Regional bias leads folks to...

by Paul , Monday, November 18, 2013, 16:12 (3966 days ago) @ uncowboy

Assume that their way is the only way. Not everyone has access to the calibers and weapons folks in the U.S. take for granted. The new PCP rifles are a response to the international movement to ban powder burning firearms and show what can be done with "just" air power.

A few years ago the PPPPPP was used to place one 158 gr factory load in the cranial cavity of a decent sized porker. The shot went high and left instead of dead center of the brain, clipped a vertebrae that sent a portion down to the right side shoulder and the other piece was recovered from the left ham. Not bad penetration for an underpowered (about 625 fps - wish I'd never chronographed the load) factory RNL. Both pieces together weighed pert near 158 grains. The pig never knew he'd been shot with an underpowered and improperly shaped projectile of inferior composition and less than perfect placement - he was dead right there, never got off a squeal.

There are folks that use the 22 and 25 caliber PCP rifles to take pigs with. Again, shot placement is critical to say the least. In the U.S. folks get used to the latest and greatest mangle'em caliber being touted as the "only sane and humane" way to take game, but folks in other parts of the globe don't have access to such things and don't realize they are under gunned. Shucks, the Brits are limited to 12 ft pounds of power and manage to take all kinds of game with the lowly .177 (4.5 mm) at or under that power level.

Now, is it "the best" caliber for pig, deer, antelope and such? Probably not - but folks argue over whether a 270 or '06 or 7mm or (fill in your favorite caliber) is "enough gun" for them - forgetting that the good ol' 30 wcf has taken millions of deer and such with far less power than they have. The 9mm/357 Crosman is an impressive piece of ordnance even if it IS "just a BB gun" to a lot of folks.