What caliber for Opossum? And night shooting is hard.

[glennser]

No Excuse for Cruelty

I can't really see the point in killing them either, for one thing you'll never eradicate them completely and if you leave pet food outside some wild animals are going to come for it no matter what you do, and it is true that cats do more damage to wildlife than pretty much anything else.
Anyway that said there's no excuse for cruelty, if you do feel it's necessary to kill something you should do it as quickly and painlessly as possible, why not just hit it over the head with a bat or hammer? I have a couple of CO2 bb guns too and there's no way I'd expect it to kill a possum humanely even with lead pellets let alone bb's, what did you expect?
Some of the posts on this thread really make me feel sick and make us all look bad.
glennser

 

[BigGuy52]

Not gun related, but a nice Louisville slugger works nice; quiet and a one hit kill. Those critters freeze up when threatened, makes a easy target.

 

[Nickotym]

OP in November of 2007, who is doing all the thread necromancy again lately?

 

[WinchesterAA]

Dude, you gotta practice with your equipment! I have raccoons, armadillos, snakes, alligators, opossums, etc etc (There's a swamp in my backyard) and I also have a cat, and he sometimes gets attacked by these creatures as well.

Practice with your firearms so that you're familiar enough with them to use them with your eyes closed. Every time I draw my pistol from my holster with my eyes closed, when I open my eyes they are in line with the ironsights. In the dark as well.

When you can do that, you can look at something, and aim at it with the silhouette of the firearm and know that front and rear sights are aligned, which makes it very much possible to shoot things in the dark.


Fumbling around like that is not necessary, and just by shooting 2 or 3 times a day every day you will eventually be very good at your BB gun. Pistols too, baseball bats, soccer balls, pianos, guitars, etc etc.. Use it a little bit all the time, it only takes 10 minutes or so to grab BB gun, throw a coke can across the yard, shoot it three times, toss can in trash and return to the more important stuff you were doing.

 

[Kragax]

How do you know he was "playing possum"? Maybe he was dead and became reanimated. Thus falling into Zombie classification. In an area where you have to be quiet this may call for the application of the machete. Just sayin'

 

[Arbor]

I usually just smash them with a baseball bat, or a knife. They aren't real fast but they bite.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

In Alabama an opossum is classified as a furbearer and is protected by law. It can be legally killed during hunting/trapping seasons and under specific conditions. I would be more concerned with illegally killing a protected animal than discharging a firearm. I live in a semi-rural area. NOBODY notices a single gunshot. FWIW,if a possum,coon or squirrel gets in my backyard,all I need is a shovel to scoop up what the dogs leave behind.

 

[Johny]

Opossum fighting a cat? are you kidding? I checked websites out and they say leave them alone, they love adult cats. I have Opossums come up on my porch in the winter time they love my cats and steal there food. They are our friends. I read some stuff about them, they eat snakes/moles. I am able to get within 2 feet of it because its tamed now

 

[tkopp]

We had a family of them at my Mom's place growing up. Used to chill out on the porch with our cats enjoying the night. We'd make sure no food was around, but they all liked 'resting' together under the porch light. Never saw a fight between them and our cats were never injured.

 

[HoosierQ]

Yeah...fur harvesting not withstanding...leave the possums alone. They saw the dinosaurs come and saw them go. Perfectly harmless creatures. Yeah they bite, if somebody tries to hit 'em with a bat or kill 'em with a knife...you'd bite too.

I love the guys who classify animals that fight back from being attacked as "mean". Heck yes a possum (ground hog, raccoon, etc etc) is acting a little violent...you're trying to kill it and it knows that! If deer could shoot guns or arrows they would you know.

I am not against bone fide hunting (like deer) or even taking a fur bearing animal (like a possum or a marten or whatever). But just killing stuff...what sense is there in that?

I hate these threads.

 

[DAVIDSDIVAD]

I agree with the last few posts with a disclaimer.


The only time I've offed a possum is out of mercy after it had a dance with the labrador we used to have, or the three german shepherds we now own.

 

[zoom6zoom]

leave them alone, they love adult cats

So did Alf.

Did you know it takes three possums to have sex? The third one has to watch for cars.

 

[Johnny Deep]

I usually just smash them with a baseball bat, or a knife. They aren't real fast but they bite.

Agree completely. Always used blunt force plus coup de grace w/ homemade spear (broom handle+ glue+ fruit knife). The one time I shot one (forehead), I had to finish him off w/ the spear.

Curiously, I have had better luck w/ shooting raccoons (one shot, one kill 2x).

 

[Robert]

Bad zombie thread.