Raccon Problem

We have a dog door that goes from our backyard to our laundry room. We feed our dogs in the laundry room and keep the food in a sealed tupperware bin. The last couple nights the bin has been tipped over and the lid pryed loose. On sunday night I heard noises and went to check them out. I opened the door quick and flipped on the light to see a big ass coon staring at me eating dog food. He wasnt scared of me at all which kind of scares me. Last night I barricaded the dog door and put a plate of dog food in the backyard below my second floor deck. I got my bow out, loaded it with a 125 grain wac em broadhead and waited for my motion sensor light to go off. I stayed up till midnight but no coon. Anyone have any ideas on taking care of this problem besides the obvious of blocking off access to the laundry room?

I dont want want raccoon running around my backyard that show no fear of humans.

Dam coogs.....

yeah, us coogs and our racoon problems

Well beer and a .22CB short to the head (the brain is tiny so shoot straight)....don't know about the Racoon problem though.smile

ha ha RvW, the jokes on you, are cougar skulls are way too thick for a .22cb.

But seriously, can a racoon be caught in a live trap? I am open to any ideas.

caught a medium sized raccoon a few years ago in a cage trap. shot it 3 times in the head with .22 cbs. all they did was piss it off. had to go back to my car and retrieve a few .22lr round. glad it was a windy day and no visitors . this was back when i worked for state parks. had about 8 coons rummaging through the dumpters. shot 2 of them and gassed another in a trash can.

then ya got to get rid of it

Thanks SC, I am glad I decided to use broadheads instead of my field points if they are that tough.

Got one once in a camp ground with a framing hammer..did not seem so tough.

I agree with this method, but advocate the use of a 'bigger hammer.'

Good idea.

Fur hats are "in" this winter.

Have-a-heart trap, maybe $60. Works well. We HAD a raccoon problem during the house building project, but bit by bit they went away. Also trapped every neighborhood cat more than once, and the neighbor's bulldog at least a half a dozen times.

We relocated our raccoons.

Personal preference would be the .22 headache to cull the local population, but your local animal shelter will likely have live traps they will let you have for a day or three. Give the little bandit a free trip out to the country.

I know a guy who shot one with his bow on his backporch with a broadhead and the dam thing ran off. Perfect shot, shishkabobbed it with a 75lb bow at 20yds and still didn't pass through Not a good idea to have coon's running around the neighborhood with arrows stuck in em. Especially when your the only guy in the hood with animals on the wall and a house full of huntin stuff. I will trap them from now on.

That is my fear, my hope is that since I will be shooting off my second story deck down at the coon that it will stick it to the ground, but It might not be worth the risk. The animal shelter live traps might be the ticket.

I think I have a couple of carp arrows around.
instant pet raccoon on a leash. 700 to 1000 gns of solid fiberglass. Its going threw


Ok maybe the live trap. Be careful letting it go

I have a carp arrow setup, I dont really think I want raccoon on a rope.

Get a bigger f'n dog, should solve the problem.

I had a similar problem about 3 years ago, only mine was on the back deck and they were trying to chew threw the rubbermaid that the dog food was stored in. Heard it out there, flipped on the porch light and it just looked around and went back to chewing on the bin. Threw open the door and let the 85lb doberman out with me as backup. Coon chose to hit the tree instead of trying to make the fence 20 yds away (good thing cause it wouldn't have made it and that wouldn't have been good for anybody), went up the tree about 50' and hasn't been seen since. It might help that I explained to it that next time it would be dead.

Live trap is probably your best option if your dog won't solve the problem. Be prepared to trap a few of them though, they seldom operate alone. . . . and as said before, be careful when you let them out, they can be mean little bastards ! !

I have never killed a coon with one shot, from a shotgun no less.....tough bastages. I would think in this weather that they would waltz right into a have a heart trap......you can borrow mine if'n ya want to blow the gas! Sounds like you need to invest in one anyway!

Good luck, NOFISH

We hunted coons for years with hound dogs. Was a ton of fun!

Anyhow, a 12 gauge with lead 6's get's the job done pretty quickly on the 15-20 pounders. But if you're dealing with a 30+ pounder, them suckers are mean as I've ever seen. I've watched them fall out of the tree alive and absolutely kick the [censored] out of a 80 pound hound dog. They'll chew the dogs nose off if you're not quick enough.

Here's what I would do....

Get that sumbiatch to come back into your laundry room and go heads up with that sucker... Go barbaric on his ass. Get your baseball bat out and tater that dude right between the eyes.

Or if it scares you too much then just live trap him....

Keith

Yes a live trap works really well. I had a problem with them, and used a live trap and relocated them. Just make sure if you are using a live trap it is strong enough to hold them. I had a couple tear the hell out of that trap, and now it isn't worth using for coons anymore. Also a bigger dog does seem to help? And a .22 with hollow points work really well if you want to dispatch them also. Good luck I hate coons!
Buck

+1

I like Coon's and they liked our Koi pond growing up. We would wake up some nights and find 5-6 of them all around the pond section trying for a meal of pretty carps.

My dad and I started live trapping them and releasing them by Phantom Lake in bellevue, about 5 miles away from where I grew up. Coons and Possums sure get pissed off stuck in a live trap! We also took inventory of every cat in the neighborhood in the process, and a couple of those got re-located too

We've got a small farm next to us. Lots of sheep and a few head of cattle. Add a bird feeder on our side of the fence. Lots of grain and seed to attract them little bandits. We also have a 65# pit bull that loves 'coon chasin'. She attains muzzle velocity from an open front door. Makes for some interesting drag racing and sounds from the darkness....

7.62x39 JHP does the trick w/o need for follow ups.

.22 caliber is for kitty cats.

Where did you dig the ditch with the back hoe?

Coug
I've got two hockey sticks. I will loan you one of them.

My wife got a couple of outside cats and now we have coon problems too. They come right to the french doors on our deck and stare at us watching TV.

I nailed one right on the brain with a big rock, and it just shook its head, ran into the brush and came back begging 5 minutes later.

I am going to borrow a have-a-heart from buddy, and relocate them somewhere near the river, really close to the river.

Fixed that for you.

It's what *I* would do.

Problem solved.

I think that would work, I actually was going to try my muzzle loader on one, but my wife didn't want the kids waking up from the sound.

you and your Hockey sticks , I have a seal bomb I could let you have

Hockey stick for a seal bomb....deal.
Oh wait for the racoon. That sounds like fun too. I did that to an opposum in college. Not pretty.

I have two labs 110lbs, and 80lbs. They would love to try and take care of the problem but I cant afford a big vet bill. Every morning they are pissed when I let them out cause they can smell that something has been in their domain.

I agree Have a heart_coons are Gods creatures__live trap them___then take them out to the Sound and go Crabbin. Where do you think Coon Shrimp come from Bubba

I found one that entered the house via a cat door and wandered in and out of the basement. I fed it outside (dog food) and it became about the greatest guy you ever saw. He stayed about 4 years, never caused any problems, but was poisoned by my neighbor.
I hear that that they can be problems, but not the one at my place.

I trapped 19 of them off my deck in a box trap in a year's time.
Dropped them off near the country club on my way to work 20 miles away.
They're eatin goooood now!

huntncoug there is not a coon out there alive that is afraid of humans. they are the only wild animal that we see that won't run. they just don't fear humans. thier all that way. here in camas the coons are in everybody's yards. have you tried a heavy rock so the bugger can't push the food bin over?

That was my coug answer. I told him to sit in his basement with some beers and a 22. Let him have it when he pokes his head through the doggy door.

That was my other advice. How big of a trap do you need? I tried one of the smaller have-a-heart traps when I had a similar problem and was pretty unsuccessful.

its getting expensive to buy enough beer to drink while waiting for these coons to follow my bait so I can get a shot with my bow. It might be cheaper to buy a live trap. My neighbor whos house is right behind my dog door is a Sargeant with the Seattle PD, I really dont want to send any kind of bullets into his house.

Btw, I am setting up my trap right now.

No coons yet, I wonder if they lay low when it is this cold?

They will hunker down some when it is cold, but like deer they need to eat more when it is cold too so they will move to eat. Try putting an open can of tuna in the trap, smell might draw them in quicker (might get a cat quicker too though).

Hopefully we don't see your house in the background on KING 5 with Jim Foreman interviewing the 5 yr old girl that found an arrow in the side of a coon

Get that seal bomb and duct tape it to the arrow first.

I love this thread

After you catch the coon in the trap, throw a tarp over the trap, run a vac hose from your rig's exhaust, shove it under the tarp and after a few minutes of idling, problem solved. They're a lot easier to relocate when the fight's gone out of them.

My next door neighbor is a Sargent with the Seattle PD and has an 8 year old daughter. He is an avid hunter, and is having the same coon trouble that I am. If his daughter found a coon with an arrow sticking out of it I would probably get my arrow back and a case of beer.

Feed them on a schedule, put your last supper tray out after dark and pull it before you go to bed. Let them get used to it for a week or two and then start knocking them off like carnival ducks. Keep it about 10 yards from where you plan to sit. If you can put a flood light on the feeding station all the better. Harvesting them with a bow is easy, make your station directional so they have to come into it facing you. Here's a little tip, when they come into your station let them take a bite or two, come to full draw and aim just above the coons head, now whistle. The coon will stand up on its hind legs to see what the noise is exsposing it's vitals to you where you are already aiming. Should be easy from there, typically it's a short trip on their back and done. Happy hunting...

Thanks hatch, sounds like youve done it before.

Nice tutorial Hatch. I could see that whole program rollin in my minds eye.
I fooled around one time camping up on the peninsula, and my buddy and I tried to get a coon on a string. Light twine made into a small lasso type of deal. We'd lure 'em in with marshmallows, and eventually caught one by it's hind leg. It was a pretty big one too. Not that smart really....You should see how violent them become when they get snared. Still makes me giggle 15 years later.

Neighbor traps, then gases them in his fish cooler-effective.
Had a mom and a few babies in the yard one day. The mom took off and left the young ones behind. Talk about a mean ferbie! Decided a net would get the job done:

They got a little hose down and took off running.

That's not a proper C&R net. . . I'm assuming you kept that one and marked it on your card. . . .