Thread: Help / tips with Possum shooting

Yes it will be a bit of a challenge with open sights but so long as you are close you should be ok. If the possums are on the ground and trees are close try and get them to move up a tree as it will be easier to get a shot.
When I worked on the Pest Board we were out shooting by 6.00- 6.30 pm in the winter and possums were on the move by then.
Good nights were before and after rain, some nights you will shoot 90% Bucks and then the reverse will happen on some nights. I use the dry cell battery and a 30 watt spot beam light but you can get the wide angle beam lights which are good up close under canopy. Winter you should find the possums around the native bush blocks and feeding on grass, also if there are swede paddocks close they will run for km's to feed on them.
When shooting in the native bush get in under the canopy and search slowly as they can be hard to spot but sometimes you run into several in one spot.
When there is a heavy dew or wet grass the possums tend to be in the trees more as they don't like wet feet. Good luck and shoot safely.

Sometimes when shooting amongst willows where the leaves were gone, we'd turn off the light and look for their silouhettes in the trees-moonlight available of course.
Then you could target that spot with the light and look for the eyes.

Most of the possums we have been shooting lately have been in native trees. Natives tend to do a lot of growing in autumn so i figure they are eating the new growth.

In a month or two they will be in the pines feeding on the pollin buds

With regard to plucking....a good tip i picked up on this forum was to get a bucket (preferably a square one) chop the bottom off and tape on an onion sack.

Place downwind of dead possum and pluck into it. It works well and is heaps better than a plastic bag




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Awesome guys, thank you for the heads up. Will let you know how it goes.

Take a shotty for back up , open sighted .22 will be hard yakka especially in the likes of macrocarpa or large natives were you can only see an eye , that said my old man grows passion fruit with poplar/willow wind breakers my fav was wandering down the lines in the winter with one of the best bitches iv ever met 9springer9 she would sit under the rite tree under the moon light the 12g can find the lump

Others may disagree but the possums where I used to shoot seemed to like eating with a view ie they tended to be up trees around the edge of the bush and I've shot a lot more of them looking up at them than I have from above ie trees below a track
The odd whistle or clicking noise can make them look at you and then you can see their eyes
Using a 10/22 you can hear the sound when they get gutshot it is more of a 'pouf" sound
I've stitched a few up with half a dozen shots with a 22 and they still wouldn't fall out of the tree
I only ever plucked as I went and did the long fur - back fur not tail fur - I could leave one about 15mins before the fur started to "freeze" back on
Just like a dog moulting
Get to know the area and you will find certain trees are more favoured/ produce regularly

Originally Posted by Pete_D

Good stuff Husky - thankyou. He's got an old Remington Model 34 .22 with open sights, at 12 years old he's a much better shot than me so I'm on the torch. We were thinking of putting bright yellow nail varnish or something to help see those signts. That sure does beat paper round for pocket money.

@Pete_D

Luminous paint only glows while there's UV light shining on it, so slightly useful at dusk, but useless 1 hour after dark.

Try glow-in-the-dark paint, or cutouts from glow-in-the-dark stickers or bits of glow in the dark plastic. Even if it's not very good, you have a torch with you to "recharge" it every so often.

Transferring luminous dots from an analogue alarm clock will do nicely, just don't mess with old radium dials - even if they no longer glow they are 100% as radioactive as when made!

PM me if you want a pinch of green non-radioactive glow-in-the-dark powder (green = the brightest glowing colour).

You could have told me the bastards bite ! and are as tough as nails and hard to kill ! Poor young fella is off the doctor this arvo for some antibiotics.

Originally Posted by Pete_D

You could have told me the bastards bite ! and are as tough as nails and hard to kill ! Poor young fella is off the doctor this arvo for some antibiotics.

I learnt my lesson when about 7
Put my finger in one of those cage traps
Possum locked on and would not let go - teeth all the way into finger
Very sore for a week :-(

Originally Posted by Pete_D

You could have told me the bastards bite ! and are as tough as nails and hard to kill ! Poor young fella is off the doctor this arvo for some antibiotics.

ahh bugger. I try to kill them before I pick them up lol
hopes he's ok but a spose no possum will be safe from the lad now.
righto possums paybacks a bitch....

He head shot it in a small manuka bush and it looked stone dead, grabbed it by the tail and wrung its neck for good measure. Started plucking the little sucker and he took one last gasp and bit him good and proper. Yes he then dealt to it for sure ! Lesson learnt.

Had one I hough was dead, plucked it and tossed sit in the ute canopy to go home to the pigs, 10mins down the road all hell broke loose.... Poor bastard had woken up with no coat on

I was telling a friend about our little trip and he was on a fishing boat once and someone had bought dead possums for burley, (shot the night before) 10 miles out to sea he started chucking them out and the all of the sudden one jumped out of the boat and started swimming for south america !!!!

Originally Posted by Pete_D

You could have told me the bastards bite ! and are as tough as nails and hard to kill ! Poor young fella is off the doctor this arvo for some antibiotics.

Oh shit! I was going to say something along those lines, but didn’t want to come across as patronising. They are hard to kill. Much harder than rabbits. Hope it hasn’t put the boy off.