The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post

SL1 · September 7, 2012, 08:44 PM

Buck,

Regarding the squirrel: that was no B.S. First of all, remember that it was a 0.177" diameter, 8.6 grain airgun pellet at about 900 fps. With a streamlined point.

As for where the squirrel was hit, I could easily tell after the fact when I saw the squirrel again. It was hopping around my yard, coming within tens of feet. I was looking at it with 12X binoculars. It clearly had about golf ball sized areas of its skin puffed way out on both sides of its body. The left side, where the pellet entered, was centered just behind/touching the front leg, mid-way up between back and belly. The exit side was maybe a tad lower, but still clearly through ribs, not belly.

When first hit, the squirrel was rolled sideways onto his back, and started madly clawing/kicking the air. I never expected to see it regain its feet and dash into the brush. Even then, I did not expect to ever see it alive again. But, it clearly lived for at least a couple of weeks.

The point is: the cup-point pellet did a much more effective job the next time I shot a squirrel. Even if I had hit a squirrel in the abdomen with a cup point, I don't think it would have lived for a couple of weeks. There was a LOT of blood with the cup point but nearly none with the round point, despite having made an extra hole.

SL1

September 7, 2012, 08:44 PM	#24
SL1 Senior Member Join Date: November 8, 2007 Posts: 2,001	Buck, Regarding the squirrel: that was no B.S. First of all, remember that it was a 0.177" diameter, 8.6 grain airgun pellet at about 900 fps. With a streamlined point. As for where the squirrel was hit, I could easily tell after the fact when I saw the squirrel again. It was hopping around my yard, coming within tens of feet. I was looking at it with 12X binoculars. It clearly had about golf ball sized areas of its skin puffed way out on both sides of its body. The left side, where the pellet entered, was centered just behind/touching the front leg, mid-way up between back and belly. The exit side was maybe a tad lower, but still clearly through ribs, not belly. When first hit, the squirrel was rolled sideways onto his back, and started madly clawing/kicking the air. I never expected to see it regain its feet and dash into the brush. Even then, I did not expect to ever see it alive again. But, it clearly lived for at least a couple of weeks. The point is: the cup-point pellet did a much more effective job the next time I shot a squirrel. Even if I had hit a squirrel in the abdomen with a cup point, I don't think it would have lived for a couple of weeks. There was a LOT of blood with the cup point but nearly none with the round point, despite having made an extra hole. SL1 Last edited by SL1; September 8, 2012 at 07:26 AM.