Josh Smith
07-27-2009, 10:33 PM
Killed a raccoon today.
I was getting my dog, Nikki, in the Blazer for a ride to the vet. She saw this thing in the yard at around 2pm in the afternoon and took after it.
It tried to lumber to a tree and climb, but it wasn't quick enough. Actually it was acting a bit sick. Maybe just full of apples and birdseed. But it was awfully skinny too. So I dunno.
Nikki jumped up, grabbed it by the tail and flung it to the ground. It took off and Nikki took off after it.
I ran up, don't remember drawing, but pumped four LRN rounds into it. These were not my lightly loaded 'coon killers, but rather 230gn LRN Lee tumble lube bullets (slight shoulder) over 5.2gn of Bullseye - a relatively stiff load. Nikki of course ran, being a bit gun shy when it comes to pistols (no problems with the .22 anymore though, so I let her tree squirrels for me when I'm stalking instead of still hunting).
After we got back from the vet's, I called up the game warden and reported the taking of the critter out of season, relayed that it wasn't acting like a healthy 'coon, and asked how I should dispose of it. They wanted me to bury it. All was well and good on that front.
However, I decided to do a quick exam before pitching it.
Because it may have been sick, I didn't do any cutting. Rather I double gloved and used sticks as probes, and used my other hand to work the camera.
With some work, I found three of four hits. I am not sure I hit it the fourth time; I was shooting very quickly, but the first three were right on target so I'm not sure I didn't miss something. Wasps had already found the body and I was being swarmed a bit, so that didn't help my concentration.
As I said, I used sticks as probes to try to find exit wounds. There were none - and that really surprised the heck out of me, because I know these loads are powerful. They will run the length of five milk jugs and still have enough power to knock over a decent sized log put there as a primary backstop to try to get them to stop.
However, each probe I put in was stopped on the far side. Granted, this was probably caused by the fact that the 'coon was laying on its back on hard packed earth and the bullets just shored up on the far side. In other words, I was shooting into the ground through the 'coon.
But what got me was the skull hit. There was a nice .45 caliber entrance wound in the skull with no exit wound. A probe came up against what felt like the bullet.
This was a relatively small animal too, as far as raccoons go.
I'm both puzzled and impressed. The critter didn't even twitch. Nikki hadn't really touched it, so I'm pretty sure the thing either died from fright or lead poisoning. However, after I shot it, it didn't even twitch like most will if shot in the head. Neither did it release its bowels. Strange.
If I did it again, I'd probably slice into the critter and see what was going on. The ones I've taken with the .22LR all had exit wounds. I'm having a hard time believing that the .22LR penetrates more than a fairly hot .45acp.
Bullets do really strange things...
Josh <><
I was getting my dog, Nikki, in the Blazer for a ride to the vet. She saw this thing in the yard at around 2pm in the afternoon and took after it.
It tried to lumber to a tree and climb, but it wasn't quick enough. Actually it was acting a bit sick. Maybe just full of apples and birdseed. But it was awfully skinny too. So I dunno.
Nikki jumped up, grabbed it by the tail and flung it to the ground. It took off and Nikki took off after it.
I ran up, don't remember drawing, but pumped four LRN rounds into it. These were not my lightly loaded 'coon killers, but rather 230gn LRN Lee tumble lube bullets (slight shoulder) over 5.2gn of Bullseye - a relatively stiff load. Nikki of course ran, being a bit gun shy when it comes to pistols (no problems with the .22 anymore though, so I let her tree squirrels for me when I'm stalking instead of still hunting).
After we got back from the vet's, I called up the game warden and reported the taking of the critter out of season, relayed that it wasn't acting like a healthy 'coon, and asked how I should dispose of it. They wanted me to bury it. All was well and good on that front.
However, I decided to do a quick exam before pitching it.
Because it may have been sick, I didn't do any cutting. Rather I double gloved and used sticks as probes, and used my other hand to work the camera.
With some work, I found three of four hits. I am not sure I hit it the fourth time; I was shooting very quickly, but the first three were right on target so I'm not sure I didn't miss something. Wasps had already found the body and I was being swarmed a bit, so that didn't help my concentration.
As I said, I used sticks as probes to try to find exit wounds. There were none - and that really surprised the heck out of me, because I know these loads are powerful. They will run the length of five milk jugs and still have enough power to knock over a decent sized log put there as a primary backstop to try to get them to stop.
However, each probe I put in was stopped on the far side. Granted, this was probably caused by the fact that the 'coon was laying on its back on hard packed earth and the bullets just shored up on the far side. In other words, I was shooting into the ground through the 'coon.
But what got me was the skull hit. There was a nice .45 caliber entrance wound in the skull with no exit wound. A probe came up against what felt like the bullet.
This was a relatively small animal too, as far as raccoons go.
I'm both puzzled and impressed. The critter didn't even twitch. Nikki hadn't really touched it, so I'm pretty sure the thing either died from fright or lead poisoning. However, after I shot it, it didn't even twitch like most will if shot in the head. Neither did it release its bowels. Strange.
If I did it again, I'd probably slice into the critter and see what was going on. The ones I've taken with the .22LR all had exit wounds. I'm having a hard time believing that the .22LR penetrates more than a fairly hot .45acp.
Bullets do really strange things...
Josh <><