Alas, I haven't had a crat shot in months and today had two. Missed both of them--a black and white from behind the back fence with the Sheridan 5mm at 25 yds and a tabby at 20 yds with the bow. Shot over the first one and under the second. Shame on me. Guess it is back to the practice range.

An intercepted poacher was chatting with me one day, trying to smooth over the obvious problem of him being someplace he wasn't supposed to be. He mentioned that he like to squirrel hunt but was having more and more trouble hitting the darn things. I suggested he try a shotgun, and he replied "I'm using a shotgun, it's all I own." I told him there weren't any squirrels left on my place anyway and "don't come back without an invitation." "I won't!" sez he, and ended with "You was really Special Forces huh?" That's when you give 'em your best steely eyed stare boys. Never saw the old pirate again.

Dustoffer, I'm not going to suggest a shotgun for you, but you might ought to check zero. My Benjamin 312 started missing a couple of days back so I shot some paper. After some 45 years of holding zero it was suddenly off by 3" at 30', 10 o'clock. Some things are just meant to be odd now and then.

DD-the old Sheridan just lays around in the garage waiting its chances, and look what happens. Who knows what has knocked the scope around? And, guess where I went after the first miss: you guessed it, to the range. But, the Sheridan wasn't among the chosen ones today. Guess I will have to get my piece of boiler plate and ping it a few times to check zero.

That is 3 crats I've seen in/around the yard in the past 2 weeks--must be something going on with one of the local lawn lionesses.