Penetration or smacking power? What's your choice.

I think that’s a good strategy. Granted, like others have said, rabbits are pretty fragile but a dome is still the better choice for the upper end of your range. More so for the accuracy than the penetration. 

Given the modest muzzle velocity of 550fps, domes will be your best bet for anything except perhaps small critters (house sparrows, rats) or fragile ones (rabbits) inside of 25 yards or so. There’s certainly some overlap but I’m just trying to give you some guidance on which to start building your training and experience.

At the far end of that range, say from 40 to 50 yards, you will need to be on your A game if you expect a high success rate with pigeons and doves. Placement will be critical. And if there is any perceptible wind, it just got a whole lot tougher. But at 25 – 30 yards? Oh yeah, that should be pretty easy to do confidently and repeatably if you’ve done your preparation to find an accurate pellet and practiced on paper.

I expect you’ll have better margin with blackbirds, depending on the specific type (e.g. grackles). I’d put rabbits closer to this category than anywhere else. Yes, far better if you can get a 30 yard shot but your rifle has enough at 50 yards if you can put the pellet in the right place. 

House sparrows are very fragile…anything center mass is going to put them down. I can’t speak to the broader category of sparrows. Around here, house sparrows are the only ones we want to remove.

And I can’t comment on crows without more information…the general term means very different things in different countries. For example, I would not lob a pellet at 550fps at an American crow at 50 yards.

Just use the most accurate pellet that the gun prefers domed or pointed and headshot crows.

That’s true, a head shot will definitely get the job done. Certainly easier said than done though. In some circumstances that may not be such a tall order but there’s a lot conspiring against it in this case:

1. A small target.
2. Birds move their heads a lot. So it’s a small target that darts around.
3. Flight time. The pellet will be on its way for over 3 tenths of a second. Doesn’t sound like much but I have several scope cam clips of Matrix birds and squirrels that show it happening on occasion. So it’s a small target that moves a lot, and we’re giving it more time to move after we’ve committed to the shot. 
4. Temperature sensitivity of CO2 affecting the trajectory.
5. Wind, even a very small amount because...
6. BC is sub-optimal at such a low velocity. And it has quite a long way, 50 yards, to be pushed off course.

Just trying to be realistic. Those aren’t trivial challenges for the most experienced airgunner, let alone a beginner.

If you have a good grasp of English, or a good translator, sorry not sure where you are on the language, read this. https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/%f0%9f%92%80-quarry-what-killsem-dead-the-mechanics-of-killing/?referrer=1  Go through all four parts.

It has good info in it, air or powder. As long as you have sufficient [penetration you should be fine. A 22 cal pellet hitting a squirrel would come something like a 30mm cannon on a human. Use what is most accurate for you, in the end, that is the end all.

Happy Hunting.

I use doomed pellets almost exclusively in my .25 guns. But my wife's taipan mutant I have tuned to 15fpe and I've experimented with a number of pellets. If ur looking for a cheap pellet that hits hard try the crosman destroyers. They shoot teal well out of the taipan out to about 30 yards... Farthest I've shot them. 

Foot Pounds Energy is what knocks em