hitting to many that fly away??

[Dekers]

The point that's being missed is not always were to aim but the path the pellet takes through the body (angle matters a lot). Back shots will send little fragments of backbone into the vitals creating extra wound channels to that of the pellet, it really is lythal

 

What am I missing here, that is always the point of the shot and dictates the point of aim!

 

The initial contact point of a pellet or bullet can commonly be somewhere seemingly inappropriate and relatively harmless, the whole point is the direction of travel of that projectile and damage it causes along the wound tract!

Edited January 3, 2014 by Dekers

[evo]

popcorn at the ready :lol:

[Michael170874]

Ive shot pigeons for 30 yrs with shotguns and airguns.what i learnt was if the bird is facing you follow the redish brown coloured feathers down past its crop just to where it goes cream coloured on its chest shoot here it goes straight in the heart stone dead.ive never injured a single bird this way.I used to use an fac rapid doing 24 foot pound and shot 5 pigeons at 30 yds dead centre chest each time you could hear the pellet strike with a big crack.the next i hit in the head and soon realised why the others flew off they were packed out with acorns 20 inthe crop or so it was like a bullet proof vest they had on lol. This could explain why yours flew off

[Longbower]

So many are hit in the crop, attempting head shots. See the video on youtube, from Roy Lupton

for a reference where to aim. It shows a penetration test on real carcass.

[RED BEARD]

Why not print out lie size pigeon targets and try shooting those?

 

Then you will see exactly where you are hitting when you aim at them!

sound bit of advice that

[Underdog]

Have you checked just where the zero is shooting up in to the trees? You may be striking them high shooting up into trees!

 

Check it next time on an elevated branch.

 

U.

[terrier]

.177 for feathers, .22 for fur. A golden rule, fac or not. especially for pigeons I always use .177 becouse it penetrates all the time with a heavy and hard pellet (JSB exact heavy or kodiaks/barracuda) and never seen a pellet go right trough the body or head at <12ftlbs

[FalconFN]

.177 for feathers, .22 for fur. A golden rule, fac or not. especially for pigeons I always use .177 becouse it penetrates all the time with a heavy and hard pellet (JSB exact heavy or kodiaks/barracuda) and never seen a pellet go right trough the body or head at <12ftlbs

Errm, I have.

[chrisjpainter]

.177 for feathers, .22 for fur. A golden rule, fac or not. especially for pigeons I always use .177 becouse it penetrates all the time with a heavy and hard pellet (JSB exact heavy or kodiaks/barracuda) and never seen a pellet go right trough the body or head at <12ftlbs

as have I...

[NIGHT SEARCHER]

.177 for feathers, .22 for fur. A golden rule, fac or not. especially for pigeons I always use .177 becouse it penetrates all the time with a heavy and hard pellet (JSB exact heavy or kodiaks/barracuda) and never seen a pellet go right trough the body or head at <12ftlbs

 

B / S Most of my shoots have an entry hole and a bigger exit hole. .

 

I have found that to much power just gives you a small entry and exit hole.

The pellet doesn`t have time to expand if it`s moving to fast.

I have tried very soft lead pellets. Hollow point pellets.

At 12 ftlb i get more instant kills and a bigger exit hole out at 30 to 40 yds.

Shots at 15 to 25 yds i get a small hole right through the head or chest.

I used to get this a lot on close range Rats 12 ftlb .22 15 to 20 yds. Pellet was going to fast.

.22 through the head between the eye and ear and they still try and get down a hole.

I sorted the problem with a .25 cal PCP and 27 grain pellets.

Hits Rats like a Sledgehammer very clean instant kills out to 35 yds.

I shoot a lot of crows and use .177 and .22 at 12 ftlb.

Shot placement and Accuracy is everything.

Have a look at Roy Luptons vids on the Fieldsports Channel link at the bottom of main page.

He did autopsies on pigeons he had shot it`s a very small area for a heart & lung shots.

And the size and how tough the breast bone is.

With skin and feather some pellets bounce of the chest.

 

 

 

Edited January 5, 2014 by NIGHT SEARCHER

[fenboy]

So many are hit in the crop, attempting head shots. See the video on youtube, from Roy Lupton

for a reference where to aim. It shows a penetration test on real carcass.

 

You must be a very poor shot if you can hit the crop going for a headshot they are some distance apart , I only every head shoot pigeon and its either a clean kill or a clean miss .

[terrier]

as have I...

yeah well, never say never ... let's say 95% of the time they do not penetrate through the pigeon.

I also go for head or back shots and try to calculate every obstacle twig or branch on the pellet trajectory, but sometimes its impossible and you have to go for the side or the crop (crop only in the spring and summer) My hunting place is a thick 2Ha birch wood behind the house so there are always a lot of twigs to deal with.

I never do the chest shot, with no gun in my airgun cabinet. The trusty old 97k .177 is my ideal compagnon on pigeons.

[kent]

.177 for feathers, .22 for fur. A golden rule, fac or not. especially for pigeons I always use .177 becouse it penetrates all the time with a heavy and hard pellet (JSB exact heavy or kodiaks/barracuda) and never seen a pellet go right trough the body or head at <12ftlbs

 

Most defiantly I have, its one reason I never got on with .177 hunting But .22 and .20 most certainly will also just a bit less so, I have never tried .25.

.177 FAC is a non starter IMO as to get anything meaningful you have to use a very heavy pellet to slow it down or you end up in the transonic zone

[terrier]

it look's as there's a lot of misunderstanding of me in my post, < is more and > is less?

[Dekers]

.177 for feathers, .22 for fur. A golden rule, fac or not. especially for pigeons I always use .177 becouse it penetrates all the time with a heavy and hard pellet (JSB exact heavy or kodiaks/barracuda) and never seen a pellet go right trough the body or head at <12ftlbs

 

 

it look's as there's a lot of misunderstanding of me in my post, < is more and > is less?

 

Yes, I know what the symbol means, so lets get this straight, you are saying you have never had a .177 go clean through a pigeons head at MORE than 12 ft lb!?

[fenboy]

 

 

 

Yes, I know what the symbol means, so lets get this straight, you are saying you have never had a .177 go clean through a pigeons head at MORE than 12 ft lb!?

 

They must wear helmets

[terrier]

My 97k and 95k are doing 11.7ftlbs and 10.8 ftlbs....

Edited January 5, 2014 by terrier

[fenboy]

I also use a HW97 running at 11 ft/lb and it will put a hole clean through a pigeons head at 30 yards , perhaps they have thicker skulls in Belgium !

[malkiserow]

it look's as there's a lot of misunderstanding of me in my post, < is more and > is less?

 

 

It's the other way around

 

< is less than....

 

> is more than

 

So 2 is less than 8 = 2 < 8

Edited January 5, 2014 by malkiserow

[evo]

I would love to shoot pigeons in the head whilst out hunting ,,,BUT,,, I have never seen one keep its head still long enough to do this and I have to be honest I cannot keep my hands and arms still enough to keep the crosshairs on it,

 

I always shoot pigeons (when possible) with chest shots and it seems to work for me well with .22 anyway,

 

my buddy uses .177 and I have tried his and one thing I will say is ,,,I will stick with .22 as a lot of his pellets do seem to go straight through,

 

rabbits are a different matter, head shots 99.9% of the time,,, the .1% is when wind alters the POI

 

atb EVO

[srspower]

.177 for feathers, .22 for fur. A golden rule, fac or not. especially for pigeons I always use .177 becouse it penetrates all the time with a heavy and hard pellet (JSB exact heavy or kodiaks/barracuda) and never seen a pellet go right trough the body or head at <12ftlbs

 

You don't want a FAC air rifle in .177 because it will fly way to hot. The perfect speed for an airgun pellet is around 900 feet per second. Faster than that and you risk it going beyond the sound barrier which causes the pellet to tumble when the sonic boom catches up with it. That's why we have calibres like .25 its so you can have more power and keep the velocity down.

[pork chop]

.177 for feathers, .22 for fur. A golden

read this many times over the years and from personal experience have all ways thought it's should be the other way round.never rated 177 on pigeons at all, rabbits on the other hand one is as good as the other.

[fenboy]

.22 just might make a difference if body shooting but a .177 hole in the head is just a lethal as a .22

Edited January 5, 2014 by fenboy

[pork chop]

true

[srspower]

read this many times over the years and from personal experience have all ways thought it's should be the other way round.never rated 177 on pigeons at all, rabbits on the other hand one is as good as the other.

 

It comes down to speed and weight. Either calibre is producing the same ft lbs of energy. ie: I shoot 14.3 grain accupelles in my .22 AA s310, compared to a heavy 11 grain .177 pellet there is very little difference. With an FAC in .177 that is say 30 ft lbs the pellet will fly so fast you won't be able to hit anything. So it is always a balance. .177 for feather .22 for fur only applies to sub 12 ft lbs and even then it is misleading.