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All Springer/NP/PCP Air Gun Discussion General => Hunting Gate => Topic started by: natureboy922 on January 03, 2014, 11:48:16 AM

Title: best 177 pellet for hunting coon?
Post by: natureboy922 on January 03, 2014, 11:48:16 AM
Hey guys just wondering what u guys thought was the best pellet in 177 caliber for hunting raccoon?
Title: Re: best 177 pellet for hunting coon?
Post by: Rescue912 on January 03, 2014, 01:03:10 PM
Whatever one is most accurate in your rifle. Raccoons can be large-ish so you will have to have decent shot placement. Go with what shoots the best.
Title: Re: best 177 pellet for hunting coon?
Post by: Geoff on January 03, 2014, 01:17:28 PM
I hope you have a thumper of a 177 rifle.  I have heard coon are tough critters
Title: Re: best 177 pellet for hunting coon? (graphic)
Post by: nced on January 03, 2014, 02:37:45 PM
Hey guys just wondering what u guys thought was the best pellet in 177 caliber for hunting raccoon?
I've dispatched a few "coons" with my .177 R9 and CPLs and a couple with a .20 barreled R9 however they were rather close shots at under 20 yards and the pellet hit either under the chin to enter the brain from "underneath" in the case of the .20 cal RamJet and either the back of the head or between the eye and ear with the .177 CPL.

My brother has also taken a few "coon" with his .177 R9 using both 7.9 grain CPLs and 10.5 grain CP heavies. He found that the heavies did work better than the lights because they penetrated deeper. Coon are at the top as far as springer quarry size and are pretty tough. Also, a large wounded coon can be vicious so be careful when messing with them!

Here's a pic of a coon I took with a CPL behind the head after the coon climbed the tree at the WV property. A bird feeder was hanging on the tree and they wreck bird feeders to get the seeds.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v734/wved/Airgun%20Hunting/Racoon_R9_1.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/wved/media/Airgun%20Hunting/Racoon_R9_1.jpg.html)

As a side note........for coons and groundhogs I prefer a hard lead dome pellet like the Crosman Premier.
Title: Re: best 177 pellet for hunting coon?
Post by: Bullit on January 03, 2014, 03:58:27 PM
Ed makes good point on a hard pellet for a skull like coons and possum.
If you're talking smaller coons, urban bandits, (under 8lb),  then you have enuff  with 12-14FPE muzzle, at backyards under 25yds.  It still takes a precise shot. Placement is Paramount, and yes I do it.   For larger and Older Fatties, and "country coons"  you are not gonna be successful.  Better to have a buddy with a backup rifle, to finish the task...if you wanna try in the hunting party.  I personally wouldn't let you shoot.  You'd be undergunned IMO.
Title: Re: best 177 pellet for hunting coon?
Post by: only1harry on January 04, 2014, 04:40:32 PM
I agree, unless you have a Magnum .177 (like a 48, 350 .177, etc.) or a Disco/PCP .177, it's best to limit the shots to 20yds so the pellet can reach the brain with some energy behind it, and maximize your chances of a 1 shot kill.  The pellet won't matter much as long as the gun likes it.  Just don't use target/flat pellets.. preferrably domed pellets and the heavier the better (>9 grain).  Practice first and try out different (domed) pellets to see which one your gun likes best. 

You will need at least 10fpe on impact.  If your gun cannot deliver that much energy down range where the coon will be, don't go after them.

Harry
Title: Re: best 177 pellet for hunting coon?
Post by: AK73 on January 04, 2014, 05:38:11 PM
Ed makes good point on a hard pellet for a skull like coons and possum.
If you're talking smaller coons, urban bandits, (under 8lb),  then you have enuff  with 12-14FPE muzzle, at backyards under 25yds.  It still takes a precise shot. Placement is Paramount, and yes I do it.   For larger and Older Fatties, and "country coons"  you are not gonna be successful.  Better to have a buddy with a backup rifle, to finish the task...if you wanna try in the hunting party.  I personally wouldn't let you shoot.  You'd be undergunned IMO.
The "urban bandits" around my house are REALLY fat! I'd say at least 15-20 lbs!
Title: Re: best 177 pellet for hunting coon?
Post by: only1harry on January 04, 2014, 06:23:15 PM
My "country bandits" reach 30 pounds.  I have seen a 30 pounder go through my yard and was shocked at the fat it was carrying all around.  It looked like a bear cub.  It could not run fast at all, and looked like it had trouble even walking dragging its fat on the ground from every side of its body.  About 4 of the coons I have shot were in 20-25lb range (I weighed them) with the biggest 25.2lbs.  The majority (adults) of the ones I shot were 16-19lbs and were also pretty darn big or certainly above average, but that's the norm here.  The only 8lb ones I have shot were youngsters, barely yearlings far from adulthood.  Even the average adult Groundhog/woodchuck here is >10 pounds.

Bottom line raccoons in the northern half of the country are bigger than those in the southern states.

Harry
Title: Re: best 177 pellet for hunting coon?
Post by: AK73 on January 04, 2014, 07:20:12 PM
My "country bandits" reach 30 pounds.  I have seen a 30 pounder go through my yard and was shocked at the fat it was carrying all around.  It looked like a bear cub.  It could not run fast at all, and looked like it had trouble even walking dragging its fat on the ground from every side of its body.  About 4 of the coons I have shot were in 20-25lb range (I weighed them) with the biggest 25.2lbs.  The majority (adults) of the ones I shot were 16-19lbs and were also pretty darn big or certainly above average, but that's the norm here.  The only 8lb ones I have shot were youngsters, barely yearlings far from adulthood.  Even the average adult Groundhog/woodchuck here is >10 pounds.

Bottom line raccoons in the northern half of the country are bigger than those in the southern states.

Harry
These around my house waddle.
Title: Re: best 177 pellet for hunting coon?
Post by: jrhunter on January 05, 2014, 01:05:01 AM
Better have an accurate and powerful rifle. At the very least 15 ft.lbs, and a accurate pellet that is 10+ grains at less than 25 yards. I like my .22 (16-21 ft.lbs ) better than my friends .177 Marauder ( ~28 ft.lbs Custom ) due to a larger pellet and more weight slamming in to the target. I know someone is going to rampage on me about how powerful the .177 really is. Honestly, here is how I compare it, you don't elk hunt with a .257, you don't deer hunt with a .223, and you don't moose hunt with a .270, so I personally don't coon hunt with anything less than a .22.
Title: Re: best 177 pellet for hunting coon?
Post by: nced on January 05, 2014, 10:36:01 AM
Better have an accurate and powerful rifle. At the very least 15 ft.lbs, and a accurate pellet that is 10+ grains at less than 25 yards. I like my .22 (16-21 ft.lbs ) better than my friends .177 Marauder ( ~28 ft.lbs Custom ) due to a larger pellet and more weight slamming in to the target. I know someone is going to rampage on me about how powerful the .177 really is. Honestly, here is how I compare it, you don't elk hunt with a .257, you don't deer hunt with a .223, and you don't moose hunt with a .270, so I personally don't coon hunt with anything less than a .22.

LOL.......for large critters penetration trumps caliber so I personally would prefer a .177 pellet that penetrates through the vitals than a .22 that won't....especially at the 15fpe power level you mentioned. With rib shots on coon or especially groundhog neither .177 or .22 will do the job quickly! Having rib shot a couple coons with .20 cal RamJet pellets when my R9 was tuned as you've mentioned I took a coon only by shooting under the chin so the pellet entered the brain from below since SEVERAL .20 rib shots didn't stop the coon at it was traveling over a high limb. A later coon was shot with the same gun while squirrel hunting but this time a pellet under the chin into the brain dropped it with one shot. In each case neither a .177, .20 OR .22 pellet would have made a difference with the rib shot, but a .177, .20 OR .22 pellet in the brain WILL drop a coon in it's tracks after a LOT of threshing around after it hits the ground!

Hummmm.......concerning groundhogs, they're pretty easy to take with a .177 CP to the base of the ear but a pellet to the ribs won't even slow them down. Years ago I used to take my .308 Winchester on groundhog hunts using 180 grain round nose Speer slugs to practice for deer season when I lived in MD. I spotted one groundhog at roughly 50 yards and when taking an offhand shot at it a gust of wind blew the gun to the side as I was standing and I saw the crosshair on the side of the standing gh as the trigger was tripped. The gh was literally spun around and smacked to the ground with about 3000fpe of energy, yet it crawled 10 feet to get into it's hole. My father was raising silver foxes at the time and my brother and I would get the gh's and grind up the meat to supplement the foxes diet. I found my brother (those were late teen years before military duty) and we dug out the gh which was dead about 3 feet inside the burrow. Well....while traveling the 10 feet to get into the hole this gh literally left a few parts of "innerds" on the path due to the low right hit. LOL......NO NORMAL airgun (especially a springer) would have even slowed that gh down and it would have only led to a slow lingering death.......well, PERHAPS it would die.

In WV I rib shot a squirrel from a bird feeder at about 20 yards using a .20 Silver Bear hollow point and to my surprise it simply ran up the tree and into the woods. A couple weeks later I shot a squirrel from the bird feeder and LOL....it had a relatively large scab on the rib from a .20 hollow point pellet that only penetrated the hide and one lung!

Anywhoo......not dissing that a .22 that PENETRATES the vitals will drop a coon "better" than a .177 that PENETRATES the vitals, I'm only commenting that neither are very reliable for rib shots, but both are reliable for base of ear or back of head shots!     
Title: Re: best 177 pellet for hunting coon?
Post by: jrhunter on January 05, 2014, 12:14:23 PM
Better have an accurate and powerful rifle. At the very least 15 ft.lbs, and a accurate pellet that is 10+ grains at less than 25 yards. I like my .22 (16-21 ft.lbs ) better than my friends .177 Marauder ( ~28 ft.lbs Custom ) due to a larger pellet and more weight slamming in to the target. I know someone is going to rampage on me about how powerful the .177 really is. Honestly, here is how I compare it, you don't elk hunt with a .257, you don't deer hunt with a .223, and you don't moose hunt with a .270, so I personally don't coon hunt with anything less than a .22.

LOL.......for large critters penetration trumps caliber so I personally would prefer a .177 pellet that penetrates through the vitals than a .22 that won't....especially at the 15fpe power level you mentioned. With rib shots on coon or especially groundhog neither .177 or .22 will do the job quickly! Having rib shot a couple coons with .20 cal RamJet pellets when my R9 was tuned as you've mentioned I took a coon only by shooting under the chin so the pellet entered the brain from below since SEVERAL .20 rib shots didn't stop the coon at it was traveling over a high limb. A later coon was shot with the same gun while squirrel hunting but this time a pellet under the chin into the brain dropped it with one shot. In each case neither a .177, .20 OR .22 pellet would have made a difference with the rib shot, but a .177, .20 OR .22 pellet in the brain WILL drop a coon in it's tracks after a LOT of threshing around after it hits the ground!

Hummmm.......concerning groundhogs, they're pretty easy to take with a .177 CP to the base of the ear but a pellet to the ribs won't even slow them down. Years ago I used to take my .308 Winchester on groundhog hunts using 180 grain round nose Speer slugs to practice for deer season when I lived in MD. I spotted one groundhog at roughly 50 yards and when taking an offhand shot at it a gust of wind blew the gun to the side as I was standing and I saw the crosshair on the side of the standing gh as the trigger was tripped. The gh was literally spun around and smacked to the ground with about 3000fpe of energy, yet it crawled 10 feet to get into it's hole. My father was raising silver foxes at the time and my brother and I would get the gh's and grind up the meat to supplement the foxes diet. I found my brother (those were late teen years before military duty) and we dug out the gh which was dead about 3 feet inside the burrow. Well....while traveling the 10 feet to get into the hole this gh literally left a few parts of "innerds" on the path due to the low right hit. LOL......NO NORMAL airgun (especially a springer) would have even slowed that gh down and it would have only led to a slow lingering death.......well, PERHAPS it would die.

In WV I rib shot a squirrel from a bird feeder at about 20 yards using a .20 Silver Bear hollow point and to my surprise it simply ran up the tree and into the woods. A couple weeks later I shot a squirrel from the bird feeder and LOL....it had a relatively large scab on the rib from a .20 hollow point pellet that only penetrated the hide and one lung!

Anywhoo......not dissing that a .22 that PENETRATES the vitals will drop a coon "better" than a .177 that PENETRATES the vitals, I'm only commenting that neither are very reliable for rib shots, but both are reliable for base of ear or back of head shots!   


 I agree woodchucks are easy to kill, they just have tough skin.
Title: Re: best 177 pellet for hunting coon?
Post by: Bullit on January 05, 2014, 12:24:59 PM
G-Hogs easy?  They're a very tough body shot....as NCED posted.  You might re-read it.  Same with a possum or coon.
The small difference in grains between most springer pellets doesn't do much in the "slamming" dept. on any body shot coon.  10-25g (no matter the caliber),  just isn't much from a subsonic airgun.  Even a little .22 short has much more than the airgun pellet...but it still isn't a sure bet for a body shot.
Title: Re: best 177 pellet for hunting coon?
Post by: only1harry on January 05, 2014, 02:44:58 PM
I have taken over 150 Groundhogs with airguns, 1 shot 1 kill.  Only 1 was able to make it to its burrow, and that's because the scope on my 350 .22 was off and I missed its head.  It died in the burrow stinking up my yard for 3 weeks.  They are very tough to kill with body/vitals shots.  I have been extremely successful with head shots the past 7 years.
 
They would walk or crawl away when I used a rimfire .22LR gun and shoot for the chest, years ago before I switched to airguns and head shots.  The statement above that when the G-hog was shot with a .308 it crawled to its burrow, is not at all surprising to me.  I watched a video on youtube a few years ago of a a guy shooting a Groundhog with his 30-06.  The G-hog came off the ground on impact and was almost cut in half!  When the hunter walked out to get the G-hog (about 80yds away) he left the camera running and zoomed in on the G-hog.  The camera recorded the G-hog crawling away and disappearing in the tall grass and away from the camera's view.  He and his buddy never found him.  It looked like its insides were hanging out when it was moving, and like its body was literally hanging by a thread before it split in 2.  Of course this G-hog died seconds later, but not before getting to its burrow which is usually not far away.

The ONLY shot I will take on a Groundhog is a HEAD shot with an airgun and rimfire.  .177 is no problem and I have taken a dozen G-hogs with my 14fpe Diana 36 .177, as long as you shoot between eye and ear or "between the eyes" if it's a frontal shot.  Behind the ear as it was mentioned will do it too, because you are hitting the spine where it meets the base of the skull, but that is a risky shot and does not work all the time.  The safest shot is the brain shot.  Anywhere from very close to the eye to 3/8" in front of the ear will anchor them.

Harry
Title: Re: best 177 pellet for hunting coon?
Post by: 2nd RCHA on January 05, 2014, 03:27:14 PM
The last Racoon I took out was 75ft up a pinetree in my backyard, One shot w/ my .22 Hatsan AT44/PA using a 9gr,. "Prometheus Hunter", and it was dead before it hit the ground. In .177 however, and if your a/g has the power to take out a creature that size Humanely, then I would recommend the heavist pellet your gun can handle, H&N Baracuda Match rounds, Baracuda Hunter Extreme's, Skenco Metal-Tipped "UltraMags, etc,. are all good(in the right gun that is), You don't want to be "lobbing" rounds at the animal.You'll definitely need to do some testing to see what works the best for your set-up. Hope this helps. Cheer's, Andy.
Title: Re: best 177 pellet for hunting coon?
Post by: jrhunter on January 05, 2014, 04:27:36 PM
G-Hogs easy?  They're a very tough body shot....as NCED posted.  You might re-read it.  Same with a possum or coon.
The small difference in grains between most springer pellets doesn't do much in the "slamming" dept. on any body shot coon.  10-25g (no matter the caliber),  just isn't much from a subsonic airgun.  Even a little .22 short has much more than the airgun pellet...but it still isn't a sure bet for a body shot.


Didn't rad the part about a h/l shot, I shoot them in the head and they drop.
Title: Re: best 177 pellet for hunting coon?
Post by: Fishmishin on January 07, 2014, 07:01:47 PM
I had no problem knocking down the one I killed in November. I did have to give home a couple of lower body shots to get him to move in the tree so I could get a clean side profile head shot, placement was about halfway between his left eye and ear. This was using my air magnum shooting gamo rocket pellets, PA lists them @ 9.6 grains, he was was roughly about 60' in the tree and I had to shoot him free standing from the middle of a beaver pond, in about 2 1/2' of water.
Title: Re: best 177 pellet for hunting coon?
Post by: hammer0419 on January 10, 2014, 03:13:51 PM
They are very tough animals. Caliber is definately important but not as important as shot placement. Stick one in their ear and you will not have a problem.
Title: Re: best 177 pellet for hunting coon?
Post by: AK73 on January 27, 2014, 10:24:51 PM
I know this thread kind of ended a while ago, but I thought you ought to know it may not be legal to shoot a coon with a .177; it depends on your state.
Title: Re: best 177 pellet for hunting coon?
Post by: jrhunter on January 28, 2014, 12:06:43 AM
I know this thread kind of ended a while ago, but I thought you ought to know it may not be legal to shoot a coon with a .177; it depends on your state.


Thumbs up to those states !