I have hunted Iguanas with a lot of guns, but I was curious as to how effective my Pigeon-Gitter gun would be. Iguanas are reptiles and as such are, ¿shall we say, scientifically challenged?; they therefore need very little brain. In a large sized iguana, the brain spot for an instant shot is only about 3/4" across and you usually shoot at iguanas at very strange angles.
We got there at 9:00 hrs. and as I looked at the terrain I was thinking to myself: "This is no iguana terrain. Not enough water, too dry and not too many trees around."
Well, by the time we found our first one, sure enough they were no iguanas, but "Garrobos". A Garrobo is sort of a dry-land Iguana, much closer to the Galapagos Iguanas than to our green Iguanas that look like overgrown Chameleons; Garrobos have spiny tails, no crest to speak of, are usually dark->black with pale undersides.
Still, very hard to kill. Brain is small and it is located in a peculiar place where head and body meet, skull is dead soft, but skin is tough, these animals live among thorns, eat thorns and sleep in thorns; besides, there is no neck to speak of, so you really have to know the animal's anatomy to be able to kill it properly.
As most of you know by now, my Pigeon-Gitter is a 2200 Crosman pump up changed to 0.25" cal and tuned by Jeff Wolgast and then re-tuned by me. I really had no time to re-finish the chamois covering of the butt and it was not necessary, the light color of the chamois proved to not be a disadvantage. I will still do it, but mainly for aesthetical reasons.
There were 5 of us, carrying rifles of assorted prices, manufacturers and powers. From a Mendoza 0.22" to an FX/Logun Solo in 0.177", going through a Talon in 0.22", a Diana 350 in 0.22" and my Cr2500.
The first animal was taken by the Solo, needed four shots to complete the job. Shots were simply not placed with the pin-point accuracy needed for this kind of prey, pellet was going through the animal, but no instant kill.
Then the turn came for the Diana, it "needed" only two shots. Same happened with the Mendoza, good penetration, but not enough accuracy/anatomy knowledge.
When my turn came up, the iguana was walking through the top branches of a large tree along a dry river. Only the head could be seen, about 20 meters up at a steep 50° angle. As far as I was concerned I was shooting at an object about 13 meters away, so I aimed low (Crosman is dead on at 20 meters) and let the Spitz Kugel fly. When the 20 grains of lead hit the brain, the Garrobo simply cramped and hung in there, like a ripe fruit.
From experience we knew that in a few minutes the animal would fall to the ground. And so it did. After a few tense moments the muscles started to relax on the dead animal and the Garrobo simply fell to the ground.
As you can see, the Garrobo is almost as long as the Crosman. A good sized animal capable of eating a lot of tomatoes.
These Garrobos have a peculiar strategy, they will nest in the ground at about 50 yards from where the food is, then they will raid the patch and since the patch and the grounds around it are open terrain, they always have time to run before anyone catches them, and they do run!. In order to hunt for them, you need to get there early and hunt for the ones that had a good fill last afternoon and are sunning themselves in order to digest the previous raid's food; unless you can get them from about 50 meters.
At the end of the day, we had 10 Garrobos and the cleaning started:
We arrived into México City at 20;00 hrs. tired, but very satisfied. Now I have 5 Garrobos in the freezer, Sunday after Christmas will be Tamale's day.
Conclusions:
1.- It is more important to know the animal's anatomy than:
a) the price of your gun
b) the caliber of your gun
c) how good a shot you are
2.- For the guy that was asking about quality pump-ups, this should be proof enough that you can get a quality gun for less than US$250.00 if you work on it and have patience (My usual "bought vs. earned" quandary).
3.- There is no need to freeze one's behind just because it is winter; good hunting can be had no matter how nasty the weather, Geeze! you really need shades/suntan lotion at these temps! and talk about bright sunlight! How uncomfortable! ROFL!
4.- The airgunners vest is a might handy tool of the trade.
And others that will surely surface along the discussion. Meanwhile, from sunny México,
Un abrazo!