Steel wool = coon deterrent?

[Big Red Roosters]

Well, holy crap. Just a warning, there is a sensitive topic in this comment so if you're big/soft hearted I wouldnt read farther. Since my last post on this thread, the dogs took out the coon that bit into the steel wool which started this thread. However, I've also been having a new coon terrorize the farm. It clawed the heck out of my door and nearly got the door frame off. It almost killed a cat, she is currently fine. It beat the crap out of my Australian shepherd, her face was so swollen and she could barely walk the next day. It started peeling the corner of the door off my grain bin. It tried to get me one day when I was unarmed. Yesterday it grabbed one of my hens and bloodied her up real bad, somehow she's still breathing today.
Finally, after all this time, he's dead. I was headed out to shut the chicken doors. I shone the flashlight up behind the shed in dense trees and two massive eyes shone back. Dad was visiting so I started yelling at him, he got his coon hunting rifle from his truck and ran down to the trees with me. This raccoon is twenty feet in the air, snarling at us the whole time. He's pretty smart, he kept his vitals hidden behind the trunk. All we could see was his evil face.
I can't go into detail without breaking BYC's rules I think. But it took six shots + the mercy kill. This beast had to be at least thirty five pounds. I wish I would've had a scale. I hope to be done with raccoons for awhile. I also got a huge opossum, nothing near the size of this coon though.

 

[aart]

Yikes!!
Condolences and Congrats.

Reminds me of an article I read recently about removing one predator often leaves the territory open for another, maybe worse, predator to move in.

 

[Big Red Roosters]

Yikes!!
Condolences and Congrats.

Reminds me of an article I read recently about removing one predator often leaves the territory open for another, maybe worse, predator to move in.

That's unfortunately true, I wonder if this monster coon has kept the coyotes out? A pack lives less than a half mile from the place, but they've been keeping their distance lately. Probably around the time this raccoon showed up wreaking havoc.
I saw baby coon tracks in the yard next to the house, I'm thinking theres still a family hiding somewhere. I dont shoot babies or young ones as long as they're leaving my chickens alone.
Coyotes I'm not so nice to, they overbreed really bad here and mix with dogs. There was a year when the pack was claimed to be twenty animals big, killing cattle and other livestock. I only saw it when there was four dogs and three coyotes big. I got one of the dogs when it went after my calves, but it had no collar so I presumed it was a stray. As of this year my puppy ran with the coyotes while I'm chasing behind on foot. Stupid thing was having a blast, took four hours until 2am to find him playing with one near a cattle yard. It took off through the pen and my puppy finally came to me. No more bathroom breaks without a leash!

 

[aart]

Coyotes I'm not so nice to,

The article I read was about a sheep rancher and coyotes. He shot one that hadn't been causing trouble, then he started losing sheep again by it's replacement.
I remembered where I saw it, here's the link:
https://extension.oregonstate.edu/a...7Bq62qM5ImZTOZifv88LKDC28HiUfxk7oQZ4JJVT0TU_0

 

[Big Red Roosters]

The article I read was about a sheep rancher and coyotes. He shot one that hadn't been causing trouble, then he started losing sheep again by it's replacement.
I remembered where I saw it, here's the link:
https://extension.oregonstate.edu/a...7Bq62qM5ImZTOZifv88LKDC28HiUfxk7oQZ4JJVT0TU_0

That's a pretty good read. I've been taking my Male shepherd for walks around the property. He tells me where they're coming in and marks his territory. Maybe I can do more to block off those entrances and see what happens if I leave them alone. Might be an interesting experiment to do.

 

[123RedBeard]

I'm not really sure what a ...

he got his coon hunting rifle

Is ... but, most center fire rifles will shoot clean through a branch ...

I'm glad you got it finally, and hope your pup and chicken fully recover.

 

[Big Red Roosters]

I'm not really sure what a ...



Is ... but, most center fire rifles will shoot clean through a branch ...

I'm glad you got it finally, and hope your pup and chicken fully recover.

Heck if I know what it is. I just know he was using it a few nights ago with his hunting buddies. I'm not a gun guy. I can shoot well but dont ask me what it's called haha. The one we used for the opossum DID shoot clean through the barn when it ran behind the wall. But the one we used for the coon was a different kind. A bit quieter.

 

[KATHYROTH]

Went down to my chicken coop today and discovered a raccoon had attempted to dig in the sand to get to my roosters. From what I can see, the sucker took one chomp out of my steel wool I had underneath the sand(which I was using to keep mice out of a small hole...) and left empty handed. No further digging and he never got through to my coop. Maybe I should invest in more steel wool... I know that crap is sharp, sliced my own hand open just trying to stuff it in. I may put up a camera to see if he tries it again, or if once was enough to keep him away. I may attempt to stuff it all around the bottom of my coop. Anyone else with a similar experience?