coon quintet

So I was sitting at home browsing on the computer when my phone starts ringing. A quick glance and the ID was Adrian my son. Well its 8 pm here and dark so I figured something was up cause we dont converse on the phone much we usually text or talk in person ( I dont care to talk on the phone). I answer the phone and he says I have three coons in my tree looking at me and they have been beating up our cats. He asks: do you think I could shoot them with my shotgun? He lives close to town but hes on the county side of the line but hes less than 50 yds from the edge of city limit line and has allot of houses in the area. He had a large open field to shoot towards but not the best solution. So I said no better not you have to many neighbors and someone will no doubt make a call to the cops. Even if it was legal to discharge he wouldnt make any friends that late with such a loud gun. I asked him why he dont use his talon and he replied: I am out of air I said hold on I will be there in five minutes.

So I grabbed the necessary equipment: My high power light, AA S510 .22 and the .25 Mrod just in case my S510 is regulated to 15.5 fpe with 16 gr. JSB and I know that it will cleanly do the job but this isnt an ordinary pest removal. There are multiple coons and they are in a tree so who knows what will happen when the first one gets nailed and I wasnt real sure if I would get a clear shot thru the branches. Five minutes later I am standing there looking at a ball of coons in the top of a tree. My son stayed under the tree with a flash light keeping them treed so he got extra credit for doing it right I handed him my bright light as I set up the S510 25 yds away on an apple tree for support.

For anyone who has never shot at a coon in a tree when its dark while it knows its in trouble it sounds like an easy thing to do but its not quite that simple. As I figured there were branches all over the place and the coons were agitated and moving their heads around. Finally one lifts its head up and looks towards the neighbors house giving me a good side shot between the eye and ear. I squeeze the trigger and coon number one drops out of the tree. A quick look to be sure its doing the dance and not trying to run and I am on coon number two. Again they are bobbing their heads around but coon two makes the mistake of looking down at the first one giving me another perfect side profile shot. I again squeeze the trigger and coon number 2 drops out of the tree like an oversized apple Quick look and its obvious hes not going anywhere and its another clean kill.


Coon number three was a little different as he was getting more agitated after two getting dropped. It looks to be the large male and hes not cooperating and the only shot he keeps giving me is straight on. Not the shot I want but as I looked thru the scope I thought he lowered his head giving me a shot thru the top so I squeezed the trigger and heard the pellet smack. Well he didnt drop and I could tell he was hit but not solid and he was kinda kicking to try and get out of the tree. I can only guess that either he wasnt looking down and the pellet was deflected off his skull or he was looking down and the pellet clipped a branch deflecting it causing a hit to the side of the brain cavity not thru it. It was about a ten second moment of thinking I gotta get a clean hit on him to end it and feeling that little rush to get it done before things get worse and he suffers longer. That ten seconds felt like five minutes but he tossed his head side ways and I landed one between the eye and ear and down he dropped. Finally he was hit solid and not going anywhere.

My son thought there were three in the tree so when there was still one sitting up there he was surprised and so was I. I lined up and waited for a clean shot and when he looked side ways I drilled him in the same spot as the others. He didnt fall but I could tell he was doing the dance in the tree and was just stuck in the crotch of two big limbs. Then I seen another head looking around I told my son to keep the light there so I could get the last one. By now the fourth one had kicked himself out of the tree and was indeed hit solid and he was laying dead. I got lined up on the fifth coon and finished the task with another solid hit dropping him/her from the tree with a solid thud. Not bad for five coons agitated in the top of a tree in the dark with 15.5 fpe at my disposal If I wouldnt have botched the third shot they would have all cleanly went down with a single shot at 25 yds.

Heres a couple pics of all five coons as they lay when they hit the ground.