Have you ever took a "varmint" with your pocket or carry gun?

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Big Al

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I was wondering how many of you had actually made a sucessful pot-shot at a nuisance critter with a carry piece or pocket gun. The first day I had my Kel-Tec P-32, I took a pot shot at a big crow and by some miracle, I hit it. It flew about 10-15 yeards and folded up.

I saw a coyote the other day on the side the road and was thinking about taking a shot at it (but I figured the coppers wouldn't care too much for shooting from a moving vehicle). Have any of you ever popped a critter with something as unlikely as my "elephant gun"? :-)



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Glock 19
S&W 629 Classic
KelTec P32

"Oh yeah? Well I talk LOOOUDLY! And I carry a BIIIGGER stick! And I'll use it, too." -Yoesemite Sam
 
I once saw my father-in-law take a beaver with his Colt Combat Commander .45 at 30 yards. Rolled into a ball and assumed room temperature.
 
Yes, I popped a "Wascally Wabbit" in a friend's garden earlier this summer with my Taurus TP-22.

Little bugger was so cheeky, and so intent on eating the kale, that he let me get within about 15 feet of him.

Pity it was in the middle of the summer, or I would have eaten him.

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Beware the man with the S&W .357 Mag.
Chances are he knows how to use it.
 
Hello all. I've done quite a bit of hunting critters with handguns, killing foxes, rabbits, raccoons, coyotes, deer, etc, but with my pocket pistol (airweight J-frame), I did shoot a pesky armadillo that had been tearing up the firing range. Best.
 
Al,

My parents' home backs up to a fairly large lake in South Carolina. About five years ago, I shot a large (4 - 5 foot) water moccasin in their back yard with my old Colt 1911A1 .45. Lucky shot: one round and the cottonmouth's head was entirely gone.
 
Several years ago, with both my boys in the car and who are both excellent shots... we had a ground hog sit up in the side yard of the house WHILE we were shooting. (They had gone to the car while I was cleaning up our stuff in the side yard and putting it back in the back of the Suburban.)

I was using my TPH .22 at the time loaded with Stingers. I took careful aim and popped it in the head. We saw the big splatter and he rolled to the ground instantly.

We went over to get him, paced at 90 long paces; about 85 yards and he was not there but there was fresh bone and bloody meat in a little spray pattern and some blood on the ground where he crawled back in his hole.

We shot our little TPHs at long distance almost daily but this was an IMPROBABLE hit accented by the added improbability that the ground hog, hit in the head, had crawed off.

About a week or two later a ground hog was up by the house and I shot it at about 20 yards with the same pistol and round. It went straight down. I went over to it and found that it had a hole about 2 inches around blown out of it's jaw and another fresh hole about an inch in diameter coming out of it's neck, at the base of the skull. The first shot had, upon further examination, taken out several teeth on the entry side and much of the jaw and jaw hinge joint on the exit side -- which was healing.

The little TPH has also taken down a LOT of feral dogs and cats over the years. But, in one case I tracked a feral cat of about 12 pounds for about 1000 yards where I found it with a silver dollar size hole in the exit side of the head!!!!

Most of the feral critters went down instantly or fast with head shots from the little TPH. They are VERY accurate little pistols with daily practice and the ammo they like.

I have now switched to Quick-Shock from Stingers as Q-S is faster and the three piece frangible bullet has remarkable results.

My son took out a fox with a Quick-Shock from his Trail Side a few months ago at about 80 to 90 yards with a body shot. The fox was already running and thus pumping adrenaline; it rolled and died as it fell.

My brother shot a fox about 2 years ago with his H&K .45 at about 45 yards with a +P HP three times and each time he thought he missed as the fox seemed calm about being shot at. He walked over to a fence post for a steady rest to try again thinking he was missing so far as to see no bullet marks in the dirt -- as he did the fox SAT DOWN... and then laid down. He thought maybe the fox was just bored with being shot at but walked over to it anyway. It was almost dead but still breathing. He put another +P HP in it's head and it died. None of the bullets exited and he had it mounted.

The taxidermist said each of the first three .45 shots should have killed it instantly as they were all near the heart and in the upper body cavity.

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Talk is cheap; Free Speech is NOT.



[This message has been edited by Jody Hudson (edited August 14, 2000).]
 
Al, great topic,I just came on to ask the same question, I am having a problem with a large coyote, it is the largest I have ever seen, about the size of a german sheppard,looks to be upwards of 60lbs. tried to tear through the folks that live next doors bedroom window 2 nights ago going after a cat ,local PD told them they could do nothing to just yell at him and he'l leave. ,last night at 7pm,still very much daylight he was back and went after my cocker and then spent the next 3 hours walking up and down the street and circling house next door and across the street ,I was waiting for him to come back to my yard and I was going to take him out with my 45, my question is when i can get a safe shot,do i make it a head shot or shoot for the middle of its chest? I am very concerned about this animal and the safty of my small chidren.
 
Lot of small game with .22 pistols and revolvers. Much of it with either a Beretta Model 70s .22 or a S&W 2 inch RB Model 34. Don't do that any more since my eyes got old.

Have only taken armadillos with a more serious carry gun (Officers Model- loaded with 200 grain Speer HPs over 8.5 of Blue Dot. Very messy.)


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Jim Fox
 
Pocketman,

I am NOT an expert, however, I suggest you go for a body/high torso shot. A .45 ACP round (let's presume 230 grain FMJ) has plenty of power to kill a 60-pound coyote, if it is hit in the body. Obviously, a headshot would provide an instant kill, but it is much more difficult. Therefore, I would go for the high probability-of-kill, and that is the body-shot.
 
i used a Dryse 1908 Shemmeria in .32 ACP that was loaded with Glasier safety slugs to put down a deer that had been hit by a car. i wanted the head shot but he was in good shape from the pelvis forward amd was flailing around with his front hoofs pretty good. rather than risk a miss (Glaisers are expensive) i shot him twice in the lungs. i was given the deer to take home and when i cleaned him for the freezer he had two cone shaped areas of damage in his thoracic cavity that started about the size of .38 bullet hole and spread out to the size of small flower pot. time form shot to when he lost awareness was a distirbing 3.5 minutes. if he had been a B.G. i think he would have spent the time shooting back at me. the .32 was retired to the safe that afternoon and i went shopping for .40 cal.

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Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what is for lunch.
Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the outcome of the vote.
Let he that hath no sword sell his garment and buy one. Luke 22-36
They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night. Song of Solomon 3-8
The man that can keep his head and aims carefully when the situation has gone bad and lead is flying usually wins the fight.
 
A few years ago, I almost stepped on a huge copperhead coiled up in my dad's driveway. I ran in the house and grabbed the only gun that was handy - a S&W 28-2 with full-house .357 mag hollowpoint loads. I took the snake's head off and left a crater about a foot across in dad's driveway (no, I wasn't standing very close when I shot at it). Not the weapon of choice for that task, but it sufficed. I'm sorry, I just don't like snakes. I like them even less when they're around the house.

The snakes made me think of a little story a friend of mine just told me. . . He said his dad was a man of few words, and the old man didn't mess around in dealing with people - just got right to the point. He didn't like snakes either. One day my friend's cousin came up on their porch with a big black snake coiled around his neck, holding it's head captured between his thumb and forefinger, and sat down next to my friend's dad. The cousin then began to torment the dad with the snake, darting its head at the dad's arms. The old man didn't flinch or say a word, but after a few minutes of this he got up and went inside the house. A few seconds later, he came out with a 12 gauge shotgun. The cousin said, "Hey, don't be shootin' my snake." The dad then spoke the first words he had said since the cousin showed up: "I didn't bring the shotgun out to shoot the snake." The cousin decided it was time to get in his truck and leave. :)

-10CFR
 
With respect to shooting a fairly large animal (like a coyote) with a 32 caliber pocket gun, I am reminded of Col. Cooper's comment that we owe a game animal a clean efficent death (not so necessarily for 2 legged miscreants). Although the coyote chasing your dog may (for this purpose) qualify as a game animal, one you happen to see on the side of road probably does not. So, I wouldn't shoot one with an underpowered round or at an inappropriate distance.

Hickman
 
From about 5 yards with a .25 Raven I killed a neighbors' full-size cat (which was killing birds at my feeders). This was in town! Nobody noticed! Happened to have a 12' x 12" block of wood behind the cat as a backstop (the cat crouched beside the block looking at me and then at the birds - he hesitated too long). I threw the cat in a bag and recycled it in the woods out of town.
 
Ok come on Hickman. The deer had a crushed rearend. Are you saying that it would have been better for him to leave it to die slowly than shoot it with what he had, a .32 cal? If so then you're just wrong. If I misread you, then please fill me in on what you meant.
 
KilgorII, I was not referring to Riddleofsteel's injured deer post. I would have done the same thing under those circumstances. I was referring to taking a random pot shot at an animal on the hoof with a marginal gun or from a distance that didn't guarantee a good clean kill. I hope that this clears it up.

Hickman
 
Wounded jack rabbit w/ a Glock 26. Little brother had grazed his spine with an SKS at about 60 yards.

I kill rabbits weekly w/ a SW63. I've put a couple of .22s in coyotes too without killing them immediately. I don't abide by the PETA philosophy like so many others do with vermin. Sometimes I won't even double step on a wounded cockroach :p .
 
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