raccoon problem

Hunted racoons over some good hounds for twenty years. Two ocassions that I can remember distinctly, large racoons were shot, right between the eyes with a .22 LR. distance of 25 - 30 feet up a tree. Racoon looking directly at me, scoped .22 LR. Racoon falls to ground, seemingly graveyard dead, dogs run in to worry the racoon, MIRACLE HAPPENS, racoon comes back to life and gives the hounds a hell of a fight. Lots of screaming and cursing, dogs are pulled away from the racoon, finished off with subsequent shots from .22. Upon skinning them out, both of these animals had the bullets impacted firmly against their skulls, right between the eyes, bullets did not penetrate the skull. Racoons can be tough to kill, watch out for the dead ones. One of these tore a chunk out of one of my hip boots. These were the largest we ever got, 30 & 31 lbs. weighed on an accurate scale. Never did see any of those 40 & 50 pounders that some guys claim.
 
First thing came immediately to mind, where on earth did u find the inspiration to select x3" , steels, BB, shot?!!
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No choke whatsoever, fixed cyl. bore. I wanted some unspeakably mean ammo to give them the quick death that they do indeed deserve as previously mentioned regardless of how much I may or may not dispise them.:)
 
In my experience, it's as easy as 1, 2, 3 - since dog = treed 'coon.

Then:

1) Illuminate the 'coon's eyes with a flashlight

2) Create a 3rd eye, right between the 1st two - with an open-sighted .22.

3) Move quickly out from under falling 'coon. :D

.
 
Racoons can be tough to kill,
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Fer certain, fer sure.
I once cornered one in my chicken house where he had been on a nightly killing spree. I had a flashlight taped to my 12 ga. double shotgun. He was less than 12 feet from me, less from the muzzle. I shot and put a hole right through his body and the wall behind him. I saw the silver dollar sized hole in him. He turned and charged me. I figured I was going to get hurt badly. I didn't shoot because I would have shot my own foot off. He died on my boot.
As for size, a nearby grocery had a picture of a local boy with a racoon he killed they claimed was 60 pounds. It sure looked like it could have weighed that much, huge.
 
Damn, racoons sure have gotten tougher than when I was a kid. I used to just use a .410 with #4 birdshot, or a 22lr and never had any charge me.
 
Instead of fish or cat food, use marshmallows and / or donuts - especially glazed or powdered donuts in the traps to avoid catching cats.

The raccoons love cat food -especially salmon flavored cat food but unfortunately feral cats like it too.
 
Why don't you give it a try and let us know how it works? I don't think it's a completely unreasonable choice. If he gets away, you don't have to dispose of the body :D. I prefer using a 10/22. I also like it when they get away. Not as messy.

And about that dog. In my experience, it is best not to give a dog (even a well trained one) a chance for failure if at all possible. Anyone who has spent enough time around dogs has had a very well trained dog embarrass them. They aren't perfect, just like us. They will give in to temptation, if given the chance, no matter how well you train them. Every time they are rewarded by giving in to temptation (getting a good chase), you have to watch them even closer. Unless you have an E-collar on him and catch him in the act of chasing, your can't really discipline him correctly.
 
Ive shot dozens of racoons. Yes have chickens. Lead BB's in 12 ga are most effective. 22LR OK from both pistol, sub sonic rifle and high vel. But lead 18 caliber BB's are best. Also good for porccipines and skunks. My go to ranch rifle. It is getting harder to find lead BB's since it is a waterfowl load. More effective than two boxes of large steel I tried. More effective even than #4 Buckshot on these fairly small critters. If they are up a tree they hit the ground dead. They run aways with #4 buckshot and need a second shot even though you can see the fur fly.
 
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if you wanna turn the coon into ground beef sure 12gauge will do it within 15 yards. to make a clean kill 1 .22 or 17hmr or .22magnum is more than enough to kill varmits.
 
Would you fire a BB from even the fastest daisy rifle and expect to kill a raccoon? at 35 yards, how many do you actually expect to hit the thing, and what sort of velocity and penetration are you expecting to get?

I'm looking across the street at a fella about 30 yards away. I don't think I'd put a whole lot of pellets through that big old punkin head of his without a dedicated full choke shotgun, and even at that short of a range, I question whether steel shot will have enough velocity to cause lethal wounds in a raccoon with only a few hits. How big is the kill zone on a raccoon? how many pellets will go into it?

Federal is now loading a 3 inch magnum load with lead, 1-1/2 ounce load of bb, made specifically for coyote and varmint, with special tight pattern wads and it may have a tungsten shot.

a regular steel goose load fired in the dark at long range in my opinion is going to do little more than grieviously wound the critter.
 
Would you fire a BB from even the fastest daisy rifle and expect to kill a raccoon? at 35 yards, how many do you actually expect to hit the thing, and what sort of velocity and penetration are you expecting to get?
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Fastest Daisy Daisy would propel a single BB at less than 300 fps unless they have one I don;t know about. Fastest pellet around 750 fps. Comparing a Daisy to a shotgun is not a fair comparison.

2 3/4" shotgun shell, 50 BB's moving out the muzzle between 1250 and 1450 fps depending on your ammo is a far cry from even a pellet rifle let alone a BB gun.
 
a steel BB weighs appr 5 grains. A lead pellet or lead bb shot weighs about 8 grains. you can cook a .177 pellet up to 1k fps, and this is still totally inadequate to drop a 20 or 30 pound coon unless you hit the brain, and the only way you will ever kill it without a brain shot is blowing out an artery or punching into the heart.

You shouldn't even try to kill a squirrel with a .177 pellet rifle.

A load full of steel shot fired at a coon that puts 3 or even 10 BBs under the skin and doesn't hit a vital organ or even puncture a major artery isn't going to do squat.

Shooting the coon without even pattern testing the shotgun, at long range, in the dark, etc, is nothing short of horrendously irresponsible regarding a clean, humane kill.

But, what the heck. some hunters enjoy letting wounded animals crawl off to bleed to death, if nothing else, this thread proves that. I find that to be kinda sick; so do the people of peta, and gee, maybe they have a point when they say that hunting is cruel.:confused:

The point is valid. A 12 gauge with heavy shot, handled properly, can kill larger animals.

A steel shot load has a hard time killing geese, even, and a lousy hit with steel shot isn't going to humanely kill a raccoon reliably.
 
a steel BB weighs appr 5 grains. A lead pellet or lead bb shot weighs about 8 grains. you can cook a .177 pellet up to 1k fps, and this is still totally inadequate to drop a 20 or 30 pound coon unless you hit the brain, and the only way you will ever kill it without a brain shot is blowing out an artery or punching into the heart.

But, what the heck. some hunters enjoy letting wounded animals crawl off to bleed to death, if nothing else, this thread proves that. I find that to be kinda sick; so do the people of peta, and gee, maybe they have a point when they say that hunting is cruel.
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mod choke, 1 3/8 oz. BB shot, 50 yards will average 50 pellets in a 30" circle. If it will take a goose at 45 yards why would it only put 3 pellets in a coon at 35 yards and barely penetrate. Coons are tough but they aren't bullet proof. Are you saying you had a bad experience and cannot hit a coon at 35 yards so the rest of us should not do what we have been doing successfully?
 
While I have used a youth single shot 20 bore, with slugs, as I really like slugs, I personally find my Savage in .17 HMR does a mighty fine job of disposing of racoons, and other critters here on the farm.

No.
I ain't havin' fun, instead this here is serious "property duty bidness".

*wink*
 
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