Which Caliber for 100-125yd Ground Squirrel Kills? .22 or .25?
- Thread starter BradAir
- Start date
You said you have a lot of powder burner experience right? Air guns aren’t gonna make you go out and sell all your guns. But don’t be surprised if you shoot your air gun a lot more. If you like ballistics and calculating holdovers and stuff you’ll have a field day when you stretch the gun’s legs out. If you like to tinker, customize and generally fuss over a machine then these things are like crack haha.
Ultimately when you hear one of those slugs slam into a squirrel and make a cracking sound somewhere between the slamming the $&@$ out of a screen door and letting off a single blackcat firecracker, you’re probably gonna be hooked bro. Don’t fight it haha just embrace it. Pretty soon you’ll be hitting your fiends and family up like “anyone got any varmints they want me to take care of?”
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Finally I am seeing the die hard hobbyist responses. I was waiting for somebody to say, "Get Both"! LOL
The logic filter so far is, I am gonna roll the .22 cal. Higher sectional density, and better ballistics. 25gr pellet at 850-900fps on a ground squirrel gonna wreck it's day!
I contacted Donny FL moderator place and they suggest the Sumo moderator. 10-4! This Barra 250z is much louder than the Mrod. So, moderator and sit back inside the living room vs the gun barrel out the window. True sniper tactics here...Lol My neighbors are cool AF and they all about me eliminating ground squirrels, but I still want to be low pro about it.
I will put a wind flag at the 60yd marks and get weird with the Kestrel weather station I got for my LR & ELR shooting.
Though there is some wind dynamics going on from the back deck, gunshop, and yard fence to the target area. I'll get it figured out.
@Cantona256 is the "thwack" a new sound for you? I've been hearing it for 40yrs. LOL.
The logic filter so far is, I am gonna roll the .22 cal. Higher sectional density, and better ballistics. 25gr pellet at 850-900fps on a ground squirrel gonna wreck it's day!
I contacted Donny FL moderator place and they suggest the Sumo moderator. 10-4! This Barra 250z is much louder than the Mrod. So, moderator and sit back inside the living room vs the gun barrel out the window. True sniper tactics here...Lol My neighbors are cool AF and they all about me eliminating ground squirrels, but I still want to be low pro about it.
I will put a wind flag at the 60yd marks and get weird with the Kestrel weather station I got for my LR & ELR shooting.
Though there is some wind dynamics going on from the back deck, gunshop, and yard fence to the target area. I'll get it figured out.@Cantona256 is the "thwack" a new sound for you? I've been hearing it for 40yrs. LOL.
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Finally I am seeing the die hard hobbyist responses. I was waiting for somebody to say, "Get Both"! LOL
The logic filter so far is, I am gonna roll the .22 cal. Higher sectional density, and better ballistics. 25gr pellet at 850-900fps on a ground squirrel gonna wreck it's day!
I contacted Donny FL moderator place and they suggest the Sumo moderator. 10-4! This Barra 250z is much louder than the Mrod. So, moderator and sit back inside the living room vs the gun barrel out the window. True sniper tactics here...Lol My neighbors are cool AF and they all about me eliminating ground squirrels, but I still want to be low pro about it.
I will put a wind flag at the 60yd marks and get weird with the Kestrel weather station I got for my LR & ELR shooting.
@Cantona256 is the "thwack" a new sound for you? I've been hearing it for 40yrs. LOL.
Oh yeah bro getting clinical and super nerdy with it. I love it.
No the thwack is not new it’s just much more pronounced with a super quiet airgun in my opinion, at least for small to medium game. I’m sure shooting an elk or something like that is next level. I also think it’s cool/funny that I can shoot a 4 pound squirrel at 90yards and I don’t even need the scope to tell me if I hit or not. Then there’s the whole night time thing. It’s just fun haha and you never have to choose between hearing protection or ringing ears.
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Shooting hogs at distance I could hear the thwack, when I started wearing electronic muffs it sounded like smacking melons on concrete. Shooting deer through the ribs with a crossbow sounds like a calamity. Just last year I shot at a pack of running hogs at 250-275yds and I knew how many I hit by the thwack vs no thwack when I missed. That was 6, Lol.
I'm hearing it on the ground squirrels too, but it's pretty faint. Thinking the 250z gonna change that!
I'm hearing it on the ground squirrels too, but it's pretty faint. Thinking the 250z gonna change that!
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Shooting hogs is one of my top hunting goals… we don’t have them here in Utah and when I lived in Mississippi I lived on the coast so all I did was fish haha.
Watching the Air Arms SA videos and Air Hunter Gerard have put vervet monkeys and baboons on that list too.
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And yeah the 250z definitely should. lol I took a couple friends out with me last weekend and every time of those slugs hit they’d giggle like little kids haha.
I’ve kinda just been playing around. Getting my tune down right and shooting a lot. But now that it’s so dialed in it’s time for some serious coyote stands. I wanna put one of these slugs in a coyote so bad haha.
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personally i would go with a heavy .177 pellet around 700 FPS for lots more fun because lets face it i would be shooting for fun and pest controlling the little varmints . (ground squirrels not hogs .
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yup . maybe 800 to make it a bit easier . I shoot 100 yard bench rest with .177 , wind is the biggest factor .
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Oof you’re a better shot that me haha. Ain’t no way I’m shooting .177 in the winds of SW Utah.
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My .22 with 14-16gr at 800-850fps is under gunned on the ground squirrels past 70yds. They’re making it to their holes. I want DRT. Shooting paper is one thing, killing cleanly is another.
I gather 25gr pellet at same velocities and slightly more will anchor better.
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ok point taken , i would still try head shots only . why do you insist on 100 +yards ? i would go out early and set up a camo-blind at 50 yards or so .
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I totally agree it can be done. My biggest hold up is the speed…. I can’t imagine you’re gonna get any expansion on those regardless of what pellet you’re using. .177 already tends to ice pick… the last thing I wanna do is try and fight the wind to get a tiny projectile into the only spot I that will reliably drop them… as an exhibition of shooting I respect it 100%… but unless you’re lights out you’re gonna be creating a lot of wounded squirrels. I’m not about that life. I kill varmints but I have no desire to cause the pain or suffering to be any longer than needed…. Not a critique towards you. If you’re shooting bench rest with it then you’re obviously dialed in… but as someone who only hunts and doesn’t punch paper .177 has zero interest from me. Maybe one day I can afford some $2.5k FX .177 I can shoot .177 slugs out of but I probably still won’t.
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I stated in the post picture, I need the elevated position of my living room window to see them in the grass and the angle gets more body exposed. I also stated I need to keep this low profile operation. It's basically ground squirrel sniper black ops over here! lol
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