Ooh! Ooh! Another flashlight story!

So the wife and I sleep some nights with our bedroom sliding glass door open (screen door closed); second story bedroom with a balcony type deal. We keep the interior door closed at night because our cat tends to fight with some kittens we rescued, so our cat sleeps with us and the kittens rip the rest of the house apart.

Anyhoo, at 3:31 this morning our cat FREAKS out, I mean freaks. Dead silence broken by a "ROWWWWWWR!!!!" at like 500 decibels. That tends to turn one from dead asleep to wide awake in about one nanosecond. My eyes popped open and I was face-to-face with my wife, whose eyes were also wide open. In the meantime we can hear the cat scrabbling around the room with accompanying thumps, bumps and crashes.

I keep my modified M4 in the nightstand (MN21 HOLA, 2x 18650 batteries) and pulled that baby out, her first time in a "crisis" situation. As my thumb hits the loud button I'm starting to realize that:

-I'm about to light up Surefire's baddest high-output lamp, and
-My eyes are fully dark adjusted.

SURPRISINGLY, and maybe due to adrenaline, when I kicked that baby on it didn't hurt. Everything just looked overexposed. And what did I see?

A raccoon. A freaking HUGE raccoon, like the size of a medium family dog! It tore through the screen door and was about to tear our cat a new one. But the flashlight made the little ******* rear up into the corner and flash some fang and claw. And hiss. By god it hissed!!

You really cannot imagine how evil a cornered raccoon looks while in the searing-white hotspot of a powerful light in a dark room.

So while this little bugger is cornered I'm feverishly thinking of my next move. A groomsman's gift I received at a recent wedding was a miniature baseball bat, it has "Dave & Amy May 20 2006" laser-engraved in it. I halfway seriously thought about going into mortal combat with a wild animal, wearing nothing but my smile, with a miniature baseball bat. HMMMM. I've probably had better ideas. The cat hissed. My wife was balled up into the covers, wide-eyed.

So, I chucked the bat at the raccoon. It hissed and ran out of the room through the screen door, and I heard him hit the leaves of the tree that grows up around our balcony. This morning I discovered that he also crapped on the floor (either that or I crapped in my hands and threw it at him).

Further inspection revealed some real nice claw marks in the floor where the raccoon was trying to dig out of the room. I GUESS he got onto the balcony by the tree that grows next to the balcony, and the tree's branches to touch it, but small spindly branches. I have no idea how the raccoon negotiated this climb... but CRIPES!!

thats when you need to pull out an ar-15 and air him out. great story though glad the SF got to see some action. thank god for SF

Be especially careful with the feces. Can be very toxic to humans both by contact and inhaling.

Raccoon Health Issues

benchmade_boy said:

thats when you need to pull out an ar-15 and air him out. great story though glad the SF got to see some action. thank god for SF

Click to expand...

That's exactly what I thought when I saw the part about "modified M4," and then I was let down when I realized it was a flashlight.

Great story Scott! For flashlight fanatics, we all love a good flashlight story. I'm not at all disappointed the M4 meant SF's badass M4

Great Story, thank god you [and your cat] weren't hurt!

i would expect the darkness adapted eyes of the Raccoon to be filled in with dark spots like pastels coloring over white paper...when it dashed out of the house did it suddenly seem drunk? :lolsign:


After this incident, might want to give the cat a rabie shot, just incase the coon bit it.

LOL! Thats' a good story. I had a similar instance but not so close. My dog started howling in the middle of the night one night so I grab a 9P and go check it out, fully expecting to see a cat in the garbage can outside the back door. I open the door flash the 9P and about 5ft from me was this nasty racoon looking back at me. I instantly slammed the door but keep the light on him through the window in the door. He jumped down and hauled tail back to the woods. I seriously think I kissed my flashlight that night.

Oh, remember to send that story to Surefire....

and you might want to open a window instead from now on!

Yikes!

Good think it wasn't acting rabid. Might be a good idea to keep one of those higher-powered air rifles close by incase a rabid one does show up. Put one in the brain-pan without alerting half the neighborhood.

Great story, Scott. I'm glad that no one got hurt in the confrontation. That raccoon probably had NO idea what that light was!

Be sure to check your cat for scratches & bites as a precaution. Coons don't usually break into an area occupied by "others". Your cat should have discouraged it. I suspect your cat was surprised to find the raccoon only after it entered your home.

Like most people, raccoons are not overly aggressive unless cornered or ill/not thinking clearly for some reason. they are curious as heck and will damage property while satisfying that curiosity. They are easily discouraged.

Let me emphasize that they are very curious animals easily discouraged with non-lethal precautions or reaction. Raccoons traverse our property almost nightly and haven't caused any adverse excitement yet.

We live in a small town and close & lock all ground floor entrances. Once we did find an upstairs window screen pulled apart that was accessible from the roof they frequent. We thought an attempted break in took place until we found animal hair on the damaged area. Our three cats didn't notice this happening.

October 2003. Fall camping. Heard a commotion outside the tent. Took my SF L4 and digital camera out. Something scurried up a tree. Pointed my L4 in the general direction and took a picture:

No handgun? Obviously you would'nt have shot the racoon but what if that turned out to be a new age night stalker instead of a coon when you lit the room up? You've got a flashlight and little baseball bat, not good. Wakeup call dude.

Yearly we have issued warnings about rabid racoons. I would be concerned as they normally do not traspass into a home as stated above. Especially if it came into the room in an attempt to get the cat. That is aggressive behavior that is not normally exhibited.
Don't expect a pellet gun to take it out unless it is a high end model that is very potent.

Poor thing was probably trapped in the room and panacked, panicked, paniked?.... It's a good thing it didn't end up on the bed with you and your wife!

:wow:
Good story! Given the situation, I think your response was adequate. I wouldn't want to mess with a raccoon that's been cornered - those little buggers don't usually scare easily. Definite thumbs-up for having the Surefire nearby!!!

A machete works. So does the small forcible entry tool I keep handy as a means to escape during a fire. You can shoe them out with it. If they attack instead, then you have an appropriate weapon. A machete is better because it is light. You can go from poking the thing one-handed to whacking faster. If you are worried about spatter, you can use the back of the blade and bludgeon it to death (go for the skull). The pick end of the forcible entry tool will poke holes, and won't spatter blood. It is better for retrieval too.

I'd hate to resort to a firearm in a high-consequence environment like a home.

My wife and I live with her grandmother, whose idea of security is not exactly the same as mine. I have had to take care of animals more than once. The critters go after the cat food. They are perfectly willing to kill the cats for it.

Scott

I have a love/hate type relationship with raccoons. I can respect them for their natural skills, but they are a PITA. They may be the only thing left with the cockroaches after the fallout settles.

I had one getting into our garbage a few years ago. I went out with a flashlight to chase it off, and it was unimpressed. I had to get closer than 10' to it before it even acted like it noticed, despite my shining a light on it and telling it to scram. Once I got close enough it turned and slowly ambled away. I finally just changed the garbage can setup. My wife would feed them if I let her.

The deer in my yard were completely unimpressed with a 3W Luxeon beam. I approached it and walking faster and faster and it finally leapt the fence.

One time I was taking out the trash (almost dark out) and the can was out on the side of the house (before I became a serious flashaholic) and when I lifted the lid to put the trash in, there was a racoon in the can. It scared the crap out of me!!! I dropped the lid and stepped away quickly then it jumped out and ran. Now I always carry a light with me and kick the can before lifting the lid!

A stock SF-M4 doesnt accept 18650 cells, right?