealed like they would be in the US, and the monkeys took to raiding people's apartments. They developed a liking for toothpaste -- and when they found a tube of haircreme, they trashed that apartment, apparently to teach the owner a lesson.:D

The Ministry of Environment finally sent out a crew. The monkeys watched in fascination as the crew set up an elaborate trap -- and saw one of the klutzes trip it, catching the whole crew inside.

So far as I know, those monkeys now own that apartment block.:p
 
The raccoons around these parts, also a suburban area, are as big as badgers and are predating cats and dogs. Considering the politics around here, the City will allocate thousands of dollars to the problem, as issuing a bounty is out of the question. 60gr Aguilla subsonics, especially with the noses filed flat a la SGBs or wadcutters might do it. Any round nose will perforate and piss off, rather than do a lot of damage. Neither raccoons nor possums are easily killed critters, if you need it quietly and quickly done from safe distances. :D
 
The raccoons around these parts, also a suburban area, are as big as badgers and are predating cats and dogs. Considering the politics around here, the City will allocate thousands of dollars to the problem, as issuing a bounty is out of the question.
Click to expand...

And that is why I refuse to live in any incorporated town, or in the more liberal parts of the country. I've never had a problem where I needed government help. I've had lots of problems where I needed the government to get the he11 out of my way.
 
I reqally appreciate the wildlife lady's "tips", including

"Keep your lights on. Raccoons like to avoid being seen."

Not the one who comes up on my front porch to get into the bird-seed bucket. I turn on the light, and he looks up and sez, "Thanks, buddy."

"Keep gates closed to make it harder for them to get close to the house."

Er, yeah. Everybody knows coons can't climb. Duh?

:), Art
 
barrett 50 cal!

you can't be too careful :). na seriously a 22 rifle or pistol and some hounds :D i know how it's done, we've hunted coons before.
 
I've never had a problem where I needed government help. I've had lots of problems where I needed the government to get the he11 out of my way.
Click to expand...

Yup.

"Keep your lights on. Raccoons like to avoid being seen."
Click to expand...

I heard is said about a friend's neighbor... applied to snakes on the pavement... They said "why??? so the snake can see better?". Same goes for any other varmint... coyotes, raccoons, whatever.

Not the one who comes up on my front porch to get into the bird-seed bucket. I turn on the light, and he looks up and sez, "Thanks, buddy."
Click to expand...

Yup.:cuss: :fire: :banghead:

"Keep gates closed to make it harder for them to get close to the house."
Click to expand...

:confused: :confused: :confused: Whatever.
 
This is Buford, one of the local gang (consisting of Buford, Burfort, Beaufort, Mumford, Momfort and Murgatroid.) This picture was taken at arm's length, and when I put the camera down and lifted the bird feeder off the pole, he hung onto it before dropping to the ground.
 

Attachments

  • Buford.jpg
    Buford.jpg
    41.9 KB · Views: 60
Olympia sits on some pretty weird geology because it's right where the glaciers stopped during the last Ice Age. There are "kettles" around the area- basically huge depressions where blocks of ice sat long after the glaciers retreated- as well as a lot of rivers and wetlands all over the place. As a result, there's a strong mixture of wild/natural areas right next to residential areas. A couple years ago, for example, the game wardens shot a cougar on the edge of downtown. They figured he wandered in through some of the natural corridors from the woods. Tried to catch him alive and relocate him, but he tried to jump one of the wardens and got shot.

Anyway, this is an older area in the middle of the city. I'd be very careful about how I used a .22 because of how built up it is. Having said that, I doubt the neighbors would complain much as long as you're careful. Most of the local cops I know are fed up with all the PC crap that goes on around here and probably wouldn't go out of their way to hassle you for it either.
I don't think running a pack of hounds through everyone's yards would win you a lot of friends, though.

One comment was that they thought the leader of this gang had been caught before and got away, which is why he's so hard to get now.

I try to live & let live with the wildlife. Having to replace birdfeeders once in a while is just the price of living where I do. If I had to fight one for my cat, though, he'd remember the encounter for a long time.
 
Ummmmm, that was I.

Yep, 10 rounds from my 10-22 at verrrrryyyy close range. I was using Remington Thunderbolt (my a$$) hp. In the crib, at dusk, with Col. Mustard.

Finnished 'em with 230gr JHP out of my 1911.

Ya'all are sounding like anti's here. "Why do you need 10 rounds", etc.

My rule with racoons, skunks, and possiums is the same as my rule for BG's. Shoot till they stop. They may just wander off to die latter, but some of them seem to recover. So I KILL THEM DRT.

Coons and possiums can take many hits from a .22 and keep on going. Away from you is not much of a problem. Towards you is. Skunks don't seem to die as hard, but if they are moving, they can spray you. :eek:

Sure, I have gotten one shot kills on 'coons, once with a deer slug (way cool) once with a .308 (all I had in the trunk), and a couple of times with a .22 LR. Never with a short, but I saw a short fail to penetrate at PBR once.

Remember gang, rabies sucks, and getting scratched or bit means you get the shots as a precaution. Saw Dad have to go through it when I was little, and it made a BIG impression on me. By the way, is it still a series of shots (20-30)in the stomach?
 
Nah, it's not in the stomach anymore. It's only about six doses of a couple different medications, but it takes a fair amount of it. Depending on where you have to inject it, it can be a whole mess of shots to get to the right dose amount. Try to get bitten on the ass. Fewer shots that way.
 
I hope I wasn't sounding anti (heavens!), but there are adjustments to be made in technique when living in town...like knowing that one shot will not get a policeman sent out but 3-4 or more will (except for July 4 and January 1, plus or minus a month) unless someone is seen with a firearm. Pellet guns count as firearms in the city (ever since some moron kid tried to assassinate some other kids with one several years ago). If everyone with a firearm had fire discipline and never attracted the attention of the gendarmes we wouldn't have such laws on the books to worry about. There's always some idiot that ruins it for the rest of us. :cuss:
 
This is the quote that drove me crazy:

"We were right there trying to get him off the cat," she said. "The cat was screaming, and the raccoon was ferocious. My husband and a neighbor grabbed a shovel and a bat, and they were waving them until it took off. It was scary."
Click to expand...

I can accept that there are some folks who don't feel comfortable with firearms, as we are all products of our upbringing. However, how emasculated are you that you can't even summon the intestinal fortitude to hit the coon that's killing a friend's cat? That's just pathetic.

James
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

G
  • Locked
Thoughts on a complete rewrite...
2 3
Replies
73
Views
9K
Robert
Robert
Back
Top