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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LOL…. 😆 😆
WTF?!!!! How the fuck did you come up with a user name like that? 😆 😆 Looks like DFH got a new Pal. 🙂
Shoot it first before you do any mods. Then get Tony’s 88 FPE .25 Condor. You’ll stop any coon and even a coyote with a well-placed shot. I’ve killed one coyote outside Austin. It was 40 yards or so. One 42 gr EJ in the head. Boom! Down it goes. But with Tony’s shroud all you hear is a slap of the hammer. Neighbors friendly, coons deadly.
So you got your .25 all sorted out Riff?
I have yet to shoot a coon, but a few nights ago I plugged a huge porcupine with a .25 Kodiak.
He just layed over and didnt move at all. I hit him about 1/4″ behind the eye and exited just in front of the other. I was using a green laser and shot when his eye illuminated from the beam. He was walking across my driveway about 30 yards out.
This porky left some quills in my dogs nose and mouth, or I probably would have let it go.
Ive got the .25 just as quiet as the .22 and .20, I use a Blodnob stlye core and love the hell out of it. Easy to make if you have access to a lathe.
Seriousdrinker, if you want to take out large racoons cleanly as far as 150 ft, I’d go with the TalonSS with a 18″ barrel shooting Kodiaks. Try this if it doesn’t quite work out with the stock 12″ barrel. That should be all you need, and probably a bit more. It’s a great combo. You can order the barrel from Pyramid Air, I think for around $150.00. .22 cal. You’ve already gotten some good advice on how to obtain a frame extender/shroud for it. Welcome and good luck with your new gun!
EDIT: Yes, you can get a drop in .25 cal barrel from anthony266 (TalonTunes) I just got a .25 24″ barrel from him, and it’s the shit! Yes it fits right in your TSS and delivers a heck of a wallop. It really all depends on how far you wanna go…
Thanks for all the info. My max range would probably need to be ~150ft (inside the dining room to the back fence.)
Looking at the various mods, it looks like I can start with the SS and add a longer barrel/shroud later if I want? .25 barrels work on the SS too? It looks like the only difference in the Talon and Condor is the operating pressure (and associated internals?) It seems like the Condor would have much more take down potential but I would have to buy a shroud to quiet it? On the other hand, how much work would I have to do to a SS if I decided it didn’t have the power I wanted to bring it up to a Condor’s potential? I just don’t want to take the cheapest route if it would end up costing me more in the long run 🙂
I just went to talontunes.com. Drool.
Thanks for the link on how to quiet the stock SS Yellow Ninja.
I did a 8’x8′ plot of corn this year that the raccoons discovered. Our season has been so late that it’s been about 10 ears for me and 90 for the pests. I want to make sure this doesn’t happen next year 🙂
I have a stock talon ss 22 with only a mod for quieting the existing shroud. Powerfull enough to take out a coon at 150 feet. Super quiet and a heck of a lot of fun. Accurate enough to take out chipmunks at 150 feet also. The cips eat the wives flower bulbs. Eliminated 19 in the last 2 weeks.
Adam is right shoot one in the forehead once, shocked the crap out of me when I came around the shed. And he was still on his feet with a 25 cal hole in the middle of his head. Need some power but shoot placement is the key.
Put one between the ear and eye and he will go down. If you miss run like hell because he will be pissed.
thats funny i can just picture someone haulin’ ass away from a pissed of coon
I am with Ninja on this one. I recommend you shoot your gun a couple thousand rounds first. Then decide if any work needs to be done.
Put one between the ear and eye and he will go down. If you miss run like hell because he will be pissed.
And Blodnob of course, he does VERY nice work… If you want good work, cheaper than Tony, PM him.
You can an SS from Pyramidair, put a few washers in the frame from a hardware store for about $20 (turns the extended frame into a baffled shroud) and take out a Racoon no problem without your neighbors knowing for $400 (ish)…. (Plus the cost of a scuba/pump to fill it with air).
There is no need to be spending $$ on customizing these guns right away. You need that money for beer/wine/liquor !
Here’s an example of what I mean with the washers –
http://talonairgun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=134&highlight=baffling
Its all an SS needs to make it quiet enough for urban yard work.
I have a Talon SS with a 24″ .25 barrel, high flow tank/valve and heavy hammer and, it will shot 7 ring Surefire slugs through 3/4 plywood.
I also have a shroud for it and it’s a tad long with shroud 49.5″ long. It’s very Quiet.
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Ive had the .25 sorted all along, I just cant quit tinkering and keep discovering new ideas.
SeriousDrinker, don’t let this minor hi-jack throw you. Its the way we roll around here.