Raccoon Problems

[dreamweaver]

theyre really cute little buggers when theyre young. this little fella and two of his siblings were orphaned when i took mamma out with a .45 (hey, it's what i had on me at the time!). i didn't know she had youngins'. anyway, found three of them swimming in the horse water trough. they were pretty tired and were easy to grab by the neck. took 'em 3 miles out and let 'em go in "the country". haven't seen 'em since. trap 'em and call your local game warden for relocation.
if you must shoot them, and theyre full grown, please use more than a .22lr. the big ones die slow with a 22, unless you get a head shot.
just my 2c

 

[shortwave]

Leave the food, kill the coons more will come.

At any rate, catch em in a live trap. Carry trap to yard and shoot them in the head with the 22 while they`re still in cage.

I live in the middle of the woods and between dog and I we probably kill 20-30 coons a summer when the gardens growing. I set four live traps baited with something sweet(they can`t resist donuts) every night.

P.S. To keep donut bait cost down, be-friend a cop and get his leftovers.

 

[2rugers]

Take a small drill bit to the hollowpoint of that 36 gr. and open it waaay up.

Shoot that sucker once through the chest and it's a done deal with less chance of a richochet.

Also may look into the Aguila Quik-Shot ammo.

 

[fastforty]

Feed the cat during the day, take up food at night. Hmmmm, cat will still smell like cat food, might become raccoon dinner. Use the trap. If you can't make the coons someone else's problem (relocate far away), dispatch with no less then .22LR (do NOT start shooting it with .22 bird shot, you'll be sorry for going down that road): Bad Ratshot Experience Here

 

[SwampYankee]

Set a Havahart trap on the porch, and put the cat food inside of it.

And take the cat in the house.

Next morning, shoot the 'coon between the eyes with a CCI CB short from yor choice of .22 LR, and drop the 'coon in a trash bag for disposal.

Worked for me.

We still leave the food on the porch and since I dispatched the pack of raccoons living across the street 3 years ago, we have seen no more. Although now there is a possum living under the porch who shares the dinner bowl with the cat. I was surprised when the raccoons stop coming but it may also have to go with the fisher cats living in the swamp 1000 feet down the hill. I haven't seen a squirrel or a woodchuck in 3 years either....

 

[waterfowler]

Pitchforks work just fine. i would not advise shooting on a concrete porch. It is a good way to put your eye out.

 

[Art Eatman]

I used to keep a five-gallon bucket with hen-scratch on the front porch, scattering a small coffee can's worth for the quail, doves, rock squirrels and antelope squirrels. The raccoons wandered up from down at the creek and found the bucket.

Okay, so a steel plate on top of the lid, and an old mercury flask on top of that. A screw-in hook on the wall to hold the bail of the bucket. 3AM: Clank! Yup, Rakkity Coon. So, I wandered out and threw a squalling fit and that kept him gone for several days.

Drove home one night, and there, sticking up out of the bucket was the back half of Mr. Coon. He sat back, looked at us in great indignation for disturbing him, and then went back to his supper.

Okay, so fun and games is fun and games, but the bucket now lives inside.

Fast forward: Those plastic buckets make great mouse traps; with grain in the bottom they jump in--but the sides are too slick for them to get out. Once again with a screw-in hook, and the bucket then a couple of feet off the back porch deck.

Noises. A peek out the window shows Mr. and Mrs. Rakkity and the three coon kids. I set up for fun and games. One of the young ones gets nose-down in the bucket. I sneak out onto the porch, and the other four waddle away.

When a 3/4-grown coon is nose-down in a bucket, and you slap him on the rump and scream very loudly, he attempts vertical levitation by paw-stand. Doesn't work worth a hoot. He at least got turned around in time to get slapped on the nose. I backed away and let him practice being elsewhere at a high rate of speed.

Raccoons are fun. Hours of entertainment!

 

[2rugers]

Pig feeder, not baby Coon buffet.

Indignation is written all over this ones little snarly face.

 

[Old Grump]

To many people here want to shoot into a bunch of concrete. What is the matter with you?

 

[Spammy_H]

I want to clarify something - I wouldn't be shooting into concrete. My front porch is concrete. I don't want to use so much firepower that I end up with a 'coon bomb exploding all over my front, but not so little as to not do the job.

 

[L_Killkenny]

Too all the above: If a coon is on your concrete front porch and you hit that concrete while shooting at Mr. Coon............ you need your guns taken away. That's some bad shooting right there.

LK

 

[Art Eatman]

Aw, now, Kilkenny, you don't know what's beyond that porch. He does.

Were my front porch concrete, a ricochet would have to travel for miles in order to find some dwelling.

There's no law against a rural fella having a concrete porch.

 

[earlthegoat2]

Bring the cat inside.

Poison the food with rat poison.

Let raccoons munch away for a few weeks.

Put some meat or something yummy smelling out to attract more.

Rinse repeat.

Understand that collateral damage will occur such as killing other cats and maybe dogs too.

 

[hogdogs]

That collateral damage of bait is multi tier as well and IMHO not worth the risks. One dead rat from poison can kill 2-4 more animals down the line.
Brent

 

[shortwave]

No since in getting blood on front porch. Live trap the coon and carry trap/coon to the yard. One head shot with 22 leave`s a dead coon with very little blood. Carry trap/coon to where your going to dispose of coon. Dump coon. Reset trap. Repeat as needed.

 

[ohioup]

+1 on what shortwave said.

 

[TheNatureBoy]

Why kill the raccoon? Bring the cat and the food inside and they will go away. They are interested in the food, not the cat. My neighbor had a small but very productive apple tree in his front yard. Raccoons used to hang around the tree every day around dusk. When he cut the tree down the coons moved on. Haven't seen them since.

 

[Shotgun Don]

IMO the best thing to do is find a solution that lets all of ya live in peace. I deff would`nt go bouncing rounds of the concrete lol. Remember....raccons are just trying eat and live. Now if there tearing up the house then i would trap em and carry em off

 

[BIGR]

Does this bring back any memories?..... I have had about the same problem for years. What got it statrted was this big time coon hunter use to feed the coons across the creek from our house. My wife feeds some cats on the porch and the coons loves the meow mix. Once they discovered the cat food it was all over with. I have seen them come up on the porch and stand up looking in the storm door before. Our cats do not pay any attention to the coons and the coons have never bothered the cats. The raccons had several litters of little ones and the gang kept growing. Wife thought they were cute and wood feed them near the shrubs out from the house. The most at one time that I counted was 24 of them. I really didn't want to just shoot them and wanted to relocate them. I could probably have taken about 4 or 5 out with one shotgun blast, but you know that was out of the question. Back in the fall I got this coon hunter to bring his live traps and he has caught all but 4 of them. He did relocate them on his place. He puts peanut butter on the inside of the trap to attract them inside. Cats have not got caught yet but those opposums like to get the peanut butter. Believe it or not 5 or 6 of those coons have busted out of the live traps. One boar coon probably weighed 25 pounds I bet. I am hoping when the weather gets better the trapper can come get the rest of them.

 

[specs]

I use the Havahart trap all of the time and it works great for coons and possums until it catches a SKUNK. Just try to get that off of your porch. Whatever you do, put a long line on the trap so you can drag it away. I have caught skunks up by the house a few times and it is never fun.

BTW, when I lived in town and had critter problems I used a live trap and dispatched the critters with a Benjamiin 22 pellet rifle, and sometime a 177 pistol. When they are in the trap yopu can't miss. In one summer I caught and killed 38 squirrels in a suburban neighborhood. We were overrun with them.