Not as cool as Jeremy

Widow maker 223

Widow maker 223

Well-known member
Jeremy is out killing coyotes like flies and I’m here reliving my childhood. I forgot how horribly in accurate Red Riders are. Lol. I like a good challenge.
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When I was a kid my grandparents and their neighbor had a huge dog pen that was about 50 yards long. It was broken into "kennels" about every 20ft or so. My grandma always kept one of the pens for her yard dog and the rest were for the neighbor's deer hounds. They used the auto feeders so the "wolf" rats were huge and very abundant. I would take my pellet gun and kill 7 or 8 then move down to the next pen. There would be days when I could literally fill a 5 gallon bucket. I remember the neighbor started giving me a dollar here, a dollar there. So one day my dad asked him what the money was for and he said, "to buy more pellets, that boy is saving me a ton on dog food". By the end of the summer I would have numbers in the hundreds if not higher and a wore out pellet gun.
 
Red Riders were the Carbine of choice for myself and my younger brother in the mid-latter part of the 70’s. I’d guess around 79, for Christmas I received a Crosman 760 and my brother a Crosman 788 I think. It was quite an upstep in power and we were anxiously waiting for Christmas dinner to end so we could head to our best hunting grounds. An old burned out factory building that didn’t have a window pane intact. We knew every favored roost spot for trophy pigeons, and what doors to peek around and ambush them. When we got to the building we saw an older fella (probably in his 50’s? Lol) catching water from snow melt in a tin can. We watched as he entered one of the doors to a less burned out section of the building and came back out and gathered some wood to build a small fire atop an old loading dock section. We felt horrible for the old guy and decided hunting pigeons wasn’t all that important. It was Christmas, and this guy was alone and probably hungry. We went home, grabbed piles of food, desserts, cans of soda and my mom even made a thermos of coffee to bring to him. We went back to the building, eased up close to where he had been going in and out, left the goods by the door, backed off a decent distance and yelled to the old guy to come out. He poked his head out and we just yelled Merry Christmas! He waved and replied Merry Christmas. We pointed to the goods and he looked at it and opened the bags and box and smiled and simply said “thank you”.

My brother and I rarely miss a Christmas where we don’t recount that day. It was one to remember for sure.

We went on to pile up pigeons in our hot spot, but never saw the guy again.
 
DoubleLungRage said:
When I was a kid my grandparents and their neighbor had a huge dog pen that was about 50 yards long. It was broken into "kennels" about every 20ft or so. My grandma always kept one of the pens for her yard dog and the rest were for the neighbor's deer hounds. They used the auto feeders so the "wolf" rats were huge and very abundant. I would take my pellet gun and kill 7 or 8 then move down to the next pen. There would be days when I could literally fill a 5 gallon bucket. I remember the neighbor started giving me a dollar here, a dollar there. So one day my dad asked him what the money was for and he said, "to buy more pellets, that boy is saving me a ton on dog food". By the end of the summer I would have numbers in the hundreds if not higher and a wore out pellet gun.
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That's awesome, would be fun to find a rat infestatin some where !!! A friend had a few move in around his chicken coop, I shot a few with the old .20cal Sheridan. That thing is a tack driver and pushing 50yrs old.
 
hunt0168 said:
Red Riders were the Carbine of choice for myself and my younger brother in the mid-latter part of the 70’s. I’d guess around 79, for Christmas I received a Crosman 760 and my brother a Crosman 788 I think. It was quite an upstep in power and we were anxiously waiting for Christmas dinner to end so we could head to our best hunting grounds. An old burned out factory building that didn’t have a window pane intact. We knew every favored roost spot for trophy pigeons, and what doors to peek around and ambush them. When we got to the building we saw an older fella (probably in his 50’s? Lol) catching water from snow melt in a tin can. We watched as he entered one of the doors to a less burned out section of the building and came back out and gathered some wood to build a small fire atop an old loading dock section. We felt horrible for the old guy and decided hunting pigeons wasn’t all that important. It was Christmas, and this guy was alone and probably hungry. We went home, grabbed piles of food, desserts, cans of soda and my mom even made a thermos of coffee to bring to him. We went back to the building, eased up close to where he had been going in and out, left the goods by the door, backed off a decent distance and yelled to the old guy to come out. He poked his head out and we just yelled Merry Christmas! He waved and replied Merry Christmas. We pointed to the goods and he looked at it and opened the bags and box and smiled and simply said “thank you”.

My brother and I rarely miss a Christmas where we don’t recount that day. It was one to remember for sure.

We went on to pile up pigeons in our hot spot, but never saw the guy again.
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Very cool story. Kids these days would say ewe and look the other way.
 
hm1996 said:
That brings back some memories! Our favorite "big game" critter as kids w/Red Riders was....
View attachment 32307 Pelts were worthless.:(
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When I was a kid, I was obsessed with catching these things. I'd keep them in 5-gallon buckets with little homemade habitats. Some I managed to keep alive for a while by force-feeding them grasshoppers, and plenty of them lost their tails during the capture process. I shot a few with BB and pellet guns too, but usually felt bad afterward, especially after spending so much time trying to keep them alive.

These days, I still have a 10/22 and shoot some of the same critters I chased as a kid around the yard. This summer I had some concrete work and dirt work done, then sprigged and planted Bermuda grass in all the areas that got torn up. I've been watering it constantly, and the armadillos have decided that freshly watered grass and soft, wet soil are an open invitation to come root around in for grubs.

So, unlike the lizards of my childhood, I've been shooting armadillos with genuine resentment. They're not a science project anymore—they're vandals. 😆
 
Infidel 762 said:
When I was a kid, I was obsessed with catching these things. I'd keep them in 5-gallon buckets with little homemade habitats. Some I managed to keep alive for a while by force-feeding them grasshoppers, and plenty of them lost their tails during the capture process. I shot a few with BB and pellet guns too, but usually felt bad afterward, especially after spending so much time trying to keep them alive.

These days, I still have a 10/22 and shoot some of the same critters I chased as a kid around the yard. This summer I had some concrete work and dirt work done, then sprigged and planted Bermuda grass in all the areas that got torn up. I've been watering it constantly, and the armadillos have decided that freshly watered grass and soft, wet soil are an open invitation to come root around in for grubs.

So, unlike the lizards of my childhood, I've been shooting armadillos with genuine resentment. They're not a science project anymore—they're vandals. 😆
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I tried keeping all kinds of critters too, It never worked out. Tried trapping groundhogs with a leg trap when I was around 7. Checked the trap before school and had a skunk !! I got my older brother to shoot that one :ROFLMAO: , I wasnt getting close to it.
 
Widow maker 223 said:
That's awesome, would be fun to find a rat infestatin some where !!! A friend had a few move in around his chicken coop, I shot a few with the old .20cal Sheridan. That thing is a tack driver and pushing 50yrs old.
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Sometimes when I'm bored I will watch "ratting" videos on YouTube. Most are guys from other countries using high dollar air rifles and thermals.
 
Widow maker 223 said:
Very cool story. Kids these days would say ewe and look the other way.
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It’s unfortunate, but for the most part, I believe you are right. I’m sure there are a few kids out there that were raised right and would do the same. But to be honest, I don’t think I would let my 8 and 10 year olds deliver goods to a homeless person by themselves these days!
 
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