If you don't want your targets running into neighboring properties.

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BlackICE

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Oct 1, 2018
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If you must dispatch an animal with an air gun that you want DRT a good 0.22 or better that can reliability penetrate the skull and reach the brain is your best option. More gun isn't going to change a well placed shot to the skull with a decent 0.22. Even with big bores, If you take lung or heart shots there is a significant chance they will run 30 yards or more. Very few air guns have to power of these PB. and the PB often fail to deliver DRT hits.

If you don't mind your neighbor finding dead, or wounded animal in their backyard, please disregard this post.

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Use the text about and put a "https:" in the front and change the ABC to "F B I" without the spaces.
 
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BlackICE said:
If you must dispatch an animal with an air gun that you want DRT a good 0.22 or better that can reliability penetrate the skull and reach the brain is your best option. More gun isn't going to change a well placed shot to the skull with a decent 0.22. Even with big bores, If you take lung or heart shots there is a significant chance they will run 30 yards or more. Very few air guns have to power of these PB. and the PB often fail to deliver DRT hits.

If you don't mind your neighbor finding dead, or wounded animal in their backyard, please disregard this post.

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I have come to the same conclusion. A lung or heart shot is less dramatic sometimes, but a head shot is more consistent. What is "DRT"?
 
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I pretty much disagree. I am at almost 60 squirrels now with PCPs. I have over 10 with my P35-177, 17 with my Prod, 10 with my P35-22, 18 with my P35-25 and 2 with my 25 caliber Avenger. FPE for the 177 and Prod is about 18. The P35-22 is tuned to 32 fpe. When I took the squirrels with the P35-25 it was tuned to 32 fpe. I had 2 of the 18 squirrels with my P35-25 run and they did not get out of my yard. Both were hit in the front of the chest and the pellet ended up under the skin behind a rear leg. The other 16 dropped at impact. The 10 with the P35-22 also dropped at impact. About half my squirrels were hit in the head or neck. The other half were body shots. Some were not hit as I intended. One with the P35-25 was hit in the jaw and still dropped immediately. It's skull was crushed. Both with the Avenger were DRT. The only one that got away with the 177 was a bad shot by me. I hit it square in the rear end. It did not leave my yard but managed to crawl off where I could not find it. The other 10+ did not run but most took a step or two and then dropped.

My Prod was my first PCP and was a learning experience. With the original 12-13 fpe tune I lost a couple that I thought I had hit well. So I retuned it to the current 18 fpe and the only one I lost after the retune was a brain shot that flipped itself into a rotted area at the bottom of a large oak where I could not reach it. None ran. I think the first 2 that ran were probably not placed well. But 12-13 just did not give me enough margin for my limited shooting skills.

I do not use expanding pellets, only simple domed pellets. It cannot be over emphasized that the pellet must be properly placed and the airgun has to have enough power to make it penetrate to the vitals and then the squirrel is going to die very quickly. It is not magic or difficult to understand. I agree a 22 seems to impress them a little more than a 177 but if I was very limited in power I would use a 177 to get more penetration. But once you get up to about 20 fpe, if you use a non-expanding pellet (so penetration is enough) if the squirrel does not drop you did not place it right. If your gun has 30+, you have more margin for placement that is not ideal. But still you need to take shots you know you can make. I'll take a double lung shot anytime I am worried about my ability to place a brain shot. They work great.
 
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Having animals run off after being shot is always a possibility and that fact doesn't change if it is head shots or vitals shots. There is always that risk. Head shots are not immune from animals running off wounded or to die when (not if) a poorly placed shot happens.

The right answer then is to not hunt/pest in areas where a dead/wounded animal may become a problem. Either get permission from the neighbors who may be affected, or find a better place to conduct your business. In many states here in the US, it is actually a legal requirement to have said permission if hunting/pesting within X number of yards of someone else's home, even if the actual hunting/pesting is taking place on your own property.
 
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Spartan said:
...In many states here in the US, it is actually a legal requirement to have said permission if hunting/pesting within X number of yards of someone else's home, even if the actual hunting/pesting is taking place on your own property.
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Can you name some examples of states that require permission to hunt near anothers home and the required setback distance in those specific states?

ETA- Googled it. NC is 500 ft from a residence. Any others?
 
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Hal4son said:
Can you name some examples of states that require permission to hunt near anothers home and the required setback distance in those specific states?

ETA- Googled it. NC is 500 ft from a residence. Any others?
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It's a lot of states. Would probably be easier to try to list states that don't have such a requirement. I'm sure there are some that don't, but most states with a decent amount of suburban population will have such a law. The distance varies quite a bit. I've seen as low as 150 feet and as high as 300yds, but there may be higher. And often it doesn't even need to be a "home" but rather the term "occupied structure" is often used. So this could include any structure that people may occasionally spend time in.
 
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I say it in all these threads. The #1 thing is to be proficient and not a challenge with distance. Know your rifle. I probably take 750ish practice shots compared to my pest control numbers. My pesting rifle is shot daily from the position I pest from, at steel or paper.
#2 is waiting for the right shot. I’ll never shoot an opossum with it facing me like I do with squirrels. I’ve let many of animal go because the right shot didn’t present.

We owe it to the animal to make a clean kill.

FPE is important, but being a proficient shooter that knows his rifle will allow lower FPE and clean kills.
 
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BlackICE said:
I think many of those laws are directed towards firearms and hunting. Which is not necessarily the same as air rifles and pesting.
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Agreed that they are directed towards firearms and hunting, but often the law does not differentiate between the two in this regard if the target is any listed game animal or fur bearer, unless you are either operating under a pest control permit, or are a certified animal control operator. If not either of those things, then you are simply hunting in a legal sense. But again, this can vary by state, I'm speaking broadly here.

In my home state of MD, I do get permits for pest control. But even this doesn't matter much since in most situations I cannot use airguns to execute those permits on any game animal or fur bearer that is out of season. It must be done with traps and similar. If I choose to use an airgun (in season) then legally I have shifted my activity to hunting and I'm no longer performing pest control. Exceptions can be made here for certified animal control operators, but that is a whole other ball of wax.

Bottom line: People need to know the laws for their state and jurisdiction. More often than not, if a person is popping squirrels, raccoons, or similar in their backyard then they usually must follow the hunting laws/regs in most situations. Even though they themselves may consider what they are doing to be "pest control," the law may disagree on that.
 
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I have not killed a big raccoon or a coyote but I did kill a 8 lb raccoon I thought might be rabid. I used a 32 fpe 22 caliber PCP. Took 3 shots but there was no "running off" going on. The first shot into the chest stopped it. A shot between the eyes killed it and a final shot into the throat let it bleed out. I was under gunned but it worked out OK (for me). If my first shot had gone into the intestines instead of the chest I doubt it would have stopped it. Correct placement with enough penetration works. I should have used my 50 fpe 25 caliber, however.
 
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