In this episode of backyard pest control I'm focusing on a major problem animal in my town... the skunk!. I'm continuing with the low power, ultra quiet / backyard friendly tune of the EDgun Leshiy in .25 with 25gr JSB Kings. I have it shooting 545fps, so about 16ft/lbs. This is about my limit for a clean kill on an animal the size of a skunk... especially given a skunk you DO NOT want to take with a head shot... more on this in a second.
The rest of the kit is: ATN X-Sight 4K Pro 3-14x, Atlas bipod, DonnyFL Emperor v2, and Streamlight TLR-1 IR
The skunk plays a positive ecological role... primarily eating grubs. Like most things however, when populations of them become too high, they can become quite the pest! My town has an enormous over population issue. We're not 100% sure why, but some feel it's from mild winters and other climate related factors. All I know for sure is... they are EVERYWHERE!
When I shot my first skunk I took it with a head shot. While it died immediately, it sprayed everywhere. I mean everywhere. My wife was level 10 pissed off. After that I did a little youtube research and found a few videos recommending heart and lung shots on them. They can walk off a bit, but usually don't make it more than 5-25ft before they collapse and die. Right when they die they can let out a little spray, but it's usually pretty small amount. In the video below only 2 did this... the rest were NO SPRAY!
The EDgun Leshiy is an ideal airgun to kill skunks. I have used all calibers, but the .25 is my preference. Skunks are usually moving a little bit, and the heart and lung is a small area just behind the front legs. It's much lower than what you'd think too... so it almost on the grass line sometimes. Given this, I find the .25 is the most forgiving. It doesn't take much power to punch through, you just need to make sure you're hitting the heart and or lung... the concussion from the bigger pellet does the job well.
Here's the video...
Cheers,
Tim