Why are possums so hard to kill?!?!

[Chickassan]

They don't play, they actually go comatose.

They're known for "playing deal' (playing possum)

 

[Aceoky]

I've always heard "playing possum" ie playing dead. Learn something new from time to time LOL

 

[andreanar]

My first and only, thank gosh, predator kill was a possum. I had to shoot it about 3 times in the head before it died. I tried to be as accurate and fast as I could. Even tho the possum was in a trap, playing "possum" so I could put the gun right to its head, it still took a few shots. I used a pretty powerful pellet gun, so it could have been dead, but doing the death twitches, but I wasn't taking any chances.

 

[cmom]

I don't blame you. I've had to do it myself and it took a couple of shots for me too. I used a 410 slug but it was still moving after I shot it so I shot again. This was before I put the electric wire up and it was digging under a fence at night so I put a trap out and caught it. I would see it night after night for quite awhile before it decided it wanted chicken.

 

[itsasmallfarm]

don't deal with possums here, for the fact that we don't have any. but have dispatched a few coons and one skunk. for all of them i used a .22lr for head shots at maybe 10-20 feet away. (i use dog proof traps). it worked great for the coons all dead instantly, they sort of just fall over and start twitching. the skunk was awful found out they spray when shot in the head (heart shots are needed/been told stop the spraying) the hard way. sprayed all over smelled like skunk on that set for like a month or two.

biggest coon i dispatched was a 30 lb boar. i weighed him but the .22lr made fast work of him. in fact too much work wrecked some of the hide. now i plan on using shorts or CB shorts.

but proper shot placement is needed, and if the animal is in a trap, take your time to get the right shot placement, you owe to the animal a quick death.

 

[catballou]

I may have woke up on the wrong side of the bed but there is nothing right about this statement.

These "pest" animals are doing nothing more then trying to survive in a world that is full of humans that took over.

We have houses, condos and shopping centers built on land that was once their home, it's not enough that we took that away, so the deserve to die?

No animal, pest or not deserves to die. We have the knowledge and means to learn to live around them, they sadly do not.

I understand this is a chicken forum and people love their chickens(I know I do) but if we can not protect our chickens and have to kill animals then maybe chickens are not the right animal to have.

This is the problem in today's world. No respect for life, everything is disposable. No one educates themselves before they do things, then they wonder what or why something went wrong.

If you have a small dog and you have coyotes or Hawks--you do not leave your dog unattended. If you have a cat and have coyotes or Hawks or fox, you keep the cat inside. If you have chickens and have any predators, you have a secure coop. If you choose to free range, that choice is yours. Any hungry animal that hunts for food will take the opportunity. They are much like human hunters, if a hunter sees that deer, are they going to shoot it? Yes they are because they don't know when the next opportunity will come along. The only difference in these hunters is that these pest animals do it for survival and humans do it because they enjoy it. Humans have the choice, animals do not.

These animals are not meaning to be pest. There was someone that posted on here and I believe they were and followed the Native American Indian way of doing things and it works for them. I am not of that decent, but should be because nature and everything in it is very important and here for a reason.

Yes, I generally would agree. But they have killed my horse. They almost killed another one I had. They carry a protezoa in their system that will kill a horse in a horrible way if that horse eats grass/hay near where the possum has pooped. Since I grow hay, I shoot possums. I also had one kill a chicken by pushing up my pop door, which happened to be my favorite.