Today I had a couple of choices to make. I saw a few squirrels raiding my Pecan tree as I was set to make me some coffee and sprung into action. I generally keep one or two guns by the back door just for this reason. Today I had the FX Wildcat and the Weihrauch HW95 standing by, both in .177. Which one did I reach for & why? Once I had a shot on one of them, I had another choice to make: Head or Tails? .......I mean Head or Vitals? What did I go for? As for the caliber, that was a choice as well. I could have gotten the .22 Veteran without much ado, but, I wanted to take one with my .177, it's been a while.
The gun choice came down to "Which one is reliable to put the pellet where I want it?" So basically, consistency and reliability. I grabbed the HW95 in 12fpe! While the Wildcat has been, for the most part, tamed, honestly, I don't trust it on the first shot.
So, down to pellet choice and shot placement. Well, this guns really like the JSB Hades. Can shoot them at 1/2" at 30 yards all day long, so, that was that. Shot placement, Vitals! Why? Because I did not want to take a chance and I wanted to prove a point.
I took the shot from my shooting bench at almost exactly 30 yards, it decided to munch on a pecan right next to my rubber mulch target box. Bad choice, really bad choice. Squeezed the trigger and had a solid hit! Squirrel jumped straight up in the air and ran about one yard away from me. I was watching it through the scope, I saw it sit there for half a second and it was all over. No break dancing, no Mexican jumping bean, it just wilted away and stayed put.
The pellet did not pass through, instead, it stopped just before exiting the other side. Not much expansion to speak of, but it did it's job admirably. After doing a proper autopsy, it was evident that this was a straight up double lung shot. Extremely humane and effective.
Entrance wound:
“Sub-dermal” exit wound:
Internal damage:
The gun choice came down to "Which one is reliable to put the pellet where I want it?" So basically, consistency and reliability. I grabbed the HW95 in 12fpe! While the Wildcat has been, for the most part, tamed, honestly, I don't trust it on the first shot.
So, down to pellet choice and shot placement. Well, this guns really like the JSB Hades. Can shoot them at 1/2" at 30 yards all day long, so, that was that. Shot placement, Vitals! Why? Because I did not want to take a chance and I wanted to prove a point.
I took the shot from my shooting bench at almost exactly 30 yards, it decided to munch on a pecan right next to my rubber mulch target box. Bad choice, really bad choice. Squeezed the trigger and had a solid hit! Squirrel jumped straight up in the air and ran about one yard away from me. I was watching it through the scope, I saw it sit there for half a second and it was all over. No break dancing, no Mexican jumping bean, it just wilted away and stayed put.
The pellet did not pass through, instead, it stopped just before exiting the other side. Not much expansion to speak of, but it did it's job admirably. After doing a proper autopsy, it was evident that this was a straight up double lung shot. Extremely humane and effective.
Entrance wound:
“Sub-dermal” exit wound:
Internal damage:
combo!