Mice & Rats killing pistol suggestion please

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Puppadore

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Jul 5, 2022
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Long Beach
Hello, I'm new to air guns and I need some suggestions.

Purpose:
To kill rats and mice at 5 - 15 yards. I will likely shoot 0-10 shots, at night-time, daily.

Must Have:
- Must to be a pistol format(this one is a must, due to personal reasons)
- No CO2 cartridges
- Quieter the better
- Some sort of manual safety feature

Nice to Have:
- Under $100
- Safety similar to a 1911 (on left side, near back)
- I do not have great eye-sight, anything to help would be great (but I am cross-eye dominant, so not sure if scope can be used in my case)
- 177 would be great, since I got a bunch of those from someone

I've purchased the Beeman P17 for now. But if there is anything else, that would be a better choice, please let me know. It seems it would be good for my purpose, except that it would be slow to reload, especially in dark and the safety is at a weird location I am not used to.
 
You're asking for a lot here...

The P17 is a target pistol and puts out like 2.5fpe which may occasionally work on mice and small rats but my money is on you just injuring them. Pretty inhumane which I personally don't find acceptable for pests of any kind. Nothing deserves to suffer.

The Hatsan Mod25 puts out quite a bit more muzzle energy and is much more suitable for what you're looking to do. Its slightly over budget and takes a decent amount of effort to cock but with your budget, thats really all I got off the top of my head.
 
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Puppadore said:
Oh no.. I thought P17 would be powerful enough to kill mice. I might just use the P17 for plinking and use rat poison instead. That's a bummer.
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I mean, it probably can kill mice but I dont know how humanely. I may or may not have accidentally shot my microwave with mine at 10m and it broke the plastic but it just barely managed to dent the metal mesh screen inside. To be fair, it did pass through what was left of a paper towel roll first...

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Aside from my hunting concerns, the P17 is an amazing $50 target pistol. It is extremely accurate and the trigger is better than pretty much any break barrel under $300. You will absolutely love it for that purpose. Make sure you snug up the rear sight though. Mine (and a few of my friends) were all loose from the factory.
 
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Sham -

Pretty funny comment.
May as well tell "Puppa" to to use a crystal ball to wish the mice away !
Give the poor guy an idea of a gun he can actually buy..!

I just looked, nowhere can these be had right now ! All on..."preorder"..! And my guess, that's an...extended...preorder. Well, I found ONE...that MAY have them, some oddball country that no one ever heard of..!!

Mike
 
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I have quite good experience of this and have tuned pistols for this purpose for shooters.
You really need 500 fps with a dome pellet for it to be a realistic proposition, given the pellet will lose some 40 to 50 fps over the usual 8 to 10 paces you might encounter them.
This means a 400 fps HW40/P17 derivative, will be doing barely 350fps at the point of impact….risky at best.
Yeah, went to the trouble of testing velocity lost, but if you do want to try this yourself, make sure you build a little wood frame to cover the readout display on the Chrony. Its sods law you will miss the space for the pellet path and hit the damn screen.
At 500 fps, a dome pellet will pass through the neck of a rat, and occasionally do both sides of the skull at 8 to 10 paces.
My little close range rat buster works fine.

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Steveoo said:
I have quite good experience of this and have tuned pistols for this purpose for shooters.
You really need 500 fps with a dome pellet for it to be a realistic proposition, given the pellet will lose some 40 to 50 fps over the usual 8 to 10 paces you might encounter them.
This means a 400 fps HW40/P17 derivative, will be doing barely 350fps at the point of impact….risky at best.
Yeah, went to the trouble of testing velocity lost, but if you do want to try this yourself, make sure you build a little wood frame to cover the readout display on the Chrony. Its sods law you will miss the space for the pellet path and hit the damn screen.
At 500 fps, a dome pellet will pass through the neck of a rat, and occasionally do both sides of the skull at 8 to 10 paces.
My little close range rat buster works fine.

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Thank you Steveoo. That is quite informative. Is there any budget air pistol you would recommend for it that is above 500 fps? The only one that I do not like is the Crosman 1377 even though it seems perfect. The only imperfection for me is that I've shot multi-pump Crosman 2100 for a while and the multiple pumping part just takes too much joy out of shooting. And CO2 guns didn't seem like a good choice if I am shooting 1 or 2 shots today, and 1 or 2 shots tomorrow.

Also, why domed pellets? Wouldn't a regular pointy one work better?
 
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The 1377 is a choice of many a close range pester but while i understand all their reasons for that, I just got too fed up with all that pumping.
To get really good with a pistol it takes practice, 1000s of shots, consistent hold, getting your breathing right and consistency from the gun. The Crosman for me compromises some of this, but none more so than pumping, reducing the practice sessions down far below what i can manage with the above gun.
I quickly tire of it, not physically, but mentally. Its just a nuisance ….the 30 seconds between each shot due to all the priming work, when a single levering of the break barrel cocks my gun to similar power.

Many shooters would not agree with my choices but are my findings born out of many years of experience.
I find barrel over cylinder systems such as Tempests etc, get a tricky recoil which dips and throws to the right if right handed. It throws up a missed shot to wreck or grow group size …

An old Tuned Gamo Center can do 500 fps and can be controlled to semi match level accuracy, as can LP53s.
Also the FWB 65 will edge both in accuracy and can occasion to make the same power but with a lot more struggling.
 
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Steveoo said:
The 1377 is a choice of many a close range pester but while i understand all their reasons for that, I just got too fed up with all that pumping.
To get really good with a pistol it takes practice, 1000s of shots, consistent hold, getting your breathing right and consistency from the gun. The Crosman for me compromises some of this, but none more so than pumping, reducing the practice sessions down far below what i can manage with the above gun.
I quickly tire of it, not physically, but mentally. Its just a nuisance ….the 30 seconds between each shot due to all the priming work, when a single levering of the break barrel cocks my gun to similar power.

Many shooters would not agree with my choices but are my findings born out of many years of experience.
I find barrel over cylinder systems such as Tempests etc, get a tricky recoil which dips and throws to the right if right handed. It throws up a missed shot to wreck or grow group size …

An old Tuned Gamo Center can do 500 fps and can be controlled to semi match level accuracy, as can LP53s.
Also the FWB 65 will edge both in accuracy and can occasion to make the same power but with a lot more struggling.
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Hi Steveoo, i completely agree wit the 1377. The pumping makes shooting not enjoyable for me as well.

Would you have any other recommendation than LP53 and FWB 65? I looked these up, and I can't find any stores that sell them.
 
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You would have to pick one up on the second hand market…worth the hunt.
Its difficult with pistols, i have never quite understood why its taken so much trouble to produce a few good 5-6ftlb guns without having to resort to temperamental gas, or pumping which raises heart beat and muscle fatigue for the aim…
The Webley pistols staying virtually unchanged for eons…no development..
The SSP system of P17 etc is fine but the 2.5fttlbs disappointing…but they keep on churning out the same models…
Sure there are limiting factors….but ive proved here it can be done…
 
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I have one of the Zoraki ultra models. One pump is easy, two a little more difficult, 3 and 4, well at 77 years old, let's just forget it. Accuracy is there, I shoot mine iron sights only, tried a scope and could not find one with long enough eye relief for my long arms. In all honesty, having been in airguns for about 48 years now, you are not going to find much, if anything, suitable for under $100, I would double or even better triple that figure. My first air rifle back in 1975 cost me about $175, think what that would be in todays dollars. Bottom line is now as it has always been, you get what you pay for.

I built up several of the Crosman 22xx (2240 2300s) types, 2240 is 22cal 2300 is 17 cal and sells for about $350 give or take a little. There is a less expensive 2300T that sells for about $230 at Pyramid Air. The .17 cal gives around 500fps. I have left CO2 carts in them for several weeks with no problem
If you think you might want a scope or a red dot, I would go the 2300S, which comes with a fully adjustable Willams receiver type sight. The advantage this model has is a long steel receiver that is grooved for 3/8(11mm) mounts. The 2300T has a shorter receiver not so good for scopes. and the 2400 has a plastic receiver, no way to mount a scope or red dot, plus rear sight is much more primative but sells for about $73, If you want a scope or red dot jump up to the 2240xl which has a steel breech, with the scope mounting grooves, but no iron sights, and something that looks like a muzzle brake where you can attach a moderator(think silencer) to reduce the sound somewhat.
 
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Please don’t use poison! It gets spread around to other animals too easily.
Here’s an experiment I just finished to test the killing power of the P17 shooting the 7.33 grain JSB pellet at 10 yards and at 5 yards.
The target is a hard carrot wrapped in four layers of that glasses cleaning cloth to simulate a rats hide.
This series of photos is all from the P17 at 5 and 10 yards.
Then I’ll show the same exact test using the Zoraki on three pumps with the same 7.33 grain pellet.
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davelarson said:
Please don’t use poison! It gets spread around to other animals too easily.
Here’s an experiment I just finished to test the killing power of the P17 shooting the 7.33 grain JSB pellet at 10 yards and at 5 yards.
The target is a hard carrot wrapped in four layers of that glasses cleaning cloth to simulate a rats hide.
This series of photos is all from the P17 at 5 and 10 yards.
Then I’ll show the same exact test using the Zoraki on three pumps with the same 7.33 grain pellet.View attachment 273640View attachment 273641View attachment 273639View attachment 273638

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This is the Zoraki at 10 yards, much more impact and damage than the P17.
But if you can hit the head at 6 yards I’d think the P17 would definitely kill a rat.
For $160 more you would definitely have a rat smacker.
But if you can consistently hit a raisin at six yards with the P17 then that’s a dead rat every time!
Let us know what you end up doing!
Practice at 6 yards and the P17 can be a deadly mouse trap!

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davelarson said:
This is the Zoraki at 10 yards, much more impact and damage than the P17.
But if you can hit the head at 6 yards I’d think the P17 would definitely kill a rat.
For $160 more you would definitely have a rat smacker.
But if you can consistently hit a raisin at six yards with the P17 then that’s a dead rat every time!
Let us know what you end up doing!
Practice at 6 yards and the P17 can be a deadly mouse trap!

View attachment 273646

View attachment 273647

View attachment 273648

View attachment 273649
Click to expand...
I’m still trying to figure out how to post pictures, please forgive the old man lol.
The last pictures are of the Zoraki at 10 yards, lots of penetration on three pumps, .177 shooting 7.33 grain pellet.
 
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