[PowderMonkey]

Now that you mentioned it, in my youth a friend of mine who had a paper route found himself attacked on a regular basis by a beagle with a bad attitude. Every time Jeff pedaled his bike past its property delivering the morning paper, the little beastie would charge into the street grab the roll cuffs on his dungarees and drag Jeff from the bike. Finally fed up with the attacks, one morning Jeff brought with him a sling shot loaded with an old minnie ball he'd found. On that fateful morning the dog charged and Jeff let fly with that .50 cal lead ball. It plunged into the top of the dog's skull with the greatest of ease and immediately silenced old “Snoopy.” Jeff cried like a baby for days. He just wanted to drive it off. Never thought of killing it.

[marktwain]

In an early formative age, I thought I could stun small birds by loading my slingshot with a dried bean. I took a shot at a sparrow, and it dropped like a rock. Expecting to find a stunned bird, I was very surprised to find a dead one.