FAC air .22 or .25

[Whitebridges]

My Daystate Wolverine in .25 FAC flavour is set up to shoot JSB Exact King  25.39 grain ammo.  I can get 40 really consistent shots between 895 - 880 ft per second for about 45ft lbs of energy at the muzzle. I use a hawke sidewinder parallax adjustable sight which is spot on.   I've shot all the usual air gun calibres such as .177 and .22 at FAC levels and for me the .25 is a step up. Most of my pest control is between 35 - 60 yards, so this gun is perfect for my needs. Based on personal experience i can't agree with Ultrastu regarding over penetration with the .25 but he may be referring to shots taken a closer ranges.

        

[Mice!]

6 hours ago, Ultrastu said:

The issue with the heavy .25 cal pellets (25 grn ) is that they tend to over penetrate at almost any speed and energy . (Within reason ) 

So your sub 12 .25 is still gonna go right through a rat. 

so a dead rat then 👍 

[Ultrastu]

The biggest issue with the pellet going right through isnt so much that it doesnt kill a rat .Its more that it comes out the back of it without slowing down much .and then bounces about in who knows which direction? .and thats a pellet i dont want to stop with my face .

I used to use a .22 ultra sub 12 .just for rats in barns . (Up to 20 yds max. Most shots about 10 yds ) and the pellet would go right through and often hit ply boards or metal sheeting and them bounce about inside the barn where i was in the dark . (Very frightening ) i tried allvthe hollow points to try and reduce it. With various degrees of success and failure  .

I then swapped to a .177 and that solved the issue. Using wad cutter or hollowpoint is much safer .it also had the desired effect of stopping the rat in its tracks instead of it running off to die .I cant advocate a .22 for rats and a .25 even less .

 

 

To my mind the perfect rat gun would be a .177 semiauto firing wad cutters accurately around 900 fps with as low mag , low mounted  scope as poss .

And being as short and light as poss with near eye nv. 

 

[Mice!]

1 hour ago, Ultrastu said:

The biggest issue with the pellet going right through isnt so much that it doesnt kill a rat .Its more that it comes out the back of it without slowing down much .and then bounces about in who knows which direction? .and thats a pellet i dont want to stop with my face .

I used to use a .22 ultra sub 12 .just for rats in barns . (Up to 20 yds max. Most shots about 10 yds ) and the pellet would go right through and often hit ply boards or metal sheeting and them bounce about inside the barn where i was in the dark . (Very frightening ) i tried allvthe hollow points to try and reduce it. With various degrees of success and failure  .

 

 

I get what you mean, i nearly always find my pellets go straight through on head shots at normal ranges, but when I've shot rats there normally on ground with me above or some place with a good back stop, certainly wouldn't want a .25 pellet covered in rat coming back at you.

[andrewluke]

hit a rat in the head and it's dead whatever pellet you use,you just need a pellet which you can hit the target with.

[Ultrastu]

Just now, andrewluke said:

hit a rat in the head and it's dead whatever pellet you use,you just need a pellet which you can hit the target with.

Well thats the obvious  bit .😥

Its all the other stuff to consider ,we are talking about .