I need to shoot/kill varmints, critters - seeking advice

[Rusty PW]

You need to up your game. Need to kill them at the edge of the property. Put some bait out there. Sit back and nail them at long range. I use a .338 LM with 300 gr Serria match bullets.

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[ShadowsPapa]

I would love to dispatch the coons I have around the house, but like
ShadowsPapa, I rarely even get the chance to squeeze a shot off. Pretty sure they can hear me pick up the rifle. I have too many beneficial critters around the house to set traps.

I will only ever use live traps if I use a trap. I've had the neighbor's dog get lost and hang out around the outside of the house, (and those neighbors are nice, and so are their dogs, but their dogs are older) among other things I'd just rather not see killed, especially the way some traps work.
I'd rather be able to deal with those that come up from the area of my shop toward the house by opening a window very quietly and being able to take perfect aim when they stop moving, or if in a trap, keep the shots to a minimum - ideally, one.

 

[Dennis K]

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.

My little .22 Short can hardly be heard. It's a good enough round for coons at short range.

 

[IamPro2A]

I will only ever use live traps if I use a trap. I've had the neighbor's dog get lost and hang out around the outside of the house, (and those neighbors are nice, and so are their dogs, but their dogs are older) among other things I'd just rather not see killed, especially the way some traps work.
I'd rather be able to deal with those that come up from the area of my shop toward the house by opening a window very quietly and being able to take perfect aim when they stop moving, or if in a trap, keep the shots to a minimum - ideally, one.

Yeah, I have a few live traps, but the odds of catching a fox, fisher cat, bobcat, porcupine or the occasional barn cat or escaped hound are higher than actually catching a raccoon. I'd rather not deal with releasing any of those when they're pissed off.

 

[IamPro2A]

You need to up your game. Need to kill them at the edge of the property. Put some bait out there. Sit back and nail them at long range. I use a .338 LM with 300 gr Serria match bullets.

I'd rather get them before they come to my town :P

 

[ShadowsPapa]

My little .22 Short can hardly be heard. It's a good enough round for coons at short range.

30 feet or so, maybe 40? They are less than 30 feet away when I open the window to annoy them with my current pellet gun. Most would be 50 feet.

 

[Dennis K]

30 feet or so, maybe 40? They are less than 30 feet away when I open the window to annoy them with my current pellet gun. Most would be 50 feet.

A well placed shot? Sure. I've chipped squirrel at 120+ feet....
Like mentioned before though, a .22 long, sub-sonic probably wouldn't be heard by your 100 yard away neighbor and would give access to hollow point slugs...

 

[kevman65]

Put it in their ear, they aren't walking away.

 

[brianinca]

357 Air Rifle with a suppressor: https://gamousa.com/product/big-bore-tc-35-35-caliber-hunting-rifle/

Appropriate ammo needed, of course:
https://nielsenspecialtyammo.com/products/93-gr-hp-fb-35-cal
https://palmbeachairguns.com/product-category/35-cal-ammo/

I have seen the groups at 50 yards at the club range with these things, I was turned into a true believer. I'm an RSO (all volunteer) so I saw the drop in activity with the recent ammo shortage. The air gun crew came out in force, and the big bore rifles are IMPRESSIVE!

 

[Higher_Ground]

My parents would use a "kid-sized" .22 with the subsonic rounds for squirrels. We also had a British pellet gun that used an odd size (5mm?) and that thing would drop a squirrel pretty quickly.

That being said, if you are trapping them a bucket of water is a lot more reliable and quiet. I don't make judgements on how you get rid of vermin, but personally I got tired of drowning animals and just gave up on it. I won many battles but the squirrels won the war. I get my pecans at the store now.

Maybe see if there's a critter removal company that'll do it for a reasonable price? I don't know how much they cost but probably cheaper than buying a rifle and likely just as effective.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I'm afraid to drown 'em I'd have to go to the neighbor's pond. Or come up with a 55 gallon barrel I could drop the whole trap into.
The traps for a critter that size are at least 10x12x30+ and you don't want to have to lift one of those things with the animal in it lashing out. That's anywhere from 12, to 15, to even 20 pounds of pissed-off beast going end to end in that trap. I think I'll pass on that option.

Critter removal company? They'd have to rent one of our spare rooms and live here.... You think you have them because you have disposed of 6, and the next week, there's yet another.
That works for things like the wood chuck/ground hog we had burrow under the deck and try to get under the basement wall and floor. That was 1, and he set up a trap over the hole. First week was 2 possums, then a week later, finally the ground hog came back and they got him.
We filled the hole with concrete and rock and put big blocks over it to keep other critters from using it like the possums were trying to do.
Then while I was at work, a couple of weeks later, my wife saw another one coming toward the house. She called our neighbor who dispatched it with a single shot from his 22.
Then - believe it or not, a month later, in the middle of the day, I saw another ground hog in the front yard by the house, grabbed my pellet gun, a lead pellet and pumped it to the max and holy cow, one shot it was over for that one. (my wife said good shooting - I said to myself - lucky shot)

 

[redfish]

Sprinklers with motion detection

 

[aceisback]

I say you just throw in the towel and become one with the fuggers!

 

[Rusty PW]

357 Air Rifle with a suppressor: https://gamousa.com/product/big-bore-tc-35-35-caliber-hunting-rifle/

Appropriate ammo needed, of course:
https://nielsenspecialtyammo.com/products/93-gr-hp-fb-35-cal
https://palmbeachairguns.com/product-category/35-cal-ammo/

I have seen the groups at 50 yards at the club range with these things, I was turned into a true believer. I'm an RSO (all volunteer) so I saw the drop in activity with the recent ammo shortage. The air gun crew came out in force, and the big bore rifles are IMPRESSIVE!

One of the guys at the gun club has a 50 cal. air rifle. Think he could take deer with with at a 100 yards.

 

[Glad_he_ate]

Me personally I use a 17hmr or a 22 long rifle. Notify your close neighbor that you are having a varmint issue and that he/she may hear a gunshot. Ensure them you are being very careful and contentious of your trajectory.

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