Shadow .20 gets one more Nut Cruncher

Little Varmit was where he was not to be, so the Shadow talked to him real Quiet like. He got it right  under his chin and dropped almost in his tracks.

He almost got to a tree that is just a foot from his head..

[longislandhunter]

Good shootin.  Enjoyed the pic.

Peterdragin:

I was a huge fan of the Shadow as a hunting rifle when I had mine.  I find myslef borrowing my wife's as often as she'll let me get away with doing so, and her rifle, with one of Bob Werner's trigger blades in it, is almost perfect......

What would make it totally perfect is if it were a .20 caliber rather than a .177!  On my website, I'm not too shy about heaping praise on my favorite air rifle caliber, as I believe it makes a hole that is big enough in diameter over that which you get with .177 to make a difference, yet it still has plenty of that deep-digging penetration that .177 is renowned for.

Aside from the fact that I'm something of an aesthete at heart and enjoy my R-Series Beemans as much for the way they look and the way they're made as the way they funtion, I could probably get along just fine with a Shadow as my only small game rifle if I had one with a .20 caliber barrel and one of Bob's trigger blades in it.

Where did you obtain your barrel from?  I've got a local powderburner gunsmith who seems to think that he can thread the barrel so it screws in and he is willing to undertake the swap for me.

I think that the Shadow in .20 would essentially duplicate the renowned field performance of the .20 R-1, albeit in a lighter and more dynamic handling package that would be the ideal upland game bird air rifle for use in the steep and rugged High Desert mountains of California.  I'm pretty anxious to give it a whirl and if it works out as I expect it to, I'm hopeful that I can convince this gunsmith to make up a dozen or so in .20 so I can sell them through my http://www.uplandhunter.net website.

I've seen a whole lot of custom air rifles on the 'Net, but I have to say that this Shadow of yours is the only one I've seen that left me drooling and wishing it were mine, while saying to myself, "Hey!  I've got a use for THAT"!

Do up a metal trigger guard and end cap, loose the open rear sight in a way that makes the gun still look "finshed", and with a .20 caliber barrel and one of Bob's triggers, I think a Shadow WOULD be the perfect small game air rifle.

It seems that the squirrel in your photo learned that the hard way......

-JP
http://www.uplandhunter.net

My same feelings in my mind, I have read everything I can find on the .20 caliber pellet and it is the BEST all round  caliber in a springer.

I had just ran it over the Crony to see if it was still up to snuff, it is!!

11.4 Beeman Field & Target Specials  avg. 794 fps 15.6 fpe
9.88 Beeman Silver Bears avg 883 fps  17.07 fpe

I would certainly be interested in a .20 shadow

Keep us informed of any developments

Have you tried putting JSB Exact 5.0s through it?

They're a bit beefy @ 13.73 gr but I've heard good things about them.

http://www.canada-shops.com/Stores/siarms/c144470p16822520.2.html

My R-1 shoots those JSB's as well as anything else it likes -certainly well enough for most hunting applications.  My .20 R-9 is really finicky and essentially only shoots Beeman FTS really well.  But when I say "really well" I mean shockingly well.  It didn't like the JSB's at all.

-JP