Best 177 hunting pellets.

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Raden1942

Raden1942

Member
Feb 15, 2018
1,757
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California, United States
There is alot of contentious philosophies on this topic and I am just curious about what experienced hunters say about thier favorite pellets for 177 hunting. Ok so first off I used to really be about hollow point pellets for any hunting senario. Period. I actually thought it was unethical to attempt to Kill squirrel and rabbits without them. Then recently I saw a video from shoot to kill outdoors that showed cph vs crosman premier pointed pellets. The pointed pellet actually deformed more than the hollow point and was explained that the hollow point was more controlled expansion than the pointed but the pointed still expanded more in the clay. I do however know for a fact that Gamo rockets do more damage as well as polymags but not by so much that I think it is unethical. What do you guys think. I'm starting to think that you should just use whatever you can shoot accurately and save some money on the polymags. 
 
I'm not as experienced as others around here, but will offer my experience and opinion. Neither my Daisy 880 nor Gamo socom tactical break barrel will mushroom pellets in water very much. Hollow point or otherwise. There's just not enough velocity to make that happen. Even with pcp I have seen hardly any increase in projectile diameter. The Hades maybe a little more than others, but nothing like a powder burner would. 
 
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Absolutely the most accurate one your gun will shoot. For hunting squirrels I have found that the 10.34gr JSB shoot well across most or all of my guns for solid ethical kills on them. Now, if your gun will shoot the Hades and or the Polymags, I’d go with those instead. If you need to have penetration due to bony structures etc, and your gun can group, do not overlook the H/N Hornets. 

Check out my Hades report for some detailed performance out of them. https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/177-hades-hunting-report/
 
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Not a hunter other than the couple of birds that will not stay the heck out of my garage each year. So I cant give you first that first hand experience but the long standing advice still holds true... The best pellet for any application is the one you can hit your target with. For any 'expanding' pellet you need both the power to hit the target hard enough for it to matter AND a big enough target for any expansion to occur. In my limited pesting world.... birds. chipmunks and squirrels don't seem to care what they are HIT with.

Garage and driveway pests, I use the same wadcutters I use in my 10m rifle and pistol (and in those same guns). Everything else that need to get shot for whatever reason, is simply the best pellet for the gun like I would use for paper targets at longer distances
 
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Whatever round nose is most accurate. I do most of my hunting with low powered .177s and never had issues. At this power level anything else is a gimmick IMO. The only exception to that is a wadcutter for close range work, say under 20 yards. I find them to be very effective and limit pass throughs. Any farther than that though and they shed velocity quick! 
 
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With good shot placement, I'm killing (usually single shot) squirrels under 30 yards with various pellet shapes and weights from 6.9 gr up to 8.64 gr. HPs, WCs, and domed: these all work quite well for my .177 springers. My go-to pellet is the H&N 8.64, with the JSB 8.44 a very close second. BUT, my Weihrauchs just shoot most any pellet superbly. The Gamo and Crosman won't do that, being very pellet picky.

I have heavier grain pellets but haven't experienced the need for them, yet.

Arch_E
 
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My .177 HW100BP-K shoots the Polymag shorts outstandling accurate at 50 yards, and H&N Hunters and Hornets minute of hosp at 40 yards. Even Crow Magnums shoot good at 30 yards so I have a nice variety of "hunting" pellets available.

All these pellets pass through small quarry such as hosps, starlings, and chipmunks at 50 yards, so if any of them are expanding, it's not enough to dump all the energy into the target. 

I don't recall if I had pass thrus on squirrels and rabbits with this setup.
 
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My .177 HW100BP-K shoots the Polymag shorts outstandling accurate at 50 yards, and H&N Hunters and Hornets minute of hosp at 40 yards. Even Crow Magnums shoot good at 30 yards so I have a nice variety of "hunting" pellets available.

All these pellets pass through small quarry such as hosps, starlings, and chipmunks at 50 yards, so if any of them are expanding, it's not enough to dump all the energy into the target. 

I don't recall if I had pass thrus on squirrels and rabbits with this setup.
Click to expand...


I got pass through on most of the 7 squirrels today at 25 yards shooting JSB Monsters 13.4 at 860 fps.
 
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So maybe I will change my mind but after literally thousands of dead birds, rats, frogs, squirrel and rabbit I actually prefer clean pass through unless I am worried about neighbors or damaging property. If the bullet gets bigger from mushroom effect then sure it will do more damage. Perhaps on head shots I can say that "dumping power" is a real advantage but with 177 so would blowing holes clean through both sides. Not trying to start a war I know how many believe in that philosophy. It's just that for me 177 and 22 airguns poke holes. They aren't giving hydrostatic shock and they aren't dumping that much power. However I have seen the edgun leshiy channel dude tune down a 30 cal and bounce it off the head of the fattest squirrel I've ever seen. Obviously that was all dump no penetration. I just don't go for that in a 177. I would like to have as much expansion as possible as it's going through. I was totally unaware of how effective a cp pointed was. Anyway the quest continues. All I can say is when I'm broke I'm grabbing the gun that likes the cph from Walmart. Shoot whatever pellet works in your gun seems more a viable philosophy than I previously gave it credit for. 
 
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I agree 100% with your thoughts on this. I am always looking for better performance, more expansion, why not? But, not at the expense of accuracy and prohibitive cost. I find that a good vitals shot is very effective and humane, even if it does pass through. Heck, I shot a squirrel at 27 yards with a .22 Hornet, it sailed right through, but I have never seen a squirrel die quicker and nonchalantly as that one. It just hunched in a bit, fell from the tree, and that was that, not even a blink. But so far, I really like the Hades and the Polymags, with an edge to the Hades for accuracy. Even in .177, they seem to perform really well. They group really good and even if they do not expand, those little grooves do help to tear through stuffs I have noticed.
 
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