An email from a friend of mine who lives in the deep suburbs...

I can now state unequivocally that Muzzy 125 gr. 3-blade broadheads are EXTREMELY effective medicine for raccoons when fired from a 150# crossbow.

As you will recall (Mike, I might not have included you on the original story, sorry), I've been having problems with raccoons harassing our family cat and generally loitering around on our back porch. My wife had hit one with a thrown hammer once to no avail. A couple of months ago, I shot one with a .22 but even when shooting from back inside the dining room that was too noisy for our neighborhood, and didn't feel right in terms of teaching good firearm safety.

My solution: A crossbow. A CHEAP, chinese-made 150# crossbow bought on ebay. But what to put on for arrow heads? Dave, you were right, more weight = more better.

Dave, you also advised me to get the thing sighted in before having to use it. Well, I was going to do that this weekend, but was overtaken by events.

Today at about 3:30PM, two raccoons the size of dogs were pressing their noses against the back porch glass door. I opened the door and tried to get them to run away, but they only retreated out of kicking range. "Boy, hand me my crossbow and a bolt", I told my son Alex.

The two raccoons retreated down the steps off of my back porch as I strode out with the cocked and locked crossbow. They stopped outside of "kicking range" thinking that they were safe. Wrong.

I shot the first one from a distance of about 15'. The Muzzy broadhead entered the first raccoon just above and behind the right front leg. The exit wound was just ahead of the left rear leg. He ran across the yard before laying down on the back edge of the lawn about 20 yds. away. The arrow fell out just before he collapsed. I was surprised since I thought that I had gotten good penetration on that shot. Then I looked at the bolt.

The fletching had blood all over it. The back of the bolt had blood all over it. The bolt had gone all the way through him.

The second one was tougher. He had retreated to the edge of the woods about 20 yds away. By now, full of adrenalan, I was ready to waste bolts. I fired 4 shots while discovering that the crossbow shoots very high (about 1" high at that range). Each time reaching back for another bolt from my son. Then Alex told me "Dad, this is the last arrow."

I realized that I had the raccoon equivolent of buck fever.

OK, breathe. Set up. Adjust aim point for previous misses. Squeeze. Thwack! It was a hit, but not a solid one. Time to watch where he goes.

Then it was time to go back inside for a half an hour and have a drink.

I came back out with two bolts. I found the raccoon. He was still VERY alive and VERY mad. I shot at him in the brush from about 10 yds. Missed, deflected by a branch. I shot again from a couple of steps closer. Hit, but by now I'm down to my brand X roadheads. The hit was not immediately lethal. I ran back to the house to get two recovered and/or cleaned Muzzys.

Ran back to the Ocoon and ran him through a couple of more times. Finally it was safe to recover my bolts. It seems that my first hit was through the right front leg, effectively limiting his mobility. I recovered that bolt but it was too gnawed on to be reusable. The brand x broadheads were much lighter and pretty much fell apart upon impact with anything. The Muzzy's just drilled him, effectively nailing him to the forest floor.

It was a grand day. The crossbow worked. The cat was saved from the raccoons. My son learned about hunting and tracking game. My wife is so pleased that I'll probably get lucky. It doesn't get any better than this.

Ah, life in the country.