Well the waterfowl hunt was a bust( don't even know why I try some times..), but enjoyed getting out. Had a nice lunch and then knocked on a couple doors after finding my one pigeon spot swarming with people ( Family members of owners) cleaning junk out of the barns, Talked to a couple places, and got permission on two of the three places. The last place the owner was very interested in having birds removed, and was also interested in watching it done. Got to say We did not mind the audience, and we put on a real good show. First we shot holes in a carbonated water bottle at 50 yards to great effect to show the power of the Air Rifles over the oldest son's BB gun. Nothing like seeing a bottle of liquid go from a nice clear quiet state, to foam and spray shooting three feet out of two holes in the middle. Then it was on to the barn, 30 minutes later we loaded 24 birds in the truck and were on the road..
Good job on the pigeons! What airgun / caliber were you using? Dan
Originally Posted by DanO
Cleaner barns in the future that's for sure. How do they taste and how do you cook them?
First off, they will repopulate the barn faster then We can remove them....but that is not a problem for me.. The problem I have is can I shoot them faster then we eat them. So as for eating and taste... They are more like beef, with a deep red meat and are very very lean so they can be easy to dry out and make tough. Most beef recipes that are slow cooked with lots of moisture like a stew or pot pies. You can also grind them and make Sausages like you would with ducks or geese.
So now for the Technical question.
We are using Gamo Big Cat 1250's in .177(4.5mm), shooting 10.5 grain Pellets at 1100( +/- 20Fps)Fps for a Muzzle Energy of about 27 to 29 Ft/Lbs. At 50 yards with a Velocity of 1000( +/- 20fps)Fps we are left with 22 to 24 Ft/Lbs.
That gives the Pellet enough power to penetrate 6.32 Inches(160.582mm) of flesh. Your skull by the way is only 6.5mm(male) to 7.1mm(female) thick.
(Soap box ON) These are not toys(soap box OFF).
A NON-head shot( heart/lung) on a rabbit is generally said to need 4 to 6Ft/lbs for a kill, so you can see with an air rifle being so quiet they are a backyard gardeners favourite problem solver.
If you want to look in to the numbers and play with the Ballistics here is a link to a collection of Calculators for Air gunners.
SnowW… Thanks for sharing the technical information. If I may, (and not to take away from your fine shooting or the accuracy of your gun) your velocity specs look a little on the high side to me. I am an avid air gunner and have a chronograph and softwarethat I used to test various pellets in all of my air guns. I hunt pigeons too and I find that this software helps in achieving longer distance shots confirms actual energy and drop over distances.
The best software calculator I have found for air gun pellets is called Chairgun by the makers of Hawke scopes and can be downloaded for free by goingto this site: http://www.hawkeoptics.com/chairgun.html You simply select the “projectile” pellet caliber .177, .22or .25 and pellet brand/ weight from the drop down menu and input the velocity (this is where the chrony comes in) and then view the results. The ballistic coefficient of the pellets listed is also shown. I think you might find it useful for confirming pellet performance and aiming points at mid to longer ranges(not that you need any help, judging from your bounty).
A 10.5 gr. Crosman Premium Heavy at 1,000 FPS will give 23.31ft./lbs. at the muzzle and 12.79 ft./lbs. at 50 yards. Having said that, unless you can run your gun and pellet combination through a chronograph you can only guess at the velocity. Do not go by the manufacturer’s claims as they are always overstated.Here are the specs for the 10.5 gr Crosman pellet at 1,000 FPS and at 900FPS. POI is where you should aim relative to the distance shown, assuming a kill zone of 1 inch (0.5 inch above and 0.5 below the line of sight). Hope you find this informative and useful. PM me if you’d like more information or help with the Chairgun software. Regards ...... Dan