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Thread: Yep, I'm now old... SIGH

  1. #1
    AO Ancient: Team Leader
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    Yep, I'm now old... SIGH

    This is _really_, and when I say really, I mean really frigging bugging me..... So I have to bitch about it.... My sweetie isn't going to listen so you chaps are "it"!!!!!!

    The Disclaimer: I love the hell out of animals... _All_ kinds.... I seem to spend half my life rescuing some animal somewere......

    The History I have a "cute" back yard. Nice big pond I dug myself, plenty or foliage planted by my "horticultural expert", (read sweetie pie), get's all the wildlife possible in the suburban area we live... and I mean all..... It's pretty cool....

    Well for the last couple of years the rat population in the city has increased... I noticed the odd rat around which I don't find that big of a deal - but sweetie thinks all rats are bad.... Two years ago we had one was clearly too smart to do the "humane trap" - you know... the one where I capture it without hurting it then kill it pretty much the same way.... But sweetie pie needed it gone..... So she insisted I put out the "whap" trap..... Well.... A baby mouse and a chipmiunk later I put my foot down..... I was done with the WMD's and wanted a "Precision Guided Weapon"..... So off we went to K-Mart and bought the $30 pellet gun... The rat showed itself once in the crappy sight..... That was all it took.... Nice rat, thank you, goodbye..... Even though, during the heated discussion about the pellet gun with my sweetie telling me "you'll never hit that little thing it moves too fast", I warned her that I have always been "One shot - one kill" and proving my point......

    That was last year... After the city making a big thing of the rat "problem" and everyone cleaning up their yards, now it's this year.... Well, without having any "citations", to be honest, if I was a rat, my yard is pretty attractive..... lots of bird food, places to hide, a nice deck to dig under.... etc. etc. etc.

    Well, two nights ago sweetie reports that there is a rat in the yard again - we had some suspicions but now it is confirmed with a "visual". Great I think, I just zeroed that pellet gun while on vacation to about 30 yards on 10 pumps.... Far from perfect for the most likely shot I can take on little "ratty" which will be at about 8 yards but I can adjust down and maintain the power.... he says... hopefully.....

    The rat appeared last night but is clearly new to the yard as she is as skittish as hell..... No shot available... Oh well.... Baited the area and, being really smart, laid a white background to ensure a silhouette to shoot at through the K-Mart sight even with the glasses on.....

    Tonight is perfect.... Ratty is out.... To make the shot I have to leave the doorwall, (French windows), open a crack because they make this tiny little "click" as they break open.... Well that makes the damned cat all interested... She manages to scare ratty twice but after that she seems to understand that when I get up and hold the pellet gun I am hunting and she was really smart about it.... Animals are much smarter than we give them credit for.

    So... Ratty is giving me random exposures, through some foliage, of about 5 seconds each.... I forsake two shots because of the high potential of hitting the foliage first thus missing or the shot having insufficient effect... Finally... There it is.... head silhouetted against the white background..... "remember - you are at 8 not 30 yards - drop the point of aim...." I thought.... Got it... "Squeeeeeeeze - don't pull, it's a lemon" I thought - remembering all that training but thinking to myself "****, I'm shooting at a shadow amongst a bunch of shadows"....

    The shot went, the background jumped sideways and the rat ran away......

    Pissed.... You don't even know how pissed.... I never missed an aimed shot at a target within reasonable range before..... ever..... You really have no idea.....

    When I went down to check the background I missed high by about 1/4" which meant I was 1/2" high of the point I was aiming at..... No, it wasn't an easy shot... It had to be executed quickly with a weapon that was going to shoot higher at the range it was being used at... But hell..... I've done that before!!!!!!

    I have to get my eyes fixed.... This sucks..... Last year the rat was toast.... Right now she is hanging around my yard, in the dark so I have no chance of seeing her thinking....

    "Doddering old fart"....

    I hate her, I hate her, I hate me......
    Don\'t SYN us.... We\'ll SYN you.....
    \"A nation that draws too broad a difference between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards, and its fighting done by fools.\" - Thucydides

  2. #2
    Senior Member
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    take it from me TS. getting old has absolutly NO redeeming value.

    maybe a remotely detonated explosive device would help!?!
    Bukhari:V3B48N826 “The Prophet said, ‘Isn’t the witness of a woman equal to half of that of a man?’ The women said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘This is because of the deficiency of a woman’s mind.’”

  3. #3
    Senior Member
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    You weren't wearing the proper ghillie suit were you? Tom Berringer would be so upset right now.
    I\'d rather die on my feet than live my life on my knees.

    (Emiliano Zapata, a Mexican revolutionary in the early 1900s)

  4. #4
    Falconry!

  5. #5
    Macht Nicht Aus moxnix's Avatar
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    Maybe you need a shot type pellet for your pellet gun Tiger.

    Or go with the old wristrocket and use multiple ball bearings (small ballbearings).




    Don't know about these old farts with their failing eyesight and trembling hands......
    \"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, Champagne in one hand - strawberries in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming WOO HOO - What a Ride!\"
    Author Unknown

  6. #6
    Old Fart
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    Pellet gun?!?

    I'd go with either a .223 (a Ruger mini 14 will perform very well) or a 20-guage (solves the aim adjustment problem) Remington. If you want to give the rat a sporting chance, try a S&W Airweight Chief .38 snubnose.....it's the ultimate varmit whacker at close range but presents a challenge as distance increases.
    Al
    It isn't paranoia when you KNOW they're out to get you...

  7. #7
    Originally posted here by allenb1963
    Pellet gun?!?

    I'd go with either a .223 (a Ruger mini 14 will perform very well) or a 20-guage (solves the aim adjustment problem) Remington. If you want to give the rat a sporting chance, try a S&W Airweight Chief .38 snubnose.....it's the ultimate varmit whacker at close range but presents a challenge as distance increases.
    ROFL,Mini 14, man talk about the A-Team , that's like taking a 50 BMG to a gray squirrel!

  8. #8
    er0k
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    ****.. get you a semi-automatic frenchie 12 gauge, and take the plug out. 8 shots

    If you miss a rat with that, you are ray charles.

  9. #9
    AO Ancient: Team Leader
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    a remotely detonated explosive device
    I'm figuring that doing that in suburban Detroit at this time is going to get me 10-15 with bubba.... Bearing in mind my rapidly failing eyesight it would be way too easy for him to sneak up on me for my liking.....

    You weren't wearing the proper ghillie suit
    Yeah, but it's really muggy here right now and I was trying to eat my dinner too, so I went without it..... silly me... Sorry Tom....

    Falconry!
    ROFLMAO.... You are Brilliant... I love it.... That would be sooooooo cool..... Anyone know where I can get a used hawk? Ebay?

    As for the rest of the suggestions...... See above... I have neighbors you know and all I can see from the other suggestions is lead and fractured copper jackets going in all directions. My 84 yr old neighbor on one side will be saying "Hi" to her lord before the smoke clears.....

    Thanks for the suggestions though... It might be time to spend some money on an actual sight rather than that nasty fuzzy thing K-Mart passes off as one....

    [Edit]

    Of course the obvious solution is right there..... Let the damn cat out... she has claws and all.... She was living in our yards for a few weeks before we/she adopted us..... But we can't do that..... Sweetie is scared that she will run away...... Bummer....

    [/Edit]
    Don\'t SYN us.... We\'ll SYN you.....
    \"A nation that draws too broad a difference between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards, and its fighting done by fools.\" - Thucydides

  10. #10
    AO Curmudgeon rcgreen's Avatar
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    Grenades are good for short range work.
    I came in to the world with nothing. I still have most of it.

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