cg, i have a problem with them here. i do live in the stick's how ever and for the most part when i see them the 3 s's come in to play. the local animal control officer is my wife's aunt and she told me do to the amount of cat's they get they don't normaly waste time or money on the feed for them. they just gas them, so she told me to just take care of them my way. but i will admit they do get some what smart after one or two get's poped you don't see them to much during the sun come's up till it go's down. and since the area i live in is more in the wood's but yet i still do have a few house's close by, and if they hear a shot after dark most of them think pocher's and make a call. so shooting at night is out for the most part. i do however have a few trick's that i do, that i will share with you.
normaly i just use a 22lr one round between the eye and all 9 live's are spent. for a night time shot i go to the local mini mart and buy a couple 20oz bottel's of pop or a couple two letter's or if you have a heavy barrel rimfire, buy a wide mouth 1 litter pepsi, drink or drain the pop out rense well. go to a medicen cabnet and grab any cling wrap or ace bandage, wrap the end of the barrel with it. then slide the pop bottel on to the barrel, but don't slide it all the way on so the barrel is touching the end of the bottel, doing so can blow the barrel up. just slide it to the end of the top part of the bottel (where your lip's go to take a drink) then use either more cling wrap or ace bandage or even tape (the reason i said wrap the barrel with a clean wrap is in case you use duck tape, so it don't leave the sticky gunk on your gun) and wrap around the end of the mouth piece and wrap so it all so hold's the bottel on and make sure there is no hole or any thing where the bottel's mouth is at you want this sealed up. then just wait to see the next one come in your yard, and pop it. (i am not responsable in any way shap or form for any mistack's that may couse a barrel bust or injury, i needed to say that just in case, but i have done it alot to help get rid of varmint's in place's that where close to people or in city limit's and not once have i had a problem). yes that trick of the trade sound's harder than it realy is, if you want p.m. me your e-mail address and i can send you pic's of how to do that, and you will see that it is very easy to do, it is just tuff to put word's to it for me any how. that is a cheep way to clean a few out, but it is only good for one shot with a rimfire only.
another thing i do in much larger city's or place's close to a police post (for some reason cop's don't like people shooting in city limit's, lol, j/k. i know why and i understand it as well) i live trap them. most hardware store's carry live trap's that are just the right size to catch a cat, coon or other critter's that are about that size. i think they run about $30.00 for one. i then make a stop at the local save-a-lot store and spend $2.00 on some tuna or sardien's (i work there as well and for the most part $2.00 buy's alot of bait. or if i am on shift some of them can's get dented or the wraper come's off some how and it become's free, lol.). when i set the live trap(the one i have is a older one that has a door that slid's down, it don't have the two drop door's like most have. it only has one and the other end is a dead end)i just take the lid off what ever it is i am using and leave it in the can and set the can all the way to the back. them pesty thing's go any where they smell food, so where you put it don't realy matter. once i have one, witch in most case's it is the same night i set it. i go and pick the trap and the critter in side up and take the thing for a ride out to a area there is nothing but wood's and dirt bike trail's. i carry my little single action ruger 22lr revolver and dispatch the critter with one round behind the ear, and leave it for coyote bait. now if by chance it happen's to have a coller on it, i then take it to the animal controle office. that way i don't have it on my mind that i might have just shot some kid's pet, i can't deal well wit that thought so i leave that to animal control, that's why they are there.
i haven't had a chance to buy one yet but no day's you can get a pellet rifle that is acctualy able to cleanly harvest deer size game. but a pellet rifle like that is a farly decent chunk of change. how ever they do have pellet gun's from a 177cal, all the way up to a big bore 50cal as they call it. i would think a 22cal pellet rifle whould be more than anuff gun to take a coon or other critter's of that size. i can't remember what issue it was but i have it some where. in predator xtreme a couple month's back they wrote about hunting coon with one and how the writer was only doing head shot's so they droped in there track's. every month predator xtreme has some thing in it about air rifle's and stuff that they hunt with them, for some info about air rifle's go to
www.predatorxtreme.com and take a look in there air rifle area to read up on what would be good for that type of critter. to look at some high powered air rifle's to get some sort of idea as well on what would work best go to
www.cobraairguns.com i am sure they will guide you in the right direction, just don't tell them that you will be using it on feral cat's. tell them coon's and bobcat's. the reason i am bring up a air rifle is because it is not only a good gun for taking care of your problem but it will all so be a very silent way to do it as well. and for the most part pellet gun's can be fired in side any city limit's with out breaking any law.
another thing i have done with them, when i did not want to make alot of noise from a rifle. i have used my bow, but i recamend using a couple old broad head's to do so. i am not meaning for them to be dull, bit the reason i say old is so it make's a fast quick clean kill and at the right angle you will pin it to the ground so it can not run like a deer. i made the mistake of using a practice tip one time when i was a young dumb kid, i am not going to go in to detail's here, but i will say that same one needed to be shot a week later with a rifle, and the arrow had hit right where i wanted it to behind the shoulder. so a b-head if doing it that way is a must, and a head shot would be the best bet so it don't get out of your yard.
it's kinda funny how this subject came up this week. i just recived my newest issue of predator xtrem and it had a segment in it about ferel cat's. i found it interesting as to how much damage they can realy do. it won't be on there web site yet i don't think, but it will be soon i think. if not pick a copy up, most people will be surised at how many bird's and thing's they will kill.
i know that i did not bring much up about the trap's you are using. the reason behind that is because i know nothing about trapping yet, but soon will i hope. but i used to have a real big problem with ferel cat's around my place and some friend's place's that i helped them out with. so i thought that may be some of the thing's i said might be of some help to you on how to do away with them with out running the risk of catching some thing you don't want to catch, and all so give them a little cleaner kill with out much suffering. i hope some where in all of what i wrote, there may be some thing that help's you out. good luck.
bow
