The greatest centerfire cartridge of the 20th century? Even
though the answer to that question should have come to me as easily as falling
off a greased log, I found it difficult to single out one among so many great
ones. An early example among great cartridges is the .300 Savage, which offered
original .30-06 performance in a package small enough to cycle through popular
rifles such as the Savage 99 and Remington 81. But is it the greatest of the
great? Hardly. Then we have other candidates. Although ignored to death by American
hunters, the .307 Winchester is a great cartridge simply because it squeezes
.300 Savage performance from America’s favorite deer rifle, the Winchester
94. But that alone does not place it among the list of top candidates for it
is now a dying cartridge. And what about the .22-250? It began life as one of
the most popular wildcats ever created, was available in Browning rifles before
Remington started factory loading it, and is now one of our two most popular
varmint cartridges. 
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I was 13 years old,(30 years ago) me and my best friend Rocky
were hitting golf balls, I knocked one in the water hazard. I took my tennis
shoes off to wade in to retrieve it, low and behold I felt hundreds of golf
balls under my feet in the mud. My mind raced, we could gather up balls and
sell them. To make a long story short we went back several times and retrieved
pillow cases full of Titlest and other great golf balls. The following Saturday
we set-up on the back nine and sold golf balls for 3 to 5 balls per dollar.
We headed over to the local hardware store with our rewards and each bought
Crosman 760 
pneumatic
pump-up type of pellet rifles (The good old days a decent young fellow could
buy a pellet gun with only a call from his mom or dad to the store.) With Rocky's
Black Lab Newfoundland mix "Mac" in tow we headed for the squirrel
woods around the area that is now Rt. 66 in the Falls Church Va./Washington
DC area. Thus began my long-term love of hunting with a pellet gun.
Hunting with the low powered 760s was a team effort. Me and Rocky would shoot a squirrel at the same time with our under powered 760's and if Mac did his part of keeping the squirrel in view by running around the tree, we could get off enough shots to bag several. Many times we would stun a squirrel and it would fall to the "squirrel nightmare" "jaws of steel" of Mac. Mac was at least 150 pounds of Lovable Lab/Newfoundland and was pure instant death to squirrels. Quickly we would have a squirrel with no head as Mac seemed to relish chewing the crunchy heads. If Mac was really hungry the squirrel would be gone and eaten in seconds.
We would bag several in a day of hunting. My Dad, was raised in a log cabin, in Eastern Kentucky where squirrel was a staple part of the farm diet. He showed us how to quickly clean squirrel. Soak em' over night in fresh milk, and fry them in the morning, make gravy n' bisques, a side of grits with lots of butter. Talk about good eating.
By the time I was 17 and a senior in High school, I had spent
numerous evenings over my Beeman catalog and the 760 was worn out. Dad had given
me a Remington Model 551 22 L.R. Speedmaster for my birthday, but I was still
enthralled with the idea of using a pellet gun. I had a part-time sales clerk
job at Perry's Hardware and Guns in Morehead, Kentucky and had finally saved
up the $89.00 to order a Beeman Webley Hawk 177 Spring Piston air rifle. The
Webley killed uncountable squirrels from Maryland to Kentucky to Texas and places
in between. Gone were the days of needing multi-hits (not to mention the 10
pumps per shot) to bring down a squirrel. The little Webly would usually go
right through a squirrels head with the
Beeman Pointed 
Silver
Arrow. It was still shooting great when Last year when I sold the Webley
Hawk 177 with a Beeman 4x scope for $150 to a friend and ordered my dream gun.
A Beeman R1 in Left Hand stock, 20 caliber. (I
had Ed at C&EJ's Hunting and Fishing special order the Left Hand 20 caliber
model for me with Special Wood and Scope Barrel angle selection) This rifle
was burned into my mind from all those nights spent reading and memorizing the
Beeman catalog as a teenager. I was not disappointed when C&EJ's called
me and told me my R1 had arrived. I had also ordered a
Burris 3-9 Power AirGun scope and the
Beeman Deluxe Scope Mount.
Email Ed to Special Order a R-1
The factory description of the R-1
I'm now into my 3rd tin of 20 caliber pellets(250 per tin) and my R-1 keeps getting smoother. I have shot a .69 3-shot group from a bench rest at 50 yards with this rifle scope combination. I have not had the time to go squerrel hunting but did manage to shoot a crow at about 50 yards with this smooth shooting combo. I would highly recommend the R-1 if price is no object.
