I’m new to air rifles but not new to shooting/hunting however raccoons are giving me a hell of a problem. I got the Benjamin trail np xl in 25 cal at the suggestion of air gun depot and am shooting jsb exact king heavy pellets at 33gr. I’ve cleanly dropped 2 possums with vital shots but raccoons are giving me some trouble. The first coon I took a clean shot to its lungs from about 20 yds and it dropped instantly, after about 5 seconds it got life back in it and scooted away faster than I could reload and take a follow on shot. I’m confident it’s dead but I’d prefer a clean kill… so I decided head shots only from now on. I had a coon tonight inside of 20 yds, put a clean shot at the top of its head (shooting down on it) and it didn’t even drop, just grunted and scurried into a bamboo thicket. Is there a sweet spot to hit on raccoons OR should I look to swap out pellets or to a different rifle?
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Raccoon- Benjamin Trail NP XL
- Thread starter Pesterblaster3000
- Start date
At 20 yard if you have at least 40 fpe and hit the skull at nearly 90 degrees hitting the brain it should drop like a rock and then do a death dance for 20 sec to over 1 min. spewing blood all over the place. With good shot placement even 25 fpe should be fine. The more fpe the greater the margin of error you have for shot placement. Their head can move as you are squeezing the trigger leading the shot not going where you intended. Best to use bait so they stick around for many minutes while you study their eating pattern before taking the shot.
I looked for a review of your gun.
www.airgunnation.com
I seems that it only does about 25 fpe with the lighter kings 24g pellets. So I'm guess the fpe with the 34g is even less. I would use the kings and only shoot if you have an angle of between 75 to 105 degrees to the skull where pellet will continue on to the brain. Limit your shots to your 20 yards and don't ever use it for lung, or heart shots, too weak.
Ideally you would get at 40+ fpe .25 to do the job with less shot restrictions. Hell get a .357 and you can do lung shots, but it still will walk some distance before termination. So if you don't want it in your neighbor's backyard, stick to brain shots.
I looked for a review of your gun.
Bought a Benjamin Trail NP XL725
A new .25 caliber that really needs a shorter name than Crosman Benjamin Trail NP XL725. Nice toasty colored wood stock with the Cochise thumbhole I like. Blued steel barrel shroud gives it more of that magnum look. Ventilated butt pad is nicely capped as well. Checkered pistol grip feels good...
www.airgunnation.com I seems that it only does about 25 fpe with the lighter kings 24g pellets. So I'm guess the fpe with the 34g is even less. I would use the kings and only shoot if you have an angle of between 75 to 105 degrees to the skull where pellet will continue on to the brain. Limit your shots to your 20 yards and don't ever use it for lung, or heart shots, too weak.
Ideally you would get at 40+ fpe .25 to do the job with less shot restrictions. Hell get a .357 and you can do lung shots, but it still will walk some distance before termination. So if you don't want it in your neighbor's backyard, stick to brain shots.
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From what I remember from owning that model of airgun, it wasn't particularly accurate. Most likely because of the very heavy and gritty trigger mine had, in combination with the low quality bundled scope. Because of the lack of power you're shooting that 34gr pellet at quite the arc. Combine that with shooting at extreme angles (like shooting straight down like you said), hitting in the right spot can be challenging.
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Thanks, definitely not a 90 maybe more of a 60-75. Shooting from 15 ft out a garage loft window. Last night’s bait was marshmallow. I had time to a well placed shot and these things move so slow I can see them travel. I hit where I had wanted. I’ll try some other pellets out.At 20 yard if you have at least 40 fpe and hit the skull at nearly 90 degrees hitting the brain it should drop like a rock and then do a death dance for 20 sec to over 1 min. spewing blood all over the place. With good shot placement even 25 fpe should be fine. The more fpe the greater the margin of error you have for shot placement. Their head can move as you are squeezing the trigger leading the shot not going where you intended. Best to use bait so they stick around for many minutes while you study their eating pattern before taking the shot.
I looked for a review of your gun.
Bought a Benjamin Trail NP XL725
A new .25 caliber that really needs a shorter name than Crosman Benjamin Trail NP XL725. Nice toasty colored wood stock with the Cochise thumbhole I like. Blued steel barrel shroud gives it more of that magnum look. Ventilated butt pad is nicely capped as well. Checkered pistol grip feels good...
I seems that it only does about 25 fpe with the lighter kings 24g pellets. So I'm guess the fpe with the 34g is even less. I would use the kings and only shoot if you have an angle of between 75 to 105 degrees to the skull where pellet will continue on to the brain. Limit your shots to your 20 yards and don't ever use it for lung, or heart shots, too weak.
Ideally you would get at 40+ fpe .25 to do the job with less shot restrictions. Hell get a .357 and you can do lung shots, but it still will walk some distance before termination. So if you don't want it in your neighbor's backyard, stick to brain shots.
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Mine is pretty accurate out to about 35-40 yds. I haven’t tried beyond that. I can consistently hit my little spinners in the 20-30 yard range. That area is generally where I’ll look to get possums/coons. I’ll try some different pellets. Any recommendations?
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Oh and “good shot placement” that’s a subjective term.. in your opinion what is the ideal location? T-box, behind an ear, through an eye, back of head, etc. thanks!
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I took 5 out of a tree at 20 yds with my S510 .22 tuned to 16 - 18 fpe with jsb pellets. All head shots all dropped dead. Good shot placement as you say is key. Raccoons have hard skulls and the skull is shaped in a way that can deflect shots. The lower the power the more you need to focus on a shot between the eye and ear and try to avoid angled shots. Higher power can work on most angles but still need to be careful of the position of the head and if you are hitting a thicker angled part of the skull.
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Good shot placement is not a subjective term. Behind an ear? If they are side profile thats too far back. If the head is angled away from you and the path of the bullet will hit the brain stem then ya that would be a good shot. Not subjective at all. As another poster said look up raccoon anatomy and study how the brain is located within its skull and how that changes based on head position for where you should be aiming.
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I've only killed one small raccoon, it weighed 8 lbs on my fishing scale. I used a 32 fpe 22 caliber PCP. It took 3 shots. It would probably have died from the second shot that went between it's eyes but while it went down immediately it was not obviously expired so I gave it another. The first shot went into the chest and got it's attention but it did not seem to want to die any time soon.
So my conclusion is I need more power. I have a 50 fpe 25 caliber which should do significantly better.
I don't know exactly what power level your break barrel is producing but it seems like it may be less than the 22 I used. That would mean less penetration. I would try shooting through 3/4 plywood to see whether a lighter or heavier pellet will give you the most penetration in a hard material somewhat like a skull. I know my 32 fpe 22 will not go through 3/4 but my 50 fpe 25 will. I would definitely go for head shots if you have about 30 fpe or less.
So my conclusion is I need more power. I have a 50 fpe 25 caliber which should do significantly better.
I don't know exactly what power level your break barrel is producing but it seems like it may be less than the 22 I used. That would mean less penetration. I would try shooting through 3/4 plywood to see whether a lighter or heavier pellet will give you the most penetration in a hard material somewhat like a skull. I know my 32 fpe 22 will not go through 3/4 but my 50 fpe 25 will. I would definitely go for head shots if you have about 30 fpe or less.
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Problem with springers and precision one time hunting shots is that they are tricky,...yeas springers can be accurate but more often then not that one cold shots lands in a different place to where you had your crosshairs.
Honestly, get yourself a PCP even a cheap one that with an Amazon pump would equal the price of the Trail and your success rate will improve dramaticly,...and if you wanna go brain shots get a .22
Honestly, get yourself a PCP even a cheap one that with an Amazon pump would equal the price of the Trail and your success rate will improve dramaticly,...and if you wanna go brain shots get a .22
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As an example, my 25 caliber Avenger will easily shoot at 45 fpe, maybe 50 or more. I bought mine early when they were still $300 but they are only $350 now. So for a little over $400 you can have an inexpensive pump and a PCP powerful enough in my estimation to take even a large raccoon. If you look a little you can fine people air shooting good sized hogs with it. It is also easy to shoot accurately. I used a cheap handpump with my Avenger initially. It will work. If you only hunt with it you won't need to pump it very often. It should hold air indefinitely. I shoot 25 grain FX in mine and have shot them as high as 930 fps. Regulator was not maxed out at that point. I think I was at 2200 psi and you can go to 2900. So with 34 grain you should be able to get to 50 fpe or a little more. Even the 25s would shoot through 3/4 plywood doing over 900 fps. It's a myth that PCP are too complicated or expensive.
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Here's a shot string from my Origin. 25 cal no reg . Easy to pump as well . Using 32 grain HN slugs for the shot string.
The 605 fps was a glitch. In between shots it just said 605 . Odd.
The 605 fps was a glitch. In between shots it just said 605 . Odd.
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my only experience with raccoons and air rifles was a few years back, probably close to 5 years ago at this point. I have 2 raccoons in my yard, chased 1 up a tree and took a headshot with my gamo silent cat, I know it was a headshot because that's all that was showing from behind the tree. the raccoon fell 30 feet out of the Tree, got up, and started running away, I shot that animal another 3 times in the chest as it was running off and I never saw it again after that. needless to say, I wasn't very happy with that and I never shot a raccoon after that. I have more powerful and more accurate guns now so maybe I would give it a shot (pun intended) but for sure it takes a lot of energy to humanely drop a raccoon.
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And what exactly is " a lot of energy " ?
...also, a Headshot is not necessarily a Brain shot, then you have to take into consideration angles and slants so just shooting in the general direction of the head isn't exactly a good idea, then you put the spinger into the equation and yes the crosshairs might have been on target but the pellet could have landed anywhere
And question:
How did you shoot a running racoon 3 times in the chest while he was running....and with a springer ?
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I have a Remington 725 VTR, a cousin of sorts to the Trail XL 725 (same powerplant/barrel assembly but in a synthetic stock). These airguns are on the lower end of the power spectrum, as far as .25cal pellet guns go. My example generates a very consistent 28fpe with 25.4gr JSB's (708fps +/- 3 or 4fps), which is fairly healthy for the platform. While 28fpe is nothing to sneeze at, you don't get the same amounts of penetration in .25cal than you get with .22cal at similar energies. As mentioned several times you have to ensure proper placement, because at these power levels you're slightly disadvantaged with a .25cal, although I'm not saying it's impossible. Personally, I'd try switching pellets, either get the H&N (hunting?) sampler or a tin of H&N Hornets, a tin of H&N Barracuda Green and a tin of FTT's. All of these are lighter and "harder" than the JSB 33gr, which may be useful for your situation (faster and less deformation on impact). Use whichever delivers the best accuracy and keep the ranges as short as possible, say inside of 15 or maybe 20 yards max. If possible, get or barrow a chrony if you don't have one already. It's always good to know how your particular gun is doing, you can't always rely on the performance others are getting.
If things don't go well your next outing, get something capable of more power (if staying with a .25) and with better accuracy. Maybe consider a larger caliber pcp that could handle racoons without too much issue and be much more flexible in the quarry you can take (like a Seneca Recluse?). I know some have taken racoons with much less, but they have had lots of experience in doing so. Lastly, that Trail XL makes for an excellent squirrel rifle, so definitely worth keeping around.
If things don't go well your next outing, get something capable of more power (if staying with a .25) and with better accuracy. Maybe consider a larger caliber pcp that could handle racoons without too much issue and be much more flexible in the quarry you can take (like a Seneca Recluse?). I know some have taken racoons with much less, but they have had lots of experience in doing so. Lastly, that Trail XL makes for an excellent squirrel rifle, so definitely worth keeping around.
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I have the same rifle in 22 and put down a handful of coons with 18 gr. pellets, sometimes needing a follow up. Of course, shot placement is key. Now, with the impact M3, 50 foot pounds on tap, and the ability to place a 25 grain in the ear at 30 yards it almost seems like cheating. They don’t know what hit them until it hits them and then they don’t know anything at all. Precision telesurgery is really fun!
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I’ve shot around 25 or so raccoons in the past few years and had the most success using headshots.
I’ve used lung shots a few times with my .30 Crown which makes 78 fpe and the raccoon always ran off, but died within 20 yards.
The suggestion of checking into the anatomy of the skull is an excellent idea.
And the suggestion of getting a cheap PCP is a great idea in my opinion.
It’s much easier to put the pellet on a dime at 20 yards with a PCP than with a springers first shot.
And with the PCP you get quicker follow up shots too.
In my experience it’s also important to have a bait station set up to get the exact range.
Practice in daylight and when the raccoon shows up you will know exactly where the pellet is going to hit.
My bait station is a couple cinder blocks stacked up with some wet cat food underneath the blocks and some dry cat food spread around the blocks.
A PCP will be a much better choice in my opinion.
And now you have a solid excuse to get another rifle, I mean “tool” to deal with a problem.
I’ve used lung shots a few times with my .30 Crown which makes 78 fpe and the raccoon always ran off, but died within 20 yards.
The suggestion of checking into the anatomy of the skull is an excellent idea.
And the suggestion of getting a cheap PCP is a great idea in my opinion.
It’s much easier to put the pellet on a dime at 20 yards with a PCP than with a springers first shot.
And with the PCP you get quicker follow up shots too.
In my experience it’s also important to have a bait station set up to get the exact range.
Practice in daylight and when the raccoon shows up you will know exactly where the pellet is going to hit.
My bait station is a couple cinder blocks stacked up with some wet cat food underneath the blocks and some dry cat food spread around the blocks.
A PCP will be a much better choice in my opinion.
And now you have a solid excuse to get another rifle, I mean “tool” to deal with a problem.
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