@Faye Fox thanks for the heads up because I know diddly squat about bb guns or the legalities around them. I probably wouldn't shoot at it any way.
The town I moved from outside of DC prohibited anything that shot "projectiles." I believe even slingshots were illegal in most of that region.
The saga continues ....I have been on 'watch duty' for visits from the raccoons since the temperature has been over 40 degrees and not so much rain. Twice they have come around 3 or 4 o'clock am. I have my solar flashlight within reach. (see photo) They run with a quickness. I doused areas where they enter the backyard with ammonia but with it raining so much last week I need to put more down. I know this because they came last night and tried three times to get up in the tree. I read that a raccoon's sense of smell is high and ammonia was on the list as a deterrent. I was surprised how cheap ammonia is.
@Von Jones Is there any way the raccoons can get up the tree without climbing the trunk? For example, jumping from a fence or a roof? If not, you might try wrapping the trunk of the tree loosely with aluminum flashing. That's what I did to the posts the bird houses are attached to. You can get flashing at Lowes/Home Depot.
This is my next effort. I read this online too. I couldn't afford the sheets so I found some metal flashing for roofs and purchased about 90 of them or what was left on the shelf. The tree is pretty big so I said whatever it takes. I was telling my sister about it and said I'm going to set my camera up so that I can see them sliding down the tree trying. She cracked up laughing and said I believe you too. Too funny. I was talking about it at the flea market and someone entered the conversation known as 'C'. Telling me the only way to get rid of raccoons is to kill them cause they are smart. My thought on that statement is 'No animal on earth is smarter than man. Man just makes stupid mistakes or judgements.' Raccoons can jump pretty far that I've read. That's another thing. I just hope that the flashing will work and they move somewhere else. I may have to hire a tree trimmer down the line.
Live traps work very well with raccoons, whose appetites often exceed their intelligence, although they have both. I've found that peanut butter sandwiches work very well as bait. Place the sandwich in the back part of the cage so that they have to come all the way in to reach it. I don't know if they'd work more than once for the same raccoon but if you release them far enough away, you won't have to worry about that.
I saw a video with a DIY setup using a fence charger on a bird feeder to deter squirrels. The man set up hot wires alternating with ground wires just far enough apart so the birds couldn't touch both at the same time, but the squirrels couldn't avoid it. Easier for raccoons because there are no birds to worry about. (As you can probably tell, I've been thinking about this, but the neighbors would complain if they found out. lol) In his last post (in comments) the man said a couple of squirrels still figured out a way around it.
My husband sits out on our patio to smoke and is often out there late at night. He saw a raccoon strolling around the pool a few nights ago, obviously wanting a drink or to get in the water. The raccoon would peer over the side and reach out a tentative foot, then get freaked out and jump back. He didn't appear to be concerned about my husband being nearby. He finally gave up and went away. We did the "trap and relocate" thing a few years ago. It was fairly easy to trap the two we relocated, but one of them was really pissed about it and was really an unpleasant little jerk. Now they live about 20 miles away from here so buh-bye.
Faye I did have an electric fence charge that I won in an auction thinking it was for dog training. I didn't ask the right questions about it and didn't want to mess with electricity. I threw it away.