A few things have changed in the meanwhile - like a couple police raids on the Bad Ass Bar next door that cleaned up some of the worst of the problem children and a raccoon invasion. We're having fewer jackasses on our property and no more burglary attempts, but the spouse was only able to take out one of the four raccoons with the crossbow. The remaining raccoons have also figured out how to remove the bait from the live capture trap without being trapped. We're not sure how we're doing that but the fact is the stupid raccoons were killed off long ago.
So we now have two raccoon killing traps and a .177 caliber CO2 powered pellet gun to dispatch any raccoon not immediately killed by the traps. When we're done with the current raccoons the landlord has expressed interest in using the traps on his property so he's paying for them. We're keeping the pellet gun.
The trap:
![Image](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31%2BM7FWIR%2BL.jpg)
The gun:
![Image](http://www.gamousa.com/images/pistols/product_PT85.jpg)
The thing that amazes me is the lack of regulation on the pellet gun. Yes, it's "just" a pellet gun but it looks like a gun, it feels like a gun, and while it's not as powerful as a gunpowder driven firearm you could still seriously maim or kill someone at close quarters with this thing. It's semi-automatic with an eight shot clip. Has a bit of a kick to it.
Why choose it? Because when you put the barrel to an animal's head for a mercy kill it will kill the animal but it won't blow the skull apart, making an unholy mess (which can also be a serious biohazard if the beast has rabies). It also won't go clear through interior walls like the crossbow will (and has).
It can double for close-quarters home defense, just as the crossbow can - which isn't particularly powerful, either. Not that it's ideal - it doesn't have the stopping power of .22 gunpowder so be careful you don't just piss off an intruder. The point is that while it's primarily for vermin control in a pinch it can serve other purposes. Also fun for target practice, except my aim with a pistol sucks. Which is sort of normal for beginner handgun use.
Well, if you're going to have a gun in the house you need to learn to use it. I've done a little target practice already. You also need to learn to maintain it, and the spouse, who used to own a half dozen guns in his younger years, is walking me through that. This afternoon we went out to Cabelas, which sells just about any sort of hunting equipment imaginable, as well as what you need to skin, butcher, cook, preserve, and probably taxidermy whatever you catch. Also stuff for training your dog for hunting. On site shooting range and a separate on site archery range, classes in hunting, safety, cooking, etc. Oh, and camping equipment, too. And clothing.
Guns, bows, rods, reels, nets, traps, hunting sling-shots...
Really, there's a lot of stuff in there. Here's an image of a Cabelas "gun library", which is just a small part of their gun department. Not my Cabelas, just a photo I found on the internet:
![Image](http://www.cabelas.com/assets/cms/img/gun_library/richfield/072910_GunLib_Richfield_1a.jpg)
Archery:
![Image](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/FtIL6Mqs5X0/0.jpg)
Seriously, if we ever have a Zombie Apocalypse this place is on my shopping list.
Since we were in there already we spent some time looking at rifles, too. I picked one up and my spouse starts off with "why are you holding it like that?"
"Holding it like what?"
"Like a left handed shooter."
"You didn't know I'm a left handed shooter?"
No, he didn't. 25 years of marriage and you can still learn something new. Although, really, I can shoot righthanded, and even still hit the target, it just feels unnatural and awkward as hell. Which, I suppose, is why I'm a lefty with firearms.