Rats are hard to shoot, they don't sit still long. This pressures me to take quick COM shots giving me a better chance of killing them if they suddenly move. During the 1st encounter the rat seemed to have ESP and jumped out of the way of the pellet just as I pulled the trigger. I estimate the pellet got there in < 0.9 seconds. How did it know when to jump out of the way? Even it it heard the shot, the speed of sound is only slightly faster than the pellet so it wouldn't have enough time to react. A few hours later it came back. This time is wasn't as lucky. Not an instant death but its a rat I don't give a $hit. Just want the highest chance of killing them. I'm shooting my raccoon loads of 34g 0.25 JSB MK2 at 890 at the muzzle. The shot was at about 23 yards. I thought it would easily pass through even this large fat rat. But as you can see from the photos I couldn't find any exit hole. I even moved the fur around looking for the exit.
So 2 surprises. The rat has ESP and why didn't a 59 FPE pellet pass through its body? Since this load cannot even go through a rat, should I consider a more powerful gun or different pellet for raccoons? I've haven't had any problems putting raccoons down with this load if I do my part and hit the brain, its been 100%. But from this experience I wouldn't expect the pellet to penetrate very deeply into a raccoon's brain.
The video show the following:
1. Slow motion of the 2 shots.
2. Photos of both sides of the rat, only one hole seen.
3. Regular speed video of both shots.
So 2 surprises. The rat has ESP and why didn't a 59 FPE pellet pass through its body? Since this load cannot even go through a rat, should I consider a more powerful gun or different pellet for raccoons? I've haven't had any problems putting raccoons down with this load if I do my part and hit the brain, its been 100%. But from this experience I wouldn't expect the pellet to penetrate very deeply into a raccoon's brain.
The video show the following:
1. Slow motion of the 2 shots.
2. Photos of both sides of the rat, only one hole seen.
3. Regular speed video of both shots.