This computer was part of a lot that a friend of mine bought. He got a couple of equipment racks really cheaply; but the condition was that he had to take all the computers in them as well. There were about 10 dual and quad Pentium Pros; most missing parts already. I bought my friend a hamburger and another friend and I took the computers and scavenged all the usable parts we could out of them. We got 3 or 4 usable computers, including one 4-way box and a few duallys. Truth be told, they make better space heaters than computers these days.

This was one of the leftover bare chassis we had. I decided to shoot it, just for the fun of it. Turns out to have been remarkably durable in its construction. For a computer that might have cost $10,000-$20,000 new, one would hope that it be durable. (Tho the Sparc and Decstation put the lie to that...)

We started off by taking a few shots with the .45-70 (a Marlin 1895GS with 300gr. Winchester Partition Gold cartridges). Contrary to what some expect, recoil wasn't bad at all; and the straight action lever was surprisingly comfortable and fast to use (I always thought I'd prefer a curved lever, like some of the other Marlin lever guns have). Marvelous gun. I've wanted one for a while, but now I definitely know I want one.

Here's the back of the case (before the last set of 5 shots, hence the smaller number of exit holes in this picture); showing that amazingly, it stopped one of the bullets. Upon examination, we saw that one of the bullets had struck the motherboard edge-on and plowed a 1/2"-wide channel through it (including the memory slots) before submarining under the motherboard and going between the mobo and it's mounting tray, popping the processor sockets off and breaking out a few of the chips before coming to rest against the back side of the case. The bullet expanded surprisingly little in the course of this, even tho it's a hollowpoint. The front core (ahead of the 'partition') separated from the rest of the bullet and was lost (not surprising, considering that it was smashing sheet metal edge-on). I believe this is the ammunition we were using. By the look of the sectional cut on that page, it's a fairly heavy jacket around the nose, so that might explain it.


Image copyright Winchester

Here's the back of the case after another 5 shots with the .45-70. Very satisfying.

Got to shoot a Remington Model 700 in .375 Remington Ultra Mag! It kicks hard enough to make you take a step or two backwards, if you don't know how to hold a hard-kicking gun, but I didn't have a problem with it. The most important thing is to lean into the gun when aiming, with one foot well in front of the other, and the weight on your front foot. That way you won't get pushed off balance. I thought it was some of the best fun I'd ever had with my clothes on, but I'm strange in some ways.

We also hit it up with some 12ga "Foster"-type (dome-shaped) shotgun slugs. After making a number of 3/4"+ holes through it, you can not only see daylight, you can almost see whole panoramas through it. These servers are amazingly durable (or at least packed with a lot of heavy sheet metal); I actually recovered a chunk of one of the slugs from inside the case. (Tho it should be noted that Foster-type slugs are not known for their structural integrity, since they have a hollow body to shift the weight forward).