Thread: Help / tips with Possum shooting

Hey Guys, my young fella is keen to go possum shooting this weekend. Sounds like fun and we have a friends hill country farm avaible with bush etc.

Any tips to help with success ? is there a better time of night ? obviosuly dark but hopefully not 2:00 in the morning !! What tree's do they like ? Do we have to be real quiet ? We have .22 (open sights) and a couple of good torches.

Thanks (from a novice dad.)

No1 rule be aware of what's behind the target

Originally Posted by northdude

No1 rule be aware of what's behind the target

Yea for sure - we know this farm well and whats in the firing zone.

Check out the parallel thread on this subject that's running at present:

https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co....-tricks-42448/

By my experience the possums are out and about from dusk to dawn and the best time to shoot them is when you're feeling enthusiastic enough to go out and do it.

Pick a warm, cloud-covered night so the Lad doesn't get cold and miserable and make it fun so he wants to come back and do it again. Do a few short missions first and extend the duration as he gets experience and can handle the late nights.

I love hunting with the kids, it's so rewarding. Good on ya for getting him out there.

dont forget to remind him that your first possum has to be eaten.

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

avoid shallow angles of fire for safety reasons. otherwise have a blast.

Bit like humans,wake up have a wash give the partner a nudge see how that goes then have a feed more mucking about eat more food back to camp give another nudge have a scrap then sleep. More noise the better so they are looking at you.

Originally Posted by PillowDribbler

Bit like humans,wake up have a wash give the partner a nudge see how that goes then have a feed more mucking about eat more food back to camp give another nudge have a scrap then sleep. More noise the better so they are looking at you.

Brilliant - I must be half possum then. Too easy !

open sights for spotlighting definitely not as good as a scope. Sometimes a little tricky to get the light on the sights right to see sights -possum etc.
Mind you didn't do it much, usually had scopes real early on so a lot easier.
Otherwise... Shotgun. That's awesome fun on jackos.

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