A pressure gauge on the side of the air rifle allows Bearden to charge his rifle to a consistent pressure of 1,150 pounds per square inch each time he readies the gun for firing. The highly specialized weapon will take a charge all the way to 3,000 p.s.i., but he keeps it at the lower pressure for consistency’s sake.

Here’s where it really gets interesting. Bearden configured the gun so that it could be set up as either a muzzleloader or a breechloader. But the breech was then sealed off completely, so that it could be used during the early muzzleloading season in November.

“I looked at the law very closely before I built this gun and went hunting with it,” offered Bearden, a devout church member and a stickler for playing by the rules. “All the law says about muzzleloaders for hunting is that they have to be loaded from the muzzle. It doesn’t say anything about having to use powder.” And since the air-powered gun met that requirement, its maker figured that it was legal.

As mentioned, the pony bottle goes into the woods with Bearden when he goes hunting. Holding enough pressurized air for a single recharge, it allows him additional shots if they’re needed after the first shot. “I can get four or five shots out of my pony bottle,” he asserted.

Bearden’s big-game barrel is a military surplus .50-caliber tube, the .32 (actually 8mm) barrel is from a Mauser, and the .22 is a barrel from a target rifle. He had to do some experimenting to find a bullet that would shoot well out of the gun. “You’ve got to play with it,” he pointed out.

He figures that his maximum effective hunting range with the air rifle is about 120 yards -- a remarkable distance when you recall that nothing but air is pushing that 200-grain slug.

Bearden, 57, has been a deer hunter for 40 years or better. That experience in the woods paid off, for his very first hunt with the new gun was a resounding success.

The hunter’s hometown of Grant is in northern Marshall County, close to the Jackson County line. It’s a prime territory for deer hunting; both counties offer excellent prospects for big bucks. Wildlife managers in the region say that the deer in Marshall and Jackson counties haven’t exceeded the carrying capacity of the land. You don’t see as many deer in this area as you might in South Alabama or some other deer-rich hotspot, but the ones you do see are likely to be good ones. Bucks sporting racks with 140 to 150 inches of antler are taken in the area every season. Bearden’s deer weren’t in that class, but the buck was still a nice one, and taking it with such an unusual weapon made it a truly unique trophy.

Bearden started the action by taking a doe on his first hunt with the rifle. That initial adventure saw the ingenious deerslayer sitting on stand when a doe walked out at about 30 yards from him. When he took the shot, the animal went down -- but it was the hole that the 200-grain pellet put in the whitetail that told the tale.

The damage turned out to be something of a surprise to Bearden, who was expecting a hole similar to what you see with a regular muzzleloader or even a high-powered rifle. But the air rifle wound was unique. “It was like the bullet pushed into the deer,” Bearden said in describing the wound, “and sort of turned everything it came into contact with inside out.” In short, it was just absolutely devastating.

A few days later, Bearden was back in the woods with his improvised weapon. This time, the deer that appeared was a 9-point buck. The hunter connected on this whitetail with a shot of about 80 yards. The pellet hit the deer right in the heart and dropped it on the spot.