The SHRED-ER from BUG-A-SALT.
This report covers:
- Keeping it charged
- Powerful
- Not for flies
- No geckos
- Well, YEAH!
- Shot count
- Aiming
- Your turn
Today we look at the BUG-A-SALT SHRED-ER after some time has passed. We are now down the road a bit, and I feel more comfortable talking about the BUG-A-SALT SHRED-ER.
Keeping it charged
As I mentioned in Part 4 I’m keeping mine charged with CO2 all the time. As a result, I’m using it far more. I have a couple things to tell you today and then I want to hear from you guys who have these and have used them.
Powerful
As we move from summer into the days of long shadows, all the bugs and creepy crawlers are moving into the house to find cozy places to sleep and to lay their eggs. I have several minor intrusions happening, which the SHRED-ED deals with, now that it’s always ready.
The first surprise came several weeks ago when I spotted a black beetle crawling out from under my couch. It was a hard-shelled beetle so I didn’t give the SHRED-ER much of a chance, but I was wrong. It blew the beetle apart from 5 feet!
From five feet away the SHRED-ER blew this hard-shelled beetle apart. The head is to the right, one leg is at the top and the main body is at the left.
I was surprised when I saw what the SHRED-ER did to the beetle. That gave me the confidence I needed to shoot a cricket. I also shot a spider on my front walk and blew it to pieces. I SHREDDED it!
Not for flies
I don’t use the SHRED-ER for flies. Now that I have my BUG-A-SALT 2.0 working well with the smaller salt crystals, I reserve it exclusively for flies. They will usually stay still while I get to within 3 feet, which seems to be the 2.0’s best distance. The number of flies in the house has decreased while the other bugs have increased, here at the end of summer.
Wasps still avoid the SHRED-ER. When I see one in the garage with the outer door open I go in the house and grab the revolver. But apparently they spread the word that I’m coming, because when I get back out there, they’re gone.
No geckos
This is the time of year when gecko lizards also try to come into the house. They are good bug killers, so I leave them alone, as long as they stay outside. I don’t allow them in the house. Fortunately, my cat, Dale Evans, likes to hunt them. I find tailless gecko bodies all around the house. I see her stalking them a lot but I have never seen what she does when she gets one. From the evidence it seems she bites their tails off then bites the bodies one or twice. I find the bodies around the house with their hands held up like they are in a stickup. They are always dead but not eaten. I think she eats the tails because they keep wiggling after they separate from the lizard. Best of all, she doesn’t throw them up like she does bugs.
Well, YEAH!
I had John McCaslin and Yvette Hicks from AirForce Airguns and Martin Rutterford from RAW over to the house a few weeks ago and Yvette asked me to show Martin all my neat airguns. Well, that would take some time, so I just showed him a few. Then I dragged out the BUG-A-SALT and the SHRED-ER and the party got interesting. The BUG-A-SALT 2.0 looks more powerful than the SHRED-ER, so I rigged up a little demonstration. There was an empty aluminum beverage can on the coffee table, so I asked Martin to shoot it with the 2.0 from three feet. When he did the can just wobbled a little. Then I asked him to shoot it with the SHRED-ER from the same distance. The can was blown clear off the table! Martin smiled and said he had to get one for himself, and John McCaslin was already on his smart phone, searching for one on the internet. That’s the best demonstration I can think of to portray the difference between the spring-piston powered 2.0 and the CO2-powered SHRED-ER. And those two guys build airguns!
Shot count
Getting a shot count with the SHRED-ER is difficult when you remove the CO2 cartridge after each use. But I have left the current one in for 44 shots and the gun is still shooting strong. I am going to estimate there are at least 50 good shots per CO2 cartridge.
Aiming
A couple days ago I was getting ready for this report and I saw another spider on my front walk at 4 a.m. I grabbed the SHRED-ER and shot from 5 feet (spiders are very wary and I can’t get close to them). After the shot the spider ran away and went down a crack in the walk. I thought that was odd, since I had shot a similar spider at a similar distance a few weeks before and was successful. It was time to check where the revolver was shooting, because this time I know that I used a 6 o’clock hold on the spider’s body.
This tinfoil target told me the SHRED-ER pattern is right on for a 6 o’clock hold on the spider’s body from 5 feet. But the spider may not have been hit by as many salt crystals as I would have liked.
The pattern on the tinfoil told me the gun is shooting right on. The spider I drew is perhaps 3/8-inches high and maybe wasn’t hit by enough salt crystals. I see that the densest part of the pattern is slightly to the left of the spider’s body. That was either me or perhaps I need to adjust the rear sight to the right a bit. But I’m splitting hairs. The target spider was hit.
Your turn
I want to hear from those of you who either have a SHRED-ER or are using a pellet revolver to shoot salt at insects. Different parts of the world will have different experiences just because of the local game. For example — does anyone have experience shooting carpenter bees? If I still lived in Maryland they would be my number one targets.
BB,
So the advisory to remove the cartridge before putting it away is more of avoiding a potential liability issue?
Siraniko
Siraniko,
I don’t know. I would think so, but I don’t know everything.
BB
B.B.,
My Bug-A-Salt 3.0 is fantastic. I nail flies probably about 80 percent of the time. My technique is to shoot them from about six feet away. Closer than that and they often fly off. I hold both arms out straight, steady the gun with both hands, and boom! I figure with my arms out the muzzle is roughly four feet from the little pesky flies.
Michael
BB,
I will not be getting a Shred-er, but since I have recently acquired a 2240, one of these is on my short list.
https://saltswat.com/
http://bugblaster.net/index.html
RR
If you get the Bug Blaster let us know how you like it.
I crossed it off my list since I already have the Shred er and it’s doing so well.
GF1,
That will definitely happen. 😉
RR
Ok let us know when you get one.
RR,
Like GF1 I am very curious about the Bug Blaster.
Michael
BB,
My Bug-A-Salt sees most of its use in the spring when the flies are coming out of hibernation but it is always close at hand during the summer and fall.
With the exception of large spiders (that my wife abhors), to avoid getting salt everywhere I don’t use it inside the house. I’d rather swat a fly than have to get the vacuum out 🙂
I have a dislike of wasps and will kill everyone I can. The Bug-A-Salt does an adequate job at knocking them off the hummingbird feeder but around the gardens I usually resort to using my Slavia 618 to get rid of them.
Late summer to early fall is my favorite time to hunt bugs with the 618. Lots of grasshoppers around and there’s always wasps feeding on apples under the tree. A great way to practice fast sighting and shooting.
Hank
Hank,
Totally unrelated, but there’s a FWB 124 in .177 over in Toronto that’s just been listed on CGN, complete with FWB aperture.
Thought that might interest you if you hadn’t seen it yet.
Nathan
Thanks Nathan,
I would have been interested but the 124 I have had for 41 years is still shooting well. 🙂
My 124 is the reason I’m so fond of Feinwerkbau airguns and now have a couple of their springers, SSPs and just recently a PCP target pistol.
My next air rifle will be a Weihrauch, probably a HW30 in .177 or maybe a HW50 in .177 or maybe .22 …still debating that.
Cheers!
Hank
“Fortunately, my cat, Dale Evans, likes to hunt them.”
B.B.,
You’ve got a good kitty there, hunting the house varmints to keep her Daddy’s place a “varmint-free” zone…”yay” for Dale Evans! =>
“Wasps still avoid the SHRED-ER.”
Interestingly, we’ve got the same problem here; the Crosman 357 “Pseudo-SHRED-ER” is ready to go, but there’s been nary a wasp to be seen.
However, I have seen some around the [covered] fire pit area; I have a feeling that when we uncover that in the Fall, I’d better have that revolver handy…and I think it quite likely that I’ll need all 10 shots.
Asking you to give Dale Evans an extra scratch on the head for me,
dave
Dave,
Will do.
BB
I think 753 is a better indoor toy compared to 1377.
Fish
Good thought. But you never know till you …
😉
BB
The flys are gone. The carpenter bee’s haven’t been around since spring. And haven’t even seen any wasps.
And I don’t shoot the lizards.
Sounds to me like it’s time for the Shred er and Bug A Salt to take a break. We’ll if anything it will make them last longer if we ain’t using them. 🙂
Maybe
Wonder who is raising the prices on pellets. PA or the manufacturer.
Just checked the premier hollow points and they was $9.99 a tin of 500. Now they are $11.49 a tin of 500. That’s a pretty significant price increase.
What is this world coming too. Was the firearm world. Now the air gun world. Insert mad smiley face here.
Gunfun1,
Relax. The most popular president in the history of American elections says it’s transitory.
Half
Half,
Why Half, don’t smile or you’ll scrape your tongue! 😉
BB
Half,
Did George Washington say that in a seance? ;^)
Michael
Michael,
I think you’re confusing the old record holder for the new one.
Half
Half,
I was only trying to be funny (hence the winking face), but it also depends how one defines popular in elections. While the current one received the most votes ever, the first one ran unopposed. Also, Washington is likely the only Pres. EVERY American reveres. FDR, Kennedy, even Lincoln are reviled by a few haters, but Washington reigns.
Michael
Hi B.B.,
On another topic (but still airgun related), I was reading through your old post on the Haenel model 1, the part where you reference the date stamp:
/blog/2009/3/haenel-model-1-part-2-a-compulsive-airgun-buy/
I took that rifle I got from Frank out of the stock and looked at every square inch of the metal work to try and find a stamp; I was tearing my hair out!
(and there’s hardly enough of that as it is, LOL! #_#)
Anyway, I looked up some more Haenel info on the forums, and came to this:
https://forum.vintageairgunsgallery.com/haenel-air-rifles/haenel-model-1/#post-5910
The first 24 pics look just like my rifle; but pic #26 is interesting in that it shows the date code stamped on the upper portion of the butt stock!
Lo and behold, I put the metal work aside, and looked at the stock, and there it was, hahaha!…right in front of me the whole time…I just couldn’t see the forest for all the trees…oy! =>
Take care & God bless,
dave
P.S. Thank you, Frank! This little gem is still shooting great 83 years after she rolled off the production line. How many things getting produced TODAY will still be working as good as new 83 years from now? Not many, I’ll warrant.
Dave,
Wow! That’s a really nice little rifle. Well done!
Derrick
Thanks, Derrick,
It IS a really cool little rifle; I got it from Frank Balistreri; check out his comments from the past couple of days; he has many other such cool things he is willing to part with.
Thanks again,
dave
Yes. I know Frank. He’s amazing.
I concur. =>
B.B.
How about testing one of these?
https://www.cnet.com/news/one-of-the-best-nerf-blasters-you-can-buy-is-55-off-today/
-Y
Yogi,
“The pull and squeeze mechanism for firing”? Might the writer be referring to the trigger? I just had a flashback of a certain U.S. senator calling a basketball hoop a “basketball ring.”
Michael
B.B.,
I was amusedly reading part of this blog aloud to my wife about Martin R. testing the 2.0 and then the Shredder on the empty aluminum can on the coffee table and that right away the two, excellent air gun builders decided they had to have one for themselves! My wife laughed and asked me, “Wouldn’t you have liked to be a fly on the wall during that exchange?” And I said, “No, I wouldn’t!”
Will