The Hawks are Circling Chrissy's Chickens

Today there are three hawks circling above Chrissy's chickens. Several have been killed already. I don't have a shotgun handy, but, I've been told that netting has been installed above the chicken yard and the chickens are permanently cooped up there. It might work. They are not free range anymore. When hawks get hungry though, almost anythng can happen.

I don't like to hunt but it doesn't bother me to defend domestic animals against violence. All of which brings me to an idea I've had for improved shotgun pellets. The general idea is to make the pellets in the shape of a raindrop, kind of like a bomb. Attached to the bomb shape would be winglets angled at about 8 degrees to the line of flight. The idea of the winglets is to make the pellet spin, improving accuracy. Since the cross-sectional density of the entire affair would be considerably greater than a sphere, it should have a considerably greater range than an ordinary shotgun pellet.

Making the these kinds of pellets would be a challenge. Casting them might be impractical for such a small size. I'm thinking of using a press to forge lead wire into a series of progressive shapes. Jon has suggested that he has read about people dropping molten lead from a very low height of a few inches directly into water. It is said to create a raindrop shape that carries very well.

All this is just speculation for now. I have my generator project to finish and also a paper to finish on chromosome disruption.