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What caliber? .177 or .22


napier
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>i wouldnt chest shot a rabbit or squirrel or advise it either but things like pigeon,

>magpie, crow i have seen drop from a chest shot 1st shot. This is usually aiming

>for the top of the chest and only with a confident shot. I saw a maggie drop in 1

>from a shot to the neck aswell.

 

 

This is as I would do, I have only ever shot rabbits in the head, between the eye and ear, some birds are the only things I would consider chest shooting, but then I am mainly using the shotgun on birds.

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i wouldnt chest shot a rabbit or squirrel or advise it either but things like pigeon, magpie, crow i have seen drop from a chest shot 1st shot. This is usually aiming for the top of the chest and only with a confident shot. I saw a maggie drop in 1 from a shot to the neck aswell.

Hi,

 

Shooting crow or wood pigeons in the chest area with a sub 12 ft/lbs gun is NOT a good idea. If you want to take these birds with chest shots then get a FAC airgun instead (around 20 ft/lbs and going up will do the job properly).

I have seen a lot of both woodies and crows too flying off after they have taken a pellet in the chest area with sub 12 ft/lbs guns. The pellets either don´t penetrate the feathers (the feathers simply catch the pellet and absorb a lot of its energy) and therefor the pellet doesn´t make it into the body of the bird OR the pellets don´t make enough damage inside the birds to get a clean and instant kill. So the best advice is to leave chest shots to FAC guns instead because they normally have the power to penetrate the feathers and also to make the pellet expand enough for clean kills.

 

The same thing is also true then shooting rabbits with chest shots with sub 12 ft/lbs guns. Again this is NOT a good idea, leave it to FAC guns instead. They have the necessary power to take such tough quarry clean out with a perfect shot. Even with FAC guns head shots are the best shots to take on rabbits !!!

 

Cheers - Bolta

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thats true bolta , but although i dont want to argue with you i shoot 12g all the time and ive smacked birds point blank and the have still flew off(i`ve no doubt just to die in the next field).I have also dropped them and when come to pluck them they hav only been hi with a single pellet.I have a mate who had a hw80 .177 and he went for the head all the time.with the scopes you can get now there shouldn`t need be any call for chest shots

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An old hunters saying goes aim small miss big just because a scope is good it dosent mean you still cant miss a head shot!. If you dont know how to use it properly you can still make a mess & cause unneeded pain!

At the end of the day i have always shot .22 i prefer it because it is less prone to being blown off course by wind that will send a .177 off target.

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sorry gamebag but your wrong. .177 is more accurate due to there being less air ressistance.and as to missing an head shot and causing more pain?:D??surely if you miss the head you have a good chance of missing the bird!if you go for the chest and stray you could wing the bird or shoot it in the stumach or legs causing more pain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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sorry gamebag but your wrong. .177 is more accurate due to there being less air ressistance.

so with that logic, why are wadd cutters considered to be one of the most accurate types of pellet avalible, according to your logic a wadd would be least accurate, and point the most, i personally find and know that others find quite the opposite

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wad cutters have more air resistance but because they are easy to make the heads are even so they are accurate but i found them bad for anything above 25m hunting. Pointed pellets would go faster but because the points are often not all the same they are pretty poor accuracy wise,

 

or maybe im wrong  :D

True, but at close range (25yds) a wadcutter is lethal on any airgun quarry but it's the same with all pellets, if your rifle likes them and generates enough power, they will work. It only needs 4.5ftlbs to kill a rabbit (point blank range, don't try it with a pistol), so most 12ftlbs rifles will be capable of killing a coney out to 60-70 yards, depending on the b/c of the pellet.

But at this range, a lot of pellets are going unstable, also many of us can't get a pellet in the kill area at this range, and with a sub 12ftlbs gun it needs to be dead on.

And they old saying still stands, .177 for feather, .22 for fur :( , or.20 if you can't make your mind up :lol::lol:

.22 is a poor killer on feather when taking front on chest shots for two reasons, first, the feathers tend to wrap round the pellet and slow it down to such a point where it may not even enter the chest cavity and secondly, birds have a big breast bone that will stop the pellet. You could say three reasons at roosting time, as the crop is often full then too.

A shot from behind, striking the bird between the shoulder blades will kill it instantly. A shot from the side, through the wing with a 22 is also a no brainer!

Squirrel are tough, they are all muscle, hard muscle at that, which is why they can be hard to kill, but get the pellet in the right place (brain) and a 177 will do it, same with rabbits. But a 22 seems to destroy more of the brain, so they kick less than if shot with a 177.

And I have to agree with jlrlfcs about the single pellet from a 12 bore doing the job, can't explain how a little tiny shot gun pellet which, at point of impact, is often LESS powerful than an airgun pellet seems to work. :sly:

And as for targets with a 22, which somone mentioned, Terry Doe won a title or two using an Original 45 in .22 cal back in the 80s :lol:

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havent upset me, just trying to give a different view,

 

the way i see it you said that because there was less airesistance on the pellet, that that in itself was the reason for the accuracy, when infact it infact is not the sole reason for this, as i said, acording to your logic the higher the air resistance the lower the accuracy, which just isnt true, as in the case of a Wad cutter

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And I have to agree with jlrlfcs about the single pellet from a 12 bore doing the job, can't explain how a little tiny shot gun pellet which, at point of impact, is often LESS powerful than an airgun pellet seems to work. :D

When shooting pigeons you would typicaly use 30g or 32g no 6s. This equates to 240 -255 2.77mm Balls. If one of these pellets strikes a pigeon it is more likely to penetrate due to it being smaller even although it might have less residual kinnetic energy. To use the analagy it is like trying to stab a bowie knife in to somthing compared to a fairbarn sykes commando dagger. If you use the same force the dagger will go in further because it has a smaller tip and the presure per area is more although the force is the same.

 

Dave

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And I have to agree with jlrlfcs about the single pellet from a 12 bore doing the job, can't explain how a little tiny shot gun pellet which, at point of impact, is often LESS powerful than an airgun pellet seems to work. :D

When shooting pigeons you would typicaly use 30g or 32g no 6s. This equates to 240 -255 2.77mm Balls. If one of these pellets strikes a pigeon it is more likely to penetrate due to it being smaller even although it might have less residual kinnetic energy. To use the analagy it is like trying to stab a bowie knife in to somthing compared to a fairbarn sykes commando dagger. If you use the same force the dagger will go in further because it has a smaller tip and the presure per area is more although the force is the same.

 

Dave

A bit like a woman in stiletto heels (Steady boys!!) exerting more pressure lbs/square inch on the ground than an elephant!

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but from what i hear if there is any wind .177 will get blown off target more than .22

No, sorry, that is wrong, larger pellets are blown off target more than smaller pellets.This has been proven and reported many times in magazines,various web sites and other places.

There was an article a couple of months ago in one of the UK airgun mags which fired guns side by side to see how the 2 calibres coped with wind, and the smaller pellet was always closer to the target.

Alan.

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And I have to agree with jlrlfcs about the single pellet from a 12 bore doing the job, can't explain how a little tiny shot gun pellet which, at point of impact, is often LESS powerful than an airgun pellet seems to work. :D

When shooting pigeons you would typicaly use 30g or 32g no 6s. This equates to 240 -255 2.77mm Balls. If one of these pellets strikes a pigeon it is more likely to penetrate due to it being smaller even although it might have less residual kinnetic energy. To use the analagy it is like trying to stab a bowie knife in to somthing compared to a fairbarn sykes commando dagger. If you use the same force the dagger will go in further because it has a smaller tip and the presure per area is more although the force is the same.

 

Dave

I know how it gets in there, but how it kills so quick is a bit strange. Read any book about terminal ballistics on flesh and bone and it seems to turn the rules on their heads :sly:

But your point about a lot of force on a small area is an old trick, how do you think Theoben managed to create the gas ram?

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but from what i hear if there is any wind .177 will get blown off target more than .22

No, sorry, that is wrong, larger pellets are blown off target more than smaller pellets.This has been proven and reported many times in magazines,various web sites and other places.

There was an article a couple of months ago in one of the UK airgun mags which fired guns side by side to see how the 2 calibres coped with wind, and the smaller pellet was always closer to the target.

Alan.

Hi,

 

This statement certainly depends on what speed or rather power these airguns have. If we are only talking sub 12 ft/lbs guns this statement may be true but not with high power FAC guns I can tell you. Nothing beats a heavy weight pellet with alot of power behind it.

 

Cheers - Bolta

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