raccoon problem

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?
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I'm saying that before someone walks out his back door with an unpatterned shotgun and STEEL shot and starts banging away at a raccoon that may be anywhere from the size of a basket ball to bigger than a wheelbarrow, That person should:

1. verify that he can hit a raccoon in the dark with a shotgun with bead sight, right square in the vitals.

2. Get a load that isn't STEEL BB, because nothing you say will change the fact that a load of steel bb is going to have to put a lot of pellets on target before it will kill a coon at that distance.

A goose hunter I've talked with has told me that they get about 3 inches of penetration. That will not normally give a clean kill on a big critter, especially if the thing is barely hit with the edge of the 30 inch circle, as its running away and the guy with the shotgun fires a round at a running target in the dark.

If letting a badly wounded critter go off and bleed to death is acceptable, use anything. bricks work real well.

If this is something that the OP isn't comfortable with, he needs to use another weapon.

and just to clarify things, are you stating as a fact that you have shot and killed raccoons at 50 yards with an 870 twelve gauge with steel shot loads, or was that just meant as some sort of vague cheap shot at my hunting skills?:confused:
 
While we're at it, lets check your facts and do the math that you didn't do.

I have a raccoon skull sitting on my desk right by my mouse. It's smaller than an avocado. 50 pellets into a 30 inch circle? statistically, that puts one pellet into every 15 square inches inside that 30 inch circle. The thing has a brain the size of a ping pong ball. Only with absolutely blind luck will a pellet hit that brain, or sever the spinal cord.

Let's give a real generous measurement of about 9 inches in diameter for the lethal "kill zone" for a racccon; a zone that will allow a shot to maybe punch a hole in heart or lungs, sever arteries, cut the spine, etc. How many will hit that pie plate?

FOUR. Maybe. If the critter isn't dead center inside that circle, in the densest pattern area, and he is marginally hit by the less dense pattern edge, those 4 pellets are going to be cut to about 2 or 3.

There are the facts as you just posted them. There you have it. long range shotgun with a steel shot goose load isn't even a remotely certain way to stop a raccoon, especially when you add nighttime, steel shot, possible cover, or any of dozens of other variables that may wind up interfering with the shot.

as the original poster presented it, this is a bad way to engage in varmint control unless your actual goal is just to cause unnecessary pain to animals.

Only one person suggested the best possible method.

Get a live trap. Trap the thing. Duct tape a piece of hose to the tail pipe of a car, drape a tarp or trash bag over the cage, and gas it. Dead as a rock, no fuss.

but, obviously, he never asked whether it was a good idea to use a live trap. he wants to shoot the critter with either a .22 or a shotgun. My advice is neither, unless the thing is close enough to ensure an accurate hit, and a clean kill.
 
Lead BB's in 12 ga are most effective. 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.
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You need to bypass waterfowl loads and look for turkey loads. You can get 3 inch magnum 12 gauge lead BB in turkey hunting rounds. There are also some companies who create tungsten and tungsten composite shells.

The turkey loads will have special wads to hold the charge together to a long distance.
 
You need to bypass waterfowl loads and look for turkey loads. You can get 3 inch magnum 12 gauge lead BB in turkey hunting rounds. There are also some companies who create tungsten and tungsten composite shells.

The turkey loads will have special wads to hold the charge together to a long distance.
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I do use turkey loads for turkey and HD/SD. I also have two shotguns with hi viz rifle sights and one with a scope for that duty and if I can't see my target I;m not shooting. I'm just pointing out that while not the best choice it is a lethal choice for a raccoon.

Don't think there will be many 35 yard shots at them at night anyway, they are pretty hard to see after 10 yards if you don't have them lit up with a decent light. The two I took were both at the end of my porch at 8 yards with #4 shot by Fiocchi for turkey's. No complaints from the coons and no repeat visitors, apparently they were the only ones raiding my birdseed which was locked in a 35 gallon barrel.
 
The only raccoon I ever shot, living in a suburban area, was in a black oubliette behind my home. It is about 6 feet wide, and trappbed between 2 multistory mansions, privacy fence, and under 50-150 year old forest canopy. At night you can't even see the ground. I had my 9mm, and a dead flashlight. I could barely see the coon, and couldn't even remotely see my sights, and fired one handed hoping to get the thing. then the light died completely.

The blood trail showed that I got it, but it was obviously rather marginal. I went back to grab my .22 rifle and a new light, hoping to finish it, but it was on the way down the street. made me really unhapy for it to get away wounded.

I don't live trap vermin much anymore. For a while, I was killing the neighborhood squirrels up to a dozen or more a week. Finally, I decided to take a stab at relocating. I trapped several, painted their tails fluorescent orange, and dumped them in a park. Twice, those things took off running, and were hit by traffic. I decided that killing them was the answer.

I tried real hard to be humane; I did what I could to make sure that the squirrels I harvested fed the homeless. Crows, feral cats, and dogs gotta eat too. So, every time I had one, I'd toss it on the windshield over the wipers. One on each blade, before I would leave home. then, whenever I had an opportunity, I'd hit the wipers and toss my donation to the homeless animals across the street.

Granted, sometimes some fool in another car would push my patience a little to far and I'd donate fresh meat to him instead.
 
turkey loads at inside the home ranges are an excellent compromise for home defense. It will be unbelievably lethal at in the home distances, but beyond 50-60 feet the risk of death or lethal injury to bystanders far lower than a pistol or rifle round through a wall or door, the risk is even lower, and out past 100 feet or so, I think you could almost say that there is no risk of fatality to bystanders.

You can't really say that about any other deadly weapon. A shotgun slug, large bore pistol or rifle round, or even OO buck could travel a dozen blocks and still cause a lethal wound, and that is my second biggest concern in shooting.

Wounded animals is number one, number two is stray bullets capable of seriously injuring bystanders or property.
 
I have to chime in here... I've killed so many raccoons I got sick of it.
.22 rifle is not the right tool for a raccoon on the move. Takes several hits to stop them.

The best thing I found was using my 30-30 with half jacket plinker bullets and 17 grains or so of dupont sr4759. This bullet seems to come apart on impact and makes a large entrance wound. Nocks 'em dead.

If you already reload and happen to have a 30-30 this is a cost effective raccoon terminator.
 
I never found the hornady half jackets to be terribly accurate, but I'm sure that you aren't talking about 100 yard shots, are you? Did you use the hornady or speer?

Way back before I was born, people used to load bullets from the 30 mauser as little critter loads in large case .308 bore rifles like you're talking about.
 
I use the speer 100 grain plinkers. My 30-30 is a marlin. It has a williams peep sight rather than a scope so I never really tested for accuracy...so to speak. But I wouldn't want to be the vermin that came within 50 yards. I have also killed a couple ground hogs with the same load. I shot at paper free hand and resting on a rolled hay bale to see if my peep site was on at probably around 40 yards and it seemed to shoot them consistently to point of aim.

...however, like the original poster, I too have a fascination for the shotgun. It probably comes from my recollection of the model 12 leaning against the wall at the front door of my granddad's farmhouse. I have that model 12 now and I'm always wondering what it has done in it's past. Last thing I used it for a few months ago was killing starlings. It's an improved cylinder so it wouldn't be the best for slaying raccoons. But if i was being pestered by raccoons and I was free to blast away with anything I had and didn't have to be concerned with collateral damage probably I'd grab my Remington 870 police with the 26 inch barrel I bought for it with it's full choke tube. :)
 
You shouldn't even try to kill a squirrel with a .177 pellet rifle.
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I beg to differ... My 1,000fps Gamo will easily drop a squirrel out to 70 yards if I do my part... 50 yards??? Easy as pie!!!

I can brain or pump house kill a coon with same rifle at 40 yards.

11 grain pellets...

Brent
 
Federal Flite Control loads are available in big birdshot versions as well as the better known buckshot loads. Try the "Prarie Storm" loads, I think those are the ones. If you're limited to an open choke short barrel those should be the load of choice. The pattern is independant of the choke and it will keep more pellets on target to maximize effectiveness.

I use a live trap and an old .22 rifle. A CCI Segmented HP works fine and if you hold the barrel against the critter it becomes a suppressor.
 
I beg to differ... My 1,000fps Gamo will easily drop a squirrel out to 70 yards if I do my part... 50 yards??? Easy as pie!!!

I can brain or pump house kill a coon with same rifle at 40 yards.

11 grain pellets...

Brent
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Maybe when my Gamo was brand new but 25 yards is best I can do on a squirrel size target using heavy match pellets. 50 yards and anything smaller than a rabbit would be pretty safe and I wouldn't shoot at a rabbit more than 50' away. You must have a pretty good gun.
 
my 1,000 fps air rifles allowed chest hit squirrels to run time after time.

You are just another of the hundreds of thousands of people who believe in using the weakest possible weapon to accomplish your goal. You could easily upgrade to a 22 or other caliber, but you choose to use a .177.

You couldn't humanely kill a raccoon with a heart shot with something like that in a million years.

Forgive me for my cold disrespect for everything you had to say here. shooting something the size of a dog with a .177 pellet and promise a humane kill is ridiculous. hitting even an average raccoon, you have 5 inches of meat and fat to go through before reaching the heart on the offside, leaving a wound that a knitting needle could match.

But then, maybe you're chuck norris. Please don't kill me if you are.
 
Briandg,

Thank you for advice on the lead BB 12 ga loads. I am not a turkey hunter so did not know they were used for that. I am glad to hear it though. Thanks!

All you guys, plese do not confuse a 12 ga 1 1/4 oz load of BB's to an air rifle!

The 12 ga with BB's will completely clear out everything, and I mean eery little thing, between the ears of a small ruminant from Mule Deer to goat within 30 feet.

Smaller shot stays inside the calverium (brain pan) and does not exit. The BB's exit and take everything else with it. Its pretty messy.

They are exiting after 5-6 inches penetration as measured on euthanized or butchered animals.

They drop coons from any angle.

I have to shoot coons 2-3 times even when aiming for the head w a sub-sonic22 LR.

I patterned my 12 ga at ten, 20 and 30 feet to determine my effective range for explosive wounds.

Be careful when using them however as they ricochet much like buckshot. Ive dented some of my water troughs with stray pellets which was never a problem w #6 shot.
 
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I'd say that a 12 gauge load of 6's should do just fine. My wife's yard corn feeder (for deer) is too far for me to use a shotgun, and the darn coons will eat all the corn if you let them, so I use my 223 with a Primos game light. Works fine, but I have learned to make sure that the coons aren't in front of the feeder body. I've had to patch it a couple of times. Up a bit closer, say 40 yards, and my 22 works just fine on them.
 
I've had a lot of experience with Semi-urbanized Raccoons as well as what I guess I'll call woods raccoons. Woods raccoons are irritating thieves that can be a problem when cornered a .22 is fine for these no biggie. An urbanized raccoon is almost a different species. Bigger, yes 45 or 50 lbs. Aggressive, they will kill your pets, I've unfortunately had to watch, not my pet thank the good lord. They have no perceptible fear of humans, a little wariness at most. I can understand how he feels about this 'coon I'd feel the same way and have no faith that it would run away rather than attack if wounded. I would reach for my BPS rather than anything else under these circumstances and would keep putting rounds on the target until it was motionless.
I get along with wild animals fairly well I'm not a shoot on sight sort of guy. By contrast I feel rattlesnakes are calm creatures that will ask you politely to go away almost always before acting in any harmful manner.
 
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BTW yes I knew that this thread was old when I posted to it. The addition was for anyone looking for help with these critters, so that they would understand what they are dealing with. Good luck if you are that person and feel free to contact me if you have questions.
 
Back in the late
80's we had a Rabies scare
where I lived.
At the time my girls were small.
I killed every raccoon that came to the
garbage buckets (I regret it now).
I used an old Marlin 80g and CCI stingers.
Not once did I have to shoot twice.
I shot many, many raccons, some big
ole mamas too.
 
I'm constantly amazed at what a .22 rimfire will do! A little time, good shot placement=dead animal. I carried around a single six out in the scrubland of
Colorado and never felt undergunned with it. A .22 mag with the 7 1/2" barrel was a surprisingly capable round. Even with possibility of a cougar attack I knew I could pull off a head shot. I was that familiar with my weapon and that aware of my surroundings. The question in this case carried with it the possibility of having to stop an aggressive animal maybe already engaged with my dog. I'm going to have to stop the animal as quickly as possible under tricky circumstances. All that being said I'm not sure that I would pick up any old shotgun to do this. My bps is backbored at the forcing cone and there is a fair amount of drop at the comb on the stock those two things together practically cancel out ANY muzzle rise. You pull the trigger, it thumps your shoulder, but does not come off of the target. Full choke for a nice tight pattern and wherever I have to hit the animal it is disabled, can't get away, cant attack. Very good point though I think you and I probably see this pretty closely to the same way.
 
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