Finally, I 've been trying for a year to get him (well not full-time anyway, hehe). Today luck was on my side.
I 've been spotting this possom crossing my driveway or smelling my garbage for over a year now but I have not been able to get a shot at it. It always disappears into the night. He moves pretty fast and I don't have night equipment or a light on any of my guns. Well for the last week or so I 've been putting cat food or tuna out in the back and leaving the outdoor lights on so the night critters get used to them. The bait has been gone every night. I can't stay up past Midnight cause I have to get up early to get my son ready for school.. so they 've been helping themselves in the early morning hours. Except for 1 night 2 days ago my son turned the outside lights off for 1/2hr around 10pm before he went to bed. When I realized it, I turned them on at 10:30 and the food was gone! So I knew it was possible for whatever was taking the bait to come out early for a free meal.
I assumed it had to be a possom because some of the (seafood) cat food & tuna fish I put out had mold on it. A house cat would normally not eat that and there are no feral cats here. I only use about 1/3 of the can at a time.. Anyway today I put some more 2-3 day-old Tuna out in the back yard around 8:30pm about 15yds out which is pretty much as far as my light will shine minus 1 yard. I check the window every 15-20min. and what do you know? At about 10:45pm I see a good size possom munching away! I grabbed the Condor .22 but couldn't find the Predators! They were probably downstairs in my gun box, so I grabbed a tin of Kodiaks and went back to the window. I pushed the window up slowly and he was still eating. He was broadside but his head was facing away from me at an angle. I waited a couple of minutes but from the looks of the old heavy (metal) cooking sheet I put the food on (so they can't move it), he was almost done so I had to act fast. I had the magn. all the way down to the lowest 6X, aimed between his eye & ear but a little higher because the gun is still zeroed in at 30yds, and squeezed the trigger. I hear like a "muffled" sort of sound that I 've never heard before and I assumed that was the impact the Kodiak made on possom bone. Upon impact, the possom backs up 1 step extremely fast, turns around, and starts running! He ran for about 12ft or so and then stopped! It turns around and is now walking like a drunken sailor and seems disoriented. It starts walking back closer to me. He stops at the foot of the staircase that leads up to the porch only about 9yds away. It then turns and faces away from me concealing its head behind a small bushy plant my wife had put out there. This BSA scope only focuses down to 14-15yds so his buddy looked pretty fuzzy through the lens. I then hear it making weird sounds like it's chocking. I go to the porch and I 'm at the top of the stairs. It's bleeding badly out of the mouth and it's not moving but still standing up. I can't see it through the scope but I 'm only 5yds from it and the pellet will probably strike very low. I go back to the window where it's about 10yds but can only see his ear and no head. It's been about 20secs now since I took the 1st shot so I decide to go for a vitals shot. I aim behind its shoulder and send another Kodiak on its way. I heard that undisputable "thump" so I knew it was a hit. The possom moved slowly forward like in slow motion, made 3 steps and went down on his back with all 4's up in the air. A couple of secs later he was finally dead.
It took him about 30secs to expire which is a little too long for me. I never had a critter live that long after I shot it. Especially a head shot. Now I know what they mean when they say possoms are really tough!
The Kodiak had entered the right side of its head between eye & ear where I was aiming, but I don't think it traveled through the entire brain because of the angle its head was at, and I was shooting downwards at the same time. It came out the left side of its head right by the eye. The Kodiaks were traveling out of the muzzle at ~900fps. I started out with a fresh fill in the morning (1,000fps w/lowest PW setting) but I took about 20-25 shots or so practicing so I 'm pretty sure MV was low 900's at the most or ~38fpe. I also did that on purpose so the gun would not be as loud and wake up neighbors. The report was nice & quiet.
Coming down the steps to collect him, I noticed what I 've seen in most of the possom pics in this forum.. He had defocated where he was standing earlier & bleeding on my stepping stone. There was blood splatter all over the place in a ~5-6ft radius around the stone. Let me tell you, this is one ugly animal! I don't know if I want to shoot another one again :) He was pretty heavy too.. probably all that bone mass they have. I think their tail weighs close to a pound too. Well I can't complain. I got almost the same adrenaline rush as I when I shoot a groundhog, and I haven't done that in a while :) I wonder how many more of them are out there, hehe.
