I don’t know. I live in a very rural (dirt roads kind of rural) area. Nobody DOESN’T own and use firearms here.
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@smsmith … same here… pretty much everyone has firearms and uses them regular.
I keep a Glock 43 on my side… even when just working from my home office or picking okra from the garden.
Some people call 911… out here… I am my own 911.
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Yep. Our township doesn’t even contract for police services.
If we call 911 for an officer they may arrive in 5 minutes or an hour and a half.
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I think the gun you linked is powered by compressed air, rather than a spring. While the description says it suppresses sound, some people complained it was loud. Is the spring version quieter? I’ve thought about getting something for groundhogs and rabbits, which are both very difficult to trap.
Even though I’ve got a over-sized lot and I don’t think there is anywhere on it that isn’t within 50-75 feet of a neighbor (or more than one), so I don’t think I’d want anything much louder than if I clapped my hands…
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A relatively cheap air rifle of the “break in the middle” type can be purchased at Walmart. I bought one a dozen or so years ago to keep varmints down in my yard. It has killed numerous rabbits, squirrels, raccoons and a few other predators causing problems with my chickens. The key is getting enough velocity to make the pellet it fires lethal. It is rated for 1200 ft/sec with .22 caliber or a bit over 1300 fps with .177. The only major issue I have with it is that accuracy is lousy beyond 30 feet.
PCP air rifles are uniformly expensive. I looked into purchasing a Benjamin Marauder several years ago and decided the starting price of $500 was a tad more than I wanted to pay. Granted they are a lot more accurate than my cheap Walmart gun, but for the price, I’d rather have a good firearm like a Ruger .22 caliber.
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About the closest thing to a charging bear that I have locally is a mother coon charging in through the brush when the dogs are taking out one of its young. That will wake a person up quick. But never bring teeth and spit to a gun fight 
Oh the accuracy (or lack thereof) of a 10/22. I get a good chuckle out of that. I guess they’ve improved supposedly, but … not a way to build a brand. Fun to shoot though.
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Oh, I’m sorry. I just did a quick internet search and sort of linked the first pellet gun I came across which sort of looked like mine. I didn’t know it was an air rifle. They are louder than spring guns.
I have a couple different ones powered by springs. I think they would be about as loud as a clapped hand. It’s hard to say because some people clap more loudly than others. I think I could clap louder than my Gamo or my other one.
My Gamo is the one I use to dispose of coons/possums mostly. It’s a cheap throw around type of pellet gun. It sounds more like a thunk than anything. I’m not the least concerned about using it to kill a coon in my backyard trap. I’m a bit discrete carrying it out in my backyard because I don’t want to freak any neighbors or cars driving by my front yard and see me carrying what they think is some kind of high powered rifle. Firearms are technically legal to shoot in my county, but my neighborhood is mostly suburbanites who would be fearful if they saw someone carrying a rifle in their backyard. Houses are too close to safely shoot a rifle in my neighborhood.
Once didn’t want to get my fancy pellet gun out of the house to dispatch a coon, so out of convenience I grabbed a 22 pistol and loaded it with a 22 short. It was super loud compared to either one of the pellet guns, so I haven’t tried that again.
The other reason I don’t use a 22 short is because I shoot coons and possums in a live trap. I’m a bit worried the bullet will go through the animal and hit the bottom wire side of the trap.
If I get some time, I’ll try to test either one of my pellet guns for loudness against typical sounds. Imo, unless someone really is listening for it and knows what they are listening for, they won’t even know it’s a pellet gun.
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Snow, I’ve had mine for 50 years. It has always been my boast that I can put 3 out of 4 in a 2 inch diameter circle at 100 feet shooting freehand. Don’t know about your experience, but mine is highly positive. The only thing I changed about the gun was to remove the scope. It was in the way for the way I use the gun, i.e. often shooting at moving targets.
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Is this it?
I think that’s it Mark. I don’t have it here with me, but that looks a lot like it. Thanks!
I did notice mine has this thing on the end which is flared, which I think is some noise dampening thingy.
I bought my Gamo from my son who saved his money for it when he was younger. He got tired of it after he broke the scope off of it, so I bought it from him to save my nicer one from getting beat up.
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I’ve had a mother coon charge me when I approached a trap with her kit in it. Luckily, my pellet gun was cocked and I was able to hit the damn target- not my strongest suit, but apparently adrenaline doesn’t make my aim worse. I probably would have broken my gun if I’d had to club her- adrenaline certainly vastly increases my strength.
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Check this out on how the ammo you use affects the sound level of your airgun shot.
Need to stay under 1100 fps…
Heavy lead pellets… slower … heavy hitting… quieter.
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OK, I just pulled out my “fancy” pellet gun and stepped out in the backyard and fired a pellet into the dirt. I can definitely clap louder than the pellet gun.
It’s interesting because my wife was out in the yard (still is, weeding her flower beds) she was behind some vegetation when I fired and knew I was outside and asked what I was doing after she heard the pellet gun. She was about 35 feet away I’d guess.
I thought this was an opportunity to check loudness, so I told her it was a pellet gun. I asked her if she recognized it was a pellet gun I fired. She said she did not. She said she thought I was shaking out a rug and snapped it.
Here’s a pic of the pellet gun I just shot. It’s a Beeman. Way too expensive for shooting coons/possums in traps. I paid a lot for it but I actually don’t like it. It’s supposed to be a super accurate target pellet gun, but it’s too heavy for me to hold it steady. This one isn’t a break barrel, but cocks the spring from a side lever.
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I use Ruger Blackhawk Air Rifle (Spring Operated Break Barrel Pellet Rifle). It costed $99 on Amazon in 2016. It’s pretty quiet when used with .177-caliber 10.5-grain lead pellets. I have to say that even when a racoon is shot at a point-blank range directly between the eyes, it takes more than one pellet to completely dispatch it. Raccoons are tough.
With a high powered air rifle, a shot just about an inch above the point between a coon’s eyes certainly will send it into death throws immediately. Their skulls are surprisingly soft. Unfortunately, my own pellet gun lost power over time and now I dispatch them with my 20 gage and a cheap target practice shell. It makes a mess but kills them so completely instantly that there are no death throws. You aim so the pellets go through the skull and into the body so as not to damage the trap. Then bury the thing to avoid other animals picking up the lead.
The great famine the winter before last reduced the populations of all vermin and I’ve only had to kill one coon so far this year and one last. Sometimes I’ve had to kill over 30 to defend my orchard in a single season.
If the deep freeze night in the last week of March did to acorns what it did to my nectarines, pears and most plums, the vermin population will not by picking up for quite a while. Excess rain at the wrong time may also be a factor. We just experienced our 4th straight crazy wet spring. Fortunately warm sunny days are upon us now and I’m swimming in Flavor May peaches, blueberries, Tomcot apricots and tomatoes.
I’ve never shot a racoon, but I found that with a CO2 pellet pistol the shot that killed squirrels was the ear. Not easy to make, and most often a first shot would hit the head and stun them enough to dispatch them with a second shot at point blank range.
The little Crossman pistol I was using lost power quickly as the cartridge petered out. At any rate, my wife objected to shooting in town and I’ve had to look to other means (trapping).
A no shot method that works well… but requires a bit of strength… is the single whap to the back of the head to stun (KO)… small bat, a good hickory stick, etc…
Then before he recovers step firmly on the head/neck grab the back legs and pull straight up firmly breaking or disjointing the neck.
With the head held firm flat on the ground and pulling straight up on the back legs… the head and neck are pulled at a 90 degree angle… you should hear cracking popping separation when done right.
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Do cats or foxes like marshmallows? I want a bait that only coons or possums would go after. I only use havaheart traps on raccoons because I don’t want to catch the wrong critter. We have a lot of outdoor cats in our neighborhood. I haven’t caught one yet in my havaheart but I have caught foxes using fruit and nut bait.