I need some advice.
Every year I have to trap nuisance raccoons that otherwise come up on our second story deck. They're after my wife's tomatoes, grown in Earth Boxes. The problem is our slider door is located in between the tomatoes and their entrance/exit path, so if we surprise them at night when we go out to water, they feel cornered. And as I'm sure all of you realize, being between a startled raccoon and his means of escape is no fun.
I've been legally trapping them with a DNR permit, and as required by Maryland, euthanizing them on site. To do that, to date I've been shooting them with my old Crosman model 2100 .177 pellet air rifle. With 10 pumps I can get 660-725 fps according to the manual.
In past years that has worked fine; if I hit them at a downward angle just above the eye centerline I've been able to put most of them down with one shot. However this year, in addition to more raccoons (I've bagged 9 so far this year alone whereas in previous years I've gotten exactly 4 annually) I'm finding this year's crop much harder to kill. Indeed I think a mutant branch of up-armored racoons has moved in and I'm having to hit them more times, some many more times.
So I'm looking for something with a little more stopping power, to take them out humanely. Firearms aren't an option as I live in a residential section of Anne Arundel County. I'm forced to rely on airguns.
So my question is: what are your recommendations for an upgrade? I know some high-end airguns can take down even hogs but that's overkill (no pun intended) and besides my budget isn't that large. If possible I'd like to keep it under $300.
90% of my usage will be short range to euthanize the raccoons, and by short range I mean approximately 15 feet. An additional 5% of the time I'd like to take out tree rats, and the final 5% would be just fun target plinking in my backyard.
Because of the size of the raccoons I'm thinking I need a .22 vs. a .177 pellet; do you agree? But besides that, I'm a bit clueless on the plethora of options out there. I could use some help in narrowing down my choices just a bit.
FYI I did search this forum for raccoons and found two references, but nothing clearly addressing a situation exactly like mine. However if I missed something I do apologize.
Your thoughts on what would be a good choice for my application?
Thanks.
Every year I have to trap nuisance raccoons that otherwise come up on our second story deck. They're after my wife's tomatoes, grown in Earth Boxes. The problem is our slider door is located in between the tomatoes and their entrance/exit path, so if we surprise them at night when we go out to water, they feel cornered. And as I'm sure all of you realize, being between a startled raccoon and his means of escape is no fun.
I've been legally trapping them with a DNR permit, and as required by Maryland, euthanizing them on site. To do that, to date I've been shooting them with my old Crosman model 2100 .177 pellet air rifle. With 10 pumps I can get 660-725 fps according to the manual.
In past years that has worked fine; if I hit them at a downward angle just above the eye centerline I've been able to put most of them down with one shot. However this year, in addition to more raccoons (I've bagged 9 so far this year alone whereas in previous years I've gotten exactly 4 annually) I'm finding this year's crop much harder to kill. Indeed I think a mutant branch of up-armored racoons has moved in and I'm having to hit them more times, some many more times.
So I'm looking for something with a little more stopping power, to take them out humanely. Firearms aren't an option as I live in a residential section of Anne Arundel County. I'm forced to rely on airguns.
So my question is: what are your recommendations for an upgrade? I know some high-end airguns can take down even hogs but that's overkill (no pun intended) and besides my budget isn't that large. If possible I'd like to keep it under $300.
90% of my usage will be short range to euthanize the raccoons, and by short range I mean approximately 15 feet. An additional 5% of the time I'd like to take out tree rats, and the final 5% would be just fun target plinking in my backyard.
Because of the size of the raccoons I'm thinking I need a .22 vs. a .177 pellet; do you agree? But besides that, I'm a bit clueless on the plethora of options out there. I could use some help in narrowing down my choices just a bit.
FYI I did search this forum for raccoons and found two references, but nothing clearly addressing a situation exactly like mine. However if I missed something I do apologize.
Your thoughts on what would be a good choice for my application?
Thanks.