Rick! You're missing out on so much fun - I also have a pellet rifle that looks like an AK47 but shoots just hard enough to make a squirrel jump and pay attention. The first toy pellet pistol I had shot so slowly, even if I nailed a squirrel in the butt from 10ft away they would turn around and laugh at me "is that all you got?".
I have no wish to murder the critters, but I do really love having the ability to scare them off. I even hit a hawk on the top of a power pole once, he jumped slightly and flew away - perfect! I have a bird feeder and he was hungrily eyeing my family of cardinals.
It's not good for bigger animals though, deer wouldn't even feel it, and of course they will eat your garden at night when you can't see well enough to shoot, even with my El Cheapo night vision monocular . . . see, I have all the "weapons" (truth is my son and husband are both engineers so if I even so much as mention a toy . .. the Amazon box appears within days)
