... And Now For Something A Little Different

You guys remember that we moved to a new house a couple of years ago. We had wanted to be out in the country a little bit. Yup, we ended up getting exactly the house that we wanted backed up to a "greenbelt" which has a lot of big trees. Of course, when you have big trees you get the citizens there-of as well.

Happily, we have cardinals, chickadees, and we've even started seeing some hummingbirds!

However, along with the birds, we have the neighborhood bandits as well! Unfortunately, (unlike my in-laws), our household pets pay little attention to the little grey thieves. So periodically, we have a big pile of bird feed on the ground and with the fat little guys happily stuffing their cheeks. We scare them off, but in a few minutes, they're back.Unlike my father-in-law who actually lives in the country, we're inside the city limits, so no .22 rifle.....

Since the dawn of time, or at least the first half of the last century, this would have been the answer! The Daisy Red Ryder BB gun, or something along those lines...... Except for one problem. See how Ralphie is holding it left-handed using his left eye to sight? Unlike most Hollywood stars, young and old, I'm right handed......, but I'm decidedly left-eye dominant! This creates a real issue in shooting. If I hold a rifle left-handed, it's very uncomfortable for me. If I hold it right-handed, I can't see a "sight-picture" well enough to hit anything, much less something the size of a squirrel! It was so bad, I had trouble doing my military qualifications when I was in ROTC. I barely qualified "Marksman" which was the lowest level there was.

Later in life, during what I'll call my "gun" stage, during which I actually owned firearms, not just studied them, I mostly bought and shot pistols. Everything from the .357 Magnum Ruger Security-Six depicted here, all the way down to the .22LR Mark II automatic. And if I do say so myself, I was pretty darned good with them. Quite a bit better than average, even when shooting the powerful .44 Magnum. Then I started my career in Higher Education administration which entailed that I live "on campus" for a number of years and my gun days came to a screeching halt. I sold my guns and for the next 20 or so years of my life, I only peripherally paid attention to firearms. But I still loved them deep down inside.

Then, this happened. Let me discuss the parameters of our situation. There are squirrels; lots of them in our area. They are classified as "varmints" (like mice) here in Texas and can pretty much be dealt with any way legally necessary. Which of course, here in town means NOT discharging a firearm! The use of BB and/or pellet guns are legal though. For my own satisfaction, the rather thick woods and underbrush behind our house makes the use of a pellet gun pretty darned safe. Now, on to what I ended up choosing to use.

The Walther PPQ.

No, not the actual Walther PPQ, but the Walther licensed Umarex built in Taiwan, CO2 "air pistol".

Yup, it's a very close copy of the "real steel" 9mm Parabellum firing pistol, which of course if part of the attraction. No it is not the whole story, so let me explain what-all went into the decision making process. These things are in the lower part of the airgun world. The FPS (feet per second) of a fired pellet is somewhere south of 400, which makes them adequate for squirrel out to maybe 30 feet. Coincidentally, that's about the size of my backyard. So that part works out. I wanted something that could fire off several shots one after another, so CO2 vs. pump. Since I wanted it to be lethal on the little critters, it needed to fire pellets. And I wanted to practice cheaply with BBs, that limited my list of candidates quite a bit. What did I want?

No, not Pierce Brosnan,...... the Walther P99 that the Brosnan-Bond typically used. I love that pistol and Umarex makes a very nice pellet gun copy, but it's about $170. This is where working with the (a) wife comes into play. The Umarex Walther CP99 is a really nice copy of the compact version of the P99, but it's a more complex gun as well. Since this is the first time that during my time with my spouse that I've had a gun of any kind; I decided that spending less money was a better way to go. Especially, since the PPQ could be had for $50 or roughly a third of what the CP99 price. But, if I'm a Bond fan, what about the classic Bond Walther?

The PPK? Umarex actually makes one of these as well. This is where practicality meets fun. Unfortunately, the PPK is a BB only, so pretty much unless on our invading squirrels. Will I probably buy one, one day just for fun? Sure, along with the CP99 as well. So, this is where Bond movie fan, meets squirrel fighting home-owner, meets the practical husband.