Racoon Hunting Tonight, 1st time!

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Gerry52

Gerry52

Member
Oct 13, 2017
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Oceanside,California, United States
Thanks to my pal Mike (Revoman) I can see in the dark. He loaned me a Night Vision setup & IR flashlight. I'll TRY to do a follow up with video. Owner of one of my permissions said the "trash pandas" are wreaking havoc in his yard which is about 1/2 acre. I'll be using my Royale 500 (.25) or my Boss (.30) most likely. Hades in both. Any advice? Cat food for bait? I feel like it's Christmas eve 🙂 . Going around 7pm to set up.
 
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Do you have an inside window to shoot from that offers some concealment. I’d say about half the raccoons I hunt are very stealthy and skiddish. Even IR flashlights of strong enough can spook them. So being inside a building or house taking the shot gives one a great hide and of course it’s more comfortable. Also I tend to get the most hits at 11pm-12pm then again around 3-4am. Anyone else have thoughts on time? Obviously not set in stone. Guess my point is even though it gets dark early they still can wait a while to show up. So don’t get discouraged and go home if you wait an hour and nothing happens. Best of luck! Post video of the break dance!
 
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Jman4183 said:
Do you have an inside window to shoot from that offers some concealment. I’d say about half the raccoons I hunt are very stealthy and skiddish. Even IR flashlights of strong enough can spook them. So being inside a building or house taking the shot gives one a great hide and of course it’s more comfortable. Also I tend to get the most hits at 11pm-12pm then again around 3-4am. Anyone else have thoughts on time? Obviously not set in stone. Guess my point is even though it gets dark early they still can wait a while to show up. So don’t get discouraged and go home if you wait an hour and nothing happens. Best of luck! Post video of the break dance!
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Times for me definitely vary greatly. I’ve trapped and caught them mid day before, but most movement for me has been around midnight-2am and again between 5-6am
 
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Jman4183 said:
Do you have an inside window to shoot from that offers some concealment. I’d say about half the raccoons I hunt are very stealthy and skiddish. Even IR flashlights of strong enough can spook them. So being inside a building or house taking the shot gives one a great hide and of course it’s more comfortable. Also I tend to get the most hits at 11pm-12pm then again around 3-4am. Anyone else have thoughts on time? Obviously not set in stone. Guess my point is even though it gets dark early they still can wait a while to show up. So don’t get discouraged and go home if you wait an hour and nothing happens. Best of luck! Post video of the break dance!
Click to expand...
Just spoke with him. Said there's a room & window in back where I can set up & be comfortable. Sounds like a good evening to me!
 
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I've been having great luck with mini marshmallows. I set some out 3 nights in a row and it was all gone by morning each time. I used a cuff this last time so I could shoot at my convenience. I put a few down inside and set the trap. Had him on when I got him at 5am this morning.

Used the 30 cal m60b on him. Warning, they spray blood like a fountain. It's messy!
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@Gerry52 Oh ok, I'd place my bet on the fruit trees if they're bearing or have fallen fruit beneath them. Garbage cans seem hit or miss depending upon what's in them and how secure their lids are. Dog food can be moved. From what I've read, using bait that they cannot just grab and run with is a good thing. I have no experience here, I've mainly hunted them so I don't know much about disposing of them as pests. Good luck to you.
 
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Using cuff traps make it easy. If you are more sporting, use a coon feeder to keep them busy for a long time with little food lost. It stops other animals from cleaning out your feeder. Setup a webcam to alert you when they come. The webcam's IR light are all you need to see them with night vision scope, so an gun mounted light isn't needed and can't spook them.


Coon Feeder 3D print files.

If you have coons you want to feed for while only using a small amount of food, this should help you out. These feeders give you ample time to observe the coons feeding to your delight! I recommend filling with dry cat food. If you want them to find it faster, fill the spout to the brim with...
www.airgunnation.com www.airgunnation.com
 
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BlackICE said:
Using cuff traps make it easy. If you are more sporting, use a coon feeder to keep them busy for a long time with little food lost. It stops other animals from cleaning out your feeder. Setup a webcam to alert you when they come. The webcam's IR light are all you need to see them with night vision scope, so an gun mounted light isn't needed and can't spook them.


Coon Feeder 3D print files.

If you have coons you want to feed for while only using a small amount of food, this should help you out. These feeders give you ample time to observe the coons feeding to your delight! I recommend filling with dry cat food. If you want them to find it faster, fill the spout to the brim with...
www.airgunnation.com www.airgunnation.com
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Hey BlackIce, what kind of camera do you use? I use a Wyze battery powered WiFi camera that works ok. It does not however alert me very well when there are animals. It mainly alerts me if a bush or tree limb moves, that type of thing. Had any success with WiFi and or cell network notifications? Or a good program that can tell an animal from a tree branch? Right now I just use the live stream and I can tell when I see dancing white balls (which are the animals eyes) . But it does require watching my phone for a while.
 
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I have 2 of these. It isn't perfect but using IR motion sensing to turn on and give you can alert. If the animal doesn't stay put long but runs by it may not trigger, or turn on too late to catch the critter. I haven't had any tree movement, or moths flying by set it off. One of them the daytime mode doesn't work anymore. It only triggers one device at a time. So if you have more than one cell phone or tablet, only one will give you an alert. Also no PC app, and the video files can be a pain to review if you have a lot of alarms. To retrieve them easiest to upload to a cloud server like google drive.

The sample video was from a Foscam G4 that is always on. It gives better video, but requires a lot of power since it is always on. I needed to recharge the 12v 9ah battery daily. Also it gets trigger by trees and bugs. I use it if I must catch what's going on. Leaving it to capture 100% of the time while sending alarms if movement is seen.

 
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Did he tell you when they typically show up?

Typically it can be anywhere from around sunset to sunrise, unless they're carrying some diseases or are wounded, and they might show up any time. But they usually stick to a routine and come by on-schedule.

If they're confident and you know their schedule you likely won't need any precautions. A confident raccoon will walk right up to you, you can almost put the barrel up to their head. If they're reasonably fearful they'll run up trees or fences once they know you're dangerous.

The need for bait is pretty much in proportion to how afraid they are, and what alternatives they have away from where you're hunting. i.e. if they see your yard as dangerous, but two yards over they're giving out dog food, you'll never see them again.
 
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