Need Advice in Shooting Squirrel at Close Range Using .177 Pellets
Jay Chan
using a Hav-a-Hart live trap to capture big eastern gray squirrels
that are causing damages in my house roof. The trap works great. But
the problem is that I cannot kill a squirrel that has been trapped
inside the cage in close range using a .177 air pistol (Crosman 1377)
in one shot. I really want to shoot it once instead of shooting it
multiple times. I don't want to cause too much unnecessary pain to
the squirrels. I am wondering what went wrong.
For example, I had a squirrel inside the trap. It was reasonably
cooperative and not moving around too much. I pointed the pistol
downward and shot at the back of its head in a distance of no more
than 3 inches away. I saw a little blood coming out from the back of
its head where I shot it. But the squirrel acted like it had not been
shot and still moved around. I shot it the second time around the
neck (might actually be the upper part of its body because hard to
tell where the neck ends and the body begins). and this time it
dropped dead immediately. And this was just one example. There were
several examples like that -- all required me to shoot more than
once.
My questions are:
1. What is the best spot to shot a squirrel? Let say I am standing
over the squirrel and I can see the back of the squirrel from head to
tail, and the muzzle can be as close as 3 inches away from the
squirrel. Is shooting its heart a better choice than shooting its
head? May be the head scroll is too well protected?
2. I use .177 pellets. Is it too weak for shooting the head of a big
gray squirrel? Does .22 pellet work better in term of dropping it
dead quick?
3. The pellet is flat face. Is there hallow point pellet that may do
better?
I could have opened up its body to find out what happened to the
pellets. But this would have been more messy and bloody than I would
like to do. I am just looking for some general ideas and try the
ideas to see if they work.
Thanks in advance for any idea.
Jay Chan
NoNameLurker
>
> 1. What is the best spot to shot a squirrel? Let say I am standing
> over the squirrel and I can see the back of the squirrel from head to
> tail, and the muzzle can be as close as 3 inches away from the
> squirrel. Is shooting its heart a better choice than shooting its
> head? May be the head scroll is too well protected?
>
> 2. I use .177 pellets. Is it too weak for shooting the head of a big
> gray squirrel? Does .22 pellet work better in term of dropping it
> dead quick?
>
> 3. The pellet is flat face. Is there hallow point pellet that may do
> better?
In my experience, a heart shot is the quickest. I use .177 pellets.
Beeman Crow-Magnum hollow points (more like a hollow CUP).
Lurker
ray
Suggest you set up on 'yellow forum' and ask - plenty of hunters there.
See www.yellowforum.com or www.network54.com/Forum/79537 (the first
redirects to the latter).
Jay Chan
Thanks. I will try shooting at its heart first next time and see if
it can go down faster.
Jay Chan
Bobo
<jayk...@hotmail.com> wrote:
I shoot trapped groundhogs (a very tough animal) behind the ear with a
.22 pelet gun. seems to work OK,
Jay Chan
>
> - Show quoted text -
Groundhog is _much_ bigger than the gray squirrel around where I
live. If your .22 can kill a groundhog, I am sure it can finish off a
squirrel. But this doesn't settle the issue of whether a .177 can
finish off a squirrel or not. I have a feeling that it should be able
to do this. Somehow mine cannot do this. I am not sure if the .177
pistol has a problem or if I am where the problem is. I tend to think
that I am not where the problem is because I am shooting at such a
close range. I will test the .177 pistol at home to see if it can
shoot reliably -- afterall I haven't shot it for years before I
started using it again last week. My co-worker also suggests me to
try pointy pellets to see it they do a better job. I will see how
this goes.
Jay Chan
Jay Chan
No luck. I tried shooting at the heart of a trapped squirrel. But
that didn't seem to affect the squirrel in anyway. I start wondering
if my .177 pellet pistol is defective and can only shoot every other
pellet. I will need to test the pistol at home to see if it is any
good.
Jay Chan
Jay Chan
pellet that is pointed hollow point on a trapped squirrel. The result
was significantly different -- just one shot and the squirrel could
not move any more. Of course, I shot it one more time just to be
sure. When I used the original flat head pellet on some squirrels, I
never beable to disable the squirrels by just one shot.
Later on I did a test on the original pellets and the new pointy
pellets by shooting them to layers of cardboards. I saw that the
original pellets can only go through 2/3 of layers of cardboard as
what the pointy pellets can. This means the pointy pellets can
penetrate significantly better than the original pellets.
The pointy pellets "may" be slightly heavier than the original
pellets. But my scale is not sensitive enough to tell the
difference. I will have to assume that their weights are the same.
The pointy pellets are supposed to be hollow point. But this feature
doesn't make any difference because the air pistol is not powerful
enough to cause the hollow point pellets to deform.
The conclusion is that I need to use the correct pellets with my
Crosman 1377. For the grey squirrels around where I live, I need to
use pointy pellets that can penetrate the head of a grey squirrel.
Jay Chan
On Feb 15, 7:54 pm, Bobo <m...@my.net> wrote:
> On Sat, 14 Feb 2009 23:15:54 -0800 (PST), Jay Chan
>
Jay Chan
I have fixed the screen in the roof vent opening. Now squirrels
cannot get into the roof through the roof vent. This means I don't
need to use the trap to catch squirrels, and I don't need to shoot
them any more.
But there is one thing I didn't like when I shot the last squirrel
with pointy pellets. I thought the problem with not able to kill
squirrels quickly had been solved when I started using pointy
pellets. But the last squirrels took many pointy pellets in close
range before it expired. Some of the pointy pellets are just half
embedded in the squirrel's face. The penetration was just bad. Yes,
I pumped the air pistol for 10 times before I used it to shoot. I
have a feeling that my air pistol is just too weak or there may be an
air leak somewhere. Seem like this is about time to replace it with a
more powerful new air pistol or air rifle.
Jay Chan
MadD...@yahoo.com
Either you're Trolling or you haven't figured out that the 1377 is a
MULTIPLE pump gun.
One stroke isn't even recommended for target work.
Use at least 5 strokes.
From 3" to the top of the head just behind the eyes should do it with
any lead pellet at all.
Jay Chan
>
> - Show quoted text -
Yes, I know it is a pump gun, and I pump exactly 10 times for each
shot.
As mentioned previously, I have tried pointy pellets and they work
better than the flat faced version. Still, I had a problem finishing
off the last squirrel using pointy pellets. This may be the gun is
defective. But I will probably never know because I have closed the
opening in the roof vent, and I have stopped trapping squirrels. I
will have to close this case.
Jay Chan
aezael
<jayk...@hotmail.com> wrote:
I have a Gamo air gun in .177 and I have shot over 20 squirrels at a
range of about 50 feet with a scope and I always shot them in the
head, they dropped dead instantly.
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