Here are the recovered splats off the "Bell" target. Hung out at 200 yards, this was a flat plate steel bell shaped silhouette. The gun firing the slug was the 62 Yukon. Running off of HP Air, it was projecting it's slug of approx. 566 grains for approx. 735 foot pounds of muzzle energy.

Even though the bell had been pounded many times, it was hard to find the splats. They were between the bell and 30 yards away. We found the exterior petal fragment under the bell at 6 o'clock where the slug's "burst" had driven it. Due to the spin of the slug, the "epi-center" of the splats had spun off. We found a couple about 30 yards away on the same plane as the target.



Here, we've assembled the petals and epi-center to indicate the full extent of the expansion, if things had stayed intact. As you see, it would have covered most of Jerry's palm.



You see here, how compressed the soft lead became. This is how thin the center section became, while ejecting the expanded petals 90 degrees to the line of flight. You can note the grain structure of the soft lead, which was compressed enough to actually become brittle. Keep in mind the extreme magnification here ... the coin shaped splat center is actually very, very thin.



And, in this one, you see the epi-center alone. Note that the lead looks like it's boiling - frozen in time. All that energy transferred to the target in a split second.

Now - this all took place at 200 yards from the shooting bench. In addition, the bell could swing. So; a completely stationary target would have yielded even more destruction to the lead slug. This is what we are discussing, when we talk about a 700 foot pound capable airgun.

Gary



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/2010 05:31PM by barnespneumatic.

Hey, this is huge. We are talking of a .62 caliber 566 grain slug, hitting a target at 200 yds and almost vaporizing on impact. How much fpe does the slug needs to retain to accomplish this at 200 yds? Who knows, the thing is that this is amazing. I’m no expert on this topic but I would say that Jerry could easily paper punch a deer or a hog at 200 yds with his Yukon.

For some reason I believe that we have become insensible. If you heard this story a few years ago, immediately the reaction would be that this is impossible to do with an air gun. Now we read it and we take it as something normal.

I was there and I’m still impressed…

Hello Julio,

I'm with you. It's very hard to impress anyone anymore. The magic moment lasts for a shorter and shorter time. Shooters who are new to big bore airguns, are simply amazed by a 32 caliber 100 grain bullet smaking a steel target and knocking it flat. After a few years of reading about it, you could knock a locomotive clean off it's rails with an airgun, and barely get a comment.

Glad the magic is lasting for you Julio.

Gary

Very impressive. The remaining energy at 200 yards should be at least 500fpe or more. The heavy, slow moving slug retain energy downrange extremely well. It has enough power to take a deer out to 500 yards if you could hit it in the vital which I doubt anyone could do. You may think I'm crazy but it's true. You can do the test by shooting it through the chrony at 50 yards to see how much the energy you have lost then multiply it 10 times(500 yards), but as the range increases the rate of the energy loss would have also decreased.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/2010 11:57PM by peter-n.

In PA., IIRC we were holding over ~8' @ 200 yards for an 800fps weapon. Any estimates for you guys?

Lon

Now Lon ....

Ya see .... there's always someone that makes it all sound unusable. Anybody hears 8' drop ... and next you start defending "rainbow" trajectories again. Launching slugs into the clouds and setting the timer to wait for them to get to the target.

Looking at the Yukon shooting 200 yards ... it's sitting there appearing exactly the same as it is shooting 50 yards. We used a dot sight, of no magnification at all .... just aimed a little above the bell. Everyone who sat down to try it, given a brief discription of the sight picture, rang the bell. It was much easier than it should have been.



Gary

Just to add ...

Of course, there's bullet BC and there's the fact that heavy bullets carry velocity longer than lighter bullets. However; at reasonable distances ... projectiles of the same velocity describe pretty much the same flight path. So; there's no way to beat the physics of gravity for any given velocity.

We were all amazed at the retained energy at 200 for this airgun.

Gary

Gary,

Unusable? Not at all; they used to hold over 3 X's that at the original Creedmore shoots IIRC. Just curious, swear.

Hey, do you have a picture of the shot that took the locomotive off the tracks? I've seen it several times before but they are still somewhat entertaining.

Lon



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/2010 06:50PM by Bigbore.

Lon,

I'll look for it .... Nobody's asked about it in years ....

That's if I survive this current chest cold/plague. I'm like a Parrakeet ... I catch every crappy respitory infestation I come within half a mile of.

Gary

Another interesting point:

We searched and searched around the 143 yard steel targets. We never did find "splats" down there. The slugs were simply exploding on the targets out there.

Gary

Well, I'm impressed! 200 yards is not to be sniffed at, knowing personally how difficult even 150 yards is, I have not yet attempted 200. But I am now newly re-inspired to
That big slug would have made a very impressive ultra slo-mo movie, casually winding itself into the target and shedding petals as it did.
Got me wanting to do some shooting, if it wasn't pouring down outside....
Cheers
Neil

Lon,

I did a little math based on the reticle dimensions and the holdover from a 50 yard zero is about 6-6.5 feet. The EOTECH reticle is a 65 MOA ring with two dots inside and tick marks at the cardinal positions. With the center dot zeroed at 50 yards, the dot below center is zeroed at 100, just above the bottom of the ring is on at 150 and the bottom of the bottom tick mark is on at 200. I'll have to shoot something at 25 yards to get a feel for aiming at closer targets.

On Sunday, the light was just right and one could watch the trajectory out to 200 yards where the bell was getting rung routinely. It's a nice smooth curve and doesn't last long!

So you guys are routinely hitting at 200 yards with a ZERO MAGNIFICATION sight?

OK...I'm impressed even without the locomotive.

Actually, the truly surprising thing is that arbitrarily huge number that the MD game and fish guys came up with to hunt with an airgun. If you're still exploding the slugs like this at 200 yards, it's easily hitting hard enough to core right through a little bitty whitetail at any reasonable range. In fact, I'd bet that if you put that Yukon up against a .44 mag flatnose launched from a pistol at 200 yards, it's carrying WAY more energy to the target...or through it, as the case may be.

Hi Sean,

We agree. I recall an incident that took place while planning Standing Stone 4. The partners that year, from the gun club, made some targets for the "airguns" that were coming in. I told them that some of them would be pretty stout. "Not to worry - they'd tested them with a powerful firearm pistol".

When I got there, they showed me a target. Plate steel screwed to an Oak backer. It had a small smear of lead/copper on the face of it from the pistol test. Proof positive that it could take any airgun. It was set out on the range, and the Yukon 2 was loaded. The Yukon's slug "taco-ed" the steel plate face, split the oak backer top to bottom in several pcs., and threw the debris to the four winds.

These huge lead slugs pack a punch.

One of the persons from the Maryland Game Commision did seem open to discussing the issue, in years to come, when the rulings had run their season and could possibly be ammended. As they are now ... Powerful airguns are shut out by an arbitrary ruling and some of the legal BP guns are clearly not adequate.

Gary

One interesting note: the bell was not all that easy a target to see. It wasn't hidden or obscured but it also wasn't a high contrast view. Being able to hit it routinely provides a boost in confidence for more likely hunting shots.

Those holosights are a pretty nice piece of work, but the rifle has really got to be doing it's job to make those kind of hits. I've gotta admit that the combination of the two is a bit jarring visually, at first. It almost looks like a visual from one of the "steam punk" manga or graphic novels; the justaposition of the high-tech Eotech mounted to the Jules Verne looking rifle is pretty striking.

HI Sean,

Yes - I agree. You should see Jerry's shooting outfit too .... ..... hahahah.

But - Jerry has a Night Force Scope in a box somewhere waiting for it's debut as well. We'll see about that.

I had a nice scope like Doc from Back to the Future had on his gun ... but ....

;?)

Gary

a nightforce on a barnes ,,, never ,, it will never work , your meant to use bits of tin gaffa tape , chewing gum and the likes , . . at a push a 4x , im not even it legal in some states to put a proper scope on a barnes gun... you will want a leapord skin print sling next
but ill bet the results will be even more spectacular

Hi Tom,

Yes, I'm ashamed too..... hahah,. What can you do ... you TRY to show the light .....

Gosh ... I could feed the elves for a year for that scope .....

Gary

I know, I should really cut down on extravegant expenditures!

Exactly - like "scopes" for otherwise bedrock needs.