I have shot them before. You get one shot so make it count. After that they are next to impossible to shoot without night vision equipment. If you have several you will shoot 1 maybe 2 and the rest you will have to trap.

I had one big male who learned to stick pine limbs in the traps to set them off. No it was not him going back in the water carrying dinner home. I missed him about 10 times each one with a wrist sized 3 ft long pine limb left in the trap. It took me 2 years to catch him. I found where he was eating (fresh tree cut) and blocked the entire access area with stakes except one place. Did not set a trap for a week so he would get used to the trail. Then I set 2 traps one in the water and one directly behind on shore. He used the pine limb trick to get the onshore trap but with the in water trap he cut the margin of error to close. He tried to use the pine limb trick on that one but his limb was 4 inches to short. 330 hit him in the top of the head - lights out !