Just bought some Predators in .20. If they do as well (or even close) to the .20 Crow Mag, they should be special indeed. In my Beeman RX-1, I have found that the .20 Crow Mag pellet expands into the high .20's (usually around .27-.28) in fox squirrels taken out to 30 yards. They are that explosive! Needless to say, fox squirrels getting THAT kind of treatment in their lungs don't last long!
I was told that the Predator penetrates a little more than the Crow and still expands. IF this is so, it should be ESPECIALLY good for pigeons and crows where bad angled shots are sometimes the only ones you get. I look forward to field-testing them very shortly!
By the way, for those concerned with penetration on squirrels, I did some tests years ago using some freshly killed fox squirrels. A Crosman 2100 with .177 Crow Mag pellets and 5 pumps (6ft. lbs. chronoed) were shot behind the shoulder of 2-3 pound squirrels. The pellets got all the way through both lungs and lodged up against the hide on the far side expanded to .19". Of course, this was ENOUGH penetration as far as t goes. Had the squirrels been alive though, I would have needed alot more tissue/lung damage to go along with the penetration---for quick kills that is! Five pumps of this 2100 and the Crow Mag pellet did 2 bars (2") of Ivory soap penetration. One bar of Ivory soap penetration was shown to be enough penetration for a brain shot IF the pellet hit the squirrel in the back of the head OR between the eye and the ear from the side. Frontal head shots sometimes had pellets glancing and/or deflecting as the skull from the front is very angular and problematic to pellets penetrating on a straight line (needed to get into the brain). A forehead shot flush on was deadly.
It doesn't take alot of gun or pellet to penetrate the vitals of a squirrel or a rabbit but penetration alone is NOT ALWAYS enough on even a well-placed shot when that shot is to the chest.--Mike
