Racoons got my pet duck

[steelslaver]

A few 220 Conibear traps will fix your problems. Keep your cat inside though.

I got annexed and am inside the city limits and gunfire is illegal, but unless one of my neighbors made a big issue out of it, the police department wouldn't even ask about it. After 2:30 am except for one napping at the department they are all tucked away in bed anyway.

I can see it now. Cop, "someone said they heard a shot from over here". Me, "interesting, maybe someone was shooting at a varmint that was getting in their chickens." Cop, "you can't keep chickens in the city limits". "Everyone around here was grandfathered in on chickens and I think shooting 22s" Cop, "I don't think that shooting 22s got grandfathered in. "Me, "I don't really know about that, why don't you just ask my wife the attorney". Taking someone to court around here for shooting a coon, fox, skunk or coyote would be a non starter.

I was at the trash transfer station a couple years ago, when a cop rolled in, opened his trunk and tossed out part of a deer carcass wrapped in plasti.. He said another wayward urban deer, this one is missing the hind quarters and back straps, and laughed. I somehow doubt the carcass was found all that far from the scene of the crime.

I live in a different place than most people

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

From 1984 to 2014 I lived in a 1870's farmhouse. It originally was surrounded by grain fields that was mostly corn. The bottom fell out of the fur trade and the raccoons' population soared!

My war started while I was remodeling and continued until the empty house sold. I literally killed a dozen or more coons a year! (close to 50 a few years)

I used live traps and poison with a small effect. However, a loaded 22 rifle by every exit yielded the greatest reward! (there was one late night I got 6 on the front porch with a 12 pump with #7.5 birdshot)

Typically, groundhogs, opossums, and raccoons are a shoot on sight group of animals, so the EDC pocket pistol comes into play quite often.

YOU CAN'T SHOOT THEM WITHOUT A GUN!

Body disposal: I had a patch of poor soil probably 300-foot square, I let the blackberry brambles just grow wild. As I shot pests around the farm, I would throw the corpses in the blackberry patch to fertilize the area. After decades of "Fertilizing," the blackberries were often the size of your thumb.

In the country you get cats caught in the live trap too. My policy was a cat gets one free pass. If it is too stupid to avoid a live trap, into the blackberry patch it goes!

17 Mach 2 was a worthless cartridge, but 17 HMR was great medicine for anything around the farmyard. I'm a big proponent of 22 Hornet and 218 Bee for critters at a reasonable distance. You need to be able to shoot critters out from under the cars without damaging Momma's ride! Shooting raccoons off the gables and gutters in twilight seemed to be a good way to insure a good night's sleep too! (You don't want to perforate the roof or gutter so proper line of fire and down range always have to be foremost in you aiming!)

Ivan

 

[zeke]

Sorry about Quackers. Racoons are very smart, very vicious, tough as all get out and can be in packs. They quickly learned to discern when i was holding a rifle while on the porch protecting the sweet corn. When they fight each other at night, it sounds scary as h. They are also prime rabies carriers in the area i used to live, and shot on sight.

Somewhere am in possession of a picture showing an individual releasing a raccoon from a no kill trap. Guy was much braver than i, or stupid.

They love just ripe sweet corn, but poison can kill other more desirable wild life. From personal experience have found it more inconspicuous to shoot nuisance critters from within the house, and backed away from the window/door. Of course if legal. Unfortunately in current city, it is illegal to discharge firearm, pellet rifle or bow in the city limits.

Given your situation, might consider hiring someone or live trapping them, them taking them to a more/better/convenient location. Much easier to empty the trap if critter is deceased.

 

[petepeterson]

I think a 22 CB cap will be plenty quiet enough out of a manual rifle.
Two years ago, I trapped one a night for about 30 straight days inside the pen of my chicken coop. They got two birds, and I eliminated a few branches of the 'coon family tree.

My experience taught me to shoot through the ear, as the top of the head seemed to perturb them a bit.

Sorry about your duck. I remember what it did to Tony Soprano when they flew away.

 

[SteveA]

Get some coon cuffs, dog safe traps. Bait with sardines. Your choice on how to finish them They are so thick around here the Kansas Dept. of Wildlife and Parks opened season on them year round starting this year. Have decimated quail, pheasant and turkey populations.

 

[IAM Rand]

There are some very quiet air rifles these days. You can get them up to 50cal but should be able to find a 22-30 cal that should fit the bill. They are using them to hunt big game so I would believe that they would fit the bill. There are some that shoot an arrow out to 50 yards with enough force to do the job.

Just sayin

 

[desi2358]

Box trap and a large trash can or old barrel (even better!) full of water................. If you catch a stray pet you can let it go, racoons get the sleeping with the fishes treatment.

 

[03hemi]

Really got to me. Racoons got to Quackers last night and pretty much stripped her clean. I loved that duck! She gave the yard character! Something about a duck wandering around the yard quacking and getting petted. I'm on a mission. Got a momma racoon and four yearling pups -they ate good last night Got the trap set and we'll see. Gonna talk to my pest control guy tomorrow at the poker game and see what poison to use-I want the racoons to die a slow and horrible death. Thinking about soakng warafin in some antifreeze. I'm surprisingly melancholy-I really was attached to that duck.
Amazing how attached one can get to a pet.....

I'd have me a stuffed raccoon in my cigar lounge if that were me.
Sorry to hear that.

 

[DWalt]

Surprising how quiet a .22 Short SV is when fired from a rifle. About like a cap gun.

 

[StephenWhoDat]

I just recently dealt with a family of 5 racoons on my property. I didn't want to harm or kill them, and relocating 5 seemed a task I didn't want to take on. Talked to some pros in my area and got some good advice that was super easy to do and has worked for me. Your mileage may vary, but it's worth a shot.

Apparently coons hate the sound of human voices. Leave a radio near where you've seen the little criminals and leave it on a 24 hour talk radio station. I use 99.5 WRNO New Orleans and it seems like racoons really hate the late night conspiracy people talking. It doesn't need to be super loud to where it may annoy your neighbors. Just load enough to make the coons think there is a human nearby. The combination of the radio and some coyote urine granules has seemed to be working great for me so far. Only been a few weeks but I catch the family now going around my perimeter instead of right through it whenever I leave the radio outside and keep up with the coyote urine shake stuff. Cheap. Easy. And so far effective.

 

[tops]

A few 220 Conibear traps will fix your problems.

Quiet, no mess, no fuss and doesn't waste time waiting around for the varmint to appear. I have never released anything from a conibear trap and it come back as a repeat offender. Larry

 

[Wyo]

I'm the City Judge. I can't be sitting in the back yard drinking scotch and shooting critters. I have to get below the radar.
I'm thinking about a suppressed Ruger .22, BUt I need it NOW , Cant wait 6 months

You can get the suppressor now on ATF’s current schedule in about two weeks but that might not be good enough. My son-in-law uses a live trap, then hauls them out to some faraway place where a little noise don’t matter. We call it “takin’ ‘em for a ride.” I also had the same problem as you but used to sit in the back yard and shoot squirrels that drove my dogs nuts with Aquila Super Colibri .22’s. They’re as quiet as a pellet rifle and worked fine as long as you stuck to head shots.

 

[glenwolde]

Bolt action. .22 shorts. Night vision. Or no-kill traps, but drop them in the stock tank.

Via con Dios Quackers.

 

[10Mad]

Golden Malrin
Found at tractor supply.

 

[Greyman50]

CCI quiets or conabear traps. Got 18 coons one summer that were wrecking my bird feeders. Built a wrap around ledge/ shelf on a tree with a space/opening as wide as a conabear. Bait on top so the coons came through the opening and trap got them,DRT.

 

[Mr. Vito]

The raccoons were just doing what comes naturally. You're taking it as some sort of personal offense. Its not personal, just business. Wanting to eliminate them as pests is fine; wanting them to suffer a slow, painful death makes me think that you might benefit from seeking some mental health care.

 

[grover99]

Got no raccoons around here. Do have one ground hog but we have an agreement. I leave him alone and he does the same for me. The squirrels do more damage by chewing on the frame work of the front door. not sure why they do that maybe like the flavor of the paint the frame is painted with.

 

[M29since14]

I’d prefer painless, but any raccoon(s) found guilty of duck murder should be killed, by any method necessary. Same sentence for any raccoon(s) found anywhere within a mile of a private residence. There’s nothing “cute” about them. Kill. Them. All. Sorry about your duck.

 

[Kevin J.]

I'm the City Judge. I can't be sitting in the back yard drinking scotch and shooting critters. I have to get below the radar.
I'm thinking about a suppressed Ruger .22, BUt I need it NOW , Cant wait 6 months

Well anyone sitting on their deck with a rifle and a whisky shooting varmints has my vote for Judge.

 

[don5]

Since everyone is giving you ideas, here is mine. Get a plastic 55 gal drum. Put some corn or cat food inside on the bottom of the drum. Lean a 2x4 up against it for the animals to walk up it. Place a piece of wood across the top. Animal climbs wood, walks onto beam, looks down and sees bait. Animal jumps down and can't jump back out. Wait until you have a few. Put lid on drum and dispose how you see fit. This works better than you think. Sealed drum means nobody knows what's in it. FYI - a good Ole country boy told me about this method. It works.