'coon kill zone? Google sucks

[ShadowsPapa]

WARNING - graphic text, talking of killing cute adorable lovable cuddly furry critters



Iv'e done many Google searches, and even tried bing - and all I get are "what's the best air gun", what's the best ammo, how to trap a coon in a live trap, best FPS for killing a coon, can you legally kill a coon and tons of info in air rifle safety and other such things.
I've tried wording the question over a dozen different ways and still get the same stupid "what's the best air rifle" results - wanna throw the computer out the window. I swear Google does that on purpose.

The question is where's the best shot placement for clean kill of raccoon - or various words arranged in various ways.
I'm finding the first result I found months ago is mostly hitting sinus, lots of blood and thrashing of the coon for about 20 seconds. I found some info that suggests the raccoon brain is small and narrow and a frontal shot is mostly bone and sinus and yes results in a lot of bloody and a lot of thrashing (although 1 shot does do it)

So I'm looking for the best placement of a single shot from a .22LR for a clean, humane kill, and minimize the thrashing around (and missing the sinuses so minimizing the blood all over the ground and the traps)
Some say a side shot - ear, for example.

Goal - single shot, .22LR, minimize blood spray and being tossed as the coon thrashes around for several seconds. (can tell they've all but stopped breathing so it must be a slow shutdown of the nervous system)

Setting- raccoon is in a DP leg trap. Can't go far but does keep moving around trying to escape the trape and after seeing this over-weight 200 pound guy coming up at him with a rifle ready to go. They are almost always looking me right in the eye.
I don't usually see profile poses but if that's the best shot it wouldn't be too hard to walk around just outside of the range of the trap's chain and wait for such a shot.

In July alone, I caught 12 of them in our yard. That's not counting the months before before my wife started keeping track because she was amazed at the numbers.
I'm running out of burial places so having to go deeper into the woods to bury them.

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[SREAD]

Put the 22 back in the closet and get out the 12 ga. Aim anywhere near the front half and there won't be any thrashing.

 

[Hootbro]

Going to sound macabre, but growing up, I watched my Grandfather live trap in a standard live trap cage setup and he had built a box enclosure that would go over the trap cage with an outlet and hose hooked up to a vehicle exhaust. About 10 minutes running put them out.

We ran into the same issue that unless you could absolutely hold their head still, getting a good first shot placement with a .22LR was problematic. The vehicle exhaust thing seemed to be the most humane without all the gore, guts and screaming if you did not get a first shot kill.

 

[Terminus33]

Found a couple sources when searching for "raccoon anatomy" came up with this...

Where to shoot a raccoon with a 22
There are two spots to aim for on a raccoon. You can aim for the brain, or you can aim for the upper chest cavity. These are the only two spots worth gunning for. The brain is about the size of a golf ball on a mature raccoon and smaller on a juvenile.

The upper chest cavity, lungs and heart, are about as big as a baseball, maybe a bit bigger. So, where are you going to aim for? You have two spots to choose from. Both fairly small, but one is very small. It may seem easy to choose the larger target, but ironically, most professionals would not.

If you put a bullet in the chest cavity, you have to wait for it to die. Sometimes it can take longer than you’d expect. It takes longer, and we don’t like to see an animal suffering more than necessary. A bullet to the brain is pretty much instant. They fall down right away. That’s what I like.

It you are a good enough shot, or the raccoon is close enough, go for the brain. To shoot the brain, put the bullet directly between the eyes from the front, or just on the back side of the ear canal, from the side. Those are the money shots. They always work.

If you need to take a body shot, you have to now where the lungs are in a coon. They are pretty far forward. a lot of times, people aim for the middle of the animal, which ends up putting a bullet in its gut. It will kill it, but it can take hours. Not cool.

https://guntradition.com/wll-a-22-kill-a-raccoon/

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Put the 22 back in the closet and get out the 12 ga. Aim anywhere near the front half and there won't be any thrashing.

Please be realistic, really. These are trapped in my YARD. Trying to avoid a mess, not make one, and make it easy to dispose of the carcass when dead as well as keeping the traps relatively decent for constant re-use. Don't want to make a mess of the area, mess up the traps with the shot and make it harder to simply release their leg from the trap.

Going to sound macabre, but growing up, I watched my Grandfather live trap in a standard live trap cage setup and he had built a box enclosure that would go over the trap cage with an outlet and hose hooked up to a vehicle exhaust. About 10 minutes running put them out.

We ran into the same issue that unless you could absolutely hold their head still, getting a good first shot placement with a .22LR was problematic. The vehicle exhaust thing seemed to be the most humane without all the gore, guts and screaming if you did not get a first shot kill.

Can't work for a DP trap - those are staked to the ground and not close to a vehicle. No way to move them. Must kill them where caught, release the leg, then dispose of the carcass.

It appears that no matter the shot, the automatic responses on coons is for them to thrash, even when it's a good shot. They just do. Even if I drop one on the first shot (pretty much always at that close range of 3 feet) and I can get a shot into the ear area, they'll thrash until they stop. The problem is that they sit and stare at you and the largest target is mostly sinuses. I've been trying to get them to put their head down a bit. If I walk around they turn to face me and don't take eyes off of me.

It you are a good enough shot, or the raccoon is close enough, go for the brain. To shoot the brain, put the bullet directly between the eyes from the front, or just on the back side of the ear canal, from the side. Those are the money shots. They always work.

My goal has been to target between the eyes, maybe up a tad since their brain seems to be longer than wide.
It seems, after killing what I believe is around 20 so far this year, is that no matter how good the shot, that automatic thrashing response is there even when you don't see them breathing. Guess that's just how they are. if I feel they aren't REALLY dead, I get a shot in from the side behind the ear once they drop. (with that thrashing it's not easy but by then I can get within a couple of inches.)
4 just in the last week.

 

[Hootbro]

No disrespect intended, but you have a habit of asking for advice for alternate solutions to things but then poo poo them if they do not already fit into your narrow current situation rather than you change to a different method.

I do not think there is a free lunch here to avoid the carnage staying with what you got.

 

[Killroy Was Here]

Could always step it up a notch @ go with a 9mm 124 grain Speer Gold Dot, or Federal HST hollow point.

 

[SREAD]

I'm being 100 % realistic. It is much safer to shoot a shotgun in the yard than a rifle. As long as you use something less than buckshot and are standing 20 to 25 ft away or so there will be no mess to clean up and he will be dispatched instantly.
Now, you mentioned not wanting to mess up your trap and I have no idea what a DP trap is but it sounds like he is not inside a cage type enclosure so am not sure what the problem is.

 

[Terminus33]

There were a few sources that also said to use 22mag hollow points. What about a neck shot to sever the spine? Might prevent the thrashing.

 

[LouisvEarlleJT]

A close range shot with bird-shot would take care of it with little to no mess.

I don’t understand the focus on humane though while using a leg trap vs a cage trap.

If you want to go clean then you need to swap to a cage and hold onto it until local animal control can come and dispose.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

No disrespect intended, but you have a habit of asking for advice for alternate solutions to things but then poo poo them if they do not already fit into your narrow current situation rather than you change to a different method.

I do not think there is a free lunch here to avoid the carnage staying with what you got.

Yeah, but a 12 gauge?

As far as exhaust- I maybe didn't specify that the coons are in leg traps, DP types, so not exactly inn a cage or closed area you could use exhaust in. If it was a "live trap" like the HaveAHart or whatever they are called - I'd drag the critter in behind my 73 and start it and it wouldn't take long at all just draping a tarp over the trap at the end of the tail pipe (but then I stopped using those because the coons will shred those in an hour or two)

And no disrespected intended going back - but the question was about kill zone, where to plug 'em so I could easily plant 'em.
I had to figure out after several kills that it doesn't seem to matter where you hit then with a bullet, they thrash around. I suppose it's that old "chicken with its head cut off" bit - and no one mentioned that they do that.

A close range shot with bird-shot would take care of it with little to no mess.

I don’t understand the focus on humane though while using a leg trap vs a cage trap.

If you want to go clean then you need to swap to a cage and hold onto it until local animal control can come and dispose.

They'd be out here daily during some times of the year, maybe coming after 2 (one day I had 3)
Yeah, already tried the cages - they rip them to shreds. I've got two that are marked clearly for trapping raccoons to "relocate them" and they shred the traps.
The idea was to not have to put 15 pellets into them, but try to do it better with a single shot (2 at most)

I got tired of pumping up the pellet rifle and shot after shot just pissing them off and seeing them spend several minutes surviving a weak pellet shot.

I've learned that a well-placed 22 does it, just ignore the thrashing for a few seconds - it's apparently an autonomic response and nothing you can do about it.

In short, I found my answer, exactly what I was looking for. I've killed them, they just don't know they are dead, as an old-timer might say. They ARE dead, there's no suffering. So I'm fine, found the answer, my shots into the brain (which was supported by Ernie - thanks for the biology info) are killing them. I'm doing it right and they are not suffering.
Below is what I was hoping to find - and I did find it.

There were a few sources that also said to use 22mag hollow points. What about a neck shot to sever the spine? Might prevent the thrashing.

Actually, that's what is causing the thrashing - the brain is dead, it's all coming from the nerves below. Very interesting video that explains everything. Again, I'm doing it right, I'm killing them with 1 shot, the rest of the body loses the control of the brain - which inhibits these motions. With that control gone, things happen.

Here's the answer - this guy gave me exactly what I was looking for (surprised no hunter jumped in with this. Maybe there aren't any hunters here?)

Warning - a few folks might find this a bit disturbing. But it's science.



The bottom line - no worries, this YT video answered my question. I'm getting totally clean kills, there's no suffering, I can keep doing what I'm doing and just know that the thrashing can't really be avoided without a less clean and fast kill.
The first clips they show are exactly what's going on.

 

[Terminus33]

Interesting video, and it does make sense now. Basically where the phrase "running around like a chicken with it's head chopped off" would stem from.

 

[dajudge]

My family had an egg farm (yes, egg farm, we didn't grow chickens, they came to us as adults and ready to lay eggs) We had 78,000 in the barn at once. The coons were a constant problem. We trapped them and then killed them. We used a 22LR and shot them on the top of the head in the center. Usually the dropped immediately, but even with them trapped they sometimes did not die instantly.
These were the type of traps we used:
https://www.homedepot.com/b/Outdoor...Control-Traps/Raccoon/N-5yc1vZ2fkoqfwZ1z1tshc

 

[ShadowsPapa]

My family had an egg farm (yes, egg farm, we didn't grow chickens, they came to us as adults and ready to lay eggs) We had 78,000 in the barn at once. The coons were a constant problem. We trapped them and then killed them. We used a 22LR and shot them on the top of the head in the center. Usually the dropped immediately, but even with them trapped they sometimes did not die instantly.
These were the type of traps we used:
https://www.homedepot.com/b/Outdoor...Control-Traps/Raccoon/N-5yc1vZ2fkoqfwZ1z1tshc

That's the traps they shred and I mean you find pieces and try to put them back together. I've got two - supposedly for raccoons. I've had to make parts for them. They didn't survive a year. Those traps are now sitting on a high shelf.

A cousin who farms and has real serious coon problems (one evening his son came home to find over 30 of them in his yard) put me onto the DP traps. They can't possibly damage those and they are simple to remove from the trap with a large pair of channel lock pliers (what we used to call water pump pliers for obvious reasons)
I'm shocked to have not caught any in the last 3 days but last week it was 4 in quick succession. A couple of them were very large and growly.

When you say "did not die instantly" if you watch the video, I bet they did.

My concern was that somehow I was missing (even though only a small distance away and the shots always right in the top of the head but now I see my concerns were unfounded.
I was killing them first shot. What I saw after that was a nervous system gone crazy because there was no longer any brain control telling things to stay still.

In the end, my concerns were misplaced. These DP traps work and I don't have to worry about catching anything else in them (except a squirrel one time who decided that a marshmallow was far better than a bucket of acorns and walnuts).
Few other animals can reach in and pull up on the ring inside to get the marshmallows under the ring. Few other critters care for marshmallows (other than that really stupid squirrel)

I should give away one of these other Havahart cage/traps. Worthless for the raccoons we have around here. I've even looked out the window to see a large coon in one of them, and by the time I got shoes on to go out and deal with it, it had ripped enough of the trap apart to actually get out. It must be the abundance of food or something - all the corn with that sugar energy? Corn, sunflower seeds, berries, whatever, those suckers are tough, big and strong. If admin allows, I'll try to recall to take my phone out with me in the early AM when I go to check traps to get a pic of one of the larger ones.
They are not being trapped for furs any more so the populations has exploded. And that has also resulted in them living a lot longer and growing a lot larger than they used to be.

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[dajudge]

That's the traps they shred and I mean you find pieces and try to put them back together. I've got two - supposedly for raccoons. I've had to make parts for them. They didn't survive a year. Those traps are now sitting on a high shelf.

A cousin who farms and has real serious coon problems (one evening his son came home to find over 30 of them in his yard) put me onto the DP traps. They can't possibly damage those and they are simple to remove from the trap with a large pair of channel lock pliers (what we used to call water pump pliers for obvious reasons)
I'm shocked to have not caught any in the last 3 days but last week it was 4 in quick succession. A couple of them were very large and growly.

When you say "did not die instantly" if you watch the video, I bet they did.

My concern was that somehow I was missing (even though only a small distance away and the shots always right in the top of the head but now I see my concerns were unfounded.
I was killing them first shot. What I saw after that was a nervous system gone crazy because there was no longer any brain control telling things to stay still.

In the end, my concerns were misplaced. These DP traps work and I don't have to worry about catching anything else in them (except a squirrel one time who decided that a marshmallow was far better than a bucket of acorns and walnuts).
Few other animals can reach in and pull up on the ring inside to get the marshmallows under the ring. Few other critters care for marshmallows (other than that really stupid squirrel)

I should give away one of these other Havahart cage/traps. Worthless for the raccoons we have around here. I've even looked out the window to see a large coon in one of them, and by the time I got shoes on to go out and deal with it, it had ripped enough of the trap apart to actually get out. It must be the abundance of food or something - all the corn with that sugar energy? Corn, sunflower seeds, berries, whatever, those suckers are tough, big and strong. If admin allows, I'll try to recall to take my phone out with me in the early AM when I go to check traps to get a pic of one of the larger ones.
They are not being trapped for furs any more so the populations has exploded. And that has also resulted in them living a lot longer and growing a lot larger than they used to be.

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I'm glad I don't have to deal with the stupid racoons anymore. And I'm really glad now that they are big enough to wreck one of those cages. Although I imagine the ones we had (which were already old then) were much better than the current ones since it was 37 years ago.

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