Pest control, Beeman R1 .20 Carbine style.

Today was a banner day for best control. While the weather was great yesterday, I was stuck in the office most of the day, so I did not have an opportunity to work out my .177 R7 or .20 R1 Carbine (.22 R1 is currently sans scope, so it is not in the rotation). I told my wife that I thought I earned some trigger time, and while she agreed, it was raining so that pretty much put the brakes on that idea.

The rain forced my planned ribs cookout into the comfortable confines of the kitchen via the Jenn-Air. While cooking I looked at the window and saw a big, nasty brown rat. The dreaded scum was foraging in the yard in the light drizzle.
I am like – “Oh crap! Look at the size of that rat!” I do not have an airgun on hand, so I quickly grab get the Carbine out of storage, and frantically gather up some JSB Exacts. My pulse is racing and I am worried that the rat is going to be gone in the 30 or so seconds it takes me to gather up my gear and quietly open the window in the half batch just off the kitchen.

I figured I did not have much time before the rat spooked so I quickly sighted in the varmint, and figured I was looking at ~20 yards. Careful … careful … deep breaths. Pulse was still racing as my heart was pounding. Steady. Lightly on the trigger … gently squeeze. The Carbine let loose hell’s furry. The rat drops instantly. A few seconds later the rat had enough life in it that it started to do the two step, but quickly decided it was ready to let go of this world. Just to be safe, I put in a second shot to bring its life to a close.

Not too terribly graphic, but click at your own risk …

My wife agrees that the R1 Carbine just earned its keep!

I thought that would be the end of the story, but instead, several other opportunities were presented to the Carbine. As I have mentioned before, the chipmunks are making a mess of the yard and digging perilously close to the garage apartment foundation. I took out one at ~27 yards, and a couple of hours later the Carbine rang true with a second ~27 yard instant kill thanks to the JSB Exacts.

As if that were not enough, a couple more varmints presented shots of opportunities, but I am going to save those stories for another day.

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