On Wed, 18 Jul 2007 15:17:11 CST, ~ jan wrote:

Let's add, and be a really skilled shot, else your liner could suffer more
damage than any snake. ;-) ~ jan

I feel compelled to add that shooting at a pond (or any body of water)
is generally a poor idea. The projectile (BB, pellet, bullet, etc.)
can ricochet off the water and go some unintended directions. In my
case, it doesn't really matter. I can't see my neighbors, I can't
hear my neighbors, I don't really have any neighbors, at least not in
the usual sense. I live alone and there is never, ever anyone besides
me when I go "weeding." Sometimes you can hear the pellet go crashing
through the trees behind the pond after skipping off the water when I
miss a weed. I don't think guns and water mix too well.

Galen Hekhuis wrote:
On Wed, 18 Jul 2007 15:17:11 CST, ~ jan wrote:

Let's add, and be a really skilled shot, else your liner could suffer more
damage than any snake. ;-) ~ jan

I feel compelled to add that shooting at a pond (or any body of water)
is generally a poor idea. The projectile (BB, pellet, bullet, etc.)
can ricochet off the water and go some unintended directions. In my
case, it doesn't really matter. I can't see my neighbors, I can't
hear my neighbors, I don't really have any neighbors, at least not in
the usual sense. I live alone and there is never, ever anyone besides
me when I go "weeding." Sometimes you can hear the pellet go crashing
through the trees behind the pond after skipping off the water when I
miss a weed. I don't think guns and water mix too well.


Yes, but....

Distance. Even really good BB guns can't shoot more than a few dozen
feet with any force. And ricocheting off of objects takes quite a bit
of what little energy was in the BB out.

Now if we were talking about a .22 or even a rimfire .177, then yeah, I
agree - shooting at water is a bad idea.


Also (for jan) - Mythbusters recently did a program where they tested
how far various guns could shoot underwater (both fired in the water as
well as from above shooting from above into the water). Turns out that
even a high powered, military .50 cal sniper rifle won't put a bullet
into the water more than a dozen feet or so. So unless your pond is
REALLY shallow, a BB gun almost certainly can't hurt the liner (if you
even have a liner in a pond big enough to attack snakes).

--

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Chris Barnes AOL IM: CNBarnes
Yahoo IM: chrisnbarnes
"Usenet really is all about standing around and hitting the ground
with clubs, on a spot where many years earlier a dead horse lay."

On Thu, 19 Jul 2007 10:06:08 CST, Chris Barnes wrote:

Also (for jan) - Mythbusters recently did a program where they tested
how far various guns could shoot underwater (both fired in the water as
well as from above shooting from above into the water). Turns out that
even a high powered, military .50 cal sniper rifle won't put a bullet
into the water more than a dozen feet or so. So unless your pond is
REALLY shallow, a BB gun almost certainly can't hurt the liner (if you
even have a liner in a pond big enough to attack snakes).

I'm so relieved. ;-) Not that I'd try it, even if I was inclined to, as I
surely would be the exception to the rule. ~ jan
------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us