Getting rid of raccoons.
 

We have a family of raccoons who have adopted a place under one of our decks as their condo, and they harass our indoor cats and scare my partner. Would shooting them in the butt with a pellet pistol get rid of them or injure/kill them? (The raccoons, that is; not the cats or my partner.) I don’t really want to damage them but just to scare them away. I found some co2 powered pellet guns at a local sporting goods store but don’t know if the charge (600 fps) and pellet (.177 caliber) are too much for the task. I’d be shooting from ~ 6’ away.

Suggestions?

Coon do not get scared away. You either kill them, or Havahart style trap them and relocate them. And not just a few miles away.

Shoot or relocate. Unless you can carry them in your car in such a way that them pooping/peeing won't be an issue, I'd have to lean towards shooting them.

Maybe Mr. Creepy can borrow you his truck to haul them away in ;).

When I was just kid, we had a racoon open the lid on the gargabe can, and just have a feast. Mom turned on the outdoor lights, hoping to scare away the 'coon. He judt looked up as if to say "thanks for the light"' and went right back to eating. Dad, and his shotgun put an end to it.

Be aware that there may be laws in your locale prohibiting the relocation of wildlife. Animal control has been very liberal about allowing me to release raccoons in areas that they suggest.

I bought a have-a-heart trap. The ones from harbor freight are not coon proof.

I just pop a lot of them in the back of the head with a .22. If you have to resort to that be considerate and make a clean kill. Flopping around and bleeding is not good.

Think of them as little bears. They are dangerous, smart and social.

One man's approach: My dog Toaster was attacked by a raccoon - YouTube

Someone named a dog "Toaster"?

Don't fool with a pellet gun. It won't get the job done without a perfectly aimed shot. This is a job for a shotgun. If you're in the city where you can't make that much noise, use .22 shorts, but it will still have to be a well placed shot.

Maybe a crossbow. You can get pretty close to the suckers. Pellet gun will scare them off but they'll come back. Probably doesn't make it through thick fur but barer skin might absorb a pellet under it.

I knew a guy in a rural setting with a large humane trap. He would drown them in a 50 gallon barrel. Watched him do it once. Kinda harsh - the little guy shook that cage pretty hard trying to get out. You could hear it knocking the barrel and see water sloshing out. The water needed to be almost full to cover the highest point.

Not sure if the others learn to avoid the trap. Probably good to hide it right away so the others don't see though they often go out together socially.

The pellet gun might work if you're accurate enough. If not wanting to hurt them, I'd try a .22 at pretty close range, 20ft. or less, loaded with birdshot. If you can get them to vacate you'll need to take measures to prevent them from moving back in. Welded wire fence or something blocking access to under the deck. Raccoons are territorial and they will come back if they can.
We had a coon population explosion some years ago. I relocated a few. The last one I sprayed a dot of florescent pink paint on his back and took him to another drainage 5 miles away. He was back in 2 days. I began nightly hunts. 31 raccoons in as many days. A game ranger has told me that coons only have a 50 50 chance of survival when relocated as they have to fight their way in to the new territory.
If I were you I'd get a .22 for the same price as that pellet gun and practice with it a bit. You want head shots preferably as they have a bear-like layer of fat that makes body shots less than effective. One head shot will take them out where it might take 3 or 4 body hits and be less humane.
They are one of the chief vectors of rabies in this country and are bad tempered, destructive beasts.

Thanks for the many comments.

This family of raccoons is in the ‘burbs and discharging a .22 or anything else that makes noise is outtta the equation. Even if I close off the area under the deck they have been around for many years. There is an over grown area next to my place.

Some time ago a deputy sheriff who lives near my place in the stix suggested shooting them with a pellet gun and that’s where I got the idea. Does anyone know if a pellet in their flank will cause permanent damage? Would steel bbs be less likely to cause blood positioning than a lead pellet?

I have no means or desire to relocate them if trapped and will not drown them.

ive had more than one housecat killed by raccoons where i grew up over the years, and at least 3 full on break ins by the bastards. then you gotta chase em out, but you have to be extremely careful not to get attacked.
i recall using a shower curtain flapping and yelling to get one to retreat. damn thing was watching tv with me, had absolutely no idea it was there. turned around and there it was sitting in the doorway to the tv room calmly watching. scared the daylights out of me. this was very far from any exterior door.

ultimately, we found they were getting into the crawlspace under the house through a rusty exterior well hatch and coming up through the basement. killed one cat in the basement, another outside a few years later, and maimed a third that only had one eye after that. if your house has any chinks in the exterior, the raccoons will find it, cats ar no match, and anything but a bigger dog will be in trouble, but even then you dont want it bitten.

^The probability of that kind of incident is part of the concern. Yesterday there was a face to face event between one of my cats and a raccoon through a closed window. With the warm temps the windows are going to be open and the screens nor my pudgy cats will not slow one of those critters when they are after savory cat food kept by a window.

It is Vidalia Onion season and my mom/dad had purchased a bag and laid the onions out on a cart under the carport. After a few days there is an onion sitting on the concrete of the carport and a Vidalia Onion with about 1/4 eaten out of it. Mom took em off the cart and then had them sitting on a picnic table still in the bag. Couple days later something had eaten through the bag and again, eaten about 1/2 of the onion. We suspect the perp was a coon but she never saw what was eating them:rolleyes:. Watch out for em having rabies too.

If I were you, unable or unwilling to kill them, I'd hire a nuisance wildlife person to deal with them. Lots of pest control companies also perform this service. You're just going to temporarily run them off with a pellet gun and if you can't securely block where they're nesting they'll be back in no time. In addition, the babies they undoubtedly have are imprinted on your place as their own territory. Your cat food is their cat food. Your cats are imperiled. Nuke em. A pellet gun is just going to piss them off.