Thread: Shooting Possums in trees

Once you have it lit up in the tree its not usually going anywhere so just move around the tree till its your backstop or your shooting in a direction you feel is safe, also if its not a huge farm stick to the 22 over a shotty unless you know the farmer well otherwise hell think your a dickhead for blasting away all night especially if they have to get up and milk.

These must be big fucking possums to need a 223.

Must be a relative to those dangerous drop bears

chop the tree down - problem solved

223 is an overkill unless you are shooting across a gulley etc into a hillside

I shot a possum on the ground with a 308 tracer once

lI have this bucketlist wish to line a big snarling horny jacko up with a 3"no 3steel in the 12G shottie and do a clint eastwood number on the aussie bastard!I kill em on sight -no bloody excuses.

Originally Posted by kotuku

lI have this bucketlist wish to line a big snarling horny jacko up with a 3"no 3steel in the 12G shottie and do a clint eastwood number on the aussie bastard!I kill em on sight -no bloody excuses.

Er, ah, um, yes Kotukahz, quite right, only natural.

Used to bomb possums on my 10 acres yrs ago with a Baikel OU in on hand and the spotlight in the other, big old daddy pines but in a single row, shotgun was the safest!

I shoot my flock of possums with my detuned target spring powered airgun. When the .177 pellet runs out of motor heading straight up - it reaches a very low return speed. Using a .22 pellet of say 21gn will bring out your neighbour when it hits His guttering!!! My mate found out the hard way

Besides - possums are assholes. They're only worth .5c to get rid of - and a well placed airgun slug can be more effective on a possum head than a through and through .22lr hit.
Seen it hundreds of times over

If you had access to a property where you could shoot a possum safely with a 223 then it would be cool to see the results


Ken

In my opinion, shooting possums in a tree with a .223 is a BIG NO NO!!!!! Too much can go wrong very quickly. I shoot possums at night in trees with my 22lr subsonic and I know the farms well and I'm around 2-3 km's away from the road/house. I always angle the shot to have the trunk and other trees in the immediate background but there is still risk. Even .22lr subs make me nervous about the safety factor. Check out my posting on .22lr ricochets. As for .223? ... that's just downright dangerous. I haven't read it lately - but the law uses words like 'dangerous use of a firearm' which carry ~$3000 fine and/or 2-3 years in jail ... regardless of calibre ... you don't want to go there! Get a subsonic .22lr .. and still think safe. I have to say that night shooting with .22lr subs has made me really aware of ballistics and I love the challenge. I'm getting head shots at 80 yards.
Keep the .223 for the bunnies in the next valley or the goats in the gorge. Keep safe in the hills !!! Cheers Gunzrrr

22 thru the right eye instant kill, subsonic out to 80/90yards if sighted in at 15yards. 223 is massive overkill and downright dangerous.

Originally Posted by Ground Control

If you had access to a property where you could shoot a possum safely with a 223 then it would be cool to see the results


Ken

FMJ does fuck all to them. Ballistic tip 50gr AE could create some fairly large holes.

Not that it really matters as it isn't worth the risk, but how much damage would a projectile on its way "back down" do? I mean you're probably going to be shooting almost straight up, so wouldn't it more than likely only be traveling at terminal velocity when it came back down?

Again...would never do it if not confident of backstop, but am curious.

From what I can remember from my high school physics lessons (which I did not pay all that much attention to) you are correct about a bullet shot vertically into the air falling at terminal velocity.

Originally Posted by Rushy

From what I can remember from my high school physics lessons (which I did not pay all that much attention to) you are correct about a bullet shot vertically into the air falling at terminal velocity.

Celebratory gunfire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia you're right and it seems to happen a bit

Holy shit!

*study by the U.S.*Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
*(CDC) found that 80% of celebratory gunfire-related injuries are to the head, feet, and shoulders.[4]
*InPuerto Rico
, about two people die and about 25 more are injured each year from celebratory gunfire on New Year's Eve, the CDC says.[5]
*Between the years 1985 and 1992, doctors at the*King/Drew Medical Center
*in*Los Angeles, California
, treated some 118 people for random falling-bullet injuries. Thirty-eight of them died.[6]
Kuwaitis
*celebrating in 1991 at the end of the*Gulf War
*by firing weapons into the air caused 20 deaths from falling bullets.[6]