I'm being overrun by 10 or more raccoons each night

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Floyd, Hello. My .O2, lots of good suggestions here. My advice to you is IF you want to live trap a/ some raccoon(s) DO NOT by a store brand trap ! The first adult coon will destroy it , trust me . My family has trapped many coons. Spend the $$ on a commercial trap from the beginning . As for dispatching the animal yes a cheap .177 or .22 springer will do. I would suggest one w/ some type of moderator as they can be a bit quieter than a standard gun. BUT , getting the shot is also tough to do. These critters rarely set still & offer up a killing shot . If & when the deed is done expect a good bit of cleanup of the trapping area and the shot location ( you can surmise this ). You will definitely want to kill on site ,as mentioned earlier , most states do not allow relocation of said critters . No matter what the feelings of the animal rescuers ,it just burdens other people or other wildlife .
 
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Not sure about your laws but here in ohio we can't relocate a live animal. That's how diseases get spread quickly. It either has to be dispatched on site or released on site which is defeating your purpose.
When the population gets high like it is now because of low (no) fur prices, you will see distemper, rabies and other diseases that can be transmitted to other animals, take hold. Mother nature deals with this in a far more cruel way than we can.
Oh and you are likely to catch other vermin like skunks and possums as well so be prepared for that.
 
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Floydthedog said:
I'm new to this forum and I am not an avid marksman. I live in a 300 house subdivision near Detroit Michigan. I have put out a trail cam and have spotted several different families of raccoons using my side and back yard as major highway causing deep trails in my yard. I have purchased a dog proof trap but i need something to dispatch the coon once he's caught. Is there an economical air gun that people would recommend that is easy to conceal and comes with a moderator to keep the sound down. Our state allows the killing of raccoons all year round.

Thank you in advance.
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This is a great opportunity to buy the PCP of your dreams with your wife's approval. Don't squander it. :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 
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Not that I agree with this approach. May be cruel, do not know. However read one story of using fly bait with Pepsi to poison them. Said it was very effective. My dad use to string a 110 volt hot wire in his barn where the coons were running. Killed several. However you need to be careful of the liabity and practice care as it could hurt or kill pets and people. My electrical engineer brother said if you put a light bulb in the circuit, it cuts down on the amperage and gives more of a shock then lethal?????? I am building one to wire my bird feeder but will have a switch that I can turn on and off when I see a squirrel on it but then turn off so birds are not shocked. Another thing is to put a motion sensor and a water sprinkler. Works on deer, do not know of raccons. My younger brother swears by Coyote piss as keeping them out of his barn. Never tried. However this is an airgun forum, so bait and shoot.
 
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JDR said:
Not that I agree with this approach. May be cruel, do not know. However read one story of using fly bait with Pepsi to poison them. Said it was very effective. My dad use to string a 110 volt hot wire in his barn where the coons were running. Killed several. However you need to be careful of the liabity and practice care as it could hurt or kill pets and people. My electrical engineer brother said if you put a light bulb in the circuit, it cuts down on the amperage and gives more of a shock then lethal?????? I am building one to wire my bird feeder but will have a switch that I can turn on and off when I see a squirrel on it but then turn off so birds are not shocked. Another thing is to put a motion sensor and a water sprinkler. Works on deer, do not know of raccons. My younger brother swears by Coyote piss as keeping them out of his barn. Never tried. However this is an airgun forum, so bait and shoot.
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I tried the fly bait + 7up strategy. The main problem I have with it is the inability to confirm kills, and I don't know what is eating the poison.

I did get a few racoon kills, but I also got a lot of "full dumps" with no other evidence. i.e. it seemed to make the racoons (or something else) very sick, but I did not get confirmation of kills.

I suppose you could team it up with the live trap, but I don't know how willing they are to eat once they know they're trapped.
 
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delooper said:
I tried the fly bait + 7up strategy. The main problem I have with it is the inability to confirm kills, and I don't know what is eating the poison.

I did get a few racoon kills, but I also got a lot of "full dumps" with no other evidence. i.e. it seemed to make the racoons (or something else) very sick, but I did not get confirmation of kills.

I suppose you could team it up with the live trap, but I don't know how willing they are to eat once they know they're trapped.
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Exactly….poisoning is a terrible approach in my opinion. Who knows what will get into it.
 
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Other than shooting with an airgun, my most successful ways of catching raccoons in an urban environment are:

1) The live trap together with the air-tight box plus ether. In my experience this works primarily on young raccoons. Older, wiser raccoons will know to avoid these traps.

2) The "hand trap" or "foot hold" trap. These are little tubes that you stick in the ground. At the bottom of the tube is some bait, like peanut butter. When they reach in for the bait it clamps down on their arm. Once the raccoon is trapped it will be in pain and make a lot of noise. So you'll still have the trouble of killing it. The advantage of a live trap is the raccoon is contained, with this trap the raccoon is pissed off and potentially mobile if the trap becomes unmoored. Downsides other than what is mentioned is you can't use this trap if you have dogs, cats, chickens.

Everything else I've tried, like body traps and poisons have been pretty ineffective. The raccoons around here get freaked out by body traps. Basically, there's a lot of homes near where I live that feed the raccoons so they're quite fussy about how far they'll go to get food. Body traps appear to be too scary.

I think you can do a lot with a live trap -- if you catch most of the young raccoons there'll be few wily older ones left to deal with. I haven't found any way to deal with older, experienced raccoons other than an airgun.
 
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Floydthedog said:
I'm new to this forum and I am not an avid marksman. I live in a 300 house subdivision near Detroit Michigan. I have put out a trail cam and have spotted several different families of raccoons using my side and back yard as major highway causing deep trails in my yard. I have purchased a dog proof trap but i need something to dispatch the coon once he's caught. Is there an economical air gun that people would recommend that is easy to conceal and comes with a moderator to keep the sound down. Our state allows the killing of raccoons all year round.

Thank you in advance.
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Thank you for all of the information. I purchased a Crosman and plan to go to town on these varmints.
 
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