Looking for a friend, good close range pistol

Just throwing in some technical perspective....
I once ran some controlled tests on rat bodies I had shot, and later on here using a dog toy (fury rat) with a carrot of all things stuffed inside for realism. Another keen pistol hunter on here ran similar tests.
Conclusions of the tests at the typical 8-10 paces, proved surprising.

Cutting a long story short you require something in the territory of 500-525fps with a typical 8 grain pellet, which pretty much rules out the Co2 replica posers, and the SSP bunch such as Daisy 747 etc...all running at about 360 fps to 400fps territory with 8 grain pellets.
This is due to the pellet losing approx 50fps of its velocity across the distance to the target, and therefore arriving POA at approx 300-350fps ....not enough. Most shots at this velocity (POA) did not even fully penetrate the skin, perhaps some severe bruising, maybe some rare shock kills if hit in the head, being the best you can hope for, but not reliable, or particularly humane.

However, at 525 fps (in the case of the gun I was using) some 480 fps still remained at the POA.
I know this because I had set up my Chrony at 10 paces....This time, the test targets were penetrated well through the skin and on down in, burying deep into internal organs. On one occasion, a neck shot resulting in clean pass through and out the other side.

Ok the tests were a bit crude, but I think I ended up with a reasonable bench mark, with my Dog toy rat giving very similar results to the actual rats I tested on.
You could try a similar set up for your own testing, and maybe replace the carrot with ballistic putty ...it was all I had at the time..
 
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Some pics from my tests and another poster using a P17 when we arrived at the 500 fps figure..
The stumbling block (surprisingly) to the air pistol hunter, is getting through the fur...
The soft internal tissue not such a problem..

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Barely ....I've known a few P17 hit 420 fps territory but if look toward the shooters little test puppet you can see the head shot pellet not having penetrated the outer cloth, although would possibly have cracked the skull...His body shot looks like it has just about got though the cloth and lodge into the outer edge of the carrot..
It's basic and I am not claiming the test as exactly representative of the real thing, but based on the tests I did with the real thing, not too far off.
 
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Barely ....I've known a few P17 hit 420 fps territory but if look toward the shooters little test puppet you can see the head shot pellet not having penetrated the outer cloth, although would possibly have cracked the skull...His body shot looks like it has just about got though the cloth and lodge into the outer edge of the carrot..
It's basic and I am not claiming the test as exactly representative of the real thing, but based on the tests I did with the real thing, not too far off.
Right on🤙
Was just wondering😅🤷‍♂️
I'm figuring if you got within 5 yards of a mouse; the p17 would do fine; with less chance of a ricochet(because of the lower power)?🤔
 
Right on🤙
Was just wondering😅🤷‍♂️
I'm figuring if you got within 5 yards of a mouse; the p17 would do fine; with less chance of a ricochet(because of the lower power)?🤔
I shot my HW75 at a target attached to a 2x4 in my basement. I expected the pellet to flatten or dig into the wood. Pellet ricocheted right back at me. Beware ricochets when shooting indoors!
 
I shot my HW75 at a target attached to a 2x4 in my basement. I expected the pellet to flatten or dig into the wood. Pellet ricocheted right back at me. Beware ricochets when shooting indoors!
I always use a trap indoors👀😬
*I'd never shoot at wood that close on purpose though😨
🥴kudos for trying it out🤣🤙
 
Hey all - not to derail this thread, but I'm brand new to all this, but am in a similar situation (backyard, not attic lol) to the OP. I'm looking for something similar, but would prefer non-C02, need .177, <800fps, and ideally with a silencer built in. From this thread and others I had read (and liked) the Benjamin Marauder (but it's .22), and the Diana Chaser (but it's C02).

Any suggestions?