This could be posted in the current "Choosing the Right Gun" thread, but it might just be slightly off-topic. What is the best caliber for bagging power lines?

New River Gorge National River (WV)
Man Electrocuted In Attempted Copper Theft

Rangers responded on Wednesday morning to a 911 call regarding a man who had possibly been electrocuted while attempting to steal copper power lines. The incident occurred on Beury Mountain, a remote area of the park in the southeast corner of Fayette County that is accessible by a single dirt road. By chance, a field training ranger and a trainee ranger were on patrol in that area when the incident occurred. Three other rangers responded from the nearby historic town of Thurmond. The FTR and the trainee ranger arrived on scene first within eight minutes of the initial call. They were flagged down by a man who told them that he and another man had been shooting copper power lines down with a .22 rifle. He told rangers that the injured man had grabbed a loose power line to pull it down and it had struck a live wire. The injured man was lying within the area of downed wires and was unresponsive during attempts to communicate with him. Appalachian Power Company was soon on scene and confirmed power was off to the wires around the unresponsive man. EMS personnel evaluated him and determined that he’d died. Rangers detained the other man and during the investigation determined that the incident had occurred on private property outside the park boundary. The man was turned over to Fayette County deputies. Rangers assisted Fayette County detectives, local EMS, the medical examiner’s office, and Appalachian Power throughout the rest of the morning and into the afternoon. The surviving man was charged by Fayette County with attempt to commit a felony, conspiracy to commit a felony, and disruption of a public utility, which is also a felony.

In Polk County (Florida) a lot of phosphate rock it mined by self propelled "dragline" excavators.... they are electric powered, and drag 10+" diameter power cords and sub stations with them... copper thieves have taken to building "guillotine" cutters on the back of pick up trucks... I don't know how much current a 10" cable can carry, but the local sheriff's office has found several "crispy critters" in the past couple of years...

Considering the amount of labor needed to gather the copper, and what copper scrap generally sells for - it's almost worth it to get a real job. But then again, we're not dealing with the brightest lights in the string.

Izzy... I have several shooting buddies from Lakeland and Haines City... it's a good idea to be a "B" class or higher USPSA shooter....

A .22 rifle...it seems they may have taken the saying "run what ya brung" way too literally. There has to be something missing from this story. LOL

Yeah, maybe a few chromosomes!

There are definitely a few brain cells missing ... or in this case maybe fried.