BB or pellet gun to take down a racoon

[BerkshireHunter]

That is a nice rifle, and a good price. I'm not sure about the .22 pellets, though. I have never seen them for sale anywhere. Generally all you see is the .177, which can be had in several compositions, weights, velocity ratings, etc. Seems like .177 would make the most sense just for the ability to buy replacement ammo readily.

I get them at Wally World. Then theres the interwebs, and most guns stores have a few tins lying around.

 

[MassMark]

.22 Gamo Rockets at Dicks in Pittsfield...

 

[carborfi]

Bass Pro has 22 pellets

 

[LoginName]

That is a nice rifle, and a good price. I'm not sure about the .22 pellets, though. I have never seen them for sale anywhere. Generally all you see is the .177, which can be had in several compositions, weights, velocity ratings, etc. Seems like .177 would make the most sense just for the ability to buy replacement ammo readily.

Pyramid Air... 94 different flavors to choose from http://www.pyramydair.com/a/Ammo/109/calibers_0_22

I'd recommend deciding on what your needs are, then order one each of 4-6 different manufacturers/weights pellets and determine which brand/weight works best for your rifle.

 

[Uncle Fester]

Seriously....you'll need some real fire[air?]power for a raccoon. Having used a crossman 10-pump on a woodchuck (did you know that they can climb trees?) at close range, and it taking a while.....

Perhaps you and the NESer that has the skunk problem, and is thinking about a bow can get together?

Good luck.

Lucky for me, I saw the light before I had taken drastic measures.

 

[PatMcD]

If you feel the need to kill it, don't use an air rifle. Do you have a .22 rimfire? If noise in a neighborhood is an issue, CCI CB Shorts are quieter than an air gun.
If you don't have a .22, your local shop must have a cheap used bolt gun for $100.

 

[CrackPot]

It depends on how you deal with the legalities of the issue. For very few is it legal to discharge the .22 rimfire which leads to a air rifle/pellet gun as a solution to remain squeaky clean from a legal perspective. If that does not concern you, then why not a suppressed .458 Socom?

If you feel the need to kill it, don't use an air rifle. Do you have a .22 rimfire? If noise in a neighborhood is an issue, CCI CB Shorts are quieter than an air gun.
If you don't have a .22, your local shop must have a cheap used bolt gun for $100.

 

[rep308]

Start out by putting a half a cup of bleach in your trash bags before putting them in the can. Over time you can reduce the amount of bleach as they get the message. There are many of Rocky Racoon's friends waiting to take his place, control the food source and the problem goes away

 

[Terminator03]

It depends on how you deal with the legalities of the issue. For very few is it legal to discharge the .22 rimfire which leads to a air rifle/pellet gun as a solution to remain squeaky clean from a legal perspective. If that does not concern you, then why not a suppressed .458 Socom?

Exactly! I have a nice M&P 15-22 with a red dot on it that I would LOVE to be able to use for my squirrel issue, but even with subsonic ammo, there is still the problem of discharging a firearm near homes - especially given that I live in a neighborhood. If I lived out in the woods with some acreage, I wouldn't even give it a though, but that's not my reality, so an airgun will have to suffice.

 

[PatMcD]

An air gun is fine for squirrels, but a big coon wants a little more.

 

[NHAtHeart]

An air gun is fine for squirrels, but a big coon wants a little more.

That's what I was thinking, I've gotten a possum with .22 shorts and it still ran 20ft and it was a clean shot. I'm thinking a big coon would go a long way even with a decent hit with a pellet gun.

 

[mllanes]

try finding a .22 break-barrel gun.

the break-barrel design has more power than most of the pump ones.

aim for the head.

 

[xring]

.22 CB's. Like another post said, quieter than a pellet gun and very effective. I shoot hundreds of them in my back yard. Don't even wake up the dog but the suirrels are dead as...dead.

 

[BerkshireHunter]

"CB shorts." I'm pretty sure my town has a bylaw against discharging firearms w/in city limits. Pretty ridiculous encroachment of liberty. And, who knows what the hell they consider to be firearms?

I am a proponent of the SS&S though.

 

[chindogg]

I have a remington blackmagic .177. Easily shoots through both sides of a progresso soup can at 60 feet. Comes with the scope. Head shot would do it. Got it at Dick's on sale for 90 bucks

 

[Kevin_NH]

An air gun is fine for squirrels, but a big coon wants a little more.

Many of the new .22 pellet rifles produce more power than a CB short, though few are approach the energy of a full-power .22LR. On the other hand, there are pellet guns that go well beyond .22

How about a nice .25? Or .357? Or maybe you're into fifty caliber? One of these should have no problem humanely taking down a raccoon:

 

[Chris]

Couple of things...

1) .177 usually exceed the speed of sound, so you get a sonic boom which makes for a very loud crack. A .22 does not travel fast enough to do this in most air guns.

2) The Gamo Whisper is really quiet. The sound of the pellet smacking into my backstop is louder than the report. pick up a stone and throw it at a sheet of plywood and that's about as loud as it gets. As long as your neighbors don't see the rifle, they won't think gun.

As with firearms, energy is always the most important fundamental. For the ranges that an air gun is going to be used (150 ft or less) the .22 will carry more energy than the .177. Find a pellet that works well in your gun and your pest problem will be solved. I've found that the 15-17 grain pellets usually are the most consistent in terms of accuracy, but you need to be careful handing them as they are easy to deform. This helps them deliver energy to the target too like hollowpoints do.

 

[ArmedMainer]

If you feel the need to kill it, don't use an air rifle. Do you have a .22 rimfire? If noise in a neighborhood is an issue, CCI CB Shorts are quieter than an air gun.

I own a Gamo Whisper and the CB Shorts are probably much quieter.

 

[PatMcD]

Many of the new .22 pellet rifles produce more power than a CB short, though few are approach the energy of a full-power .22LR. On the other hand, there are pellet guns that go well beyond .22

How about a nice .25? Or .357? Or maybe you're into fifty caliber? One of these should have no problem humanely taking down a raccoon:

Are we still talking around $100?

 

[Terminator03]

I own a Gamo Whisper and the CB Shorts are probably much quieter.

I keep hearing "CB Shorts" being referenced in this thread. What exactly does the "CB" stand for, and where do they sell them? Are they available at Dick's, or Wallyworld? I am assuming they are a .22 short, but are those even compatible in a rifle chambered for .22 LR?

 

[Chris]

CB = Conical Ball

You can get CB in a Short case and even Long cases. Originally, they were just primer only, but some manufacturers include some powder. The longer the barrel, the quieter they are, so a pistol vs. rifle is significant.

All versions will fit in a Larger .22 chamber as the round spaces on the rim. However, like .38 in a .357, you will get some buildup in the space where a longer cartridge would sit.

Note that while they all chamber, the action most likely won't feed it correctly unless you have a single shot bolt or a gun designed for shorts and longs.

Traditional CB rounds used a fairly light bullet and flew around 500 ft per second. In many cases, these will have less power than an air gun as mentioned above. However, heaver rounds are now available with a little powder that push 750 feet per second resulting in 30+ ft lbs of energy. These rounds would be more powerful than most air guns, but are also louder. The stronger rounds also might have enough recoil to operate some semi-autos.

You can get these via special order, but are not as easy as air gun pellets.

For reasons of noise, legality, cost, and ammo selection, I prefer air. Also, Massachusetts residents can order all the stuff via the net unlike firearm stuff.


Sent from the bottom of my bowl of Cheerios.

 

[Terminator03]

CB = Conical Ball

You can get CB in a Short case and even Long cases. Originally, they were just primer only, but some manufacturers include some powder. The longer the barrel, the quieter they are, so a pistol vs. rifle is significant.

All versions will fit in a Larger .22 chamber as the round spaces on the rim. However, like .38 in a .357, you will get some buildup in the space where a longer cartridge would sit.

Note that while they all chamber, the action most likely won't feed it correctly unless you have a single shot bolt or a gun designed for shorts and longs.

Traditional CB rounds used a fairly light bullet and flew around 500 ft per second. In many cases, these will have less power than an air gun as mentioned above. However, heaver rounds are now available with a little powder that push 750 feet per second resulting in 30+ ft lbs of energy. These rounds would be more powerful than most air guns, but are also louder. The stronger rounds also might have enough recoil to operate some semi-autos.

You can get these via special order, but are not as easy as air gun pellets.

For reasons of noise, legality, cost, and ammo selection, I prefer air. Also, Massachusetts residents can order all the stuff via the net unlike firearm stuff.


Sent from the bottom of my bowl of Cheerios.

Thank you so much for taking the time to explain all that! I had no knowledge of those, or have even seen them in gun stores. Good to know they exist, though, even if they wouldn't necessarily be the best choice in a neighborhood setting. Using them in my .22 AR would likely attract more unwanted attention visually than even the noise would! I guess I would need to buy some fudd type bolt gun in .22 so that at least it would *look* like just a pellet gun if I wanted to try those rounds. I suppose I could paint the muzzle on my AR orange so the neighbors would assume it was just an airsoft, though...

 

[Kevin_NH]

... heaver rounds are now available with a little powder that push 750 feet per second resulting in 30+ ft lbs of energy. These rounds would be more powerful than most air guns, but are also louder. The stronger rounds also might have enough recoil to operate some semi-autos. You can get these via special order, but are not as easy as air gun pellets.

I picked up a case of the new CCI® Quiet-22™ at Riley's.

Same OAL as 22LR, so they feed properly, however in most self-loading firearms Quiet-22 will not eject properly (there are a few exceptional guns in which Quiet-22 will cycle). While quieter than a full-powder 22LR, these are significantly louder than CB rounds, I'm not sure I agree with the "No hearing protection required" claim.

Are we still talking around $100?

Back on the original topic of airguns for raccoons, of the air rifles I'd trust to humanely kill a raccoon, none are in the $100 price range. Big bore airguns start at around $600.

 

[BerkshireHunter]

Back on the original topic of airguns for raccoons, of the air rifles I'd trust to humanely kill a raccoon, none are in the $100 price range. Big bore airguns start at around $600.

This raccoon was taken by a guy on the GTA airgun forum. He's a very skilled airgun hunter and never takes a shot unless he thinks he can hit precisely where he wants to within an airgun's limits. With weak guns, that's often within 20 yards. It makes it challenging, like archery.

He used a BAM b26 in .177, it was tuned, but probably around 600 fps I would think. Not that powerful and not recommended for a novice. But they will definitely kill if you use them right. I still think an airgun throwing a .22 pellet around 800 fps would take a coon with a shot to the fusebox.
http://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php/topic,29406.0.html

 

[MisterHappy]

Way back in the day, people would shoot inside their houses with "parlor pisols" and the BB and CB caps were the primary types of ammo. Lots of energy was not the point (and could be a problem).

They were often primer-only rounds, though, as noted above some did, and do have a small amount of powder. Think of them as the opposite end of the spectrum from the hyper-velocity .22s of today.

 

[JimBridger]

A simple leg-hold trap will get raccoons every time. You want the type where they need to reach in to get the bait. Once they are held, you can dispatch them in a variety of ways. For silence (I'm in the 'burbs) and a sure, fast kill, I use a compact crossbow with broadhead points on the bolts. You want to take your time and get an accurate shot through the chest / neck area, and avoiding the bony upper shoulder. A properly-placed shot will kill within 10 seconds. Anything center-of-mass adjacent and they will bleed out in a minute or two, but it is unnecessarily cruel. Also don't want to leave set traps unattended for too long. In theory, a cat could trigger the trap, but if it's a friendly cat you could release it without too much harm, I'd guess, and cats don't seem as prone to sticking their paws into narrow places as raccoons do. I've never had any trouble because I use "sweet" bait, usually mashed up raisins or other fruit with peanut butter. Brings in the coons, possum, and skunks, but my cat is totally uninterested. Available under the "Duke" name among others on Amazon and most of the larger outdoor stores.

 

[slap shot]

A simple leg-hold trap will get raccoons every time. You want the type where they need to reach in to get the bait. Once they are held, you can dispatch them in a variety of ways. For silence (I'm in the 'burbs) and a sure, fast kill, I use a compact crossbow with broadhead points on the bolts. You want to take your time and get an accurate shot through the chest / neck area, and avoiding the bony upper shoulder. A properly-placed shot will kill within 10 seconds. Anything center-of-mass adjacent and they will bleed out in a minute or two, but it is unnecessarily cruel. Also don't want to leave set traps unattended for too long. In theory, a cat could trigger the trap, but if it's a friendly cat you could release it without too much harm, I'd guess, and cats don't seem as prone to sticking their paws into narrow places as raccoons do. I've never had any trouble because I use "sweet" bait, usually mashed up raisins or other fruit with peanut butter. Brings in the coons, possum, and skunks, but my cat is totally uninterested. Available under the "Duke" name among others on Amazon and most of the larger outdoor stores.

The raccoon died of old age years ago.

 

[mac1911]

fairly certian a c-note barely gets you a daisy from walmart... fps is meaningless if the pellet is only a few grain.

wrist rocket with ball bearings?

If you keep your eyes open pelletguns at walmart get discounted often.

 

[mac1911]

I have no problem with hunting raccoons. I spent many a night with my buddies coonhounds wandering the beech forests of Northeast Ohio - it was a good time. I also sold my share of pelts from my trap line as a kid. What I do have a problem with is the solution to our own shortfall being to just kill an otherwise beneficial animal. Raccoons in my experience have a benefit to my immediate environment that outweighs their shortcomings - namely, their appetite for chipmunks, mice, voles, moles, snakes, grubs, insects, etc. Having them around helps me. I have lived in the woods - not just suburb woods, but out in the sticks, for most of my life. Believe it or not - I also generated trash and solved the problem associated with it, by securing my trash from varmints - even bears. While a raccoon can certainly be dispatched with a pellet rifle, it's also just as likely to be wounded with one. I guess I fall back on the advice of my grandfather who advised me to respect wildlife and myself by not shooting anything I did not plan to eat and could not kill cleanly. I've stuck to that advice and it's served me well I think... That being said, if you feel you cannot accept and benefit from a raccoon in your world, skip the $100.00 pellet or worse BB gun and buy something powerful enough and accurate enough to place a kill shot - which will require you do your part to place an accurate kill shot. A wounded raccoon will not just go away - its driven by food and will find even easier opportunities than your apparently heavily secured trash. That must be one smart raccoon...

I will add , these critters kill zones are small. Also if you have not heard the noise a wounded coon,rabbit and other creatures make your close neighbors will!
We had a huge coon and other trash eaters problem with the barrels....it wont take long to get them not interested if they cant get into it. For the most part they are Lazy and if they hit your trash and are successful your trash is to easy to get into. Squirrels on the other hand are very persistent. It took years before they stopped coming up on the deck to look for birdseed. Moved birdfeeds 50' from house.
My coon/trash problem solved by those large curbside barrels. I dont see the coons or prints any more except in the summer when they dig for grubs in the corner of the yard.

 

[Chevy 2 65]

claymore