GTA
All Springer/NP/PCP Air Gun Discussion General => Hunting Gate => Topic started by: birdmove on December 24, 2018, 11:46:42 PM
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Anyone use these "regular" Destroyers (not the Walmart Destroyer EX) for rats? These pellets are not the most accurate in any of my air rifles, but, they sure seem to penetrate well. I don't have a chrony, so I use soup cans to check penetration. Even at only six pumps in my Daisy 880, these things just zing through both sides of the cans. I think they would be great for letting the rats going into our chicken coop at night meet their maker.
I'm starting to think my old Remington Airmaster is weak, as six pumps with, say, a Gamo Match wad cutter won't even penetrate one side of a can, but does leave a good sized dent. Sometimes I'll shoot into a piece of board to compare penetration also.
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I have been a fan of Destroyers, their shape works well on rat flesh. I have used them in .177 and .22.. I worked to try and get enough power but not to much power trying to keep pass throughs short. The thing that moved me away from using them was playing around with Crow Magnums. Crow Magnums shoot so much tighter from my .22. I lowered the pumps I use and are still hitting the rats really hard. With my 880 I moved to RWS Super H Points as they too shoot more accurately then the Destroyers. Someone on here suggested doing some testing on a Orange. That helped me to work out the pumps needed.
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I think as a Paulus noted, the most accurate pellet your rifles shoot as a rattus can be a small moving target. Even wadcutters work extremely well as they hit like a frying pan! LOL
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Anyone use these "regular" Destroyers (not the Walmart Destroyer EX) for rats? These pellets are not the most accurate in any of my air rifles, but, they sure seem to penetrate well. I don't have a chrony, so I use soup cans to check penetration. Even at only six pumps in my Daisy 880, these things just zing through both sides of the cans. I think they would be great for letting the rats going into our chicken coop at night meet their maker.
I'm starting to think my old Remington Airmaster is weak, as six pumps with, say, a Gamo Match wad cutter won't even penetrate one side of a can, but does leave a good sized dent. Sometimes I'll shoot into a piece of board to compare penetration also.
Interesting thread because I tried the "WallyMart" Crosman Destroyer EX from my .177 R9 and found that the only thing destroyed was the accuracy. 5 shot 18 yard "bucket and sticks" groups from the Destroyer EX and the boxed Crosman Premiers.........
(https://i.imgur.com/IzGChR5l.jpg)
I gave up on the "EXs" and wasn't even aware there was a "standard" and "EX" version of the pellet so I found this on YouTube where a shooter compared both side by side......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_b9zEdAVfc (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_b9zEdAVfc)
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Shoot what shoots best in your gun, the rats don't care about the pellet that killed em...LOL
I use .177 Polymags pellets in the 1720T, Wadcutters will hammer em well to, Diablos would kill-em too (less expansion). Have a back-stop for pellets that fly through the rat.
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Birdy
The Destroyer Hunting Pellet is a pretty good choice .....IF You Have A Gun That Will Shoot Them Accurately.
Fortunately for me I do.
Most guns WILL NOT shoot well with the Destroyer Pellet.... but some do.
I have a .117 Cal. Crosman Vantage NP1 rifle that really shoots well with them. ( out to about 40 yards )
I have the U.S. made 7.4 gr Destroyer EX----The 7.4 gr. Standard Destroyers ----- and the Chinese 7.9 Destroyers.
I also have the Discontinued .25 Cal Benjamin 27.8 gr. Destroyers that shoot well in my Hatsan 85 Sniper with a Spring Powered Piston. ( out to 30 yards )
IF you are Lucky Enough to have a gun that will shoot them.....they work out OK.
If you have a gun that will shoot the Destroyers it MAY Also Be Able to shoot the H&N Terminators .
Best Wishes - Tom
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Anyone use these "regular" Destroyers (not the Walmart Destroyer EX) for rats? These pellets are not the most accurate in any of my air rifles, but, they sure seem to penetrate well. I don't have a chrony, so I use soup cans to check penetration. Even at only six pumps in my Daisy 880, these things just zing through both sides of the cans. I think they would be great for letting the rats going into our chicken coop at night meet their maker.
I'm starting to think my old Remington Airmaster is weak, as six pumps with, say, a Gamo Match wad cutter won't even penetrate one side of a can, but does leave a good sized dent. Sometimes I'll shoot into a piece of board to compare penetration also.
I haven't used the plain Destroyers, but the EX shoot reasonably well out of both of my 880s. At 15 yards outdoors, they group at .407". Not stellar accuracy, but plenty good for pesting purposes. The combination of the 880, a cheap 4x32 scope, and EX pellets is my favorite close range hunting setup - lightweight, inexpensive, and gets the job done.
Another budget hollowpoint pellet that runs well through my 880s is the Beeman hollowpoints. They don't dump their energy as well as the EX pellets, but they group tighter, about a tenth of an inch better.
The 7.4 grain Crosman wadcutters are another reasonably accurate pellet in both of my 880s, grouping about the same as the EX. Might be another pellet to consider.
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Yeah, those Beemans are worth a try too. The Destroyers also leave a very clean round hole in the target paper, like a regular wad cutter.
I shoot rats at night that go into our chicken coop to eat. I built the coop, and it has stout plywood that goes up two feet all around, and I also put another piece of scrap plywood behind right where I'll be shooting. I only shoot in a downwards angle too for safety. I attach a small red led flashlight to my air rifle for this purpose.
Another pellet that seems to penetrate well is the Crosman Premier pointed. Again, if it shoots well in your gun. I wish the Crosman Hollow Points shot well, as I see them at Amazon for as little as about $5 for a tin of 500.
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Had a little competition between two air rifles this afternoon for the honor of being chosen as my anti rat night shooter. It was between my Daisy 880 and my Crosman new Model 760. Though the 760 is a smooth bore, my night ratting distance is only 7 yards.
I had tried some new Beeman hollow points in the 880 using 6 pumps and a Hammers 3x9 x32 AO scope. I found these pellets to be, for now, the most consistently accurate in my 880, and this thing certainly has over 2000 pellets fired in it by now.These pellets are quite accurate, and my 880 at 6 pumps is pretty quiet.
The 760 has a Winchester 4x32 AO scope, and a TKO muzzle brake, and is pretty quiet too. It has recently chosen RWS Hobby pellets as it's favorite load, and does very well with them throwing less fliers than other pellets. I use 8 pumps on this one.
One drawback to the 880 using the Beemans is that, they are hard to load in full daylight, and in the dark, I'd have to leave the shooting area and use a flashlight. Once oriented they go into the breech just fine, but no way could I load these in the dark. The 760 has a five round magazine, so once the mag is inserted, one can work through the magazine with your eyes closed. Super convenient.
I used a playing card, the 8 of diamonds with the diamond about .250" wide and .300" high measured at the points. Three 3 shot groups with each rifle, followed by a penetration comparison in a fairly stout soup can. Why only 6 pumps in the 880? Because that 880 hits harder at 6 than the 760 at 8. 6 pumps is accurate, and quieter than more pumps would be. Also, the pump arm retainer is letting the arm pop open sometimes, and the more pumps, the harder it pops open.
The groups surprised me a bit, in that, though the rifled 880 has the edge, the 760 also did very well. The 760 has the better trigger, maybe partly because it has closer to 3000 pellets gone through it.
Penetration next. The 760 with Hobby pellets and 8 pumps did not penetrate the soup can, but did leave a healthy dent. The 880 using the hollow point Beeman pellets easily penetrated both sides of the can and exited the back. But, the RWS pellets are a flat nosed wad cutter design.
Accuracy wise, either of these air rifles would do the job. The 880, with that penetrating power should be a humane kill and has head shot accuracy too. It might even go clean through a rat head. Fear not, because I have stout plywood backstops in our chicken coop, actually two sheets.
So, the 880 it is. I feel good about its power and accuracy. Though it took a lot of shooting to find a pellet that works this well. I'll have to deal with the loading hassle shot by shot. A pellet inserted backwards just won't do.
Rats beware!
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Ha! The 880 wins and will definitely put a hurting on those rattus :). Have fun!
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The Destroyers that I get at Wally World are these, (have not seen the EX's). They shoot pretty good and being light weight (7.4gr), they are faster then heck !!! At 15-20 yds they should be pretty effective !
(https://photos.imageevent.com/wlleven/k10dtest/downloadphotos/Crosman%20Destroyer%20sm.png)
wll