"(ever shoot straight up?)"
Yes. Squirrels. Never did any night spotlighting of coons, but I have shot a few that wandered into my live traps.
Bastages think the catfood belongs to them! You're correct, some of those coons are FAT and heavy. I got a fat momma last summer also, but the kiddies all scampered away in the rapidly fading evening light. They haven't returned...yet.
The 'burb wars over the urban deer are hysterical to read about. Actual fist fights have broken out at council meetings. Hippies gone wild! Who knew? The herd in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park is out of control. They eat everything in sight and then wander into the surrounding burbs, where the whacktards put out feeders for the bambis. Next thing you know, helos with snipers and night time sniper teams are freaking the libtards out and dropping deer in back yards!
Since the rifles are suppressed, no one is the wiser until daylight when the carcass collection teams come out to get the meat for the homeless shelters. Then, the weirdos start dialing up their councilmen and *****ing up a storm. I've hunted deer since I was a kid and the absolute largest deer I've seen was a huge buck that ran across 6 lanes of I271 on the East side of Cleveland.