MacTech
Member
Over the past few days, I've noticed that we have an unexpected visitor to our porch during the evenings, a rather large raccoon, easily bigger than our barn cats, so far it seems content to eat the leftover cat food in the dish on the porch, I've started taking in the food dish at night, so hopefully that should be all that's needed to get "Rocky" to move along, no food, no 'coon
What surprised me, last night, is how "tame" it seemed, I looked out on the porch at around 9 PM, to see the raccoon eating the leftover cat food, I opened the door a crack to shoo it away, it looked up at me, with a quizzical stare, contemplated it's options, and slowly turned and trundled away, actually stopping to look back a couple times as it climbed the porch railing and sninked down the other side, I'd swear it almost looked "depressed" that it was losing it's easy source of food
it moved so slowly and non-agressively that it practically seemed tame, I was momentarily tempted to see if I could pet it, but that insane thought passed quickly, as I know it's a wild animal and therefore unpredictable....
Is there any risk to having this raccoon around? as long as we don't leave food out it should just leave, i'd assume, go on to another house that leaves food out at night
If it does come down to shooting Rocky (I'd rather not, I'm a live-and-let-live kinda' guy), what would be the reccomended caliber to humanely dispatch it with a minimum of suffering?
I have;
.22 (CB, Shorts, LR subsonic, CCI Segmented Subsonic, and Velocitors)
.17HMR (17 Gn Vmax and 20 Gn XTP)
.45ACP (200Gn LSWC, 180Gn GDHP, 230Gn GDHP)
.45 Colt (200Gn LSWC, 250Gn LRN, 250Gn GDHP)
7.62x39
20 Ga. (#7.5 birdshot, #3 Buck, 1 oz Brenneke slug)
12Ga. (#7.5 bird, #4 Buck, #00 Buck, #000 Buck, 1 Oz slugs)
I'd prefer to use a round that will humanely put it down with a one-shot kill, but since I'd probably be shooting it on the porch, I don't want something too powerful that would overpenetrate, so anything above the .17HMR is probably out (close-range birdshot may possibly work)
To be honest, if I was to shoot it, this would probably be the first animal I'd like to recover the pelt on, are there any good links that would cover cleaning and skinning small game?
Oh, one last thing, Dad never took me hunting, as I was never interested in it as a child, I was more a target shooter/plinker, give me paper targets and plastic bottles to shoot and I'm good for the day, so I'm unfamiliar with the way small game reacts when shot....
so far, the only "Bang-Flop" I ever got was a couple years ago when I took down a large adult female woodchuck with a shot through the ear, dropped with the first shot, out like a light, used a CCI Velocitor, clean shoot-through, entered the right ear, exited the left, 'chuck just dropped, motionless
a few months ago, I had to take out a 'possum, it was hiding in one of our cat-barrels (small wooden cask filled with hay), 10 feet away, Possum staring right at me, hate in it's beady little eyes...
first shot was with a Remington CBee, aimed between the eyes, it was in the evening, and I wanted to keep the noise down, 'possom dropped to it's side, rear legs twitching, and making a guttural growl/hiss, rear legs twitching uncontrollably, obvious bullet hole in the skull
Saddened by my inability to perform a one-shot kill, I loaded up a CCI Segmented Subsonic, another head shot, no more growl/hiss, just kicking, unsure of if I had killed it, I took the final shot with the Segmented Subsonic in the heart/lung location, all motion stopped
I consider that another failure, three rounds to put an animal down is unacceptable, a clear failure on my part, my first mistake was using the CBee, I think if I had used the Segmented Subs, noise be dammned, it would have been a one-shot kill
Here's the question, was I misinterpreting the twitch/growl as signs of life? in my mind, when a small game animal takes a headshot, it should simply drop, motionless with no signs of life, as the woodchuck did...
Admittedly, the 'chuck was shot with a far more powerful round (Velocitor) and it's entirely possible had I used a Velocitor on the 'possum, I would have gotten the same result, a bang-flop
So, was I misinterpreting the twitch/growl of the 'possum, thinking it was still alive?
What surprised me, last night, is how "tame" it seemed, I looked out on the porch at around 9 PM, to see the raccoon eating the leftover cat food, I opened the door a crack to shoo it away, it looked up at me, with a quizzical stare, contemplated it's options, and slowly turned and trundled away, actually stopping to look back a couple times as it climbed the porch railing and sninked down the other side, I'd swear it almost looked "depressed" that it was losing it's easy source of food
it moved so slowly and non-agressively that it practically seemed tame, I was momentarily tempted to see if I could pet it, but that insane thought passed quickly, as I know it's a wild animal and therefore unpredictable....
Is there any risk to having this raccoon around? as long as we don't leave food out it should just leave, i'd assume, go on to another house that leaves food out at night
If it does come down to shooting Rocky (I'd rather not, I'm a live-and-let-live kinda' guy), what would be the reccomended caliber to humanely dispatch it with a minimum of suffering?
I have;
.22 (CB, Shorts, LR subsonic, CCI Segmented Subsonic, and Velocitors)
.17HMR (17 Gn Vmax and 20 Gn XTP)
.45ACP (200Gn LSWC, 180Gn GDHP, 230Gn GDHP)
.45 Colt (200Gn LSWC, 250Gn LRN, 250Gn GDHP)
7.62x39
20 Ga. (#7.5 birdshot, #3 Buck, 1 oz Brenneke slug)
12Ga. (#7.5 bird, #4 Buck, #00 Buck, #000 Buck, 1 Oz slugs)
I'd prefer to use a round that will humanely put it down with a one-shot kill, but since I'd probably be shooting it on the porch, I don't want something too powerful that would overpenetrate, so anything above the .17HMR is probably out (close-range birdshot may possibly work)
To be honest, if I was to shoot it, this would probably be the first animal I'd like to recover the pelt on, are there any good links that would cover cleaning and skinning small game?
Oh, one last thing, Dad never took me hunting, as I was never interested in it as a child, I was more a target shooter/plinker, give me paper targets and plastic bottles to shoot and I'm good for the day, so I'm unfamiliar with the way small game reacts when shot....
so far, the only "Bang-Flop" I ever got was a couple years ago when I took down a large adult female woodchuck with a shot through the ear, dropped with the first shot, out like a light, used a CCI Velocitor, clean shoot-through, entered the right ear, exited the left, 'chuck just dropped, motionless
a few months ago, I had to take out a 'possum, it was hiding in one of our cat-barrels (small wooden cask filled with hay), 10 feet away, Possum staring right at me, hate in it's beady little eyes...
first shot was with a Remington CBee, aimed between the eyes, it was in the evening, and I wanted to keep the noise down, 'possom dropped to it's side, rear legs twitching, and making a guttural growl/hiss, rear legs twitching uncontrollably, obvious bullet hole in the skull
Saddened by my inability to perform a one-shot kill, I loaded up a CCI Segmented Subsonic, another head shot, no more growl/hiss, just kicking, unsure of if I had killed it, I took the final shot with the Segmented Subsonic in the heart/lung location, all motion stopped
I consider that another failure, three rounds to put an animal down is unacceptable, a clear failure on my part, my first mistake was using the CBee, I think if I had used the Segmented Subs, noise be dammned, it would have been a one-shot kill
Here's the question, was I misinterpreting the twitch/growl as signs of life? in my mind, when a small game animal takes a headshot, it should simply drop, motionless with no signs of life, as the woodchuck did...
Admittedly, the 'chuck was shot with a far more powerful round (Velocitor) and it's entirely possible had I used a Velocitor on the 'possum, I would have gotten the same result, a bang-flop
So, was I misinterpreting the twitch/growl of the 'possum, thinking it was still alive?
