Please be forwarned...this is a hunting post...best to pass it up if hunting offends you
agerageguy--
I can respect that you have a different opinion and feelings about pest control with air rifles, based on your experience. I too have heard of people requiring too many shots with a pellet gun to eliminate pests. I've also seen people take too many shots with rimfire and centerfire arms to eliminate pests. These are people who didn't understand proper shot placement, and they either learn it or I don't shoot with them again.
My experience is that if you destroy the nervous tissue in the brain or where the spine meets the brain, the animal immediately shuts down. I've found it to be a very quick and humane way to control pests with little or no suffering. You can gut-shoot a squirrel all day and it will live. Hit it once in the brain pan and it dies immediately and painlessly.
The skin and skull around the brain of a cottontail or Eastern Grey Squirrel is incredibly thin compared to the rest of it's body. It only takes 3 foot-pounds of energy, at the target, to penetrate the skull and destroy the brain pan. That's not much at all, and should be a reminder to exercise all the firearm gun safety rules with airguns as well.
If you pass on all frontal shots, which can deflect off the angular facial bones (.22 rimfire will do this as well, especially on raccoons), and just take profile shots (directly under the ear, at eye level) or shots directly to the back of the head, a single well-placed pellet will do the job.
You have to know where to place the pellet to immediately shut the animal down (I don't mean anchor, I don't believe in that, I mean a quick, painless death). If you can imagine the skull in 3-D it will help you know where that spot is. It also helps to hold the skull of the pest you are after in your hand and examine it from different angles so you can see the best place to make the shot.
I have a Beeman R7 that chronies in the high 600s (my actual measurements, not the inflated marketing numbers). I have legally hunted and pest controlled in my area several hundred eastern grey squirrels (one tough critter!) and 10 cotton tails. I limit my shots to 30 yards or under (great practice for stalking skills), wait for profile or back of the head shots, and pass on many shots that are not ideal. I've required only 9 second shots--and those were quick follow-ups that I was mentally prepared for. I know a guy that's taken over 500 squirrels with only two follow-up shots. He shoots a match rifle even less powerful than my R7, but he really knows how to use it.
If I had attempted body shots that were not perfect heart-lung shots, I would have required many more follow-up shots. Since the heart is not a larger target than the brain, I prefer to take only head shots. If I miss a head shot the animal scampers away unharmed. If I miss a heart shot the animal would be wounded and suffer if it got away.
Most seasoned airgun hunters take the "one shot one kill" method to heart. This might be because with airguns all you have is accuracy, you don't have excess power to compensate for marginal shots, so you feel you need to make the shot count.
Again, I respectfully repeat that I understand where you're coming from, and am not knocking it at all. I just wanted to share another side to the story. Accuracy will do the job if you do your part. But if you don't have accuracy, extra power will usually not make up the difference.
agerageguy--
I can respect that you have a different opinion and feelings about pest control with air rifles, based on your experience. I too have heard of people requiring too many shots with a pellet gun to eliminate pests. I've also seen people take too many shots with rimfire and centerfire arms to eliminate pests. These are people who didn't understand proper shot placement, and they either learn it or I don't shoot with them again.
My experience is that if you destroy the nervous tissue in the brain or where the spine meets the brain, the animal immediately shuts down. I've found it to be a very quick and humane way to control pests with little or no suffering. You can gut-shoot a squirrel all day and it will live. Hit it once in the brain pan and it dies immediately and painlessly.
The skin and skull around the brain of a cottontail or Eastern Grey Squirrel is incredibly thin compared to the rest of it's body. It only takes 3 foot-pounds of energy, at the target, to penetrate the skull and destroy the brain pan. That's not much at all, and should be a reminder to exercise all the firearm gun safety rules with airguns as well.
If you pass on all frontal shots, which can deflect off the angular facial bones (.22 rimfire will do this as well, especially on raccoons), and just take profile shots (directly under the ear, at eye level) or shots directly to the back of the head, a single well-placed pellet will do the job.
You have to know where to place the pellet to immediately shut the animal down (I don't mean anchor, I don't believe in that, I mean a quick, painless death). If you can imagine the skull in 3-D it will help you know where that spot is. It also helps to hold the skull of the pest you are after in your hand and examine it from different angles so you can see the best place to make the shot.
I have a Beeman R7 that chronies in the high 600s (my actual measurements, not the inflated marketing numbers). I have legally hunted and pest controlled in my area several hundred eastern grey squirrels (one tough critter!) and 10 cotton tails. I limit my shots to 30 yards or under (great practice for stalking skills), wait for profile or back of the head shots, and pass on many shots that are not ideal. I've required only 9 second shots--and those were quick follow-ups that I was mentally prepared for. I know a guy that's taken over 500 squirrels with only two follow-up shots. He shoots a match rifle even less powerful than my R7, but he really knows how to use it.
If I had attempted body shots that were not perfect heart-lung shots, I would have required many more follow-up shots. Since the heart is not a larger target than the brain, I prefer to take only head shots. If I miss a head shot the animal scampers away unharmed. If I miss a heart shot the animal would be wounded and suffer if it got away.
Most seasoned airgun hunters take the "one shot one kill" method to heart. This might be because with airguns all you have is accuracy, you don't have excess power to compensate for marginal shots, so you feel you need to make the shot count.
Again, I respectfully repeat that I understand where you're coming from, and am not knocking it at all. I just wanted to share another side to the story. Accuracy will do the job if you do your part. But if you don't have accuracy, extra power will usually not make up the difference.
