# Geeze, I shot 4 raccons last night



## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

We let our chickens roam during the day, then lock'em up at night, every night in a very secure pen. I always carry a pellet gun with me because hey, its fun to shoot the mice off the feeders.

Last night I went out a little later than normal to lock them up (11pm) and stepped out of the house right in the middle of a ongoing brawl. Seems a big sow was trying to teach her litter how to kill chickens, what a freaking mess, feathers everywhere. It startled both me and them and we all just stood there for a moment looking at each other when the chaos really started up. 

***** running every which way, me chasing them and trying to **** and load the stupid air rifle. Didn't see where the sow went, 4 smaller ones ran up the apple trees. Picked off 2 quickly, then did a head count on the remaining hens. Thought I was missing 2, but after rousing the family and covering the yard with flash lights we accounted for them all. 2 got mauled pretty bad, were fairly terrified but they seem ok this morning.

Noticed some apple tree limbs swaying around and found the remaining two ***** climbing around which I took care off. At that point it was nearly midnight so we called it a night and went to bed. Amusingly when I got up I noticed 3 dead ones had been hauled off in the night by the sow. She must have a nest nearby on neighbors property... I'll bet that gets fun in a day or two when those carcasses start to stink. We have a shed with a crawl space... I'm hoping she didn't stash them there in retaliation because that would be a huge PITA to get into.

Setup a live catch trap next to the coop with bread and peanut butter. The sow might return now that she knows where a free meal light be. Kindof odd as 5 or so years back we were overrun with ***** and the entire neighborhood went on the offensive killing 50 or so. We haven't seen a hint of one until last night.

But, as is... it was fairly fun in retrospect. Glad all the hens lived, I'd imagine if I stepped out 5 min later we'd have lost two for sure. 


-DallanC


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## Blackbear53 (May 13, 2016)

Try Duke's dogproof traps we are up to almost 30 on our 200 acres in the past three years.

http://www.duketraps.com/

Its right on the front page of their site


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

DallanC said:


> We let our chickens roam during the day, then lock'em up at night
> 
> -DallanC


HA! Dallan's a chicken rancher. Do you organize a roundup or do they come in from pasture by themselves?


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## CPAjeff (Dec 20, 2014)

longbow said:


> HA! Dallan's a chicken rancher. Do you organize a roundup or do they come in from pasture by themselves?


No offense Dallan, but that is some funny shiz right there!!!


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

longbow said:


> HA! Dallan's a chicken rancher. Do you organize a roundup or do they come in from pasture by themselves?


Hah, you haven't been around chickens much. You can set your watch by the time they come in to roost each night. Funny critters... we got'em to teach our kid chores and work. Love the fresh eggs.

-DallanC


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## Kwalk3 (Jun 21, 2012)

Too bad they got hauled off by the sow. I hear goob has some amazing **** recipes.;-)


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

Kwalk3 said:


> Too bad they got hauled off by the sow. I hear goob has some amazing **** recipes.;-)


Its very strange. I've killed countless '***** over the years and have never seen that behavior before.

-DallanC


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## LostLouisianian (Oct 11, 2010)

You didn't eat them...c'mon man what's wrong with you, those are GREAT eating. Those little ones would have been fork tender....man you missed a great meal.


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

LostLouisianian said:


> You didn't eat them...c'mon man what's wrong with you,


I think I still have grease under my nails from the last time I skinned a '****... 4 years ago. -O,-

:mrgreen:

-DallanC


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

LostLouisianian said:


> You didn't eat them...c'mon man what's wrong with you, those are GREAT eating. Those little ones would have been fork tender....man you missed a great meal.


Yaaak! :O>>:


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

Kwalk3 said:


> Too bad they got hauled off by the sow. I hear goob has some amazing **** recipes.;-)


I was thinking the exact same thing as I was reading the original post.


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## AF CYN (Mar 19, 2009)

So did they get in before you had a chance to secure the coop or did they find a way to break in? How did the pellet gun perform? That's big game for a Daisy. 8)


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

AF CYN said:


> So did they get in before you had a chance to secure the coop or did they find a way to break in? How did the pellet gun perform? That's big game for a Daisy. 8)


Yes, they hadnt been locked in yet.

Our coop is really secure. It even sits on 12x12" paver blocks sunk into the ground on edge to act as a foundation and keep things from tunneling under. I was walking out to lock the door on their coop when I stumbled into the bandits mid-theft. Had'em in the flashlight beam, eyeballs all over. They dropped the hen they had just drug out of the coop when I took after them, scattering in all directions. The 4 I shot ran up a couple of the nearby apple trees. It was quite the event lol.

The gun was a Rugar AirHawk (https://www.amazon.com/Ruger-Hawk-Combo-Rifle-Large/dp/B002N45PQU), it preformed ok... I'd have rather had my 22LR with me though.

-DallanC


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## highcountryfever (Aug 24, 2009)

Nice work. I just got 2 little ones this morning on the neighbors property. The sow is still at large. They got 8 chickens last week.


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## LostLouisianian (Oct 11, 2010)

Try some of the CCI "really quiet" .22LR. Very quiet and smacks anything with 50 yards doornail dead.


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## LostLouisianian (Oct 11, 2010)

I can't believe I am saying this on a public forum. Just got back from Sportsmans Warehouse off of 7200S and they had the CCI really quiet ammo in stock...Probably about 8-10 boxes of 50. These are about the same loudness as a pellet gun but shoot a 40 grain bullet. We use them for taking out varmints when noise could be an issue. They would quickly dispatch a full sized **** with a head shot within 30-50 yards.


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## bezog (Apr 29, 2015)

I've been spending too much time on the forum. Had a dream that I saw a big pair of antlers and took a shot with my bow. I was super excited...until I got up to it and it was a big raccoon with a set of antlers on its head. :shock:


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