# pellet guns



## ittybittyhunter

im kinda young and dont know as much as yall experienced huntas but would an .177 pellet gun kill a squrrel at 30 yds


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## Militant_Tiger

Depends on the FPS of the gun, if it is around 800 it should kill a squirrel with a headshot no problem. If it is 600 or below, or you hit it anywhere but the head or vitals it will probably get away.


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## RM422

thats a load of bull. i have a .22 530fps pellet rifle i kill squirrels with body shots from 100 feet and more. 30 yards is nothing. and at 100 feet it even goes right through them with a pointed pellet and sometimes even a wadcutter. .177 will do the same thing as long as it's going over 300 fps you can get them from 100 feet no problem. a red ryder will even kill a squirrel from about 50 feet and thats only going 280 fps. the gun i use is the RM422 and i even took put a 30 pound **** with it.


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## Militant_Tiger

RM422 said:


> thats a load of bull. i have a .22 530fps pellet rifle i kill squirrels with body shots from 100 feet and more. 30 yards is nothing. and at 100 feet it even goes right through them with a pointed pellet and sometimes even a wadcutter. .177 will do the same thing as long as it's going over 300 fps you can get them from 100 feet no problem. a red ryder will even kill a squirrel from about 50 feet and thats only going 280 fps. the gun i use is the RM422 and i even took put a 30 pound **** with it.


Someone obviously doesn't get how much weight effects the force of an object. A .22 moving at 530 has more energy than .177 going 700 fps (that's off the top of my head, if you calculate it and its 10 off don't go ballistic). I doubt a red ryder would kill a squirrel past 15 feet unless you shot it in the eye.


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## the_rookie

uve got a **** with it? :lol: sweet how far away? specs on the gun?


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## the_duckinator

I have a 640 fps .177 pellet gun, the only way that I can kill them is hitting them in the neck. I was shooting it at squirrels for a while, aiming at the chest, and not knocking them down. I then went out with my bow and got one. While I was cleaning it I found 3 pointed hunting pellets (mine, as I am the only one shooting at them in the area) loged just under the skin in the chest. I was only shooting at them from 20 yards or less. If you want to kill squirrels you need a .22 pellet gun, or a .177 thats moving around 800fps or more. Just my two cents.


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## RM422

militant tiger: i know a .22 does have more knockdown power than a .177 even at a lower velocity. but a good shot from 100 feet with a .177 should still knock a squirrel down no problem. even if it is the same fps or a little bit lower. sorry for a going ballistic.

The_Rookie: the **** i took out was with my RM422 at about 40 feet. 
specs on the gun
.22 caliber
530fps
break barrel spring piston. this gun has a lot of knockdown power.


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## the_rookie

Thats wicked sweet i use a benjamin/sheridan 397pa with a 7.9 hollow point that goes 800 fps nice gun its got lots of balls


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## Militant_Tiger

I had a 850 fps break barrel .177 that I have now sold to a friend. It would put down pigeons with a headshot at 25 feet, sometimes. I think asking anything over 50 feet for a gun in that range is asking quite a bit.


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## the_rookie

Sorry MT its not the gun im pretty sure its the liberal pulling the trigger


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## Militant_Tiger

the_rookie said:


> Sorry MT its not the gun im pretty sure its the liberal pulling the trigger


Liberal and proud, I could also outshoot you every day of the week :wink:


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## the_rookie

I live in vermont im pretty much a hick except i dont wear carhearts and i dont chew but shooting wise i can hit anything that moves


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## crittergetter

you could definately knock down a squirrel at 30 yards with a .177, 
but you need to be atleast in the 850 fps range for some penetration.
with a .22 you could probably get away with 750 fps.

now, now i'm just giving minimum specs. in my opinion, for any varminting with a pellet gun i'ld go 1000 fps period, and there are a ton
of affordable pellet guns out there with that kind of power.


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## Tholzel

ittybittyhunter said:


> im kinda young and dont know as much as yall experienced huntas but would an .177 pellet gun kill a squrrel at 30 yds


Yes you can kill SOME squirrels with a higher-powered .177, but most of them will take the hit and escape to die a slow death. I once shot the same squirrel five times with a 15-ft-lbs 5mm (.20-cal) air rifle--all body shots--and found it 10 minutes later, still not dead. They are very tough critters, and to kill them humanely requires both excellent marksmanship AND an air rifle of decent power. 20 ft-lbs in .22-cal would be my minimum recommendation. (although, obviously, you can always get a way with less.)


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## apeterson

get one with a 1000 fps you will not be disappointed....


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## Grouse Hunter

ittybittyhunter said:


> im kinda young and dont know as much as yall experienced huntas but would an .177 pellet gun kill a squrrel at 30 yds


well i have done it a couple of times but it is hard!


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## the_rookie

you should be fine for anything thats over 800 fps... i have a benjamen/sheriden and the farthest shot ive taking is 40 yards with pointed pellets last winter there 7.9 grain pellets and pumped up the advertised 8 times it hit the squirrel in the neck and went through the other side and mind you this is with open sights... it was interesting because when the pellet hit the squirrel blood just shot out like a myst of it because i hit is neck artery and he died literally instantly


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## Tholzel

the_rookie said:


> you should be fine for anything thats over 800 fps... i have a benjamen/sheriden and the farthest shot ive taking is 40 yards with pointed pellets last winter there 7.9 grain pellets and pumped up the advertised 8 times it hit the squirrel in the neck and went through the other side and mind you this is with open sights... it was interesting because when the pellet hit the squirrel blood just shot out like a myst of it because i hit is neck artery and he died literally instantly


Yes, while it is true that a medium-powered .177 can kill a squirrel with at 40 yards with a perfect shot, the reality is that most shots aren't perfect--particularly at that range. So what you end up doing is wounding a lot of squirrels.

Squirrels are tough! (They fall out of trees and walk away.) What you really want is a minimum of 15 ft-lbs rifle--ideally 5mm or .22. Although the pointed pellets do penetrate better, the Crow Magnum does more damage.


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## the_rookie

ive only wounded about 10 squirrels that have gotten away but i have never shot a squirrel that didnt die because the ammount of blood i found was extrodinary... so they died and this is out of 100 squirrels ive shot with my air rifle


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## Brower

i always and i mean always wait for the closest shot i can get...i have a gamo young hunter .177 cal and it shoots about 640fps and it easly takes down squirrels but when i was young i would shoot for the heart...they would still go down after a lil run but now im strictly head shots

the most its taken me to take down a squirrel with this gun is two shots only cuz the first got the lungs and it was crawling on the ground coughing up blood.....second shot was all head

so yea anything above 600fps is deff. good enough for squirrel 
rabbit might be pushing it but i think with the beeman goldcoated hollow tips and a head shot i could take em down

good luck with them squirrels

go for the head :sniper:


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## RM422

Actually rabbits are much softer than squirrels and can be take with something as low powered as a red ryder from close range.


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## Cleankill47

Okay, first off, I'm not knocking anybody, but some of these things are just bothering me:

RM422, I am very dissapointed in you.


> a red ryder will even kill a squirrel from about 50 feet and thats only going 280 fps.


 What kind of Red Ryder were you using? Spetznaz Standard Issue? Not only are those rifles _severely_ underpowered for even _attempting_ to undertake a hunting session, the ammo (bb's) are not meant for the taking of game; add on to that the fact that smoothbore-propelled round projectiles are inherently inaccurate, and you see why I believe that you obviously need some sort of education in ballistics. PLUS the fact that there are plenty of rifles out there fully capable of taking down small game, but you own at least one of them!


> i have a .22 530fps pellet rifle i kill squirrels with body shots from 100 feet and more.


One of the most important aspects of hunting is to use the most power reasonably available to you, and that rule is even more important when you involve pellet/bb guns.

Tholzel, I am interested in how you got the 15 ft-lb designation on your air rifle? Also, how exactly is ittybittyhunter supposed to get a starter pellet rifle with a minimum of 20 ft-lbs? Most starting hunters don't have $400 to drop on a Precharged Pneumatic, you know. My air rifle works out to about 11 ft-lbs, and I have never had to take a second shot on squirrels out to about twenty yards. ALL squirrels can be taken with a higher-powered .177 rifle, but it is more important that your shot placement and pellet selection be a good combination for your gun. Quality of the gun, ammo, and accuracy of the shooter are all equally important to taking good shots.

All right now, ittybittyhunter, lets get you taken care of:

A .177 air rifle will indeed take down squirrels, but I would limit any air rifle to about 15-20 yards, unless you get up there with some of the really good ones that cost an arm, leg, and spleen. Just about the ideal distance is 20-30 feet, and that is taking into consideration actual distance, and height up a tree the squirrel is.

Now, if you already have a rifle, then try it out and see if it works. But, if not, then basically there are two main differences with the two main types of air rifles you should know about:
1.- Pump-Pneumatic Airguns (Like the Benjamin) Release the power more slowly, and some power is usually lost after the pellet leaves the barrel.
2.- Spring-piston airguns release all of their power at once.

The upside of the Pump guns is that there is virtually no recoil at all, but the power is a bit lower. The spring guns have more power, but they kick sometimes as hard as real rifles.

I recommend a good spring-piston air rifle, such as the wood stock Gamo Shadow 1000, which gets about 1000 fps, and will run about $100, (if you can find it anywhere) so that you have the power for distance that you want. The wood stock will cut down on felt recoil, and I think you can even use certain brands of slip-on recoil pads on it if you want. If that's a bit out of your budget, you can go for the Remington Airmaster 77, (runs about $50-60) which is a pump-pneumatic, and has almost no recoil. the projected maximum velocity is 725 fps with a pellet, meaning that you should probably interpret that as 650-680 feet per second with heavier pellets, but lighter ones should have about 700-715fps. Ideally, you would want a light, hollow-point pellet, such as the Beeman Gold-Coated Hollow-Points. They run about $3 per tin, but you get that back in squirrels the first few shots. Gamo has also started making some steel-tipped hunting pellets. They are kind of cheap, and they hit _hard_. (Basically, I like them!)

The important thing is to practice so that you know your gun and it's capabilities, and to make sure that you know your effective accurate range so that you don't take shots you can't make or aren't sure of.


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## RM422

Cleankill47: I don't actually kill rabbits with a red ryder I was just stating that rabbits are soft and can be taken with a red ryder from close range. I have 15 airguns including a red ryder but the only ones I use for hunting are the more powerful ones.

The ones I use are:

1.RM422 .22 530 fps (break barrel)

2. Slavia 631 .177 630fps (break barrel)

3. Slavia 620 .177 700fps (break barrel)

4.Diana 24 .177 600fps (break barrel)

5. 760 (old self cocking model it gives more power) .177 700fps+

6. My modded out 1377c .177 1000fps (pumper)

7. Chinese T1820 .177 800fps (break barrel)

The other 8 airguns I have are just collectors items which I would not use unless I really had to.


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## Cleankill47

All Right, RM422, I understand, but you have to see that for some people, "close range" can be as far as 20-30 feet, so ideas like that aren't always good to present, you know?

How much did you pay for your Chinese break barrel? I got one for $20 at a tool show, and it gets about 700fps, but I don't have a chrony to tell you for sure.


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## RM422

I understand what you are saying very clearly.Because close range for me is 20-30 yards. And I feel comfortable making shots out to that distance with most air rifles. All the air rifles I listed in my other post I wouldn't hestitate to take 30 yard shots on squirrels or rabbits.

I sadly got ripped off one my chinese break barrel and paid $75.00 for it. Stupid me. Me being an airgun collector I should have known it wasn't worth that much. Because when I got home from the gunshow it didn't shoot worth sh!%. So I took apart and there were 2 nails inside the compression tube that mucked it up pretty bad including the leather piston seal. So I found out the the chinese B-2 piston seals fit and I ordered some. Now I have it shooting like the devil. But I do like my CZ rifles and European makes much better.


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## shryke300

The last squirrel i took it took three shots to the head with a shadow 1000, 2 from close up to kill it. The first was angling up while it was in the tree, the second was between the eyes, and the third was in the ear. I have also shot one with a bow and had it run to the top of a tree and i had to get a rifle to shoot it down. On the other hand, i have a crossman 357 10 shot revolver that i truly adore that puts a .177 pellet somewhere around 400-450 fps and have killed many squirrels with it at all ranges between 0-20 yrds. If i can hit it, i can kill it(although most do require a follow up shot to put it out, though the first one almost always puts it down)


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## dlip

> a red ryder will even kill a squirrel from about 50 feet and thats only going 280 fps.


Hell, we didn't want to buy airsoft guns,s o we just used red ryders. If it won't go through a T-shirt, or a bed sheet, it's not killing a squirrel.


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## Remington 7400

> Quote:
> a red ryder will even kill a squirrel from about 50 feet and thats only going 280 fps.
> 
> Hell, we didn't want to buy airsoft guns,s o we just used red ryders. If it won't go through a T-shirt, or a bed sheet, it's not killing a squirrel.


Yeah I remember before the days of paintball and airsoft me and my cousin played "war" with Daisy Red Ryders. Not something I would reccomend doing, but we were young and foolish. 

dlip: a red ryder will penetrate you just have to be REALLY close, I've had to take tweesers and extract a few BBs. They don't go deep just under the skin.

No I don't think it would kill a squirrel.


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## huntbeaverbay

would a 750 fps pellet gun at up to 30 yards take a red squirrel? cuz i just injured one since i got it. or else it died in a hole, dont know looked pretty bad tho


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## gray squirrel

I have a RWS pellet gun that shoots 1250 fps and .177 is at about 35 yards

I shoot him in the vitales it didit move
:sniper: :sniper: :sniper:


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## 7sezu

I shoot red squirrels with my crossman 760 using bb's all the time, sometimes with as little as three pumps, I have probably killed over a hundred in the past five years, always using bb's, never do I pump it 10 times which is supposed to yield 760 fps, the range varies from 10 to 30 yards, most of the time 3-5 pumps. I try for head or neck shots, only once did one get away wounded I hit his front arm and injured him and he ran in circles and scurried away. I killed him another day though a few weeks later, I recognized him by his damaged arm. I can say they usually don;t die instantly, but in a minute or so once they bleed enough. I have shot this gun so much that I am pretty accurate, I can routinely hit cigarette butt's, I'm not bragging or anything but with practice it is fairly easy once you get to know the gun. I only shoot with open sights. I have fox squirrels in my yard too but I don't shoot them, I kind of like them. The red squirrels and chip monks are nothing but a pain.


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## Tholzel

Cleankill47 said:


> Tholzel, I am interested in how you got the 15 ft-lb designation on your air rifle? Also, how exactly is ittybittyhunter supposed to get a starter pellet rifle with a minimum of 20 ft-lbs? Most starting hunters don't have $400 to drop on a Precharged Pneumatic, you know. My air rifle works out to about 11 ft-lbs, and I have never had to take a second shot on squirrels out to about twenty yards. ALL squirrels can be taken with a higher-powered .177 rifle, but it is more important that your shot placement and pellet selection be a good combination for your gun. Quality of the gun, ammo, and accuracy of the shooter are all equally important to taking good shots.


The 15 ft-lbs figure was measured with my RWS Model 34 in .22-cal purchased around 1993 which I bought at the Kittery Trading Post in York Maine. This robust rifle cries out to have its power upped a bit by means of a stiffer mainspring. Beeman used to offer a "Laser" option for its R-1 that increased power from 15 ft-lbs to 20-21-ft-lbs, but the gun became a hard shooter, resulting in harshness and a great difficulty in keeping scopes securely mounted. But accuracy didn't suffer and the extra energy was very welcome in the field.

For all squirrel hunters, I recommend you try the Predator pellets, a test of which can be found at: http://www.velocitypress.com/pages/predator.php


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