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Eatamoose · Member

The temperature finally got above freezing today, so I figured it would be a good morning to hunt. I got out before dawn to set up, walking to the back side of my 40 acres. Most of my land is just a field, but there are some hardwoods on it and my neighbor lets me hunt part of his property which is almost all thick hardwoods. I sat at the base of a hickory tree, close to where I found some fresh sign yesterday. As the sun came up, I could hear squirrels all around me so I knew it wouldn't be long before I saw one. After about half an hour of waiting I saw a squirrel running along a branch to my right, when he got behind a tree I moved into a more comfortable shooting position and waited for him to reappear. After what seemed like forever, he came back around to my side of the tree and sat looking at me. I took my time, and when everything lined up I squeezed the trigger. The squirrel never knew what hit him and he was dead before he hit the ground. I stepped off the distance, the shot was 24 yards, the pellet entered his chest just in front of his shoulder and stopped under the hide just behind his opposet shoulder.

I put him in my game bag, and moved to another spot about 150 yards away. It seemed like there were squirrels everywhere, but they were all out of range. One even climbed the tree I was sitting under, but I couldn't move without being seen by him. It felt good to be out there, and with an air rifle, it brought back all the memories of my first hunt... Then, a squirrel climbed down out of an oak tree to my left. I turned, and he spotted me. He quickly climbed half way back up the tree, but when he stopped to get a better look, it was too late for him. I was already in a good shooting position and the "twang" of the spring was quickly followed by a loud "Twack"! It was a perfect head shot, and the squirrel dropped. That shot was 27 yards.

I used the .177 Gamo Rocket pellets for this hunt. Both pellets were recovered, and the only deformation on them was from the lip around the steel dome was slightly pulled back. I'd say they do just fine for hunting. Mr. Green

lauchlin · Supporting Member

Nice shooting

broommaster2000 · Moderator

Wouldn't it be better to use .22 pellets? They got a higher stopping power, you see? Still, from what I've seen. 177 pellets often seen to do the job pretty well, but .22 is pretty much spreading your chances. You'd probably need to reset the scope though.

Could you Let us now if it does a better job in .22? Because we highly recommend .22 pellets for hunting. Might be nice to have someone illustrating that. Wink

How much FPE should this gun do?

Good shooting though. If a rifle is capable of doing a certain job, then that's great. Mr. Green

Eatamoose · Member

The .22 is a better choice for hunting. In fact, when I bought the gun, I was going to pretty much only use it as a .22. The problem is that no stores in my area carry anything other than Daisy wadcutters in .22, and this gun just doesn't like them.

On targets, the .22 hits noticeably harder, and offers more penetration. If I could find some pellets this gun likes, that would be the only barrel I would use.

The Beeman is supposed to shoot .177 pellets at 1000fps, and .22 pellets at 800fps.

The .177 caliber works well at ranges under 35 yards, the .22 could stretch that range to 45 yards. Maybe further in some guns. And it would be more forgiving about shot placement. Above all, accuracy is the key to success.

kanyon · Silver Status Member

Rogerflat · Silver Status Member

Got it right in the vitals. Nice shot!

I'd also suggest swapping out the barrels for the .22 when hunting those tree rats.

broommaster2000 · Moderator

kanyon · Silver Status Member

Eatamoose · Member

Ok,
I put the .22 barrel back on the Beeman. Knowing that the Daisy wadcutters I have are "dirty" and not very uniform, I washed them in hot water, and rolled them dry, and left them in the open to dry overnight. This morning I picked out the most uniform ones, and sat down to sight in. Now, I'm getting consistant 1/4 inch (ctc) three shot groups at 15 yards. For some unknown reason, with the .22 barrel on, it seems more hold sensistive which is why I can only do 3 shot groups without getting a "flyer", counting the "flyers" I'm still getting a 3/4" group consistantly. All groups are shot off-hand from a position I can duplicate while hunting. This is pretty good accuracy for what I want, and once I get a chance to put some more lead down range to get the trajectory memorized, I'll try it out on squirrels and post the results to compair with how the .177 did.

In theory (because I don't have a chronograph) the .22 shoots 800fps as listed "on the box". The Daisy wadcutters are 14.9 grains, which would give me around 20 fpe according to the calculator. The .177 barrel with a listed velocity of 1000fps with Gamo Rocket pellets that have a weight of 9.6 grains should have given me around 21 fpe, which is actually more than I'm getting with the .22 (again, it's all just a theory until it's actually put to the chronograph). As any hunter can tell you though, real world performance (knock down power) doesn't always show up on paper just by looking at the numbers.

If you want my honest hypothesis, I don't think that it will make much difference from this particular gun at the ranges I normally limit my shots to. Both squirrels I got with this .177 were dead before they hit the ground, these are the same results I've gotten time and time again with squirrels under 35 yards with that caliber in compairable air rifles. The .22's larger surface area seems to be a little more forgiving about your shot placement, and the extra weight carries more energy at longer ranges. This also allows for the chance at slightly larger game. In short, the .22 is not a necessity for short ranges, but the added forgiveness and versatility make it a better "all around" choice for hunting. Hopefully, I can illustrate this this weekend.

broommaster2000 · Moderator

Eatamoose · Member

I only had about an hour to hunt this afternoon, but I saw quite a few squirrels.

One almost bit the dust at 20 yards, but there were too many twigs and limbs in the way for an ethical shot, so he got a pass. Then, right at last light there were two squirrels fighting in a tree only 10 yards from me. I had a clear shooting lane, but they wouldn't hold still long enough for me to get a clean shot off.

As the last bit of daylight drifted off over the horizon, I could hear at least two more squirrels poking around in the leaves for the last hickory nuts of the season. They were within range, but with night falling, there just wasn't enough light to clearly see them in the scope. They seem to be a little more calm than they were last week. So, hopefully, I'll get one or two of them tomorrow morning.

I looked all around today, and none of the stores within 4 hours of here have .22 pellets, I ordered 4 tins online to see which one will be my new hunting pellet. I ordered the Beeman Crow Magnums, Benjamin Discovery Hollowpoints, Gamo hunter Domed, and JSB predators. Out of those four, one of them HAS to shoot better than the wadcutters I'm using now. As for the ones that don't shoot good out of this gun, well, I'll just have to get a new air rifle that will shoot them good huh? Mr. Green

... So I put a Benjamin 392 on lay away... I'll be able to take it home by March, just in time for Spring squirrel season.

fritz · Silver Status Member

For some reason I'm more accurate off hand whilst hunting. Likely the adrenaline.

I can't hit much offhand if it's not live. Twisted Evil

Mike I · New Member

My 1073/RS-2 did not shoot those Daisy pellets well either. They got better after recrowning the barrel, but they never matched the Crossman field hunting pellets I usually shoot. Same problem here with pellet supply, either the Daisy's or Crossman's in .22. Luckily all three of my guns shoot the Crossman's well. The 1073 actually belongs to my brother now. That thing hits very hard in .22, we were plinking a 1qt metal can at 100yds, the 1073 would penetrate one side and tumble the can at that distance. After much reworking that gun became quite the shooter.

Eatamoose · Member

The more I mess with the .22 barrel, the more I think this gun was designed to be a .177, with the .22 "feature" as a gimmicky afterthought.

I tried out the Beeman Crow Magnum, Predator Polymag, and Benjamin Discovery pellets today. The Benji's group was slightly better than the Daisy's, the Predators didn't group at all, and the Crow magnums did the best. Not the "one ragged hole" that I had hoped for, but fair enough. I also got some Gamo Hunter domed pellets, but didn't try them out yet.

I'm going to play around with them again soon. Maybe when the wind dies down a little.

The gun shoots great (better than my .22lr) as a .177. So far, using the .22 barrel has been more of a handicap than anything. And a costly one at that!

Eatamoose · Member

Well, it's official. I lost the battle with the .22 barrel.

I cleaned it, and it helped, but still no cigar. The accuracy is no where near what I'm comfortable with, unless the range is significantly less than than the effective range of the .177 barrel. I really hoped that I could find a magic bullet that would make it shoot good, but alas... It wasn't to be.

I now have over 1,000 rounds of .22 pellets, but no accurate .22 to use them in until I get my Benjamin. I'll dedicate my time and energy to the .177 barrel and the new Benji when it arrives.

At least the rifle turned out to be a darn good .177. For the price I payed for it, it can't be beat.