Foot Lbs verses roof damage ?s

[igolfat8]

We hunt pigeons at an industrial dairy farm on a weekly basis. The owner just put new fiberglass roofs on his barns. We have been using P-rods mostly and detuned them to shoot .22 pellets at 10.8 foot pounds or 585 FPS using 14.3 CPHPs. If we miss a bird we still put holes through the roof inside 40 yards. If we slow the 22s even further they become increasingly more unstable which produces more fliers. So I am wondering if going to a .177 pellet, will this have less chance of putting holes in the roof when the foot pounds of energy is lower?

Hypothetically, if a .22 and .177 BOTH had the same foot pounds of energy, would the smaller caliber, concentrating that same energy into a smaller area, have more chance to penetrate a fiberglass roof? I would think spreading the "same" energy into a wider area (larger caliber and POI footprint) might have less chance of penetration?

I am not that experienced using .177s. I had a Crosman Challenger for a brief while and it was pretty much a 10M gun which loved 8 grain wad cutters but shoot those WCs outdoors and the slightest wind would blow them all over the place. Even though we shoot inside barns, they have fans blowing so there is air movement. Are .177 round nose, shot at slower velocities, stable in a some wind?

Is there a general lowest speed range where .177s are accurate? Using the search function here it seems its similar to 22s in that 177s prefer 880-920 FPS too? I've found that when dropping below 700 FPS in .22s they start to lose accuracy and have more fliers.

Back to the title, I guess I am looking for suggestions to find a pellet caliber, weight and speed that won't poke holes in the fiberglass roofing and will still have enough energy to humanely drop a pigeon at 40 yards. Ideally I would love to find some scrap pieces of the same roofing to shoot at to find out what speed or energy level I need to stay below, but sadly I don't.

 

[beerthief]

as a kid we used Red Riders to shoot pigeons , the bb's bounced off the roof when we missed , the birds were just as dead as with what your using .

 

[beerthief]

We hunt pigeons at an industrial dairy farm on a weekly basis. The owner just put new fiberglass roofs on his barns. We have been using P-rods mostly and detuned them to shoot .22 pellets at 10.8 foot pounds or 585 FPS using 14.3 CPHPs. If we miss a bird we still put holes through the roof inside 40 yards. If we slow the 22s even further they become increasingly more unstable which produces more fliers. So I am wondering if going to a .177 pellet, will this have less chance of putting holes in the roof when the foot pounds of energy is lower?

Hypothetically, if a .22 and .177 BOTH had the same foot pounds of energy, would the smaller caliber, concentrating that same energy into a smaller area, have more chance to penetrate a fiberglass roof? I would think spreading the "same" energy into a wider area (larger caliber and POI footprint) might have less chance of penetration?

I am not that experienced using .177s. I had a Crosman Challenger for a brief while and it was pretty much a 10M gun which loved 8 grain wad cutters but shoot those WCs outdoors and the slightest wind would blow them all over the place. Even though we shoot inside barns, they have fans blowing so there is air movement. Are .177 round nose, shot at slower velocities, stable in a some wind?

Is there a general lowest speed range where .177s are accurate? Using the search function here it seems its similar to 22s in that 177s prefer 880-920 FPS too? I've found that when dropping below 700 FPS in .22s they start to lose accuracy and have more fliers.

Back to the title, I guess I am looking for suggestions to find a pellet caliber, weight and speed that won't poke holes in the fiberglass roofing and will still have enough energy to humanely drop a pigeon at 40 yards. Ideally I would love to find some scrap pieces of the same roofing to shoot at to find out what speed or energy level I need to stay below, but sadly I don't.

You could just buy one of the sheets ? OR contact the company and ask for a sample ?

 

[frankie]

Not trying to sound arrogant, but you shouldn't be missing a pigeon at 40 yards, unless you're strictly going for head shots.
I usually position myself so if I have any pass through, the projectile will hit a wood or steel beam to furniture reduce the speed.

 

[Scouty]

Hypothetically, if a .22 and .177 BOTH had the same foot pounds of energy, would the smaller caliber, concentrating that same energy into a smaller area, have more chance to penetrate a fiberglass roof? I would think spreading the "same" energy into a wider area (larger caliber and POI footprint) might have less chance of penetration?

On steel, yes. Smaller calibers are more likely to crack or punch through light gauge steel roofing than larger calibers. I would assume the same on fiberglass but really don't know.

A wadcutter should be even better but groups tend to open up over 30 yards. And then there is the issue you have with the fans. Not sure if. 25 wadcutters would be any better. You'd probably have to cast your own.

If I had a sample of the roofing I'd test with .177, .22 & .25 Polymags. Testing with both tips removed & left in place.

 

[Sqwirl57]

On steel, yes. Smaller calibers are more likely to crack or punch through light gauge steel roofing than larger calibers. I would assume the same on fiberglass but really don't know.

A wadcutter should be even better but groups tend to open up over 30 yards. And then there is the issue you have with the fans. Not sure if. 25 wadcutters would be any better. You'd probably have to cast your own.

If I had a sample of the roofing I'd test with .177, .22 & .25 Polymags. Testing with both tips removed & left in place.

That's what I would do. Get a few pieces of roof and see what happens. People can sit here and speculate all they want but nothing beats hard data

 

[beerthief]

That's what I would do. Get a few pieces of roof and see what happens. People can sit here and speculate all they want but nothing beats hard data

buying a sheet of the stuff or getting a sample sent will be much cheaper than repairing a roof and pi$$ing off the client .

 

[WoodWelder]

I do a lot of barn shooting and never miss. However, I always take into consideration that if I do miss where is my projectile going to end up? There is nothing you can do to stop punching holes thru fiberglass panels.

 

[BC]

We hunt pigeons at an industrial dairy farm on a weekly basis. The owner just put new fiberglass roofs on his barns. We have been using P-rods mostly and detuned them to shoot .22 pellets at 10.8 foot pounds or 585 FPS using 14.3 CPHPs. If we miss a bird we still put holes through the roof inside 40 yards. If we slow the 22s even further they become increasingly more unstable which produces more fliers. So I am wondering if going to a .177 pellet, will this have less chance of putting holes in the roof when the foot pounds of energy is lower?

Hypothetically, if a .22 and .177 BOTH had the same foot pounds of energy, would the smaller caliber, concentrating that same energy into a smaller area, have more chance to penetrate a fiberglass roof? I would think spreading the "same" energy into a wider area (larger caliber and POI footprint) might have less chance of penetration?

I am not that experienced using .177s. I had a Crosman Challenger for a brief while and it was pretty much a 10M gun which loved 8 grain wad cutters but shoot those WCs outdoors and the slightest wind would blow them all over the place. Even though we shoot inside barns, they have fans blowing so there is air movement. Are .177 round nose, shot at slower velocities, stable in a some wind?

Is there a general lowest speed range where .177s are accurate? Using the search function here it seems its similar to 22s in that 177s prefer 880-920 FPS too? I've found that when dropping below 700 FPS in .22s they start to lose accuracy and have more fliers.

Back to the title, I guess I am looking for suggestions to find a pellet caliber, weight and speed that won't poke holes in the fiberglass roofing and will still have enough energy to humanely drop a pigeon at 40 yards. Ideally I would love to find some scrap pieces of the same roofing to shoot at to find out what speed or energy level I need to stay below, but sadly I don't.

It wont take much to shoot a hole through the farmers new fiberglass roof panels. I would not even shoot a pigeon in rafters with a steel roof panel. A typical steel panel is just 29 or 26 gauge, and will not stop a pellet. Fiberglass is even easier to penetrate. There is no way as me being the farmer, that I would allow you to shoot towards my roof, because when you miss and you will, you will shoot a hole in the roof panel.

 

[beerthief]

as a kid we killed ton's of birds ,probably @ 50 to 75 feet under the bridge with our low power bb guns , guess we didn't know any better ?

 

[Scouty]

That's what I would do. Get a few pieces of roof and see what happens. People can sit here and speculate all they want but nothing beats hard data

I just checked local dealer & fiberglass panels weren't very expensive & small enough to be easily transported.

But I'd want to be sure it was the same product. Since it's a new roof hopefully it will be easy to find out what was used.

 

[igolfat8]

Thanks for the suggestions. The fiberglass panels are 40 FEET in length. Not real easy to transport in my tiny Honda or inexpensive either.

 

[dizzums]

id use co2 velocities a co2 usually wont penetrate tin, i dont think caliber will make much difference .. as long as its angled it wont penetrate most of the time .. and wait for square body shots, 'nipping' shots where your barely getting them is gonna pound the tin full force ..

 

[Scouty]

Thanks for the suggestions. The fiberglass panels are 40 FEET in length. Not real easy to transport in my tiny Honda or inexpensive either.

Yikes. Yeah I'd request a sample.

 

[Firewalker]

I have a bunch of steel roofing I pulled down from my pole barn, I can shoot it and show you the damage for different speeds if you like?

 

[Scotty1]

I’m surprised nobody has come up with frangible pellets for barn pesting… maybe I should have kept that to myself.

 

[qball]

Fiber glass roofs are pretty tough actually especially at an angle. Any 12fpe or lower will do the trick and be very safe. At 40 yards I bet 14-15 yards should be fine too. However we don’t know how old the roof material is so it’s best to find a scrap piece to validate.

 

[Ranchibi]

Tim, have you tried GTO's thru your Prods...I am thinking they slow down quickly being so light after being shot, just a thought.

 

[beerthief]

I’m surprised nobody has come up with frangible pellets for barn pesting… maybe I should have kept that to myself.

Baking powder and school paste pellets ? HMMM

 

[Vetmx]

I built a gun for my mom years ago. It’s a 600fps .177 shooting 7.3gr. Dead accurate to 50 yards and we have hammered starlings with it. I don’t think it would pose a threat to a fiberglass roof. If we lived closer to each other I would certainly let you test hunt with it. The gun doesn’t get used often anymore except when someone borrows it for skunks.