One of my boys got a Red-Ryder for Christmas somewhere along the way. It didn't get shot much, until I stuck it in the rod locker of my bass boat one day when they were going with me. After that it became as much a part of the rod locker inventory as a casting rod.
That Red Ryder stayed in there for years. Got passed from one boat to the other a time or two. It was used by the boys, my wife and myself to stave off boredom on slow days, or while waiting for the tide to turn. Targets of opportunity abounded on the tidal rivers. Sticks, leaves, and various pieces of flotsam and such. I shot at a snake one day, and surprised myself, when he rolled over DRT. WHAT? It killed him? Never again. Relearned that old rule about "Don't shoot at anything you don't want to destroy." Heck, I didn't want to KILL that snake. Just run him off from the boat.
How much power? I don't know, but one dead calm morning, the James River was slick as glass. I pulled the RR out and started shooting just down the river, watching for the tiny dimple on the water when the BB pellet hit. Raising the muzzle more and more, the dimple walked on down the river. Sort of like shooting a mortar. It was several hundred yards before I finally couldn't see it hit. The last one I saw I actually had time to lay the rifle down on the deck, then looked up to see that tiny little "blip" on the water. It was a LONG way down there. I wouldn't have shot at anything with a centerfire rifle that far.
Finally that Red Ryder gave up the ghost to the abuse of being left in the rod locker. The wood stock lost all it's finish. The metal rusted and the internals started to freeze up. It was retired to the storage shed, where it was when my wife and split up. Might still be there for all I know.
