Saw this one on another forum. Please add any thoughts or corrections, or if you have other charts that would be fantastic. Seems pretty close to me for a lot of these. As I understand it, it assumes pretty much perfect headshot placement.1) Gray squirrel/Fox Squirrel - 4.5fpe 2) Eastern Cottontail/Swamp Rabbit - 4fpe 3) Jack Rabbit White, Black, and Jack O' lope - 4.5fpe 4) Raccoon/ Bandit - 9fpe.. if it's a big one, 10fpe. 5) Virginia Opossum/ County Rat - 10fpe 6) Ground Hog/ Wood Chuck - 7-8fpe (depending on size) 7) Gray Fox - 8.5fpe 8. Red Fox - 9.5-10fpe 9) Bobcat - 9fpe 10) Bullfrog - I have no clue, but 2fpe should do the job. 11) Snapping Turtle - no clue again but I would think at least the same as bird or squirrel. 12) Crow - 3.5 fpe head, 6fpe body/vitals 13) Pigeon - 3 fpe head, 5fpe body/vitals 14) Sparrow - 2.5fpe, it doesn't matter where you hit them. 15) Starling -
After having taken a bunch of odds and ends, with accurate but lower power guns, I would say this is right on......I would speculate that vulnerable areas are implied, which also implies to the hunter that they know the anatomy of the game.I would also speculate that power is at the animal......so power requirement at the muzzle could be exponentially more, depending on distance.Just my interpretation.God bless,Farmer
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I love it Lambchops, that's the idea, just take a "shot" at what you think the right numbers are. Good job!I think 2 variables have to be defined for a chart like that to work at all: Range and Pellet shape. In that squirrel I just shot I looked at him and the pellet went though his head and out the other side with a fairly decent sized hole. That was a predator polymag 8 grain at somewhere between 15-20 yards or so at about 630 fps or so (crosman 2300). So using chairgun that is about 4.9-5.75 FPE at the most (would need to measure actual distance to find out for sure). But that is the ideal pellet for that and if it was wadcutters shoot who knows.
Sounds like to make the chart worthwhile we'd have to make an animal-specific "kill zone" diagram or picture or something. And the values would relate to that kill zone. In other words, saying a head shot is not specific enough. Certainly for that fox squirrel shown above I shot some minutes ago at 4.8-5.7 fpe, it was in a soft spot just below the ear. I was surprised at the big hole on the exit side at that low power. Totally agree the right spot is everything. making that kill-zone, or "soft-spot" diagram for each animal would take some work, but it would be educational and result in more humane kills IMO.
totally serious lambchops! No one that I know of has taken scientific readings of this stuff or anything so we can only go on our collective experience. And what that means is our collective opinions.So here is a first draft of a chart based largely on lambchops numbers. Please let me know what numbers you think are off and we can adjust accordingly. It's just a guide and an interesting exercise. The most important factor in all of this is accuracy and that's why we are assuming a "perfect shot" if you will for the headshot column. I know woodchuck skulls for example are hard and if you hit them in the front in the forehead it may just caram (sp?) off. but the same shot in soft spot would be an instant, humane kill. So you have to take it with a grain of salt and again we are just gathering opinions, there is no "right" answer. Everyone should adjust based on their comfort level also and of course more power is more effective given the same accuracy. I'm totally guessiing on the big critters as a place to start and hoping someone with knowledge will correct those.
Personally I've never given the fpe chart's a second thought or even looked at em. I spend the time studying the game that I hunt and yes that means checking out the result's of pellet damage to area's on the skull. There is a point to where certain airguns should not be used on certain game. I hunt with springers and some pumpers on smaller game and in that time with springers have learned the exact key spot or darn close to bring down the game. It's not just hitting the game in the head but hitting it in a small area that will do the most damage to the brain. I've heard of some saying but I hit it in the head and yes they did but not in the right spot. It's a learning process and did a bunch of homework on the game that I was looking to harvest. I'm not telling anyone to go out with their .177 midpowered airguns and be able to drop anything in the wood's but do your homework. Study your target and know your airgun like you know yourself and be darn comfortable with yourself and airgun when you put the cross hairs on the game cause some are tougher then they look and like any living thing the will to live is a powerful drug that can keep game moving when it should be down. Ed