Raccoons in the suburbs
Hey Everyone! This is my first post so please bear with me.
I moved to the Seattle area from Wisconsin a few years ago and have/had a large garden in both places. Since I was in the country my 22 rimfire handled all the pests, but now that I’m in the burbs I don’t have that luxury anymore. I bought a .177 Gamo Whisper for taking down the small pests but I now have raccoons moving in (plus the Whisper isn’t really that quiet, I usually shoot it from inside the house out a window or a door to help muffle it. My fault for assuming “whisper” meant quiet.) I don’t really like shooting at coons with the .177 – I’d rather be humane and take them down cleanly.
In my searching I found Pyramydair with their great Loudness rating. Looking at the .25s I was dismayed by how loud they all were, and was steering towards the Logun S-16X due to it’s silence. While I would prefer the additional take down power of a .25, the silence factor is more important. The visual similarities of the Logun and the AirForce rifles kept me accidentally clicking on them which eventually brought me to a blog about how to quiet them, which eventually brought me here. Phew!
So, my question is two fold. First would a Condor/Talon be an ideal choice for taking down some big raccoons? (Reading this site for a bit, the answer seems to be YES, but I was wondering if anyone has any differing views.) And second, what upgrades or packages should I be looking at? I’ve seen mentions of people making .25 conversions for the Condor. Can you still shroud these? Would I also need the rifle tuned to make it completely quiet? Approximate costs for these add-ons would be great too!
Neil
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One night my roommate woke me up yelling about something. I went out side and saw a coon on the roof tearing off shingles right at the gutter line.
My roommate was not a firearm enthusiast, to say the least, but he told me to go get my pellet rifle and kill that thing! All I had then was my Sheridan Silver Streak. I could barely see it up on the roof there so I just pointed and shot. I heard the impact but it had no effect. I went back in the house and got my Maglite had him hold it for me and lined up a head shot. He dropped like a sack of potato’s.
I don’t think the fps on a Silver Streak is all that high, but it is .20 cal though. That proved the value of a noggin shot to me.
I have to admit I thought it was funny that a total anti gun type wanted me to kill that coon when it was tearing up his roof.
Now I am married and my wife has a lever action Winchester in .45 long Colt with a nice scabbard she keeps on her horse when riding. She does not mind my rifle collection. 😀
Right now I have the Silver Streak, a Crosman Quest 1000 .177, and a Benjamin Discovery .177. I am saving up for a Talon SS .22 from Tony.
I hate waiting! 🙁
Mike
Hi All!
I just tonight got my internet back after being hit by hurricane IKE! I’m in Houston. I have to ring in on this subject. 2 weeks ago My wife told me she saw another racoon coming out of the attic. I work nights. I came hone around 3:30 am. After showering I went to the kitchen and turned on the light. I heard a crash on the back porch. When I went out to investigate I found there was a racoon in a storm damaged pecan tree in the yard behind me. I went inside and got my 25 Condor….. To shorten the story, I ended up killing 3 racoons in that tree. This was done at around 4 AM ! The shroud Tony put on my rifle was so quiet that it didn’t spook the other racoons as I dropped them one by one! And the neighbors never heard a thing!
One thing I will never do again…. Don’t put them in the trash can when trash pick up is a week away!!! YUCK!!!
My Tony built .25 Condor has a modded Talon valve and I was shooting 42 gr Eunjin pellets. So I can tell you for sure, you can take racoons with a Condor. Head shots are a must tho.
It threatened me and my family. Had to die.
Were you drunk when you wired ‘er up? 😛 😛
Lol, I’ll gladly head out there. I think the plane ticket to bring the Barmonkey along may cost a bit though 😆
After reading everything it’s sooo tempting to grab a condor and have Tony make an .25 18″ barrel and shroud for it!
freaking awesome machine there !
i belive a well placed shot from a .22 stock SS will do the trick, and with some easy mods, you can raise the power to 28-30 fpe.
dont worry about using the heaviest of heavy….kodiaks will do fine, JSB 16 grains will allso do the trick….dont use hollowpoints or predator pellets, you want penetration, so just go with a good pellet like jsb or kodiak, kodiak will produce slightly higher power than JSB…jsb will be faster though….i dont think it will much difference what you use for pellet as long as you got the power and 26 fpe a stock ss produces will be fine
That’s a CO2 powered, computer controlled Barmonkey built into a Maytag fridge. 🙂
It allows up to 45 ingredients and can pour any drink that those ingredients can make (if it’s in the database.) It also knows when an ingredient is out and hides all the associated drinks from the menu until it’s refilled.
Here is the blog of me building it. There is an entire community that makes these: http://www.barmonkey.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=209
YOU DA MAN!!!!!!
Lama; Quit shooting babys. Then again, you live in Alabama and things get stunted living in that state.
DFH; Serious Drinker can join us in Hawaii over the holidays. I suggest the far side of Kauai over Christmas as I’ll have extra bedrooms where I’m staying.
Serious; I’ve a TalonSS in .22, a Condor in .22 with an Air Hog shroud and a .25 Talon/Condor hybrid with a 24 inch barrel with an Anthony 266 shroud. If you want to stop a coon in its tracks go with a .25 Condor with a Tony front end. It’s truely devastating. In your searching please consider the lenght of the various guns with supuressors. The guns with 24 inch barrels and moderators can be a bit long. AKULA
That’s a CO2 powered, computer controlled Barmonkey built into a Maytag fridge. 🙂
It allows up to 45 ingredients and can pour any drink that those ingredients can make (if it’s in the database.) It also knows when an ingredient is out and hides all the associated drinks from the menu until it’s refilled.
Here is the blog of me building it. There is an entire community that makes these: http://www.barmonkey.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=209
Ok, I think I’m settled on the Talon SS. I’ll shoot it for awhile and see if I want the .25 upgrade. Last question – the .25 barrel replacement on Talontunes.com doesn’t include the shroud correct? And shrouds from Tony run around $200? Just trying to figure out the potential total cost.
Thanks for everyone’s help, now I just have to wait until payday 🙂
Oh wait, I lied, one more question… How do the non-lead ammo’s work in the SS? Specifically the 11 gram Hyper-Velocity ones? Not sure I want to shoot lead all over my garden. <- Note, just for plinking, I would always use the heavy lead for pest control.
Neil
OK SeriousDrinker, you gota let us in on what the hell that is?
Lol, it’s because of my hobby and my drinking machine:
In case you decide to go with the high power .25, I thought I’d post what power you can expect when you go with heavy slugs (like the 7 ring mentioned above).
Diana Magnum, 20gr, 1289 FPS, 73.8 FPE
Kodiak, 30.7gr, 1144 FPS, 89.2 FPE
Crow Magnum, 26.2gr, 1203 FPS, 84.2 FPE
Barnes 6 ring, 57.6gr, 922.1 FPS, 108.8 FPE (22% higher than the Kodiak)
7 ring, 66.9gr, 893.5 FPS, 118.6 FPE
8 ring, 72.9gr, 861.6 FPS, 120.2 FPE
9 ring, 84.6gr, 816.8 FPS, 125.4 FPE
The figures above were recorded with a gun set-up to produce power similar to a Condor like Tofazfous’. I think Tonys’ set-up is a little less powerful (I think his makes about 88FPE with a 42gr pellet).
Given that level of power, you don’t have to limit yourself to a head shot.
Someone try sitting outside a raccoon den at night sometime with an e-caller in your lap, with the woodpecker in distress call on, and you will see why remote control e-callers are so popular for calling raccoons.
Get it on video for us, as I have to admit it would be pretty funny to watch, especially if you don’t run!
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My 12lb cat wanting to take them on. She’s not the brightest…