The Pen Trick

KDX

KDX

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It seems like there are a lot of us who are getting gopher fever and I thought I would do a post on the Pen Trick. There's reference and discussion on it in earlier threads, but I figured I would start a new thread as there seems to be a bunch of new members here lately. Basically the pen trick is a (cheap) alternative to the Paco Tool to give you increased 'splat' factor when shooting reactive targets such as gophers. You need some HP ammo and a Bic (or similar) pen. Place your ammo on a flat surface, insert the end of a pen into the HP cavity and using a circular motion you increase the size of the cavity. I haven't noticed a decrease in accuracy with the AE22 that I modded (on paper), but haven't found a patch of gophers to try the splat factor on. Here's a pic I took with a Winchester Power Point on the top (the left hand one factory and the right one modded) and on the bottom American Eagle AE22 (factory on the left and modded on the right).

IMG_0638.jpg
 
You can also buy a professionally made kit that does this same thing(expanding the hollow cavity), and also has the ability to convert them to flat points, similar to a wadcutter type round. It works great in my opinion. Gunblast did a review of it, it's called the Paco Kelly "Acu-Rzr".
http://www.gunblast.com/Paco.htm
 
Might be worth while to do on match grade ammo, if the accuracy is maintained. Lubed bullets tend to clog up the dies made for doing that.

For splat factor, nothing beats segmented ammo...
 
After modding the Power Points I don't think that there is much benefit, but I do think it helps the AE22.
 
kombayotch said:
Might be worth while to do on match grade ammo, if the accuracy is maintained. Lubed bullets tend to clog up the dies made for doing that.

For splat factor, nothing beats segmented ammo...
Click to expand...

I'm going to put my thinking cap on and try to figure out an easy way to do this. Ideally it would be something similar to the Paco Tool that just pressed the segments in while maintaining the bullet's shape.
 
You got too much time on your hands or not enough gophers LOL. I shoot up to 500rnds on a outing .
 
Honestly people, if you have enough time to hollow out hollow points on .22lr ammo, you probably need a girlfriend, a dirty magazine or both. Maybe a bag of cheesies, I don't know but your not right in the head...


These things come 500 rounds to a box. It's not uncommon to fire off all 500 in a sunny afternoon, sometimes more. Last year I got the barrel on my Browning so hot I couldn't see the sights from the mirage. Do you really want to modify .22 ammo?
 
pharaoh2 said:
Honestly people, if you have enough time to hollow out hollow points on .22lr ammo, you probably need a girlfriend, a dirty magazine or both. Maybe a bag of cheesies, I don't know but your not right in the head...


These things come 500 rounds to a box. It's not uncommon to fire off all 500 in a sunny afternoon, sometimes more. Last year I got the barrel on my Browning so hot I couldn't see the sights from the mirage. Do you really want to modify .22 ammo?
Click to expand...

No kidding!!!A lot of time and effort just to see a gopher die with a slightly bigger *splat*.

The funnest ones to shoot are the farthest away anyways, and you're not even gonna see it explode at that range.
 
pharaoh2 said:
Honestly people, if you have enough time to hollow out hollow points on .22lr ammo, you probably need a girlfriend, a dirty magazine or both. Maybe a bag of cheesies, I don't know but your not right in the head...


These things come 500 rounds to a box. It's not uncommon to fire off all 500 in a sunny afternoon, sometimes more. Last year I got the barrel on my Browning so hot I couldn't see the sights from the mirage. Do you really want to modify .22 ammo?
Click to expand...

Saskatchewan winters can be long and cold. Personally I would just mod a few boxes at a time for fun. Have you ever reloaded ammo for a varmint rifle? I'm currently working on some 17 Remington Fireball loads with gophers and crows in mind. That takes more 'work' than modding some .22lr ammo, but it's fun none the less.
 
Cheesies are pretty good I will admit. Not while reloading though. Did you kill any squeaks yet? It hit around -18C here lately, but it's supposed to warm up next week.
 
KDX said:
Cheesies are pretty good I will admit. Not while reloading though. Did you kill any squeaks yet? It hit around -18C here lately, but it's supposed to warm up next week.
Click to expand...

Only the one, haven't had time to venture out while the weather has been good. Ran over quite a few though. I asked the boss if the big boss would get mad if I started scratching my kills into the fender of the van the other week. :D
 
For some reason I am skeptical of the impact this mod will have.

Part of me thinks that the bullet would do that at the moment of impact anyway, or at least its supposed to.

Perhaps opening up the point a bit just helps ensure expansion that ought to occur anyway?

Perhaps people do this because stressing the bullet so much causes it to fragment on impact? On a gopher, that would be huge.

I cant really put my finger on why I am thinking this way. There certainly seems to be a long established reason for doing this. But I really want to see what sort of difference it actually makes.

Somebody bust out the ballistic jelly!
 
Aim at the ground directly below and ahead of them; especially if it's hard-packed. The bullet will zig to one side as well but... occasionally it exacts terrible damage when you get it right.
Mind you I havn't put much thought into the damage done to the gopher since ...oh Grade 5 - 6.
But I've got a couple this year with the new toys
Savage 1914 pump...

No pic's of the Mossberg 42m(b) though , maybe down the line
 
Bullet mods

I have the Paco kit and I think it is fun to modify 22 ammo to perform better. I only shoot it in my bolt action rifles. The splat factor is why most of us shoot at gophers in the first place. With these small HP's in some of the less exp. bulk packs, the splat factor is pretty minor. This I do right after the 5 mins with a dirty magazine. FS
 
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