Newbie. How far will a pellet go?

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Son and I were shooting my 1322 off our dock last weekend. There was a stick floating down the slough and my son took a shot at it with about 5 pumps. The pellet skipped across the water and came pretty darned close to crossing the slough to the far bank. I just measured it on google maps and it's 310ft from our dock to the far bank. Let say it was 50ft short that's still over 80 yards just skipping across the water.
 
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Here are two scenarios for a 15 ft-lb gun shooting a JSB 8.44. The first is for a barrel angle of 30 degrees, which gives approximate maximum range. The second is for a barrel angle of 5 degrees. Although a springer can shoot a pellet a long way, I think what people want to know is at what distance is it dangerous. A conservative figure for velocity required to break skin is 200 fps. Even a moderately powered airgun can retain enough velocity at 200 yards to be considered dangerous.



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Ok I will try to answer your question and give you some info on how far a pellet will go. I started air gun hunting because I was turning down shots at squirrels in trees. I will tell you my specs and how I came up with them and you can plug in your own numbers. I shoot a 14.3 grain pellet an 830 fps. I use a ballistic calculator and plug in the BC of .023 my pellet weight and speed and a zero range of 700 yards. I came up with the 700 zero range after experimenting in an effort to get the approx. 45* angle. Anyway the pellet will travel 400 ft up and approx 275 yards out where it will start to make a sharp curve toward earth. At approx. 300 yards it is at the end of the curve and begins it's freefall. Velocities are 125 fps and 0 fpe at 240 yards and 54 fps at 300 yards and starts picking up speed to 55 fps at 310yards as it falls to earth. If you change the zero to 350 yards you will see the pellet will reach a maximum altitude of less than 100 feet but will travel 350 yards and retain a velocity of approx 100 fps. You can plug in all different zero ranges but will not come up with any way to get the pellet to travel farther using my pellet weight and velocity. The calculator I use is called Shooters Calculator .com Rimfire comparison and go to the ballistic trajectory page. I now use air guns only with the pellet vel. combo mentioned when hunting in areas with homes nearby. I can usually see what is 350 yards away but to be sure of things a mile to a mile and a half away is almost impossible. Hope this helps.
 
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I have been hit by shot a few times duck hunting. Albeit smaller pellets than a .22 pellet. Horizontal flying pellets (from someone shooting at a Teal zooming across the reed tops) at about a hundred yards sting bare skin but didn’t break the surface or leave a bruise. Hardly felt the ones that hit my coat. Falling shot is pretty common for duck hunters. Looks like rain on the water, tings off the boat and feels like sleet when it hits you. No damage to human or dog. So my thought would be once a pellet has expended its energy and is falling no matter what angle it was fired at hitting an eye would be the only damage it could cause. 
 
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Saw this years ago, .50cal powder burner and steel plates are quite different than 14fpe and a lead pellet...
Click to expand...

I know that ! Especially different when factoring in a 650 gr FMJ that won't splat. I have had alloy pellets come back and hit me after they smacked a quarter at 40 ft. That was with my ASP20.
Click to expand...

Here is some research done to determine what it takes for a pellet to break skin. I assume a little brother was involved.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7175470
 
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"You'll shoot your eye out!" — "Or someone else's!" 🙄 

Yupp, that was my concern when I recently had several shooting situations where the maximum range of a pellet was a concern — and its ability to do any kind of damage. 💀



I searched high and low for something more objective than the "Better be safe"—advice or the "Don't worry, it's just a pellet"—answer.... 😄 

Here is the write-up what I found (with some graphs thrown in):

https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/pellets-drop-down-from-the-sky/#post-636617



🔶PART 1: How Much Remaining Energy Is Dangerous?
Research-based data on how much energy is necessary to do damage to the skin and to the eye.

AND:
🔶PART 2: Max. Range and Remaining Energy at Impact

Comparing the destructive energy at max. range of various .22cal projectiles:
▪low-BC Wadcutter (RWS)
▪mediocre-BC hollow point pellet (Hades)
▪high-BC domed pellet (JSB 16)
▪high-BC, very heavy domed pellet (Monster)
▪extra high-BC slug (22gr)



Matthias
 
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The manual of my Weihrauch HW95 states: Remember a pellet may travel up to about 450 yards (412meters).

The manual of my Diana 350 Mag states: Maybe dangerous up to 600 yards (549 m).

Surely the manufacturers (German, no less, with very strict safety culture) report semi-theoretical maximum distances here to ward off liability, but I don't think the numbers are just pulled out of thin air.
 
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You can work these numbers out in Chairgun or Strelok.

Chairgun says my 13 gr. Griffins @810 FPS maximum range is 1235 yards if launched at 33 degrees. That's a little more than 5/8 of a mile. I have a feeling they would have plenty of juice a that point also. Would probably break the skin. At 1000 yards they are still making 250 FPS+. Would MOST CERTAINLY blind or break the skin. CG says that they are still carrying 5 FPE at 522 yards so …

Using the same setup and shooting the JSB 10.5 gr Crossman Premier @890 FPS the maximum range is 487 yards with a launch angle of 27 degrees and the 5 FPE point is at 135 yards. Would most certainly break the skin or blind someone. 

The JSB 8.44 Exact @960 FPS maximum range is 419 yards. The 5 FPE point is at 99 yards. Again, would most certainly break the skin or blind someone.

These numbers are good numbers for my Diana Stormrider with the mentioned pellets.

A lot of young shooters do not realize just how dangerous slugs can be. As experienced shooters we have a responsibility to the community to ensure this information is widely distributed. Slugs simply should not be used anywhere that you would not use a rim fire rifle shooting subsonic ammo. You hang one of those up in the air after a squirrel in the wrong direction and you are asking for a law suit or worse.


 
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