A .45 or .50 caliber flintlock American longrifle would do the trick. Be fun, too.



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I'm just curious as to where you live that allows you to employ the use of a firearm for hunting within a developed area. I got our city's firearms ordinance changed to better reflect state statute, but the discharge of any firearm within the city limits is and always has been a no-no. The only exception I was able to get into law was for bow hunting in agriculturally zoned areas or other property within the city limits that is used for agricultural purposes. Even then, one must be more than 100 yards from a road or house. However, too many variables abound for any other method to be deemed safe, considering that there is a significant number of idiots out there bearing arms that I could not feel very safe around. Most hunters are ethical and use common sense as to where that projectile may inadvertently wind up should a miss occur. Unfortunately, (or maybe fortunately) laws are enacted most of the time to protect the masses from the irresponsible 2% of the population that don't consider the possible impact of their actions on others.

Closest thing to it was hunting a postage stamp in Maryland once, did not feel at all comfortable with 7mm Remington, and took a 6x45mm. Someone did take a deer just below us with something that sounded bigger than that. Another time we were hunting an irrigated alfalfa field for antelope with scattered houses in the area, and didn't like that much either. The shots were a little long for lower-powered rifles.

My sister retired from teaching in the Dallas area where we were all raised in a non hunting atmosphere, and lives south of Austin Texas outside the little town of Wimberly in the Texas Hill Country. Her "development" of several $200k++ houses is all level ground small acreage plots of 2-3 to 5 acres on gravel roads with scattered mottes of live oak and mesquite and smallish cactus pear flat "meadows" on rocky ground. Her closest neighbor "hunts" either from his front porch or most of the time from an upstairs window. He usually uses a 22CF of some sort or a bow off the porch or from inside thru a window and my sister says she very seldom hears anything unless the shot is fired towards her house. My bro in law will comment about hearing a shot sometimes in the afternoons, but is much more attuned to the sound of a rifle after doing 2 tours in Nam as a dog handler working perimeters on forward artillery firebases looking for intruders. Sis says she much prefers not to see a wounded deer from the bow as the houses are only couple hundred yards apart and has had several use her front yard less than 100 feet from her front porch to bed up in after being hit with an arrow. She brags about the venison sausage the neighbor guy makes and shares and has grown to accept the hunting culture even though our big city raised mother and extended family didn't.
I'll bet your neighbors are pretty much the same as my sister...so I'd use something to nail the critter to the ground with more of a DRT result than a bow...aimed at the ground so the muzzle blast is absorbed and reducing the chances of a richochet. Sis was impressed by the neighbor's generosity when he showed up with some venison goodies and that went a long way with her too.
Ron