Gettin' drunk and shootin' rats.
I was barbecuing earlier in the evening, and when I went to let my Golden Retriever Katie out one last time for the night, I spooked a rat off the grill. I don't like rats on my grill...
So, #2 son and I retrieve the Mag Lite and his Sheridan Blue Streak 5mm air rifle. He pots the first one from a pine tree right off the deck, where he had spooked from the barbeque. Alex decides one is enough and heads back in to play Forza, but I can hear more in the back hedge. It ain't over yet, you little bastards...
I set my usual peanut butter bait on a limb in one of the apple trees, crack a beer, pump the Sheridan back up, and pull up my rocking chair. Two hours later, I had two more. There are more out there, though, so maybe I'll go after them again tomorrow. The wife wants me to set traps and knock this crap off. I keep telling her that's hardly sporting.
Here is one I recovered. The rest fell into the hedge, and will have to be recovered in the daylight. The rifle is wearing a Beeman pistol scope in an old Sheridan Intermount; the "scout scope" mounting works well on a pneumatic rifle, as it leaves a good handhold behind it for pumping.
