Metal targets with two .117 rifles

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I've had a Beeman break-barrel air rifle for a few years, which I shoot infrequently in my garage. I think it's an RS2, but I only have the .177 barrel. A few months ago, I added a Crosman 1077 because they're cheap and I wanted a repeater to practice shooting from rice-paddy-prone position.

Naturally, I wondered how much difference there is between them in power, in case I have to harvest the local squirrels or crows for food after the Cascadian Subduction Zone rips loose again and I run out of neighbors. Shooting into the end grain of a block of red cedar (pretty much North America's softest wood) showed that pointed pellets from the Crosman would barely bury themselves in the wood, while the Beeman left at least a 1/2" deep hole behind them.

I found a couple other targets of opportunity in my pocket, and stuck them to the block with blue masking tape. The Crosman target is on the left. IIRC, starting with a new CO2 cylinder at about 65 degrees, that was either the second or third shot that finally found Lincoln's jaw. With the Beeman I winged it right on the edge the first time (barely visible damage) then flipped it over and did better on the architecture.

I guess I'll choose the Beeman if I decide to hunt anything bigger than a Song Sparrow.

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IMR4227: Zero to 900 in 0.001 seconds

I'm only killing paper and my self-esteem.

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Re: Metal targets with two .117 rifles

4
senorgrand wrote:BTW, you might retry your test with two pennies minted from the same year. You have one that is solid copper and one that is copper-plated alloy. The alloy isn't as tough as the solid copper, which will have more "bend" than "break".
Aha!! Buck13 thought he could get away with it.
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Puffing up is no substitute for smarts but it's a common home remedy

Re: Metal targets with two .117 rifles

5
Damn! Good point (and an impressively nerdy one). Those were probably the only two pennies I had in my pocket, and I never thought to consider the different alloys. Now I have a good excuse to pop a fresh cylinder into the 1077.

Any idea which years have the same alloy as a 1998? I just took the change jar to the Coinstar a couple of weeks ago, so getting an exact date stamp match may be tough.
IMR4227: Zero to 900 in 0.001 seconds

I'm only killing paper and my self-esteem.

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Re: Metal targets with two .117 rifles

8
I found a few more older pennies and repeated the Beeman shot with a real copper target. I hit a couple on the edge and lost them into the corners of my very cluttered garage, finally had to scoot up to about 3 yards vs. the original shots at 5 yards. Still missed a bunch before getting a good center hit. Looks like the old penny takes solder well!

Previous Crosman hit on the left:
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Other side. My phone missed focus, but I think you can see the relative curvature:
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Beeman copper on left, Beeman zinc on right. Remember the zinc was hit on the left edge first, then from the other side in the center, so the total distortion of each by a single hit is not as different as it looks. The copper sure is more malleable.
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IMR4227: Zero to 900 in 0.001 seconds

I'm only killing paper and my self-esteem.

Image
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Re: Metal targets with two .117 rifles

9
Yup, glad you fellow geeks caught that too. I've been saving true copper pennies minted prior to 1983 so the test with the fractured zinc penny compared to the dented copper penny caught my attention. But your second test was good and confirms the Beeman is a much stronger hitting rifle.

Be sure to hammer those copper pennies flat again before putting them back into circulation now...
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

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