Success Against Conventional Wisdom

[intenseaty22]

I took this squirrel at about 20 yards and up a tree. It was way too busy munching on a nut and hung around long enough for me to cock and load my Springer. I took the shot aiming at the heart area broadside. For a few seconds I thought I had missed, as it didn’t drop, and saw what I thought was it, scurrying away. Ma NO, it dropped and quivered a few seconds and off to Valhalla it went. 

Now, this shot was taken with my 12fpe Walther LGV in .177. I misjudged the aim and hit high on the neck, likely hitting the spine. Pellet went through and through after departing the gun at about 710 fps and probably not “dumping” a whole lot of energy into the quarry. Nonetheless, I hd a pretty dead squirrel pretty fast. 

So, my thoughts are that shot placement to a vital organ (heart, brain, or spine) will trump speed, energy, and caliber in a lot of scenarios. 

Your thoughts?

 

[BigTinBoat]

So, my thoughts are that shot placement to a vital organ (heart, brain, or spine) will trump speed, energy, and caliber in a lot of scenarios. 

Your thoughts?

Agreed - 100%

 

[18.13]

Valhalla it went.

 

[LDP]

So, my thoughts are that shot placement to a vital organ (heart, brain, or spine) will trump speed, energy, and caliber in a lot of scenarios. 

Your thoughts?

Agreed - 100%

Within reason of course. Airguns are all about shot placement and you only need enough velocity/ power to penetrate enough to hit those vitals to quickly and cleanly kill the animal. I have read everything from people saying anything less than 60 fpe just doesnt kill squirrels even with head shots and you only get clean kills using .30 cal pcp's. I have never had any trouble killing tree squirrels with 10 fpe out to 40 yds and just as easy killing large ground squirrels out to 35 yds with 10 fpe. If you cant get it done with less than 60 fpe and I say 10 fpe for standard size small game and pest its time to study anatomy and practice so you can accurately place pellets on the vitals of the animal. Thats going to be the real problem not caliber or fpe.

 

[intenseaty22]

Yup, I have personally had to shoot a squirrel 2-3 more times after the initial hit because they would just refuse to die, and that’s with a .22 at about 32 fpe. 

 

[crittahitta]

I was taking squirrels and rabbits with my 11-12 ft lb 20 cal sheridan blue streak pumper for years no problem. Iron sights no less. But now with all the high power guns and scopes we dont have to get as close to our prey to feel confident of our shot. I have shot starlings with a 60 fpe 25 cal and had to run them down to finish them off. Shot placement and knowing how angles and the effect of wind on longer range higher power pcp shots are more important than the power itself. But ultimately if the pellet penetrates and hits a vital it will die "eventually"