How timely is this - with all the talk amongst us shooters on HardDrive's thread about hard cast bullets in his .44 mag Henry lever gun, I was presented, just this afternoon, a great opportunity to reaffirm the impressive penetration of the heavy for caliber lead bullet moving at moderate velocity.
I found myself out on the back deck refilling my various bird feeders which, this time of year, is a daily chore. We have a lot of really cool little songbirds that hang out with us through the winter (my sons say I'm creating a "dependent population", which may be true, but we do keep them well fed. The old timers that know me will even land on my head, but that's another story).
So, feeders full, I'm hanging out with the little guys, when I suddenly spied movement inside the base of a juniper bush. I thought maybe it was a bird, but further investigation revealed a burrow... hmm...
Out comes the peanut butter. Smeared a little right next to the hole, and dropped a couple of pea sized lumps down into the hole. Sure enough, within half an hour, we had activity...
Out comes my 1979 Sheridan Blue Streak, "Steroid" modified my Timmy Mac of Mac1 Airguns. 12 pumps now drives a 14.3 grain, .20 caliber (5mm) pellet to a thundering 720 fps. The rat bastard never had a chance...
The pellet caught him on the point of his left shoulder from ten yards away, at a kind of quartering towards me angle. It exited behind the right shoulder, as seen in the photo. Yet another "cast bullet" (kinda sorta...) gets the job done...
