On 2011-09-07, Cheryl > wrote:
> On 9/6/2011 1:42 AM, J. Clarke wrote:
>
>> Not sure why you think that a paintball full of pepper would be
>> "poison", or why you think there's significant risk of injury--you feel
>> it when a paintball hits you but unless it catches you in the eye the
>> risk of actual injury is pretty small.
>
> They are much smaller than us.

I haven't messed with paintballs, recently, but I know they've changed
redically over the years. They used to be big and mushy balls, pushed
by a pretty wimpy air charge. The latest generation are a whole new
ballgame. The are small, tuff, and have a thick skin that must be
shot at a painfull velocity to splatter. When you get hit by today's
paintballs, it raises are fairly prominent welt that turns black and
blue and remains fer a couple days. You'll notice early players used
to wear only goggles, but now they wear near full body armor to avoid
the painfully bruising hits.

These new hard hitting balls may not harm an adult racoon or a large
badger, but they could possibly do real internal damage to an opossum
or feral cat. I finally settled on an old fashioned sling shot. A
big rock the size of a small walnut moving at relatively slow
velocities will no doubt get the animal's attention without doing much
harm. Plus, I'm a lousy shot with the thing so it has a great chance
of jes ambling off on its own while I lob 3-4 stones in its direction.

The last time this occured, it was big ol' raccoon that was on our
deck. It quickly scurried off the deck then slowed down to an amble
as it got 10-15 ft away. As I clumsily loaded my slingshot and got
off a couple missed shots, it even stopped and looked back over its
shoulder as if to say, "idiot! ...if you hit me with that thing, I'll
come back there and kick yer ass!" Now I keep my shotgun next to the
slingshot.

nb