when I had less powerful airguns on squirrel were the Crossman wadcutters and Crossman (copperhead?) Pointed hunting pellets. I got many of them with neck shots with my Crosm.760, most of them at 15-18yds. Some ran a few yards or jumped 1 or 2 branches but they never got far. The 760 pump rifle was about 600fps MV with 10 pumps (max). I don't know what an 880 is or what the MV is but I 'm assuming it's a low-to-medium powered gun.
My RWS 350 .22 drops squirrels where they stand no matter where they get hit, chest, neck or head at any didstance (longer shot was just over 40yds so far) but seriously, the wadcutters with the flat head can do a lot of damage, but the thing is, the squirrel usually sufficates when shot in the neck with a .177 because you are basically hitting the trachea or an artery so they bleed internally. It's normal for them to run for a few secs before they drop.
With the larger .22 pellets, more often than not, they get hit in the spine with a neck shot, which is kind of small in the neck area of a squirrel, and could be missed with a .177 (or even a .22). More powerful airguns also have more knockdown power/Energy (FPE) so that alone knocks the wind out of the squirrel and is enough to kill the animal.
There is a huge difference in knock down power and how it affects the animal with a 20FPE gun vs. a 6-8FPE one. The less powerful your airgun is, the more the squirrels tend to run around a little before expiring. You can also try head shots if you 're within that critical 15yd range and have a scope. They are more effective than neck shots in a squirrel, meaning they 'll go down faster. Most of the time they don't run at all. They just fall out of the tree when hit or go down if on the ground, when hit between the eye and ear. You don't need a lot of penetration with a head shot either and the pellet doesn't have to go through or anything. Usually 1/2" or a little more is all that's needed. It's mostly the "head trauma" that brings them down from the impact. Most people think they penetrated the brain or something. Wrong! They have such a small brain, that probably 1 out of 10 headshots in a squirrel find the brain. It's just the trauma from getting hit in the head more, than causing some damage inside the head which of course helps too. This goes for the low-medium powered airguns. The Magnum airguns usually just go through the squirrels head and devestate the entire area, especially a .22. I had brain matter and some scull parts scattered on the grass and my fence (he was standing on my back yard fence) when I shot the last squirrel in the head at 11-12yds out with a 14.3gr CP. For my gun that translates to 19FPE and 780fps in .22cal. The other side of the squirrel's head at the exit point, was pretty deformed and took some pounding. The eye has hanging out too. I never experienced that with my .177 guns and I 've taken over 20 squirrels with .177. I think it was the angle I hit it with from the 2nd story window and what happened was, the .22 pellet carried pieces of bone from the entry point, out the other side.
One thing I 've noticed is that the Copperhead .177 pointed pellets traveled a little faster and penetrated the squirrel more when I used to use the 760, so you should try those as well. The flat head wadcutters don't penetrate as much but punch harder and do a litte more damage. If you have a low powered airgun use the pointed pellets for more penetration.
Next time please provide your gun's velocity and FPE if you know it. It helps to make the proper pellet recommendations.
This message has been edited by only1harry from IP address 71.169.52.11 on Oct 5, 2007 12:49 PM
Posted on Oct 5, 2007, 12:27 PM from IP address 71.169.52.11
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