We have a raccoon problem and I need something I can humanely dispose of them with in my neighborhood that's not too loud. My neighbor has trapped 6 of them and took them far away but they have seem to found their way back.

Would a .22lr with subsonics be too loud for a residential hood? What y'all think?

Bypassing the legal portion.....

I would think .22 subs would still garner attention, especially with multiple shots at one time....

I will tell you that .22 subs with a suppressed pistol sounds about as loud as a pellet gun.. but part of that could have been the impact of the bullet with the ground.

Your neighbor needs to relocate them in a trash bag.

He's trapping them. So it should only take one shot to the head.

You would need to go slower than just subsonic...the CB cap version, there is also a "Quiet" offering (CCI?).

CB versions are very quiet from rifle length barrels.

And I was planning on doing it around 5:30 on a Sunday, so most should be in bed.

Drop them, in the trap, into a trash can full of water?

CB shorts out of a rifle are fine I have found.
That said I still don't do it in the middle of the night when it's real still and quiet.

Do you have a mower, weed whacker, blower or anything that you could turn on while disposing of them? Even a loud radio would work. Not condoning or saying I have any experience in this matter.

.22 sub-sonics are quieter than a Gamo Whisper air rifle.

cb caps are still somewhat loud. can you shoot them from back inside your house

Fly bait and Coca Cola.

Aquila Super Colibri (590 fps) is the quietest in .22lr but is not that accurate. It will not cause the neighbors' dogs to bark in my area.

CCI's Quiet-22 (710 fps) is also available but is noticeably louder and sets the dogs to bark.

Submerge trap in bucket of water.

The good news about hunting/killing stuff in suburbia/town is that you have a lot of "cover noise"...think cover scent except that its a truck going by or a plane flying overhead. Some kid driving by with a stereo going or whatever.

Middle of the day...with all that going on....bust a subsonic cap in a coon...no one will notice 100 times out of 100. SSS.

OP, you need a long barreled.22 single shot rifle. Very quiet with subs.

For better terminal effect use a file to make a wide flat nose on the bullet (meplat).

If you must use a semi auto pistol or rifle with subs, use your thumb to hold the slide/bolt closed. It will be much quieter.

Put the muzzle against the coon when you pull the trigger and you'll be fine. A short will be just as lethal and even less noise.

Your neighbors dog food, trash, etc is where the real problem is. Shoot all you want but theyll just return if the food source is there.

Crossbow or a spear

I have found the sheridan blue streak .22 cal pellet rifle with 7 pumps is effective, and less likely to have the popo sniffing around. 1 pellet just behind the shoulder, but you have to get out first thing in the morning to retrieve the carcass before a nosy peta type finds it.

ETA: disclaimer I use a 12 gauge pump but my closest neighbor is a CC instructor with a 100 yard rifle range.

My neighbor has traps out for racoons and armadillos, calls the city animal control and they normally come out within 2 hours to relocate them.

CCMU Coach said:

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OP, you need a long barreled.22 single shot rifle. Very quiet with subs.

For better terminal effect use a file to make a wide flat nose on the bullet (meplat).

If you must use a semi auto pistol or rifle with subs, use your thumb to hold the slide/bolt closed. It will be much quieter.

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This. Older long barreled single shot (think western auto/ Montgomery Wards/Sears brand .22s here) and subs, the neighbors will be too oblivious to even hear the noise, let alone identify what it was.

This is exactly what I was gonna say.

My dad used to take out armadillos with 22lr's. He removed the screens from the windows and put food outside. He would crack the window open when he saw one and take the shot from indoors.

Nature always fills a void. Every single time.

IHIOGA this is most effective method of coon removal, at least from porches

Have you considered getting the raccoon goofed up on fentanyl, planting a counterfeit $20 bill on it, and letting nature take its course?

Bradley.Kohr.II said:

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Drop them, in the trap, into a trash can full of water?

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Grandpa would call me to the backyard (lived next door) over the walkie talkies by asking for assistance with a baptism.
Sent a bunch of varmints to heaven.

Just a note... if you dunk the trap, make sure the door side of the trap goes in the water first.

Good advice regarding long barrels and subsonics. From experience in urban areas, a Sheridan pellet rifle is much less noticeable than subsonics out of a 10-22 length barrel. In my experience, pellet rifles don't seem to draw any attention. But, one shot with a .22 subsonic in a residential neighborhood seems to make all the birds dogs shut up and create an abnormal silence that makes neighbors stop what they're doing and wonder what's going on. Ymmv.

I had some get in my attic. I shot a 9mm flobert shotgun up there several times trying to scare them away with no problem. Honestly I dry fired my air gun last night and it was probably just as loud as the shotgun. I ended up getting rid of them by building a trap door over the hole they were climbing in and out of and putting screws through it for spikes. Haven't had trouble with them since. Mainly didn't want to shoot or poison them because I didn't want them to die in my attic. They crawled around on top of the soffit boards, so they would have been damn near impossible to find and retrieve if they had. I tried a trap, but only caught my old friendly neighborhood possum.

I've also had much less rodent, snake, and other critter problems since I got a cat.

Sing!e shot or bolt action 22 using subsonics sounds like a pellet gun. I've been told using a plastic bottle, there's no noise at all. All though its better to get a legal can.

Reminds me of a recent story where my neighbor was "trapping" squirrels and relocating them to the landfill. He forgot he left the trap set and a rat somehow got lodged in the trap to the point it became a biology experiment to get it out.

GSS said:

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You would need to go slower than just subsonic...the CB cap version, there is also a "Quiet" offering (CCI?).

CB versions are very quiet from rifle length barrels.

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This right here.

.17 HMR works great in my neighborhood, but my nearest neighbor is about three miles.

Drowning isn't humane. Not too many worse ways to go.