Ian 1, raccoon 0

[Ian]

Five nights in a row a boar 'coon has foiled my "have-a-heart" live trap, but this morning I finally got the filthy little buggar. He'd been getting in the garage through my kitty door and eating cat food crumbs, washing paws full of lathe swarf (??!!) in the kitty water fountain, and wreaking havoc in the garden pond. It's nice to have a suppressed AR-15 and some nice powder-coated, cast .22 caliber bullets loaded up with a pinch of Titegroup, for I hauled him off in woods this morning and sent him to see his Maker for a thorough repentance without even waking up the cat.

 

[Rick]

5 nights? Where was this guard cat all that that time? Watching a coon eat it's supper? My Walker Coon Hound would put an end to such nonsense right quick and had a great time doing it.

 

[freebullet]

Ha, congrats!

I thought a coon was getting in my trash, something chewed a hole through the thick plastic can lid. Borrowed a live trap from a trapper friend. Caught the biggest brown squirell I'd ever seen. Plugged his head & tanned the hide with tail on. Guna make a bow grip wrap for the wife with it.

Coons have very sharp claws. A number of dogs get gut ripped coming to close to a cornered coon. The smart ones make their move before they're cornered, or stay back if cornered. Face to face big old coons are somewhat vicious when threatened.

 

[Winelover]

Try the inexpensive paw traps, just outside the kitty door.....they work real well but need to be anchored.

 

[Chris]

This what I trap with, it is dog and cat proof. They reach in with their paw to take the bait. Marshmallows work well.

http://www.duketraps.com

 

[Ian]

Umm, no John. I guess you missed the part about me having an outdoor cat, which would be why I have a recirculating water fountain, cat food, and a kitty door in the garage in the first place.

Rick, this cat is 19 years old, 100% stone-deaf, has had kidney disease for several years requiring frequent injections with IV fluid, and has gone from 11 pounds to five. He used to hold his own with racoons and we never had them in the current garage until just 2-3 years ago. It wasn't that he COULD have beaten a coon in a fight, it's that he made them believe he could right off and never gave them time to doubt.

 

[Winelover]

This what I trap with, it is dog and cat proof. They reach in with their paw to take the bait. Marshmallows work well.

http://www.duketraps.com

This is the trap I'm talking about....farm supply, in town, has them for @ $10

I use the mini marshmallows or bird seed suet remnants.

Ian, I doubt your cat would eat marshmallows.

 

[Hawk]

Ian, I doubt your cat would eat marshmallows.

You'd be surprised at what cats would like.

Biggest cat brawl my wife's cats every got into was over a small ear of corn that rolled off the counter.
There was fur everywhere when that one finally broke up.

 

[Winelover]

Like Chris said...trap is dog and cat proof. Trip lever is at bottom of cylinder. Bait below. Must reach in and manipulate paw under the lever. Dogs and cats cannot articulate their paws enough.....I doubt if a squirrel can trip it. Paw too short and not enough strength to pull up the lever held by a strong spring. I have trouble setting it without using a HD screwdriver as a lever.

If your going to dispatch the coon, I can't see live trapping it and then shooting into an expensive trap.

 

[Ian]

I haven't seen one of those before, definitely something to look into for racoons. I was thinking you meant a leg trap, which I have but will never set here due to not wanting to catch my cat or even a stray cat in one. My poor trap is indeed shot up from dozens of uses, lots of broken wires here and there. This last one really tore it up before I even put bullets through it though, probably will retire it this time and get another one for 'possums and maybe one of those coon-specific paw traps.

 

[Chris]

Nice thing with traps is that they are a steel sentry, on duty 24/7. The coon cuffs work reliably and really are cat/dog proof. Buy one in confidence.

Edited to mention: I don't know your location particulars, but if is inconvenient to have neighbors, joggers, etc. see a really pissed coon in a trap... then wire it to a a drag with a few feet of chain, a hefty chunk of limb works. Coon will drag it to the nearest cover and then get tangled in the brush. You can track them down.

 

[JWFilips]

I take care of a clouder of out door displaced kitties!

When Rocky's show up .....the back porch light goes on and there is a stand down between the raccoon & me! i usually win with my 35 Rem and 125 TC cast bullets.....but I had a few that chased me back in the house ....nasty buggers!
6 gr of BE with a 125 TC cast takes 'em out Got a 30 lb Rocky last Fall

 

[Ian]

We rarely go out of our way to adopt wayward kitties, when we're ready for another one they just seem to show up, either as dumped kittens or lost pets. Had some really good ones just show up over the years and we take them in, spend a ton of money on them, and love them to bits. I hate to put down the really wild ones but have to occasionally to have any hope of having chapparal, lizards, toads, etc. Having a good outdoor cat or three around the house keeps the snakes, centipedes, scorpions, and sometimes even the rodents at bay, and the chummy cats don't seem to travel far if kept fed. Since the area we live has become much more populated in recent years, the wildlife and wild domestics have become crowded on the 30 or so brushy, hilly acres that include my place and the edges of several others, as yet all un-fenced, so I feel it's my responsibility to keep the situation managed as best I can. I make sure the deer stay watered year-round, have a safe place to fawn, and put out subsistence feed in lean times. I'd feed the birds since the population of natives has really dwindled in recent years, but when I do the varmints catch on quickly and it gets out of control. The indoor cats have to stay indoors 100% anymore due to road traffic and too many really irresponsible dog owners.

 

[Winelover]

We feed the birds, thus the occasional coon problems. When I see a feeder in disarray, out goes the trap, for a few days. Dispatched two, in three days, this Spring. Head shots with 22 LR.

For almost two years, we had a feral cat, showing up on a regular basis. It had a bobbed tail, so we named it Stubby. Couldn't get close to it. As soon as you opened a door, it would take off. Eventually, it stopped showing up....figured one of the barred owls got it.

 

[Hawk]

My brother has lived on about 10 acres in the country with a creek in back and no neighbors until the last couple of years.
When he moved in, there was an abundance of rabbits and squirrels and other wild life. He also had 8-10 wild cats that shared the place with him.
He had pigmy goats, ducks, geese and chickens. He also had a couple of donkeys that kept the coyotes at bay.
One day all the smaller animals started disappearing one and two a night.
A Great Horned Owl had moved into his area and started eating everything in sight.
He lost over half of his animals and everything in the woods until the Owl disappeared.

 

[M3845708Bama]

I started having problems with coons eating all the cat food. I initially operated on a catch and release principle-catch thin in a live trap using 1/2 ear of dry corn hung by a trough small rope with peanut butter spread between grains of corn. Trap was set set under back pourch,. The first 11 were not a problem--put cage in truck, take down mountain and across river and release and back home and reset, Then number 12, When door was raised to release, he darted out of cage, spun around and bit my thumb near the base before running into the brush. The first round of shots around the bite area costs over $10,000. The next four are a real bargin at only $868.00 each. After this my wife pointed out real sage advise. The racoons are only required to be alive going into the trip, NOT comming out.She also pointed out that the seven buzzards that live somewhere near base of mountain have to eat also. The boys have actually leared the truck and when the truck pulls in to the field that it is breakfast timeLife is setteling down and the cat is no longer terrorized and no more coon bites

 

[Bret4207]

I've had issues with coons and chickens here on the farm. Seems chicken is a coon delicacy. If the cage trap works, we catch and release in a back field. Since I know the coon is bound to be coming back tot he barn, the welcoming party on the release date is lead. Same with skunks in the barn. Lead wins the game.

I don't know about others but it seems here we have a brand of "human" that delights in dropping their cats, usually pregnant cats, off in "the country" when they tire of them. We've taken as many as 16, yes SIXTEEN, freakin' cats to be spayed or neutered at once. No more. I can abide a few barn cats, but I cannot stand strays and feral cats. Sorry cat lovers, but they have to go. Stray dogs have not been a problem.

 

[Eutectic]

Here's how you get a coon to listen Ian.......

Shot him in the ear with a .32-20 cast hollow point!

Pete

 

[Ben]

Way to go !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Ian]

Dangit, Bama, that sounds horrible. I'm guessing it all turned out ok in the end, but what an ordeal. I wasn't about to try and release this one alive, he was absolutely psychotic, to the point I took extra precautions to make sure he couldn't bite me through the holes in the cage when carrying it off.

I caught and deported two before I found out that it's not the thing to do, so I just kill them now. There's a turkey buzzard roost directly on the other side of the hill from me near an electrical sub-station, and like your wife noted, they need to eat, too, so I've become an official member of the Lone Star Turkey Buzzard Preservation Society.

This reminds me I still need to get one of the paw traps. We finally had to put down our outdoor kitty a couple months ago, so no more worries about getting him by mistake.