First confirmed kill.
Finally got the cat’s first fresh meal, a crow. I shot it off our chimney-stack, bounced off the car and lay feebly croaking for a few seconds (I felt a bit guilty, but needs must, what what).
How many targets I’ve missed prior to that. Lousy pellets I think (Bisleys). I tried some Logans, but they kept falling out of the breech. Just picked up some AA Diablo Hunters and I’m finally getting tight consistent groups, albeit on only an 11-yard range (my back yard is pretty small unfortunately). The rifle seemed to be shooting a lot more accurately without the universal silencer I got for it, but I think I’ve got that sorted out now (one of those wobbly buggers that need to be screwed up tight with an adaptor, a real pain to get seated perfectly straight). I removed all the baffles and springs, it still suppresses a hell of a lot of the noise.
So, next task is to try it out with some decent range, with the current valve-stem & top-hat and the one I’ve got coming (a de-regulated one from Holland, though if the spring-retainer inside the bottle is restricted I’m not sure how much difference I’ll see). I’ve also got a chrono on the way, so I’ll know exactly what’s what in terms of ft/lbs and MV.
Does anyone have a rough idea what MV is required with a .22 at point of impact to kill a rabbit, in it’s chest as opposed to head? It would also be helpful to know what a pellet’s speed is like at a given range per a given MV (eg, various pellet speeds at various distances as it flys down range and gradually slows).
Anyway, pip pip! 😀
All Replies
Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
Thanks Harry. 😀
Last night I took my Talon to a friend’s garden and first zeroed it at 25 yards, then was getting groups at 40 yards with only about 1/2″ to 3/4″ drop. Got my chrono this morning and tested the rifle, 584fps at 11.66 ft/lb. We were consistently picking off 2″ apples at 40 yards (AGS – SAS 6×32 scope). I’m pretty happy with that, but I’ll be happier when I’ve got the new top-hat and stem and the fps is up around 850.
I’m also after a new scope. I fell in love with the Falcon Merlin 4-14x56IR Hunter Class Rifle Scope, then discovered it’s no longer manufactured (the replacement version has no IR). Currently waiting for a call back from a shop that still has it listed, hoping they still have one in stock.
The AA diablo pellets are supposed to be JSB Exact Jumbos so they ‘re going to be pretty accurate.
What kind of gun do you have? A Talon? You can at pellet velocities and FPE at certain distances if you visit Straightshooters.com. Go to the “Our Take” section where they post all their test results. Look at the Talon they have on there or other similarly powered guns (PCP preferably) as yours. You ‘ll get a pretty good idea of what the velocity or Kinetic Energy (FPE) are down range, at 10, 25 & 50yds.
It doesn’t take much to take down a rabbit. I used to kill them with my old 760 pump (550-600fps .177) at 15yds when I was a teenager.
They are actually not that hard to shoot in the head because their heads are pretty big. You should be aiming at their head assuming you have a scope. Rabbits are easily taken by low-medium powered (12fpe) springers out to 30yds. They are not as tough as grey squirrels and don’t have as much muscle mass throughout their bodies as their tree climbing cousins. Sometimes they just die from the shock or have a heart attack it is believed, because I ‘ve seen rabbits shot in the nose, or the stomach that died very quickly and didn’t make much sense..
Bottom line is you only need about 4-6fpe on impact to kill a rabbit humanely.. head or chest, it doesn’t matter. They ‘re actually pretty fragile. My grandfather used to hit big bunnies over the head with a relatively small wooden club when he used to raise them, and that was it. They don’t have a thick skull and their chest area is pretty vulnerable and thin skinned too. If your gun can take a crow, it will take a cottontail. Just be mindful of the distance and aim carefully. Pretty much anywhere in the head (above the mouth) will bring them down or disable them and give you a chance for a follow up shot, but I doubt you ‘ll need it. The most important thing is to know how your gun shoots.. the POI at 15, 25 or 35yds because it will be different. The pellet keeps rising usually to 40yds before it starts dropping. I sight in most of my guns at 25yds and I ‘m good to go between 15 and 35yds with less than 1″ POI shift but I usually adjust for that too.
BTW, there is a post on a 40yd rabbit kill on the hunting forum using a stock Talon SS. Check it out:
http://talonairgun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3141
Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Ok I take it you ‘re using CO2 then? Yeah with 584fps velocity or 11-12fpe gun, the heavier .22 pellet (which pellet are you using?) will start its descent after 30yds if it has a good ballistic coefficient.
I have a 12fpe gun too (RWS 850 .22 shooting 14.3gr @ 610+fps) and I ‘ve experienced the same thing except I use various 14.3gr pellets and 14.5gr Beeman FTS exclusively. Larger/heavier pellets don’t fit well in the 8-shot magazine of the 850 and can cause jams.
Sounds like you have your Talon dialed in well. Just practice a lot. Be mindful that at 15yds the POI will be a little lower. A while back I had a crow on my sights at 15yds from my window upstairs. It was walking around in the yard and it had not spotted me. I decided to try my luck and go for a head shot even though I had a 23+fpe gun. I figured it was no challenge hitting the crow in the chest at such close distance. To my surprise I saw the pellet go through its neck feathers and hit the snow a few yards passed it. It was a miss! The pellet’s POI was about 3/4″ low because the gun was sighted in at 25yds. I had just forgotten about it in all the excitement. I ‘ve done the same with a squirrel at 35-40yds, the CP just went over its head because I forgot it keeps climbing past 40yds and shoots 1″ higher. I saw the hole in the tree just 1/8-1/4″ above its head through the scope. Now I ‘m mindful to compensate just a little and rarely miss. So you must understand how important it is to practice shooting at targets spaced out 10yds apart to really learn how that 1 pellet shoots that you are going to use the most.