Thursday my daughter came to me to warn me that one of her chickens had been attacked. It was separated living quarters on the porch but that the food that had been in the bin was now not in the bin. Don’t be surprised if I hear the chicken moving around.

Sure enough, that night I heard something on the porch and it sure as heck wasn’t a chicken. A quick glance at the cameras shows that there is another racoon on the porch.

Rather than just plug my ears with ear plugs I put on my good ear muffs with the active cancelation. I can hear so clearly with them on that I forget I’m wearing them.

I grab the 30-30 Winchester and head out to the porch. Mr trash pirate heads down the steps with me covering him. Waiting for him to move where it is safe to fire. While tracking him I hear trash pirate number 2. I turn to find a BIG arse racoon.

BOOM. Again, one dead ‘coon. A work the lever and go out after number 1, calling for daughter and lady to come deal with the dead ‘coon.

I track halfway around the house and no racoon. I’m heading back towards the porch and I hear the now familiar refrain “He’s not dead!”

Since I know that I got a good center of chest shot in to ‘coon number 2 and that ‘coon number 2 was not moving when I moved out the door, something is up. I immediately start looking for racoon number 3.

Sure enough, the damn thing is hiding behind the leg of the table, his beady little eyes tracking me. I can’t put a shot into his chest. No clear shot.

There is a good shot into the T of his head.

As I start to bring the rifle up I see out of the corner of my eye both lady’s put their hands over their ears. I’m taking a bead at the center of the T. It is a target about 1 in in diameter. I check backstop again before pressing the trigger. The racoon spasms and goes into his death throes. I feel like shit. I must have missed and now the damn thing is in pain and bleeding out.

My lady says to my daughter “Its not in any pain, it is just death throes” so I’m stuck. I really can’t do anything about it.

I step off the porch and carefully bring the hammer back down.

I have had ONE unintentional discharge in my life. I was at our back yard range letting the hammer down on a Marlin 30-30 lever action with a scope. The hammer had a side extension and as I was lowering the hammer it slipped and BANG. Into the ground about 10 feet in front of me.

I swore there would never be another.

My current method is to put the thumb of my off hand between the hammer and the back of the firing pin. Then using my strong hand I hold the hammer back and press the trigger. Holding the trigger back I slowly let the hammer down. When the hammer is resting on my off thumb (or nearly so) I slip my off thumb out of the way and continue lowering the hammer.

Regardless, I lowered the hammer and continued my search for trash pirate number 1. No joy.

When I return to the porch it looks like there was a blood bath there. We removed the first dead ‘coon to process him.

We went to take care of the second and found that half his head was missing as well as his left jaw. I felt so bad. Until my lady, while picking “stuff” up picks up a piece of racoon and says “Well this is a first for me, brains.”

So it was instant death for them both.

In the mean time we’ve got one more out there. I’m sure he’ll be in the freezer soon.