How far does a pellet travel after pass thru

[JimD]

It occurred to me to mention some pass through testing I did in November of last year. I got curious and tested the remaining velocity of pellets after they went through a piece of 6mm luan and a piece of 1/4 MDF. Neither perfectly simulates a squirrel, of course. I think most parts of a squirrel would provide more resistance than these thin pieces of wood. I used my Prod which was shooting at FTTs just over 700 fps that day and my P35-177 shooting H&N 10.65 pellets at about 890 fps. The Prod projectile lost about 300 fps going through 6mm Luan plywood and about 370 fps going through 1/4 MDF. Looks like I only shot the 177 through the 1/4 MDF and it lost about 360 fps.

Trying to relate this to a squirrel is the hard part. These two guns will not shoot through two pieces of either material and rarely shoot through a squirrel. The 177 does it more than the Prod. These tests were right at the muzzle. But they shoot through this material at 25 yards too. Because the guns will consistently shoot through the 1/4 MDF, and do not consistently shoot through squirrels, I think the squirrel provides a bit more resistance. So assuming a projectile is slowed by at least 300 fps and more probably about 400 fps in 177 or 22 caliber when passing through a squirrel is probably a reasonable SWAG.

 

[Squack]

I would have to see the dent to reconstruct the event and then calculate the fpe.

 

[beerthief]

very cool , waiting for results

 

[stanginthe11s]

you should put a chrono behind it and see what they're exiting at.

 

[stanginthe11s]

lol, make sure you put it low enough where it can't get hit. I know what it's like to put a round through one, apparently my holdover was off just a touch.

 

[Dr. Kralenstein]

@BulletFreak ,

Thanks for doing the testing for us! I know it's not exact, but it gives us some real world data to consider. Most of these pellets would still have enough energy to break a nearby window or possibly break skin. If the shot is upward, I'd definitely think it would be spent of all energy when I comes down.

Makes me feel a little better. Bird shooting would be more of a worry, since they don't have as much density to punch through. Squirrel hide is also pretty tough.

 

[JimD]

The ballistic gelatin tests remind me of the one time I tried it. The biggest pan I had to pour the gelatin into to cool was about 9 inches across. The only pellets to stop in it were from my pump up 177. 10% gelatin is so little resistance you need a lot of it to stop pellets. I haven't gotten a bigger pan so I haven't done more gelatin tests. Doesn't seem to correlate to animal tissue very well either. My little Prod is not going through 9 inches of any animal. Wet magazines correlate a lot better to animal tissue. 1/4 inch MDF is easy and somewhat useful. My PCPs that shoot through 2 pieces of 1/4 MDF almost always exit squirrels. My guns that only shoot through one 1/4 inch piece usually do not exit squirrels. The guns that will not shoot through one 1/4 inch piece I consider not powerful enough for squirrel hunting.

 

[Florida_Man]

So i have a bird feeder 18 yards from my back window. I keep squirrels and night rodents at bay. I have a solid wood fence and oak tree behind it. I still wasn't particularity happy with the smack of the pass through smack hitting the fence. Some artificial turf helped. I recently loaned out my primary defender, a PP700 shooting AA 16gr @ 589fps. I try and take head and body in line shots, but they don't always cooperate. I recently loaned out that rifle and went to my 25 cal cricket tact 2, but knew its fav pellet the FX 34 gr would not work. I tuned the hammer spring to shoot FX Hybrids to 960 fps and did some gel testing before I took a shot on a squirrel.

This is 18y


This is 30y


I also shot through a 1.5" section on gel and verified the FX Hybrid will expand within that amount of space. I caught it with loose Kevlar down range. It fully opened.


With that i took a shot on a squirrel. It was at about a 45 degree angle facing me. The left eye was in line with the right ear facing me. The FX Hybrid delivered all its energy and stayed in the skull.

So I went from shooting pellets at 12 FPE with pass through to Hybrid slugs at 53 FPE and staying in the animal. The only sound was the impressive delivery slap of energy.

 

[bearair]

Great thread. As an ex urban sniper of tree rats I have learned patience is my friend along with a tree behind said tree rat. I know it's apples to oranges but I have a 25 cal that I shoot at 35 fpe that dumps.