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April 20, 2022 – Seasons back to Normal

April 20, 2022 /

My kids are playing tennis and it is a sport I really know nothing about. What I have learned is that they do not play in the rain. This year, spring has roared back to the glory of being miserable. I would venture to say that a lot of the winter was nicer than it has been since spring break a month ago.

Since One Drive shows me saved pictures every day for the years previous, I am seeing the recent years weather and I can attest that the weather is worse than when I was building in 2020. Things are not all bad, I know that some years we didn’t even hit 60 degrees until June and we have already had a day near 80. Today isn’t all about weather, what I am trying to say is that this weather seems more ‘normal’ than not to me.

These next couple of days seem to get a lot of attention on the getting gardens started. I am nearing the last annual frost date. From what I see, I am likely in the clear but it was below freezing two days ago. If I was ready to get started, then I would be looking to get starts and seeds in the ground soon. I would be remised to not mention the other two 4-20 and Earth Day.

These three dates are all very close together. My friends in college really got into 4-20. That seems to go part in parcel with the Earth Day culture. This is how I associate or keep track of the last frost date. To be completely honest, I didn’t want to simply write about weather and climate and pseudo holidays but to add some filler into the fact that I transplanted my starts in an attempt to get them stronger for when I do plant them.

As I wrote about last week, I had a lot of germination and a lot of subsequent failure. Once I spent the time to actually transplant, I got a much better look at what happened. All five of my tomatoes made it and in fact thrived. Four habanero germinated, two survived, Five jalapeno germinated three survived. Three banana peppers germinated one survived. Four cabbages germinated, three survived. There were other twos and ones, but I only transplanted the possible viables.

This is my continuation of experimentation on seed starting. I know that in years past the roots outgrew the one inch pots so I am hoping that by giving more space I might save some marginal starts. I guess we will see.

End Your Programming Routine: No garden plants do well in cool, dark places. I have seen multiple times when plants get into the ground and the weather warms up that they become vigorous. I suspect it is too cold and not enough light in the basement. I should move them outside but it is really too cold for vigorous growth yet. So, I will keep monitoring and trying little tweaks to see if I can unlock the secrets.

April 19, 2022 – Frugal or Cheap or Foolish?

April 19, 2022 /

Our electric range is on its last legs. We have rebuilt the cassettes, replaced circuit boards etc. Not only does the electronics randomly fritz out but parts are starting to become not available. We have been talking about replacing it because it has been loved to death.

There are two issues, it is a downdraft and therefore needs to be replaced with another of the same style (or completely remodel the kitchen) and it is built into the cabinets, so measurements are important. With that, we have been dragging our feet because it is going to be an expensive proposition.

The two eight inch burners (the big ones) have become very spotty lately. Both of them are crap shoots as to whether they will work this time or not. Sometimes, I will spend five minutes jiggling the burner until it finally works. They also sometimes cut out while cooking, this is very difficult to deal with because everything is hot for so long afterward.

I decided to order some generic replacement coils because we needed our range to prepare Easter dinner and I was tired of gambling. It turns out that this was also a gamble because the coils did not fit into the stove. I didn’t have time to return them and see if I could find something else, I went to modifying the setup so that it works.

While this was nearly an exact match of the old one, there were a couple of differences. One, the tabs where the burner plugged in was about a quarter of an inch longer than the last one. This pushed the support structure too far out. I decided to cut the support structure rather than the plug in ends. This I did with a hacksaw. I also had to grind the notch deeper after I cut off the excess.

That burner fit. The second one, I also had to cut off a quarter of an inch off the plugs. Before I did all that work, I plugged them in to make sure they work, which they did. Otherwise, I would have had to return them before modification. Now I have working burners again.

This was less than ideal. Obviously, I didn’t want to spend a hour modifying these burners when they were supposed to fit in the first place. However, I was tired of the old ones stopping while I was trying to use them. Was it worth the effort, probably. Was it worth the cost savings, probably not. An hour of my time more than paid for the difference between generics vs Whirlpool/Jenn air burners.

End Your Programming Routine: People forget that there is also a cost in returning items. For me, the return point is almost half an hour away. I am generally an OEM guy for these reasons, it is cheaper in the long run. My logic was that I didn’t want to invest in something that was going away. But, what is the cost of not being able to cook? Certainly a few meals out would recover that anyway.

April, 18 2022 – I Am Starting To Get a Picture

April 18, 2022 /

Maybe this will be ‘My Therapy Mondays’ . Just kidding, but I have been thinking a lot about how to identify my funk. Like I talked about last week, I know that it is largely about all the things I need to do but don’t want to and all the things I want to but shouldn’t because of the former.

What you are looking at is my path from the garage door opening into the interior of the garage. As I wrote about quite a bit in the fall, I expended a lot of energy getting rid of everything both in the garage and the basement. There are some obvious questions that come up. How did this happen? What are your waiting for to get started?

And, I suppose the answers are just as complicated. But, this is a delicate situation. For some reason, my wife has a constant need to buy new furniture and re-organize the living areas. It seems like a constant evolution of lamps, couches, rugs, chairs and other home furnishings. For instance, the bar stools in the picture were $800 a piece. It annoys me that they are replaced by some much less durable stools (one has already broken and it has been less than two months). I have accepted that the barstools will not come back but I feel like they are still well made and probably selling them could help offset the cost of the constant evolution. That means keeping them around and in my way.

I have made multiple trips to the recycling center in the last couple of months. Every one of the new furnishings show up with boxes and Styrofoam and packaging material. Not only is the process expensive but it is very wasteful. In our locality, the ability to recycle is pretty limited which means I have a large volume of things that cant fit into weekly trash can. For me, a minimum dump load is a full pick-up and trailer otherwise I am just wasting more money. So, I am holding onto that stuff until there is enough to make the trip.

I am not denying the carpet in the kids rooms were bad. They were bad when we moved in sixteen years ago. Along with the new carpet came new furniture, new beds, new linens etc. During the room clearings a lot of extra junk was identified as no longer necessary. There were clothes that will not be worn, garbage like old school work, toys that have been outgrown, etc. That all got piled up in the garage.

Also, in the back of picture you can see my son’s go-cart. He is actively working on it. My problem with this is that there are tools, cords and junk spread out everywhere. I feel like he does not respect the space or my stuff. I made him twice over the last weekend go and put stuff away. By my estimation, I think that he did about two thirds of it. And, when he is cutting and grinding, it is showering grit and stuff all over the furniture that is supposed to be donated.

There is also a contingent of items that came as a result of moving my mother-in-law into the small house in the back. By my read, they are also junk but then they are not my things to dispose of (yet).

End Your Programming Routine: I am starting to get the picture that maybe I have a marriage problem and probably a me problem. Of course I want my wife to be happy but I simply don’t want to be around all the things that I don’t agree with. I don’t want to have to climb over things and step on metal and move wheels out of the way to get to the freezer to get ready for dinner. I don’t know when or where this will end because this round of decorating is not done yet. This is the reason I haven’t started taking action yet. This will pass, in the meantime I am avoiding my garage and shop.

April 15, 2022 – What Was Formerly Tax Day

April 15, 2022 /

For probably forty some years, this was a day marked on the calendar. It only changed if the 15th fell on a weekend and then it would be the next Monday without fail. Two years ago, we got an extra five months and then last year tax day was May 15. It appears very arbitrary to me, but this year it is April 18, not the fifteenth.

Don’t get me wrong, I am in no hurry to send my five figure bill to the government so that they can buy crack pipes or send arms to Ukraine. Why do we accept the status quo? If we had an ala carte or optional funding mechanism, how many of things the US government offers would you sign up for? I thought that it might be interesting to talk about ‘what ifs’ today.

  1. What if your neighbor came over to your house and demanded that you give them money to pay for his side action’s abortion, I mean health care? If you don’t give the money to your neighbor, he is going to take it from your bank account or other assets. Oh, and by the way, if you don’t tell him how much money you have, he may imprison you. At the very least, he will charge you more money as a penalty. This is a crime in any other setting but taxes.
  2. What if we valued cost of ownership more than having a new toy? When I think of redneck, I think of a lot of broken down shit. Before you think I am too harsh, I have been there as well. I bought a boat one time (and I would love to have another). At that time, I had two babies and the boat sat outside. I can honestly say that routine maintenance like oil changes were sometimes outside of my financial reach and so they got delayed. All infrastructure and programs have a cost to maintain and I do not see that cost factored into any project. It is assumed that once a project or program is completed, the cost of ownership is absorbed into the government for perpetuity.
  3. What if we were suspicious instead of punch drunk idiots? Every single campaign advertisement promises to ‘get stuff done’. What is that stuff you ask, well it is taking more money from you for things you (likely) don’t want and cant afford to take care of without taking more money. I honestly cannot name a single law that I want amended or clarified (read nearly free and makes life better). I can think of many that I would like to remove but when does this happen? Remember in 2016 with a Republican senate, house and president repealing the Healthcare mandate/tax, I don’t. How do we get oligarchs? We gerrymander the rules, laws and regulations to benefit the few that can afford to participate.
  4. What if James Monroe was president again, does anyone remember early American history anymore? For nearly 100 years the American foreign policy affectionately called the Monroe Doctrine was focused on items that only directly impacted us. Something needed to be happening in this hemisphere and this continent to warrant intervention. I am sorry Israel, Syria, Ukraine, South Korea, Taiwan, Serbia, Bosnia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait and Vietnam to name a few. Quite frankly, China’s foreign policy is a far more appropriate approach benefitting it’s citizens than is ours, stability is good for business.
  5. What if we actually believed in the Golden Rule? I remember talking about this before grade school. All of the social programs are a grotesque attempt to enforce something we should be doing anyway. But society can’t trust that I will be nice the the Z’s. Isn’t that the beauty of the concept? There is a saying that ‘morality cannot be legislated’ so why do we keep trying to do it? This is another form of me forcing my values and ethics on you. Let’s keep ‘getting more stuff done’.
  6. What if we didn’t have an FDA, USDA, HUD, Department of Education, Department of Energy or name your alphabet soup? Anybody have any idea what these entities do besides hand our money and create unnecessary regulation? These are all masking the fact that we don’t really believe capitalism is a viable solution and by the way let’s make some people rich along the way. If we are not willing to give money to a cause, then it is probably not market viable and probably doesn’t need to be done. I think that there is a collective belief that these organizations are doing this for our own good and that we are not capable of making intelligent decisions. ASTM and ISO are two non-governmental organizations that perform self policing. They perform in the very same function as USDA inspected meat do by audits and periodic monitoring.
  7. What if we were smart instead of educated? Contrary to popular opinion education is largely a waste of time. I want my kids smart enough to pursue education that is useful and not forced into indoctrination. Prisoners learn how to communicate through the plumbing or make a shiv out of a bedspring, that is learning . Learning is unstoppable but it needs the proper motivation. Education teaches compliance and obedience.

I want to finish off with a little more on seven. Suppose you were Galileo? First of all, the prevailing belief was that the universe revolved around the earth, it was a sin not to. He went to prison for his beliefs, which were provable by the way. Today he is celebrated because he was right. According to his life, he was enrolled at the University of Pisa at the age of 16 and chair of the mathematics department at 25.

To think that the best scientific minds in history were hindered because they fought the status quo of church and government or in fact that they didn’t have compulsory education is a testament to how wrong we are. The religion of climate change or critical race theory has a truth out there, it is going to take one martyr who is not going to come from within the system. The rest of us will be condemning that person until long after we are all dead.

Alright… my point here is that this is part of the mechanism that enacts and does all the things the I don’t want in my life. I probably should go into fractional reserve banking someday because taxes are not the activity that enables all of the nonsense. Taxes are the activity that build confidence for the rest of the dupes that this country is stable to invest in. That in turn creates the money for all of this in a nutshell.

End Your Programming Routine: I probably could have written for hours. I was going to write about the few things that I might be willing to put money into but then it kind of got off course and not clear enough so I deleted it. Since I haven’t railed on the government for some time, I let it fly today. As much as all of this bothers me, it also has very little impact on my day to day life, other than the continuous stealing that happens with my paycheck. Lest we all get too wrapped up in things we can’t control, moving on for the week.

“He has risen, indeed” Luke 24:34

April 14, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

April 14, 2022 /

What’s new, well nothing really. I should have plenty of stuff in this arena with trap going in full swing. But, today I am going to talk pellet rifles again today. My new spring piston rifle has in fact settled down and is shooting pretty consistently. I will show some groups below.

Shooting with a pellet rifle is a really good idea. It is a way to work away all the bad habits that develop when you only shoot high powered rifles. You can work on sight picture, trigger control (and not flinching). I noticed when I was shooting slugs at the range a couple of weeks ago that I would tense up in anticipation of the shot, which is a form of flinching.

There are numerous other reasons to shoot pellets. They can be done safely and discreetly at home as well as economical. I am seeing pellets go for $8-$14/ 250. That sure beats $34 / 50 (9mm) or $60 / 500 (22LR) or even worse $50 / 20 (30-06). Now that the business is done, we can start to have some fun and play around. I have a couple examples of the pellets that I have here.

It seems like the two on the left are the same weight, 7.6 grains. The container for the third one is not marked, so I do not know. I saw some for sale that were up to 16.2 grains and I think that those would make better varmint stopper, but then I also some that were 5.4 grains. What I am saying is that now it is time to see how different ammunition will perform.

Here I am showing my target with different groups. I generally shoot five at a time off of a rest at ten yards. Notice the bottom right target there are two distinct groups. The ones all grouped around the center of the bullseye are with the scope cover off. The group that is above to the right is with the scope cover on.

The scope cover has two clear lenses in it so you can see through it without removing the covers. Clearly, it makes a difference with the performance. It is something to note that I should remove the covers when shooting or sight it in with the covers on.

This has even got me looking into a chronograph. I have never been too concerned with how fast bullets travel as most loads have nominal or published velocities. However, I have started to become curious how consistent my handloads are or how do different weight pellets change in velocity, which I cant find published. I checked into the price and it is much more affordable than I thought it would be (at around $100) for an entry level setup. I see a chronograph coming in the future.

End Your Programming Routine: I have some new pellets coming, so I will soon be able to answer a few questions. Mostly, it is just fun. As a youth, I would spend hours shooting BB’s and I attribute that time to my marksmanship capabilities. I think as I have gotten older and mostly fired high power, I have lost some of my skills or more likely acquired bad habits. I think this is one way to help correct that.

April 13, 2022 – Lessons Under the Light

April 13, 2022 /

Every year I learn something. Given my state of having a place to plant my starts, I am more concerned about identifying the variables then the results thereof. Today, I am going to talk about how my starts are doing.

Before that, I thought that I would mention that it is currently snowing. We are 9 days away from the average annual last frost date. Granted, it is not actually freezing, it is 34 degrees but it is worth noting for those itching to get starts into the ground. By all accounts, I think this is going to be one of those later years because we have this forecast for the foreseeable future.

What did I do differently this year? Well, I changed from fluorescent to LED grow lights was the biggest thing. I don’t know if it was coincidence or not but I did have a pretty high germination rate. This year I also rotated the tray every couple of days. I was trying to get more equal light and heat distribution.

My observation is that different plats are growing at different rates. this makes it difficult to have the optimum conditions for all the items in the trays. For instance, initially, I had five of six habanero seeds germinate. Whereas last year, I think that I only had one pepper germinate. These were new seeds, so maybe it was a vitality problem but I don’t think so. Four of six jalapenos germinated and three of six bell peppers germinated and those were the same seeds from last year. So, something of those variables I changed last year worked.

Getting to my point now, even though the peppers germinated, I don think any of them are going to make it. It seems like the grow lights are too intense and are burning the dicots (the two initial leaves that come up with the start). Every day, I am watching them slowly wither from the intensity of the light.

The tomatoes on the other hand are doing better than I have ever seen. They are the reason I had to take the humidity dome of as they were touching the top within two weeks. They are clearly adapted and thriving in the environment. Ideally, with each of these plants I would have the capability to cover and move the light higher or lower to get the best results.

I have thought about the idea that maybe I should upsize the pots that they are in. This is the six week mark for the seedlings and they are probably going to stay potted for the foreseeable future. I feel like six inch is probably the optimum size, so maybe I will try to get this done this weekend. The last couple of years that I have been dragging my feet getting stuff potted, the roots were highly constrained in these little starter cells.

End Your Programming Routine: I am pretty sure that I can get the tomatoes to survive. The rest of them, I will cross my fingers. But, like I said in the beginning I had a pretty poor germination rate over the last couple of years so as much as I want to have a yield, I am focusing on getting stuff started first.

April 12, 2022 – Is a Moustache ‘Pervy’?

April 12, 2022 /

I had to laugh a little bit on Sunday. When church was over, the young lady that works with the youth asked me why I decided to grow a moustache as she thought it made me ‘look a little pervy’.

We have all heard the term pornstache, it wasn’t exactly the area I was going for. But, in a small way it was and let me explain. It think for men, facial hair goes through trends. I saw one article that said the optimum five o’clock shadow was 10 days. I feel like the trend is some form of beard. There is the hipster/lumberjack type and then there is the playboy type.

We have had the goatee trend 15 or twenty years ago. Of course, clean shaven is always classic. I often go clean shaven when I have to do work in food plants so I don’t have to wear a beard net or additional face covering. But, the mustache is passé. To me, it is a counter culture statement. It says I know what the trends are and I am going to go contrary to them.

For a long time, I resisted this particular facial hair for the simple reason that my dad has had a moustache for many years. Quite simply I didn’t want to follow in his likeness. However, I have started changing my opinion and it has to do with how I would like to be perceived. It really has to do with the circles that you run around in.

Probably, for a college age lady, moustaches on peers bring up the creep factor when the trend is clearly bears or clean shaven. I see a lot of Indians with only moustaches, that is a cultural appearance. My angle is more mature cowboy; think Sam Elliot or Shaun Johnston.

I suppose that my argument is that context is important. What if I said, “Your skin looks a little dark. Are you sure that you are not about to commit a crime?” Or, “Are you sure you work for a living?” I think we all know those statements are not socially acceptable. It is our experiences or nurturing that form our opinions regardless of right or wrong.

End Your Programming Routine: It is just hair. It can be removed or changed. I understand the sentiment, but you tell me? Is this more pornstache or distinguished western? I definitely won’t have it forever, I get tired of the look and the grooming. For now, it is a tiny bit fun to provoke reaction.

April 11, 2022 – Where Do I Go From Here?

April 11, 2022 /

I have to admit, April is a month that gets in my head. Going all the way back to high school, there were always some life altering event that happened in the month. Not so much lately, but the feeling is still there. I know it is not real, but I am ‘waiting for the other shoe to drop’ as they say.

I do feel raped with my five figure tax bill every year. But, that is not it. I was thinking about the fact that I haven’t even made a effort into investigating podcasting year to date. I don’t really think so. Maybe it is the weather? We are having a day or two of nice weather with a couple days of wet, cold and freezing.

I know when travel starts to ramp up, I feel it is all I can do to keep up. My projects go on hold because all of my free time is catching up for missing other things during the week. My garage is again becoming a garbage/donation pit. I have a growing dump load in addition to an overflow of items that are slated to be given away. My son’s Go-Cart project is literally strewn all across the remainder of any open space. His car cover is collapsing and my seedlings will be looking for a home in a few weeks.

I suppose this is what the problem is. I am overwhelmed by all the things I don’t really want to do. Because of that, I feel guilty doing the things I want to do, so I don’t do them. That makes me feel anxious and I get stuck in a circle of inactivity. To be honest, that doesn’t help things either when I look at all of the wasted time after the fact.

I don’t think any of that is strictly April (at this point). But logically, this is a point of transition. We are moving in-between Winter and Summer and we are not quite either. I am moving between strictly work from home and obligations that require travel. I am also in the middle of the seasonal change and other changes at home. I do hold the opinion that people that thrive during turmoil are the next generation of success.

If you think about it, turmoil is the time where there is no particular force or clear winner. Therefore, people that pick a direction and thrive become the status quo when the turmoil settles down. Using one example, we are in rampant inflation. People that are using crypto currency, specifically Bitcoin have seen astronomical deflation in the same period. This is a prediction, but when the dollar finally collapses, those that have picked the new best direction are going to be clear leaders in the financial space.

I have heard and I tend to agree that we are in the midst of a financial collapse. It is kind of like getting fat. You don’t really know it is happening until you wake up and look at where you were a year ago and realize that you are fat. It is the incremental changes that happen every day that matter but it is the trend over a period of time that aggregates the overall result.

What does getting fat, Bitcoin and anxiety have to do with each other? Nothing really. I suppose that I am telling myself that I know where I am at and I know that doing nothing is not really helpful so I need to pick a direction to go. Trust me, I know that it is difficult to get energized for the next thing when you know that every week is jam packed and travel is again looming.

End Your Programming Routine: I didn’t know that I was going to write this today. In fact, I haven’t planned anything for the entire week since I was gone last week and too busy with commitments over the weekend to gather content. Part of why I do this is I find it helpful for me to sort things out as well. I do want be real. Life isn’t always about winning or being the best or knowing everything but adjusting to the circumstances to thrive.

April 8, 2022 – My New Travel Backpack

April 8, 2022 /

February 2015, I purchased a new Swiss Gear Backpack to replace my company issue Dell laptop. While not at the end of it’s life the end was near. Most of all, I spent a lot of time in China and I felt very subconscious advertising Dell in a third world county. While nothing ever happened, I really felt like something less conspicuous would be a better choice.

I only used that backpack for a few months before the company gave me a new backpack with the company logo on it. At that time I felt compelled to wear the brand and switch. The Swiss Gear went into backup mode for a few months until my nephew needed a replacement and he used it to the point of destruction.

From the day I switched, I regretted it. I thought maybe it would grow on me but it didn’t. Every time I looked at it and more so used it I was reminded of my poor decision. Even the embroidered company brand promise was a lie ”Technology Made Easy and Effective”. A more fitting brand promise would have been ”Difficult to Work With and Needlessly Complicated”.

The bag itself was well made with quality materials but poorly designed. Access to the main compartment was choked by the opening only allowing 1/3 of the compartment. The internal volume barely allowed my computer, notepad, charger and a small accessory bag. Travel with anything more than a book to read basically filled the bag to capacity.

Fortunately, I didn’t do much business travel while it was in service. Lately, I have been doing quite a bit more, so I got a replacement. I wrote about my day bag I bought about a year ago. My requirements for that were maximum flexibility. I wanted it to hold whatever without much care for dedicated organization. Translation, I wanted one big pouch. I could add organizers if I wanted, but mostly to hold what I wanted.

My business bag is different. I work out of it, I travel with it. I keep all of the things I need to do my job when I when I am not in the office. For those of you that dont work on the road, there are different sized bags for different laptops. I happen to have a 17” laptop which means I need a bag on the larger size (or at least to fit). I wanted it to be tough, professional and have diminutive branding.

Since I have new computer glasses, I wanted a place to keep those safe. I wanted some minimal organization for office supplies. And I wanted enough room to add a book and some travel extras like if I chose to stuff a jacket or lunch. There are some good places to look like REI or Sportsman’s Warehouse, online selection is nearly limitless. Trying to even see the features of a bag online are often impossible because they don’t show scale oftentimes only the front and back without the interior pockets.

I settled on an Ogio brand. Sometimes their logo use is garish, this one is OK. At least I don’t tend to recognize it as a logo when I see it. I have an Ogio duffle bag that is 20 years old and has worn like steel so I feel good about the durability. There is full access to my laptop and my iPad in a TSA full zip pocket and it is a little bigger than my old one.

All is not roses and my glasses case does not fit into the specified pocket. There are several other small organizers thar are advertised for a phone or other small item. Those pockets are too small and I don’t tend to leave my phone in my bag, so kind of useless. The dirty little secret is that the more of these do-dads that don’t work there are the less overall volume there is. In a way making the bag less functional.

End Your Programming Routine: This is my first trip with the bag. As much as I hated the old one, everything had a place. I am still getting used to what pocket is what and what zipper to use. It definitely has more space and a better potential for efficient organization. Maybe it is the thought of not looking at the old bag that is better but I am still happier with my choice.

April 7, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

April 7, 2022 /

A few years ago, I had a varmint problem. I will be vague because what I did was technically not legal. Nevertheless, a few years before that I had purchased an inexpensive Crossman bb/pellet rifle. That rifle did the job. The only complaint that I had was a followup shot took ten additional pumps to get the right pressure.

I have used that rifle for the same purpose several times since. However, I am always extremely leary of doing so because if the first shot doesn’t do the job, there is a wounded animal on the loose and I really don’t want that. I also bought some subsonic 22LR and those were very quiet. I have never used those because I haven’t had the opportunity since I purchased them

A word about urban shooting. This needs to be done with extreme caution. It is illegal to discharge an air rifle (and 22LR for that matter) in the city limits. A person needs to be extremely cautious about where that shot is going if you miss. I don’t worry much about BB’s, they can bounce off hard surfaces and tend to be very inaccurate. But, pellets can penetrate fencing, 3/4 plywood and even be fatal.

I have had my eye on a spring piston pellet gun. With one pump, there is more energy than that ten pump combo rifle. Of course it is also four times as expensive. I recently purchased a Crossman Optimus to do this job (on the left).

One thing to note is these rifles need some break in. You will see in my target the progression of the days. The center target was my first day, then I moved to upper right, lower right, upper left and then finally lower left. I only messed with the scope on the center target. Right now, I am shooting until the groups become consistent, which I think they are after 50 shots. Then I will sight the scope in.

I read that older rifles needed more in the range of hundreds to thousands of pellets to become consistent. I have also read that the break in time has gotten much shorter. I am still function firing right now. I have my pellet trap setup at 10 yards in the basement and I fire a few rounds during the day. It is a nice stress reliever.

This rifle is in 0.177” bore diameter There are 0.22” and 0.25” which are technically much better at pest removal. Remember that energy is mass * velocity * velocity. That means a bigger pellet is going to have more energy at the same velocity. The good news is that smaller pellets are easier to deliver faster. And you can see by the equation that velocity has a much bigger effect on energy than mass.

My decision to go to the 0.177 was to share pellets between the two rifles. I don’t like stocking multiple calibers if I don’t need to. The one downside to the rifle is that it is very loud when it fires. The spring mechanism is unexpectedly noisy. Since air rifles are not firearms, there are many models that have integrated suppressors, mine does not have that and the pellets are firing supersonic anyway which significantly reduces the efficacy of such a device.

End Your Programming Routine: If you read the journals of Lewis and Clark, you would know that they used a pre-charged pneumatic air rifle to kill all kinds of game including bear and elk. Those are making a comeback as well but they require a SCUBA tank to fill the reservoir. I wanted something simpler and less dependent on another input. I am rather enjoying my mid-day marksmanship sessions.