Speed of Sound vs Speed of Pellet Causing Squirrel to Flinch?

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AJ3

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Apr 24, 2015
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I are an Enginner and tend to over think things per my wife but I swear I have missed some ground squirrels as they flinched just before pellet impact. I am by no stretch of my imagination a marksman and have no trouble accepting my own flinches etc. However, I missed a couple of ground squirrels last evening at 50 - 60 yards and it appeared that they jumped or flinched before the pellet reached them.

Thinking more, the speed of sound is roughly 1100 fps. My FX shoots 900 fps so the sound of my rifle is traveling 200 fps faster than the pellet. At 60 yards the sound is reaching the critter almost 1 second before pellet impact. Piute Ground squirrels have exceptional hearing and they are jumpy given that they spend most of their day dodging areal attacks from Hawks and pellets from Aholes like me.

Has anyone else experienced this and does it make sense? It is totally possible that the problem is the shooter but...an additional excuse is a good thing!

AJ
 
The sound might reach them a fraction of a second before the pellet, but would they have time to hear, register, and react to the stimulus? I doubt that. 

Imagine you're shooting at a squirrel at the other end of a football field. 100yds. (110m if you're in Canada, eh) 

100yds = 300ft

1100ft/1sec * xsec = 300ft
x = .27sec

The sound of your shot would arrive at the squirrel in about 1/4 second. The pellet would arrive just a tiny fraction of a second afterward. Mathematically, yes, the sound would arrive first, but I don't think that the squirrel would have time to react. At 50yds, it would take 1/8 of a second for the sound and the pellet would arrive in an even tinier fraction of a second afterward. I think the more likely story is that they see the pellet and flinch as the speed of light is WAY faster than sound, and there are thousands of years of natural selection working for squirrels to help them detect threats visually and audibly. Or, it's just a really lucky squirrel.
 
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"ztirffritz"The sound might reach them a fraction of a second before the pellet, but would they have time to hear, register, and react to the stimulus? I doubt that. 

Imagine you're shooting at a squirrel at the other end of a football field. 100yds. (110m if you're in Canada, eh) 

100yds = 300ft

1100ft/1sec * xsec = 300ft
x = .27sec

The sound of your shot would arrive at the squirrel in about 1/4 second. The pellet would arrive just a tiny fraction of a second afterward. Mathematically, yes, the sound would arrive first, but I don't think that the squirrel would have time to react. At 50yds, it would take 1/8 of a second for the sound and the pellet would arrive in an even tinier fraction of a second afterward. I think the more likely story is that they see the pellet and flinch as the speed of light is WAY faster than sound, and there are thousands of years of natural selection working for squirrels to help them detect threats visually and audibly. Or, it's just a really lucky squirrel.
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You are correct, my thinking was way off using the delta of 200 fps between speed of sound and pellet.
It is either the shooter or their keen vision makes more sense,
 
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I don't know that they have keen vision, but they're probably good at detecting motion. Evolution has selected for skittish little critters who react quickly. It doesn't much matter where or how they move, just don't be in the same spot any longer than absolutely necessary. Hawks can't change direction mid-dive as easily as a squirrel can jump to the side.
 
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The automatic reactions emanating from instincts that squirrels and humans etc build up within their lower brain is quite astonishing. Some of the referenced material back up my own experiences, that creatures do react astonishingly quickly. The "trigger" could be movement (light speed) of shooter/rifle muzzle/scope/pellet or sound from either the rifle mechanism or muzzle blast (or both light/sound), some creatures clearly react and that does sometimes mean we miss.

Perhaps making a different type of sound, such as a small movement of your boot through grass will appear "soft" or "natural", will catch the subject's interest rather than put them on the alert (such as an unnatural mechanical noise)....before the shot is taken.
 
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