ShadowsPapa
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Bill
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2019
- Threads
- 247
- Messages
- 40,445
- Reaction score
- 53,876
- Location
- Runnells, Iowa
- Vehicle(s)
- '25 JTMX, '23 JLU 4xe, '82 SX4, '73 Javelin
- Occupation
- Retired auto mechanic, frmr gov't ntwrk security admin
- Vehicle Showcase
- 3
- Thread starter
- #1
We live in a rural area, but it's still zoned "residential", even though I'm surrounded by farms (mostly, anyway)
We have just one close neighbor, about 100 yards away.
Deer run and play in our yard, birds of every type come to feed, name a critter in the midwest and it's likely paid us a visit. We once even saw what my son and I swear was a bobcat (not the skid steer loader type).
But as the TV commercials might say - we have a coon problem. They've started visiting in the mid to later afternoon, before the sun is even low. They are tearing things up, ripping up young trees, crapping all over, even up next to the lower level windows we like to open for a cool spring breeze -only to smell the stench of coon poop. It's got my neighbor concerned that they are actually coming up to the house before 4 pm.
I've had to fill holes in the yard, redo landscaping where they have ripped the rocks out and dug through the landscape fabric,
They have hearing like a hawk - I used to see them just a few feet south of the house, come to the house, I'd sneak out the north door, being very quiet, but by the time I got around the house, they had heard me and were running off - until an hour or so later.
So I got the idea of leaving a couple of screens off the sun room, and when they come close, quietly open a window and gun barrel out the window, take my shot. Still didn't kill them but man, did they look surprised, confused, then took off like a rocket. So that isn't working well with this cheaper pellet gun.
In the past I've trapped them, then used my cheap pellet gun to kill them. However, killing a raccoon with a pellet gun, at least mine, isn't easy, and I prefer single shot kills.
And they are often too smart for traps, and get the food out or somehow escape if they do trip the trap. I have about 6 or 7 misses for every success, and they rip live traps to shreds! I mean they are STRONG.
I was looking into a more powerful pellet gun- air rifle. Not cheap, I was talking to my neighbor about my looking into a pellet gun that could kill critters like raccoons, and he suggested a 22 - rifle.
I started looking that direction, the costs aren't that far apart - pellet gun (air rifle) that can kill a raccoon, would be quiet, could be shot from inside our sun room and so on......
or a 22 rifle. That would be similar in cost, but a ton louder, likely not at all smart to aim out the window of a sun room to kill a raccoon coming up to the house.
My experience with rifles and shotguns is decades old. My parents insisted if I was to go hunting or even target practice with friends on their farms where we could openly shoot, I had to go to all the classes for safety and so on. That was over 40 years ago. I'm still a very good shot with a pellet gun or rifle, but haven't owned a gun for decades, and last shot in my late teens, other than my pellet guns for varmints.
Today as I was cleaning up the poo and fixing landscaping - again - up by the house and the windows to her sewing room, she said "why don't you go get a gun, and start trapping them, then kill and bury them like you used to - but get something that will kill with one shot"
So - looking for suggestions or ideas.
Trapping kind of works sometimes, at least then the next morning they can't run and I can deal with them..... would be nice to shoot right out the window of the sun room - but a 22 would negate that. I can't imagine that sound in a 12x14 room!
Last time they visited, a couple of evenings ago, there were 3 of them coming right up to the house, and I found a big hole next to a tree - they dug up the fertilizer spikes I'd driven into the ground.
We have just one close neighbor, about 100 yards away.
Deer run and play in our yard, birds of every type come to feed, name a critter in the midwest and it's likely paid us a visit. We once even saw what my son and I swear was a bobcat (not the skid steer loader type).
But as the TV commercials might say - we have a coon problem. They've started visiting in the mid to later afternoon, before the sun is even low. They are tearing things up, ripping up young trees, crapping all over, even up next to the lower level windows we like to open for a cool spring breeze -only to smell the stench of coon poop. It's got my neighbor concerned that they are actually coming up to the house before 4 pm.
I've had to fill holes in the yard, redo landscaping where they have ripped the rocks out and dug through the landscape fabric,
They have hearing like a hawk - I used to see them just a few feet south of the house, come to the house, I'd sneak out the north door, being very quiet, but by the time I got around the house, they had heard me and were running off - until an hour or so later.
So I got the idea of leaving a couple of screens off the sun room, and when they come close, quietly open a window and gun barrel out the window, take my shot. Still didn't kill them but man, did they look surprised, confused, then took off like a rocket. So that isn't working well with this cheaper pellet gun.
In the past I've trapped them, then used my cheap pellet gun to kill them. However, killing a raccoon with a pellet gun, at least mine, isn't easy, and I prefer single shot kills.
And they are often too smart for traps, and get the food out or somehow escape if they do trip the trap. I have about 6 or 7 misses for every success, and they rip live traps to shreds! I mean they are STRONG.
I was looking into a more powerful pellet gun- air rifle. Not cheap, I was talking to my neighbor about my looking into a pellet gun that could kill critters like raccoons, and he suggested a 22 - rifle.
I started looking that direction, the costs aren't that far apart - pellet gun (air rifle) that can kill a raccoon, would be quiet, could be shot from inside our sun room and so on......
or a 22 rifle. That would be similar in cost, but a ton louder, likely not at all smart to aim out the window of a sun room to kill a raccoon coming up to the house.
My experience with rifles and shotguns is decades old. My parents insisted if I was to go hunting or even target practice with friends on their farms where we could openly shoot, I had to go to all the classes for safety and so on. That was over 40 years ago. I'm still a very good shot with a pellet gun or rifle, but haven't owned a gun for decades, and last shot in my late teens, other than my pellet guns for varmints.
Today as I was cleaning up the poo and fixing landscaping - again - up by the house and the windows to her sewing room, she said "why don't you go get a gun, and start trapping them, then kill and bury them like you used to - but get something that will kill with one shot"
So - looking for suggestions or ideas.
Trapping kind of works sometimes, at least then the next morning they can't run and I can deal with them..... would be nice to shoot right out the window of the sun room - but a 22 would negate that. I can't imagine that sound in a 12x14 room!
Last time they visited, a couple of evenings ago, there were 3 of them coming right up to the house, and I found a big hole next to a tree - they dug up the fertilizer spikes I'd driven into the ground.
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