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Will it kill a rabbit?


Marki
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Before I start I do have a chronograph. This is just one of those questions that enter my head and rattle around.

 

 

Could you safely surmise that if a pellet penetrated a baked bean tin at 25yds that it has enough power to kill a rabbit at the same distance? My memory is saying that you need a minimum of 4ftlb at impact but I can't remember where the number came from, doesn't seem much.

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I'd heard that you need 12ft/lbs to do the job, so as long as your rifle is throwing pellets with that amount of energy you should be ok.

 

It doesnt sound unreasonable that if you can go through a tin can at 25 yards you have enough whack to humanely kill a rabbit, but its just sounds a bit variable!

 

Sorta reminds me of that old army approach that if you could penetrate a 1" pine board with a rifle then that would reasonably be considered enough to kill a person. Cant think of any rifle rounds that wouldnt pass that test (even a .22LR would do that, easy) but I wouldnt say that a .22LR is a good round to humanely kill a person. But then the counter-argument is "yeah, but with the right bullet placement it could", so this would also be a consideration here.

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Yes.

 

I hate rating anything by ft/lbs, it is the wrong unit in my opinion and confusing.

A pellet having 2ft/lb does not strike with half the force of one with 4ft/lb!

The experts working for the law makers knew what they were doing by using that unit. It rises wildly compared to velocity or weight changes disproportionately.

 

Shot gun pellets of a mere 1&1/2ft/lb are capable for instance. An old standard of test for satisfactory power of American turkey hunters using flintlocks is to see if their shot pellets penetrate a tuna can at a given distance. I doubt very much that will require 4lb!

 

Many a jibba jabba writer will play it safe with his words and from that comes a belief that more is better when no its not really!

 

I bets 2lb on a rabbits noggin will do it, 4, a certainty.

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Cheers for the input guys. I'm sort of with you UD, I think! How else could it be measured?

 

I have a CO2 .177 that I converted to HPA. I've not put it on the chrono yet but I very much doubt that it is anywhere near 12ft lb, probably closer to 10 if I'm lucky. That said, it does penetrate both side of a can and still has enough power to bounce off a ceramic backstop. It'll be interesting to see how much power it is putting out.

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Before I start I do have a chronograph. This is just one of those questions that enter my head and rattle around.

 

 

Could you safely surmise that if a pellet penetrated a baked bean tin at 25yds that it has enough power to kill a rabbit at the same distance? My memory is saying that you need a minimum of 4ftlb at impact but I can't remember where the number came from, doesn't seem much.

that will all depend on whether or not it's Heinz

 

colin

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Si Pittaway on u tube shoots a rabbit at 80 yds with a sub 12 and its stone dead, and he says 2 1/2 is required. For me its not the power but the accuracy of my shots. 40 yds is about max out in the field for me and i need a decent rest.

 

Whilst a shotgun pellet only has a small amount of energy it has high energy density. When i look at the pigeons or phesant i shoot i often wonder what they actually die off. With the feathers off they don't always look beat up.

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It takes just over 2ft pounds to penatrate a rabbits head. A 25 yard shot with a sub 12 ft pound pellet will do the job with pounds to spare. If your unsure why not try and get hold of a dead one "not head shot" and set it up at 25 yards and see what happens? Personally I shot them with my .22lr or really long range shots from time to time the .223

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I've often wondered if there was a decent test item.

A while back I wanted a little air pistol for when I was ferreting, and a rabbit got tightly balled up in a net. I figured it would be quicker, easier and more humane to quickly shoot it in the head point blank with an air pistol, rather than keep struggling against the rabbit to unwrap it. Plus meant if other rabbits popped out I would be ready.

I bought a single stroke pneumatic that I was assured would be up to the job. Pellet bounced off the first rabbits head. I felt awful, and quickly grabbed the air rifle instead.

Something to test with would be good.

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It don't take much to kill a bunny if you can hit it in the right spot which is the brain it's as big as a 5p coin inside a big mainly empty scull

This is why we use more than the bare minimum power

I have actually wounded rabbits using 30 ft lb air when I have hit it not quite the right spot in the head or neck. In the real world "stuff happens" to be fair to your quarry carry enough gun and be honest about your abilities to place the first shot as a bean can is a big target

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A rabbit brain is about 3cm by 2cm in an adult, aim about 1 cm behind and level with the eye. I saw an X Ray somewhere in my past to get that.

I chronograph my aa.. 22

At 180lbs it puts out 11.6

At 150 lbs it puts out around 10

 

Last week I had a clean kill at 100 lbs, I don't shootvwith less in air in the tank than that.

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There was a test done by Roy Lupton worth watching. Also, why not heart shoot a few rabbits with a rifle or just use a shotgun to get a few, then use the skulls at different ranges to test air rifle penetration on the dead rabbits and report back here?

 

My family already think I've lost the plot, It'll probably confirm it If I start stringing up dead rabbits for testing purposes.

 

 

I'll wait until they have gone out.

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A rabbit brain is about 3cm by 2cm in an adult, aim about 1 cm behind and level with the eye. I saw an X Ray somewhere in my past to get that.

I chronograph my aa.. 22

At 180lbs it puts out 11.6

At 150 lbs it puts out around 10

Last week I had a clean kill at 100 lbs, I don't shootvwith less in air in the tank than that.

http://forums.pigeonwatch.co.uk/forums/topic/280263-rabbit-brain/?hl=%2Brabbit+%2Bbrain

 

An old post I did

Edited by colin lad
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A rabbit brain is about 3cm by 2cm in an adult, aim about 1 cm behind and level with the eye. I saw an X Ray somewhere in my past to get that.

I chronograph my aa.. 22

At 180lbs it puts out 11.6

At 150 lbs it puts out around 10

 

Last week I had a clean kill at 100 lbs, I don't shootvwith less in air in the tank than that.

are you sure you don't mean 180 bar = 11.6ftlb

 

and 150bar = 10ftlb

 

because if its how you say it is you need your rifle checking,,,something is seriously wrong :lol::lol: :lol:

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