As promised:
Last Wednesday I finally got a chance to take the kiddo out to shoot the Red Ryder she got for Christmas. Picked her up after school and headed up one of the arroyos leading to the high mesa just outside of town.
The particulars:
Daisy Red Ryder
Lever action
.177 BB (we used Crossman Copperheads)
350 FPS?
Blued steel, wood stocks
650 round capacity
Targets:
pop cans and 1 sports drink jug
I took the inaugural first shots to make sure it was sighted in properly. It wasn't, it was shooting a bit low. A couple of adjustments later, it was hitting dead on at 20 feet.
Kiddo ended up averaging 8 hits out of every ten shots. The pop cans were perforated through and through, though the BB's failed to penetrate both sides of the sports jug, coming to rest inside.
With the cans properly ventilated, kiddo got kinda bored (she's used to the sound and smell of her Buckmark, I would bet), and asked if we could explore a bit. Now we have been to this particular spot umpteen times, but I decided to indulge her in the spirit of the day.
After kicking around a bit, she announced that she had found a "dinosaur tooth". When we are out and about, any remotely tooth shaped item is a "dinosaur tooth" and any remotely triangular shape is "an arrowhead". Wonder where she got her fascination with arrowheads and fossil teeth?
With a twinge of skepticism I looked at her "dinosaur tooth". Well, I'll be durned, that looks very organic and animal-like to me!
I don't know the term for it, but it has that concave, peened kind of look to it on the "back" end, (presumably where another bone attaches) the front part is curved like a claw, but it's a slow curve (not like the radical curve of, say, a cat's claw) and the tip appears to have been broken off and worn down. It does have a few little black specks on it here and there, but is otherwise a greyish-white color.
I am going to try and find someone here at work or over on campus to look at it on Monday.
No matter what it turns out to be, it was a fun afternoon!
