Damn raccoons

[TheGrey]

Coonzilla has brought two of his gigantic buddies to hang out around our house, trash our deck and porch like rock stars, and take herculean-sized dumps in the backyard. My cats are going crazy inside the house, yelling and howling.

ASIDE FROM SHOOTING THEM, please give me your best method of driving these furry bastards out of my yard.

BTW, the next door neighbors have a pet coonhound. He's not a hunter.

[Irving]

My wife says, in a whisper, Kill them quietly. They'll try to kill your cats.

[colorider]

Raccoon pee and crap is NOT good around dogs and cats. Google Leptospirosis. Pellet gun the bastards.

[TheGrey]

Pellet gun. Hm. I honestly hadn't thought about that option. Are they quiet? Are they efficient? What kind? I think I've seen those at Walmart- are we talking AirSoft? I'm sorry for the stupid questions, but I've never had any experience with a pellet gun before. Mo wouldn't let me have a BB gun when I was growing up.

[cstone]

CCI Quiets from a bolt gun at short range can be very effective, but you shouldn't disobey the law, so live with the wildlife

Trapping and drowning are pretty decent methods of eradication.

[.455_Hunter]

I second the CCI Quiet out of a long barrel- MUCH quieter than a 600 + fps air rifle, and the 40 gr bullet ensures decent penetration. Just don't use them in a pistol when low noise is important, as they are still very sharp is a short barrel.

[USMC88-93]

I feel your pain.

[Jonsey]

Slingshot?

[NFATrustGuy]

A friend of mine told me he's considering a pellet gun instead of CCI Quiets out of a suppressed rifle because he thinks the pellet gun will get the job done and has less ricochet potential. My understanding is that he's right to be concerned with the ricochet potential of .22LR, but I don't know if he's correct that a .22 or .177 pellet probably won't ricochet with much energy.

Any thoughts?

[gnihcraes]

I was going to suggest .22 pellet. Some decent stuff out there if you can get the head shot.