We hunt pigeons at an industrial dairy farm on a weekly basis. The owner just put new fiberglass roofs on his barns. We have been using P-rods mostly and detuned them to shoot .22 pellets at 10.8 foot pounds or 585 FPS using 14.3 CPHPs. If we miss a bird we still put holes through the roof inside 40 yards. If we slow the 22s even further they become increasingly more unstable which produces more fliers. So I am wondering if going to a .177 pellet, will this have less chance of putting holes in the roof when the foot pounds of energy is lower?
Hypothetically, if a .22 and .177 BOTH had the same foot pounds of energy, would the smaller caliber, concentrating that same energy into a smaller area, have more chance to penetrate a fiberglass roof? I would think spreading the "same" energy into a wider area (larger caliber and POI footprint) might have less chance of penetration?
I am not that experienced using .177s. I had a Crosman Challenger for a brief while and it was pretty much a 10M gun which loved 8 grain wad cutters but shoot those WCs outdoors and the slightest wind would blow them all over the place. Even though we shoot inside barns, they have fans blowing so there is air movement. Are .177 round nose, shot at slower velocities, stable in a some wind?
Is there a general lowest speed range where .177s are accurate? Using the search function here it seems its similar to 22s in that 177s prefer 880-920 FPS too? I've found that when dropping below 700 FPS in .22s they start to lose accuracy and have more fliers.
Back to the title, I guess I am looking for suggestions to find a pellet caliber, weight and speed that won't poke holes in the fiberglass roofing and will still have enough energy to humanely drop a pigeon at 40 yards. Ideally I would love to find some scrap pieces of the same roofing to shoot at to find out what speed or energy level I need to stay below, but sadly I don't.
Hypothetically, if a .22 and .177 BOTH had the same foot pounds of energy, would the smaller caliber, concentrating that same energy into a smaller area, have more chance to penetrate a fiberglass roof? I would think spreading the "same" energy into a wider area (larger caliber and POI footprint) might have less chance of penetration?
I am not that experienced using .177s. I had a Crosman Challenger for a brief while and it was pretty much a 10M gun which loved 8 grain wad cutters but shoot those WCs outdoors and the slightest wind would blow them all over the place. Even though we shoot inside barns, they have fans blowing so there is air movement. Are .177 round nose, shot at slower velocities, stable in a some wind?
Is there a general lowest speed range where .177s are accurate? Using the search function here it seems its similar to 22s in that 177s prefer 880-920 FPS too? I've found that when dropping below 700 FPS in .22s they start to lose accuracy and have more fliers.
Back to the title, I guess I am looking for suggestions to find a pellet caliber, weight and speed that won't poke holes in the fiberglass roofing and will still have enough energy to humanely drop a pigeon at 40 yards. Ideally I would love to find some scrap pieces of the same roofing to shoot at to find out what speed or energy level I need to stay below, but sadly I don't.