When I was a kid (maybe 13 or 14 years old) a buddy of mine let me know that his mom was having a little problem with possum-invasions at night. Ever see one up close? Long needle sharp teeth, claws and a bald tail! They keep their young in a pouch like a Kangaroo and look like big ugly rats! The nasty little rodents would attack the household cats, steal all their food from any bowls outdoors and generally make a real pain out of themselves. My buddy told me that he could have me stay overnight and we’d stalk the little rats with our rifles. His mom would pay a bounty on all we could kill. My mom would drive me over and of course I’d take my prized Marlin Model 39A in .22 Long Rifle along. I found that the scope was a real problem at night and so off it came. Mark had a semi-auto .22 WCF of some kind and we proceeded to thin the local rodent population all that summer on weekend hunting expeditions.

Years later Mark called me again. They’re baaaaack! This time I was 18 and was able to drive myself in my ’69 Chevy (when it ran). Of course the rimfires had been replaced. Now the backyard would light up with the muzzle flashes from my Smith & Wesson “N” Frame .357 magnum and Marks S&W .44 magnum. Both guns had noisey 4 inch barrels and we honed our shooting skills nicely, although it was done at some pretty strange hours! As a matter of fact: as I recall Marks parents put an end to the hunts because being awakened at 2:am in the Central Texas hill country by bursts of magnum revolver fire in the back yard is rather hard on the nerves!

The reason I bring all this up is that a news story aired on UPN9 (New Yawk City). It seems that a neighborhood in Jersey City is being terrorized by raccoons! At night the pets are all brought inside for their protection and heaven forbid that someone would leave a window open! The kids are all fearful, the parents are concerned and the city will eventually send some animal control wardens out. If I know city governments, they’ll come out during the day and report back that they didn’t see a thing! After dark the pests will come out as usual while the animal control people are all at union meetings!

Of course they have strict gun control laws there and should a 13 year old fire a lousey little .22 rifle the local police would call out the ESU unit, hostage negotiators and the news would break into programing to bring live coverage! When I was growing up it used to be said of a self-reliant soul that he “tree’d his own ‘coons!” I wonder why that comes to mind? Anyway, it just seems to me that testicles are no longer in style!