Using a pellet gun to harvest free rangers

[IdyllwildAcres]

you don’t yet have the experience to know what you and don’t need.

I KNOW I do not need a big gun, little gun, air gun or cap gun, 100% certain.

You do you.

Gary

 

[Compost King]

I would rather just cut the head off but I have no problem with other methods including this method. Do the chickens bleed out well with this method? It actually looks kinda fun like playing a first person shooter video game however I am getting too old for fun (and I am only 46) and just want to eat chicken. Thanks for sharing the video.

 

[Compost King]

I KNOW I do not need a big gun, little gun, air gun or cap gun, 100% certain.

You do you.

Gary

Not certain why the size of the gun matters

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I think on each of the three shots you’ll see that there were no chickens behind the targets when I shot. That’s part of waiting for the right shot. There may have been chickens several feet to the side or on one occasion a hen in the distant background high on the hill above the target and behind a block of wood. Nothing that was in any realistic danger of being hit. A miss by several feet is not realistic with this setup or my skill with it. Misses from my point of aim are measured by the width of a pellet. This particular gun is so accurate in my hands I can easily write or draw with the pellet holes at 25 yards.

You're right, apologies. I rewatched the video. I'm not someone who shoots, so I had no idea that the miss if there was one could be so small

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Yes they bleed out well. The blood flows freely from the brain shot.

 

[Compost King]

Yes they bleed out well. The blood flows freely from the brain shot.

I may consider a high powered pellet gun when I move out of the Urban Homestead and into the Rural Homestead. Is this Air Rifle powerful enough to hunt rabbits?

 

[Molpet]

Shooting can go wrong.
I had a hunter friend dispatch a BBB turkey I was too fond of to do myself. He used CB cap at 3 ft. He plunked it in the head. And it ran, 2 more times, in a 6x6 area, and it was crawling under a bush. I got the loppers and drug it out from under the bush. So probably 5 minutes from the first shot until it's head was lopped off.

There was a study with chickens and there was brain activity for less than 30 seconds after the head was removed

 

[Molpet]

I don't think this video is particularly graphic, except that it will show some head-shots and some flopping. So viewer discretion is advised but probably not necessary for someone that otherwise does their own chicken harvesting. It doesn't show any blood.

The only aspect that's not really efficient is waiting for a good shot. To make a clean brain shot you got to wait for them to go alert. For those of them what will roost in the coop and not the trees, its of course easiest to simply pick them up off the roost, hang them up, and pellet them to the head (no kill cone needed). But here in Florida that means braving the night-time mosquitoes to clean the birds. So I like this kind of day-time shooting the best.

I'm using a .22 PCP air rifle. I've used some of my more powerful air rifles that are strong enough to deer and hog hunt with, but quite honestly it seems like a .177 or .22 pellet does just as good to the brain as a .30 caliber, 45 grain, air gun bullet.

As a kid used a Sheridan pump .20 call. Great for rabbits and squirrels... and I have killed coons with multiple shots. Just used the sights, no scope.
It looks like this doesn't come with sights.
https://www.airgundepot.com/hatsan-bullboss-bullpup-pcp-air-rifle.html

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I always catch the birds right before dawn and use a killing cone.
However, I have a lot of cockerels to cull and right before I decided which to put down, several started sleeping in trees. I can't catch them during the day so a pellet gun may be the best approach in this case.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I may consider a high powered pellet gun when I move out of the Urban Homestead and into the Rural Homestead. Is this Air Rifle powerful enough to hunt rabbits?

Oh yes, it would be a great rabbit in squirrel gun. Rabbits are particularly fragile on brain shots. Even break-action style .177 airguns are good at killing rabbits out to 25 yards or so. But I highly recommend the PCPs. They are so much quieter and accurate. 50 yard precision shots are no problem for even entry level PCPs.

You may even look into the higher-powered PCPs in .25 or .30 caliber for quiet predator control around the coop if legal in your jurisdiction. I personally favor the .30. With my .308 air rifle I can turn the power down for squirrel hunting or turn the power way up and have a good 100 yard deer and coyote gun.

I haven’t hunted with a firearm in years, except I sometimes use a shotgun for otter control in my fish ponds because sweeping a shotgun at their heads with a small size buck shot is the best way to hit them when they’re in the water. Once I got into airguns I generally put firearms away.