If you have a wounded opossum, groundhog, raccoon, feral cat, etc. at your farm that clearly needs to be put out of its suffering, what do you use? I am not knowledgeable about firearms and would have to start at Square 1. Is there humane gun expressly for this purpose?
I use a .22 pistol. Works fine for injured smaller animals.
2 Likes
We use a 22 pellet gun. You can buy them on Amazon or at a sporting goods store.
Luckily haven’t faced that problem.
I’ve used a .22 riffle and 410 shotgun. The .22 for smaller things, the 410 for slightly bigger things. You need better aim with the .22. Neither one has much kick, my 10 yr old (at the time) was willing and able to fire them.
2 Likes
.22 but make sure you buy hollow point ammo. I use a target pistol.
I use a .22 rifle with short hollow point bullets.
Depressing topic, but there’s guidance on exactly what to do (I asked my vet about it once in relation to horses) https://vetmed.iastate.edu/sites/default/files/vdpam/Extension/Dairy/Programs/Humane%20Euthanasia/Download%20Files/EuthanasiaBrochure20130128.pdf
1 Like
.22 rifle. Not sure why you’d spend money on hollow points for a raccoon, possum etc. Aim for the head—you want a head shot. It’s the most humane way to drop them. With a pistol, you need to be closer, so it kind of depends on how close you can get without antagonizing them or stressing them more.
We too use a .22 for this.
OP, if you have no gun experience at all please look into classes. Not on how to kill things, but on how to safely and correctly handle your firearm.
9 Likes
For animals that size I use the air rifle / pellet gun. Note that the creature is in a wire cage trap and the shot is from inches away at most.
Pretty sure it is this one: https://www.amazon.com/Gamo-6110017154-Varmint-Rifle-177/dp/B01APG0SXW?th=1
I’ve removed the scope as I never use it that way. I have never tried dispatching a creature from a distance, I haven’t practiced enough to be sure of my aim and not just wounding it and making things worse.
Please be aware that they will have quite a lot of movement even if you’ve delivered a kill shot. I hate dispatching raccoons for this reason - they seem to have more of a “death dance” than other animals.
1 Like
I’m usually shooting them in a live trap, so closer distance. I’ve accidentally bought non hollow point ammo and the animals didn’t die as quickly. It’s also sometimes harder to get a precise head shot as I’m working around the wire mesh and the trap door.
I typically use vinegar and baking soasa in a storage tote for cat and smaller sized animals, I put a cookie sheet in so the animal is not wet in its last moments, but it is a humane in expensive way to euthanize smaller animals. The mixture creates co2 which is heavier than air so anything in the tub just goes to sleep and never wakes up. Obviously this would not work well on a pissed of Raccoon, but for many smaller animals that are on their way out it works great.
On smaller animals a firearm is difficult to place a single lethal shot, just my opinion I don’t like to use even a really powerful air gun on anything larger than a rabbit, even then at basically point blank range
Personally, I would never use vinegar and baking soda; suffocation isn’t humane in my book.
Small animal dispatch was the reason I got my own .22 rifle last year or the year before, it works very well. I would kind of like to have a .22 pistol as well though, sometimes a closer range is better.
I’ve noticed that if I can get a second good head shot in quickly it often stops the huge movement, but it’s hard when they’re bucking like that.
4 Likes
Every time I’ve had to do it, the first move of their death dance is to dive their head, and I’m not fast enough to get the second in.
It’s a necessary part of rural/semi rural living, but god does it suck as an animal lover.
4 Likes
Ah, the 'possum death roll. It’s actually a good thing as it means you’ve taken out the central nervous system. I hate it when they don’t do the death roll. It means I’ve missed the brain and have to shoot again. I like it to be quick.
I did once put a possum down with carbon monoxide. He was in a trap and I put the trap in my shed, turned on the mower and closed the door for a bit. Not sure which method is more humane.
we use a .22 long rifle. Super easy to use, inexpensive, and immediately dispatches animals up to large raccoon size (the raccoons here easily hit 30-35lb), assuming a carefully placed shot through the skull.
Have never had the need to use it on anything larger, but I’m not sure the .22 cartridge is big enough to kill a larger animal in one shot / quickly.
A couple of thoughts that are obvious but should be said. First, check your state laws! In my state for example, if you don’t already have a pistol permit, you have to get a long gun permit for a .22 rifle or any other rifle/shotgun. Obviously that varies by state.
Unless you are familiar with guns, even a .22 rifle can be uncomfortable to use. Unlike a handgun, rifles aren’t nearly as reflexively comfortable to pick up and aim accurately. It took me a while to figure out how to correctly sight a .22 (I’m cross hand/eye dominant)
Lastly, do not underestimate the lowly .22 round. Correctly aimed you can take a whitetail deer with it. I do not recommend that, but it can be done by a marksman with the perfect shot angle. Which means, it is just as possible to injure or kill a person with it as any other type of gun.
The best firearm I’ve seen for the job is a .22. long barrel handgun, very accurate, not a very common type of firearm though!
1 Like
On what wild animals have you tried this?
Sorry, but I’m not going to pick up an injured raccoon and try to shove it into a storage tote.
Of course I don’t want animals to suffer needlessly, but in this kind of instance a whack with a shovel would be safer for me if I couldn’t shoot it. Or, I would let it die without ,my intervention. As much as we don’t want to see suffering, wild animals have their own life/death cycle that doesn’t really require our assistance. And getting bitten is not helpful to anyone.
1 Like
