The caliber you regret...

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Anyone ever get a caliber and wish they got a different one? My friend just got 177 marauder and wished he got the 22, so I figure it must be a common issue when ordering guns that you regret what you got
 
I think many newer shooters go into thinking they may use a gun for only one purpose such as either target shooting or hunting. After some time realizing power may be somewhat limiting range or in some cases just to much. Most of my cases I ended up going with a larger caliber when I really didn't need it. Recently I spent some time with a .177 and found it to be pretty sufficient to the majority of my needs. I'm not a fan at all of changing calibers as I spend enough time getting one to shoot my specifics and have no time to tinker. Thankfully I have several guns that each serve a purpose, either for shorter range field target/hunting. For the longer range hunting I have several slug shooters. 
 
Yup.......started with .177 cal R10 and R9, found the 'forums", drank the "bigger more gooder" Koolaid and bought a .20 cal R9. Was disappointed in the effectiveness on squirrels compared to the .177 because the loopy trajectory which made guessing the holdover more difficult and I got more wounded squirrels than I got with the .177 cal.

I "high stress tuned" the .20 R9 to shoot Beeman FTS pellets at 800fps which flattened out the .20 trajectory a bit but past my 30 yard zero I still had more "crawl aways" than I did with the .177 cal at 13ish fpe. I used that .20 R9 for one season and then I bought a used .22 cal R1 barrel. The R1 barrel was sent to be professionally "chopped and choked" and I used that barrel for six months. I preferred the .22 pellet to the .20 pellet, however the "skinny pellet" worked better for my West Virginia squirrel hunting than either the .20 or .22 cal. I ended up selling the original .20 cal R9 barrel and the "chopped and choked" .22 R1 barrel reverting back to .177 never to look back.

That was a couple decades ago when I lived in West Virginia and it's only been .177 cal for my HW springers since!
 
I was at a gun show and picked up a Blue Streak and a tin of Benji .20s cheap. After putting several dozen Benjis down the tube I realized they weren't accurate enough for anything but shooting cans. I opened my roll around drawers and looked over the many different .177 and .22 pellets and decided I didn't need or want another drawer of pellets.

I sold the gun for I payed for it.
 
Nope, I have .177. .20. .22 and .25, all have there place. I really don’t get the “ loopy trajectory” comments either. All my guns are sub12fpe. .177 is 800fps, .22 is 570 while the .25 is only 475. Even with the slow speed I regularly plink at 100yards with the .22, 1 1/2” groups are easy to achieve while my .25 will do a little better at 75yards

Although, I have and shoot.177’s more than other calibers, I will never use it for hunting while I have bigger calibres in my gun safe.

Bb
 
^Nice. I can’t imagine sub 12. My talonp shoots 50fpe, and at 100 yards it can tear the heck out of anything. People love their sub 12s though, especially in England where you don’t have the right to own anything more powerful.



Always amazing seeing what someone can achieve under extreme restriction at 100 yards.
 
Yeah, I have a Hatsan FlashPup in .25 caliber that I regret. When I purchased it, I was thinking I'm going to bust the hell out of these pain in butt squirrels. The bigger the caliber the better. But thanks to reading posts on here, and Youtube, bigger is not always better. I never took into account of sound and reflection. I would have been great with a .177. Cut down on sound from the neighbors and less reflection. You learn. 
 
...this .20 talk is upsetting me...I am looking at a .20 HW97K instead of a .17 because I thought it would be better on back yard squirrels...

...I thought the .20 had a better SD than the .17 and would drop less...and then hit harder...

...but I see all the FAC HW97 rifles are rated @ 17fp/20J despite the caliber, except for a 12fpe version of the .17, that is out of stock @ Krale...
 
...this .20 talk is upsetting me...I am looking at a .29 HW97K instead of a .17 because I thought it would be better on back yard squirrels...

...I thought the .20 had a better SD than the .17 and would drop less...and then hit harder...

...but I see all the FAC HW97 rifles are rated @ 17fp/20J despite the caliber, except for a 12fpe version of the .17, that is out of stock @ Krale...

A .20 pellet at 800 fps will have the same drop as a .177 pellet at 800fps but hit harder, I have shot thousands of rabbits and tens of thousands of pigeons with my sub 12fpe.20, (600fps) I have never had any of them complain that they were not dead enough.


Bb


 
Yeah, I have a Hatsan FlashPup in .25 caliber that I regret. When I purchased it, I was thinking I'm going to bust the hell out of these pain in butt squirrels. The bigger the caliber the better. But thanks to reading posts on here, and Youtube, bigger is not always better. I never took into account of sound and reflection. I would have been great with a .177. Cut down on sound from the neighbors and less reflection. You learn.

You think that can be overcome with a good moderator? I've got an inexpensive .25 coming and I'm almost scared to shoot it in the backyard even with my DonnyFL moderator!