Using a pellet gun to harvest free rangers

[Molpet]

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.

Ha not legal in my area... but I can buy a firearm...go figure....
Way too many goofy laws in Illinois... because there's too many people

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Ha not legal in my area... but I can buy a firearm...go figure....
Way too many goofy laws in Illinois... because there's too many people

I always say overpopulation is the root of all our problems.

 

[WhyDoILikeChickens]

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.

I have a gamo .177 capable of 1400 fps. Couldn't even pierce a raccoon hide at point blank. Barely a flesh wound on a possum. Dont kid yourself in thinking an air rifle has the same energy as a rifle.

You are free to your own opinion but to me guns are for predator, knives are for food. One miss means an animal that you raised is suffering.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I have a gamo .177 capable of 1400 fps. Couldn't even pierce a raccoon hide at point blank. Barely a flesh wound on a possum. Dont kid yourself in thinking an air rifle has the same energy as a rifle.

You are free to your own opinion but to me guns are for predator, knives are for food. One miss means an animal that you raised is suffering.

Unless you've shot your airgun through a chronograph, you don't really know what its doing. The advertised velocities of break-barrel guns is almost always off. Its probably doing something like 300-400fps or less if it isn't shooting deep into the coon. Basically like a Red-Ryder. Break-action airguns often are cheaply made and the seals go bad on them easy. My brother brought me one last week that we choreographed at under 400fps, but you couldn't tell it from shot noise or watching the impact.

A standard weight .177 pellet impacting at 850fps should be able to penetrate a coon's skull pretty easy presuming it doesn't hit an angle and deflect. At an impact velocity of 850fps, a .177 pellet will provide about 7 inches of penetration into ballistics gel. The formula for calculating penetration into ballistics gel is projectile weight x 100 / 7000 /.caliber/.caliber x 2.06 x impact velocity (expressed as 1.0 for 1000fps). The formula is conservative if anything. If you aren't getting penetration equal or more than what the formula would predict, your velocity isn't as fast as you think it is.

If you browse around on my channel, you'll see video documentation of scores of clean kills using PCP air-rifles on all manner of larger game, including raccoons, beaver, fox, whitetail deer, wild turkey, and wild hog with calibers ranging from .177 to .45.

Here's a wound channel into hard, thick, wet, clay at 50 yards with my .308 airgun. The wound channel was 10 inches deep and my fist could fit inside the largest part of the cavity. That will kill the heck out of a deer or a coyote, much less any varmint that would be prowling around the coop. Its gross overkill on a chicken, but I have used this gun to cull chickens with the power turned down to shoot light pellets. I don't find the .177 or the .22s any less effective so I see no reason not to use them for simply culling.

 

[WhyDoILikeChickens]

Unless you've shot your airgun through a chronograph, you don't really know what its doing. The advertised velocities of break-barrel guns is almost always off. Its probably doing something like 300-400fps or less if it isn't shooting deep into the coon. Basically like a Red-Ryder. Break-action airguns often are cheaply made and the seals go bad on them easy. My brother brought me one last week that we choreographed at under 400fps, but you couldn't tell it from shot noise or watching the impact.

A standard weight .177 pellet impacting at 850fps should be able to penetrate a coon's skull pretty easy presuming it doesn't hit an angle and deflect. At an impact velocity of 850fps, a .177 pellet will provide about 7 inches of penetration into ballistics gel. The formula for calculating penetration into ballistics gel is projectile weight x 100 / 7000 /.caliber/.caliber x 2.06 x impact velocity (expressed as 1.0 for 1000fps). The formula is conservative if anything. If you aren't getting penetration equal or more than what the formula would predict, your velocity isn't as fast as you think it is.

If you browse around on my channel, you'll see video documentation of scores of clean kills using PCP air-rifles on all manner of larger game, including raccoons, beaver, fox, whitetail deer, wild turkey, and wild hog with calibers ranging from .177 to .45.

Here's a wound channel into hard, thick, wet, clay at 50 yards with my .308 airgun. The wound channel was 10 inches deep and my fist could fit inside the largest part of the cavity. That will kill the heck out of a deer or a coyote, much less any varmint that would be prowling around the coop. Its gross overkill on a chicken, but I have used this gun to cull chickens with the power turned down to shoot light pellets. I don't find the .177 or the .22s any less effective so I see no reason not to use them for simply culling.

View attachment 2248483

My .177 will shoot through 1/2" plywood. Put raccoon hyde in front of your clay and it's a different story. You can calculate fps and force but that doesn't mean a 12 grain pellet will transfer that energy.
I'm not here to police you. I just think if you've taken the time to care for and feed an animal for weeks/months/ or years shooting at them from a distance seems off. I can save you some cans if you want target practice.
Again that is my opinion. Opinions are like buttholes, everybody has one and most of them stink. I do wish you the best.

 

[cluckmecoop7]

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.

I can't believe anyone would call killing an animal fun.

I could give an example that would make you think again, but it would be inappropriate for the kiddos on this forum.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I never find it fun to kill anything. However, when one has too many cockerels terrorizing pullets, it is quite pleasant when they are gone. And if they sleep in trees, a pellet gun is appealing to me. One pullet and 5 cockerels are sleeping in trees. After they have their way with her in the morning and I let the other birds out, there is a new wave of mayhem.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I find it fun. I make no apologies for it. I probably don’t enjoy it as much as killer whales enjoy playing tail baseball with baby seals or when they drown baby humpbacks for fun. Or when a pet cat plays swat the rat before killing it. I still pity my prey, something animal predators likely don’t do. But pity and enjoyment aren’t mutually exclusive. I pity the animal because its life ends and I doubly pity an animal that trusts me, but I can enjoy the parts of the process because ultimately it isn’t wrong to kill the animal to meet my needs.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Also processing an animal is so satisfying for me, whether its a domestic chicken I raised or a wild whitetail deer. Yummy, healthy, semi-free, meat!

 

[MarkJr]

Also processing an animal is so satisfying for me, whether its a domestic chicken I raised or a wild whitetail deer. Yummy, healthy, semi-free, meat!

The chickens may be semi free!!!! I know what I spend on fuel/food/camping/gear for deer/elk/cougar/turkey and upland game season. Raising my own beef is definitely cheaper.

But.... I’m one of those guys that doesn’t see anything wrong with your well placed shots. My Diana model 34 is plenty to take errant crows, digger squirrels, rats and even a few raccoons.