How far does a pellet travel after pass thru

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Dr. Kralenstein

Dr. Kralenstein

Member
Apr 14, 2022
4,642
8,064
The Laboratory, United States
I know there are alot of variables that go into this, but let's just say I'm running a .22 cal going 900 fps with a standard crosman 14.3.

If I shoot a squirrel in the head at 40 yards, how much energy roughly would the pellet still have after going through and coming out?

I hit a squirrel in the vitals with a H&N terminator 16.36 grain doing about 20 fpe, distance was 15 yards, and it passed through and hit my neighbor's burn barrel and left a dent. The impact of the pellet on the squirrel was heard, then a second of delay, then hit the barrel which was about 20 yards past the squirrel.

My reason for asking, is if shooting in a residential area, I always aim high so if I miss or pass thru, the pellet hopefully drops with little to no energy.

I've used chair gun app to give me drop and drift on some of this, and even at 250 yards, you're n the 1 fpe range when the pellet would come back down to about ground level if shot at a 30° angle or so. That's on a free flight pellet, not having spent any energy on Mr. Squirrel.

Dr. K
 
  • Like
Reactions: Stan’s boy John
I have no idea how to calculate the answer to the question that you asked. If you tune your gun down into the mid 600s, you may not have to worry about it so much. Additionally, it’s a good practice to be mindful of your backstop. I shot a fox squirrel from a similar distance with a .22 Benjamin Marauder Pistol using a 14.3 grain CPHP and didn’t get a pass through that I can recall. That gun was running 14-15 fpe with that pellet. I also took my shot where a large branch was behind its head (backstop).

In addition to tuning down your gun, consider using a different type of pellet of that may shed energy faster like a predator polymag versus a domed pellet. When shooting in residential areas, be sure that you have a sufficient backstop to prevent injury or property damage or passing on unsafe shots all together.
 
  • Like
Reactions: darylm, golfer70, beerthief and 1 other person
Upvote 0
A great many variables come into play. For example, a shot from the side may not hit as much bone as one into the top of the head, the angle of strike will affect the amount of bone the pellet has to penetrate, and the size of the animal will also make a difference.
Yet there is an answer. The pellet will continue to travel until it stops.
That means you MUST have a safe backstop, such as the tree trunk, of a clear range where the pellet can travel and land safely.
 
  • Like
Reactions: beerthief
Upvote 0
I have a good backstop for my flat shooting and target shooting. The question I asks is how much worry should I have of that pellet coming down 300 yards away of doing any damage?

I don't shoot my powerful guns upward, but when I shoot some pest birds, they're out on a branch or on a wire, no backstop but open sky for awhile til it drops. Is 1 fpe landing on a shingled roof top going to cause any damage? I'd highly doubt it.

I doubt everyone on here shoots pest birds and always have a backstop. I know, we must promote safe shooting, I wouldn't take these shots if I was worried really about it. I never shoot slugs without a backstop, and use polymags most of the time for birds.
 
Upvote 0
All the ballistics aside, you state that your “neighbors” burn barrel was the final backstop for your pellet after passing through the squirrelI. I would venture to say that you took a very irresponsible shot.

Knowing what is beyond your intended target is one of the basic tenets of shooting…
 
  • Like
Reactions: darylm, beerthief, Stan’s boy John and 1 other person
Upvote 0
Dr. Kralenstein said:
I know there are alot of variables that go into this, but let's just say I'm running a .22 cal going 900 fps with a standard crosman 14.3.

If I shoot a squirrel in the head at 40 yards, how much energy roughly would the pellet still have after going through and coming out?

I hit a squirrel in the vitals with a H&N terminator 16.36 grain doing about 20 fpe, distance was 15 yards, and it passed through and hit my neighbor's burn barrel and left a dent. The impact of the pellet on the squirrel was heard, then a second of delay, then hit the barrel which was about 20 yards past the squirrel.

My reason for asking, is if shooting in a residential area, I always aim high so if I miss or pass thru, the pellet hopefully drops with little to no energy.

I've used chair gun app to give me drop and drift on some of this, and even at 250 yards, you're n the 1 fpe range when the pellet would come back down to about ground level if shot at a 30° angle or so. That's on a free flight pellet, not having spent any energy on Mr. Squirrel.

Dr. K
Click to expand...
I shot a squirrel recently using my Weihrauch 110 ST in .22. It was a 22 yd shot in the head and it totally passed through and smacked the side of my barn with a loud whack! My R9 never hit that hard.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dr. Kralenstein
Upvote 0
stanginthe11s said:
you probably had about 5 fpe left after going through the squirrel. as for responsible, well we weren't there so we have no way to know if the op is allowed to shoot his neighbors barrel. me personally, I'd be more upset that you only dented it, holes are needed in burn barrels.
Click to expand...
He's cool, as long as I don't damage his house obviously. Anytime he's outside and I shoot a pest, he asks me "whatcha get this time?"

I actually lined my shot up with his barrel as the backstop. It's a burn barrel...

I NEVER shoot towards a house or across a road. Even on birds that are up in a tree, I try to get a branch behind them or another tree trunk.

My property is elevated about 40 foot higher than the surrounding areas, and shooting up into the tree tops that are 60+ feet high, I'd think a 20-25 fpe pellet would come down about 300-400 yards away with less force than a falling acorn.
 
  • Like
Reactions: darylm and L.Leon
Upvote 0
BulletFreak said:
Got the gel I plan on using for making ballistic gelatin- will try to shoot through a squizzer sized piece and see the trajectory. This is no sub for actual animal testing
Click to expand...
maybe put the breast bone of a chicken in the gell to simulate a head shot ? or maybe slice of carrot ?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dr. Kralenstein
Upvote 0
I like testing but I also agree with the prior comment that it depends a lot on where you hit the animal. In my testing with my Prod, it was hard to get a through penetration with the original tune, 13-15 fpe, but pass throughs (and clean kills) went up when I retuned it to 17-18 fpe. I test at 25 yards. On live animals, I rarely get a pass through with this gun, even after the retune. If I was really worried about pass throughs, it is the gun I would use of my 5. But the issue with worrying about pass throughs is what if you miss? Hitting the animal will shed energy making it fall sooner. But if the shot is strongly upward, the energy when it comes back down is not driven by the initial energy or the energy after the pass through. It is driven by the freefall of the projectile.

In other words, when you shoot any gun upward, the trajectory will be a curve that rises and then falls. How long it continues upward and how far it travels are determined by it's shape and initial velocity. If it hit something then the velocity falls and it will not travel as far. But the velocity when it gets back to earth will be very similar if not actually the same. To illustrate this I did a couple runs in chairgun. I used a file for my Prod which is tuned to shoot FTTs at about 745 fps. That gave me a maximum range of 352 yards at a 27 degree upward angle. I could not get chairgun to give me fpe at 352 yards but it would calculate to 330 and it predicts 0.36 fpe at that distance.

Next I knocked the velocity down to 545 fps to simulate a pass through early in flight. That reduces maximum range to 300 yards at a 29 degree angle. Again, I could quite get it to predict 300 yards but it would give me 285 yards where it predicts 0.36 fpe.

Maybe the energy wouldn't be exactly the same if I could get the program to actually tell me the energy at the actual distance the pellet could travel but I think it's obvious it would be pretty similar. But the pellet would come down sooner if it hits the animal. But I think the more important point is that if the pellet travels these kind of distances it will be moving very slowly when it comes back down to earth. Velocity would be about 100 fps.

I agree with the points that we need to be careful what is in the potential path of our projectiles but I don't think the big risk is significant angle upward shots. The velocity when the pellet comes back down is just too low to be a high risk of damaging property or people.
 
  • Like
Reactions: beerthief and Dr. Kralenstein
Upvote 0
Agree completely that every shot should be planned out in case of a miss - they DO happen . . . .

The other big factor on pass throughs that needs to be considered is deflection from hitting the critter - pellets don't always just exist in a straight line with less energy. Think of the "cone" of potential path being around a 20 degree one, and to make matters worse, a deformed pellet from a bone strike won't fly straight either so it could curve further. Bottom line, any backstop like a branch or tree trunk has to be fairly close - a 4" thick branch that is 10-15 feet behind the target is not close enough in my book.

I like to think about pesting in terms of energy leaving the muzzle, energy lost in flight to the target, and then the potential minimum energy expended on the target - with the remainder being what could be left on a potential pass through. For example, if shooting at a pest bird in a tree 20 yards away with a 25 FPE .22, a clean hit pass through could easily still have 15 FPE or more and fly through a pretty wide cone of flight . . . .

As for shooting up and letting misses fall where they end up, I agree that the energy involved is unlikely to do any damage (other than to an eye, as unlikely as that is), but just imagine if that pellet lands somewhere where somebody could find it (on their deck or patio, on the hood of a car, on a driveway etc.). Depending on who finds it, there could be consequences you don't like. Bottom line, pellets should never leave your property unless you know that they will end up where somebody either has given you permission to have them land, or nobody could find it or care about it (like an open field or wooded area).
 
  • Like
Reactions: L.Leon
Upvote 0
My dad has neighbors and it’s nothing but .177’s at his house for just this reason. And it’s not .177’s pushing .22 caliber weight pellets as fast as we can send them. It’s 8-9 grain pellets in the low to mid 800fps range. If you shoot a relatively powerful airgun in a residential environment, one is eventually going to get away from you. It will happen, trust me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: beerthief
Upvote 0
The OP asked about how much fpe would remain after pass through. His story included denting a burn barrel but his question was about fpe.

I am fortunate that my back yard ends at a large lake. It doesn't eliminate my need to be careful what I am shooting towards but it means that as long as I shoot towards the back fence there is more than 200 yards of space where the pellet could land undetected. That is not enough at an upward angle but is probably enough if the target is close to the ground. Even better is on the ground. I don't think I'd shoot other than into a pellet trap if I had neighbors all around me. At some angles, I have hundreds of yards of open space. When I was testing moderators I let the pellets fall into the lake. A nice big open space to shoot towards makes backyard shooting much more feasible.
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back
Home
Forums
Resources
Menu