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- Nov 15, 2006
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So I was at church on Sunday. And my brother say to me, "you'd better come out and bring a rifle cuz we have a coon in the barn"
I says," yeah lets do it!"
He's got young chickens to protect, and he loaned his only rifle out to his mom to shoot barn cats with.
So I have an old 1940's Marlin .22 bolt with an air rifle scope I bought at walmart when I was 12. I packed it up with some ammo and I also brought my 12 gauge just in case. I had one shell loaded with #4 shot and a bunch of 00.
I figured that I was going to have to bait the coon and wait it out, and if it was running when I saw it I'd like that 12 gauge.
So I get out there with the whole family (wife and 4yo boy and 18mo girl) at about 2PM after eating some lunch and doing some yard work, we were planning on harvesting some vegetables from the garden anyway. My nieces (6 and 9) were running around talking about how cute/scary the little raccoon was and my boy was begging me to shoot the thing. So was my little girl for that matter.
Anyway, the coon was sitting up in the rafters trying to sleep while all the kids were yelling and throwing rocks at it. We put that to an end an got all the kids distracted with a trampoline. The dang coon didn't even move form his spot.
My brother went and dug a hole out in his field with his excavator. At this point, I was still expecting brother Jess to be the shooter. So Jess hands me a beer and tells me to load up. Since the coon was just up in the rafters and sleeping I figured that I'd just shoot him once in the head with my .22 and we'd be done. I loaded 4 rounds anyway...
So I walked up into the barn from my truck and took aim. At this point all the kids are standing down hill about 75 yards behind me watching, along with my wife, brother and his wife. I popped the coon right in the throat with the first shot, I missed. I was aiming right between his eyes. He didn't move for a split second, then the twitching started in his tail, then his arms and head. So I hit him again, in the head the round went in under this jaw and right into his brain cavity, this caused him to fall out of the rafters. Now he was ANGRY! He was just looking at me and growling, not moving much. So I stepped closer and popped him again in the fore head. That didn't do it. So I hit him again in the fore head. The little guy was still just angry. Maybe he was dead at this point, but at the time I didn't think so. Jess had walked up behind me and was watching to coon writhing in pain and glaring at us. He didn't say a word.
I walked down to my pickup and grabbed my cz75b in 9mm. It was loaded with hollow points. I walked right up and shot the coon in the right ear, the bullet when though his skull and exited in the dirt behind/under him. That made the little guy stop moving since his brain was mush.
Jess was pissed. I should have given him a chance to plug his ears I guess
Later Jess told me that he thought that the coon was just in it's "death throws" before I shot it the last three times.
I wanted to skin the little coon and maybe make some stew. But Jess didn't want to fool with it, so we buried the little guy out in the field to keep the coyotes away.
Is this pretty typical of a coon? I didn't know that they were so tough. I used mini mags since that was all I had. The 9mm was a Winchester Silver Tip. Should I have used the shotgun? Or should I have used my 44 mag carbine? SKS? 30-06?
I really really thought that my .22 rifle would have put that coon down right away, I'd say that if I had hit it in the head with my first shot it would have died, but after 3 shots to the head and one to the throat it still wasn't dead, so I just don't know.
The only other critter I ever shot before was a porcupine, and that was with my 12 gauge (00 buck) from about 3 feet away, needless to say it only took one round.
The weird thing is that Jess has two dogs. One is some kind of weird looking worthless mutt and the other is a pure bred yellow lab who likes to play with coyotes. I would figure that with dogs around the coon would not have chose that particular barn to sleep in. But maybe the lab is worthless too.
I says," yeah lets do it!"
He's got young chickens to protect, and he loaned his only rifle out to his mom to shoot barn cats with.
So I have an old 1940's Marlin .22 bolt with an air rifle scope I bought at walmart when I was 12. I packed it up with some ammo and I also brought my 12 gauge just in case. I had one shell loaded with #4 shot and a bunch of 00.
I figured that I was going to have to bait the coon and wait it out, and if it was running when I saw it I'd like that 12 gauge.
So I get out there with the whole family (wife and 4yo boy and 18mo girl) at about 2PM after eating some lunch and doing some yard work, we were planning on harvesting some vegetables from the garden anyway. My nieces (6 and 9) were running around talking about how cute/scary the little raccoon was and my boy was begging me to shoot the thing. So was my little girl for that matter.
Anyway, the coon was sitting up in the rafters trying to sleep while all the kids were yelling and throwing rocks at it. We put that to an end an got all the kids distracted with a trampoline. The dang coon didn't even move form his spot.
My brother went and dug a hole out in his field with his excavator. At this point, I was still expecting brother Jess to be the shooter. So Jess hands me a beer and tells me to load up. Since the coon was just up in the rafters and sleeping I figured that I'd just shoot him once in the head with my .22 and we'd be done. I loaded 4 rounds anyway...
So I walked up into the barn from my truck and took aim. At this point all the kids are standing down hill about 75 yards behind me watching, along with my wife, brother and his wife. I popped the coon right in the throat with the first shot, I missed. I was aiming right between his eyes. He didn't move for a split second, then the twitching started in his tail, then his arms and head. So I hit him again, in the head the round went in under this jaw and right into his brain cavity, this caused him to fall out of the rafters. Now he was ANGRY! He was just looking at me and growling, not moving much. So I stepped closer and popped him again in the fore head. That didn't do it. So I hit him again in the fore head. The little guy was still just angry. Maybe he was dead at this point, but at the time I didn't think so. Jess had walked up behind me and was watching to coon writhing in pain and glaring at us. He didn't say a word.
I walked down to my pickup and grabbed my cz75b in 9mm. It was loaded with hollow points. I walked right up and shot the coon in the right ear, the bullet when though his skull and exited in the dirt behind/under him. That made the little guy stop moving since his brain was mush.
Jess was pissed. I should have given him a chance to plug his ears I guess
Later Jess told me that he thought that the coon was just in it's "death throws" before I shot it the last three times.
I wanted to skin the little coon and maybe make some stew. But Jess didn't want to fool with it, so we buried the little guy out in the field to keep the coyotes away.
Is this pretty typical of a coon? I didn't know that they were so tough. I used mini mags since that was all I had. The 9mm was a Winchester Silver Tip. Should I have used the shotgun? Or should I have used my 44 mag carbine? SKS? 30-06?
I really really thought that my .22 rifle would have put that coon down right away, I'd say that if I had hit it in the head with my first shot it would have died, but after 3 shots to the head and one to the throat it still wasn't dead, so I just don't know.
The only other critter I ever shot before was a porcupine, and that was with my 12 gauge (00 buck) from about 3 feet away, needless to say it only took one round.
The weird thing is that Jess has two dogs. One is some kind of weird looking worthless mutt and the other is a pure bred yellow lab who likes to play with coyotes. I would figure that with dogs around the coon would not have chose that particular barn to sleep in. But maybe the lab is worthless too.
