Close up shots

What's your zero at? that's were to start and you can use ChairGun to see what hold over/under you would need

I agree with Ezerhoden. There are lots of factors as to why you could have missed but the starting point is finding out at what range your pellet intersects the cross hairs. 

I do a lot of shooting on nurseries, and farm fields. There are rows, sometimes a chance shot is very close. One thing I did was zero scope to 20 yards, and take the secondary where it falls. In the case of a 30FPE with the scope mounts I use puts the second at 48 yards. With the close shots I do not use dots, or even consider magnification. At 5 yards,10, and 15, I calculate by inches, and place the crosshairs accordingly. it works out to an approximate hold under of 1.75"at 5, 1" at 10, and 1/2" at 15, give or take a couple of hundreds of an inch. This works out also for a .25 caliber using the same mounts. Between the two zeros both pellets behave pretty close and at 3/4" hold under in the 35 yard range works. I tried playing with a .177, I have to give those across the pond a lot of credit.

Set up a series of targets at 2,3.5,7 and ten yards and so forth out to the zero point of your scope . Shoot from a rest pointing cross hairs on dead center .After shooting go to each target and point cross hairs on the center of the target .Observe impact points and this will give You Your hold under /over needed .STAN

With that close up shots you have not crossed the sight line (first zero point), and have to hold over. Simply as that I think.

Take a look at chairgun or a similar ballistics program. All of my guns are zeroed at 30-50 yards. Each gun shows negative values for under 15 yards. As Gunnertrones said, the pellet has not crossed the line of sight at those close ranges, so the pellet will be low or holdover. Even if I move my zero to 10 yards, it still shows a POI of a negative value or holdover. Ncstan's idea is your best way to learn where your gun is shooting. Just keep in mind that shooting at extreme angles (up in a tree or down into a valley) does change things versus shooting on flat ground.

this is the reticle of my bobcat shooting 860fps with 18.1gr JSBs zero' for 50 yards with a 10x mildot ret.

you can see the range values left and right of the crosshairs. 

Hold Under my friend. Your scope is zeroed definitely at a higher range. Keep the croshair intersection below the target and you will get the rats. 

Practice point shooting. On targets within 10 yards I rarely even used sights. I became proficient at it as a youngster and keep in practice. the cheapest way to learn how is go get a Red Ryder BB gun, a bunch of BBs and spend an afternoon learning how.

Fearnloding, he has to hold over at that short distances.

At 3 yards you might be better to swing the stock at them

Get a pistol with iron sights that is what I would do but I already have a couple pistols I just wish I could shoot the mice that cause me fits but I never see them.

Sorry guys I totally had it and described to my friend bass akwards. I've sighted in both my Crickets with the same scope and mounts. I compensate and it becomes second nature. We were sighting in his new Sumatra .25 He was previously using a Disco with no scope, and was going to continue this route with the Sumatra. I gave him a Tasco 2.5X10, we played with the power wheel, and at 2 clicks past 1/2 power the 33.95's were shooting good at a 20 yard zero, and hitting various small tomatoes at the 50 yard range. He asked about close shots and although I correctly compensate using those measurements on my guns, my dyslectic self totally described it backwards on the ride to his boat. We fished Sunday night, and I repeated it here. I had a stroke 2 years ago, I bounced back 100 percent physically, with sleep deprivation, some red wine I can be dangerous. 

Gunnertrones is correct ,it's a hold over at that close range...just worked this out a few weeks ago 

When ever your POI is before your first zero, there will be significant holdover due to scope height.

Mount a bayonet on your gun