The clean, humane kills or precision shooting can both be easy and hard to achieve – depending on which kind of a shooter you are. Knowing the distance a pellet will travel helps you to determine the maximum range of your air rifle; whether you’re hunting or target shooting.
In essence, how far does an air rifle pellet travel?
There may not be a straightforward answer to this but an average pellet fired from the muzzle at an angle of 30 degrees to the horizon will travel to about 400-500 yards. It really depends on what type of pellet you are talking of here.
At 400 yards, about 366 meters, the distance is just too much for meaningful accuracy. You may possibly hit the target at 150 yards or so, beyond which you can only do much less.
Even with the most powerful modern air rifle and improved pellets, good outcomes at that distance is just a mirage.
In this article, we delve into the distance that pellets can travel and how it’s useful for shooters to understand this for their own good.
How Far Does an Air Rifle Pellet Travel?
The new entrants into the world of airgunning might get it a bit difficult to estimate the distance of travel of a pellet. And why does it even matter?
Well, how far an air rifle pellet travels informs on several things. One of the finest, yet crucial aspects is the maximum range it can cover. This helps you to know what quarry to hunt and achieve clean kills. You can also know if you will get tight groups at a certain distance if your target practicing.
As noted earlier, a pellet can travel up to 400 or 500 yards at maximum. However, this is a question of what size, weight, shape of pellet it is.
Lightweight pellets shot from lower air rifle calibers such as .177 and .22 will definitely push farthest. The same to higher calibers that shoot heavier pellets although they may not achieve the mentioned range all the time.
With that being said, is there any meaning for a pellet going far? Obviously, you will be able to aim far away as you hunt game. Plus, it gives you satisfaction if you keep hitting targets at longer ranges.
If you want to hit your targets easily and collect as many humane kills as possible, one thing is for sure. Keep your shooting within the realistic range.
You can hit the bull’s eye and deliver clean kills for a small game up to 100 yards using .177 or .22 calibers. You can achieve the same results to a range of up to 150-200 yards with a powerful big bore.
How Fast Do Air Rifle Pellets Travel?
If there’s something that many airgunners have panted for decades is the speed or velocity of airguns. The speed of pellets is termed as feet per second and goes with the acronym FPS.
About 20 years ago, 1000 fps was the talk of town regarding the fastest airguns. Things have changed quickly and today, there are pellets traveling at terrific speeds of up to 1600 fps.
Of course, there is a hype around fast speeds on airguns. In fact, it’s a very popular selling point for many manufacturers of air rifles around the world.
The downside about FPS is that it doesn’t determine per se the power and impact of the air rifle. While it holds true that higher FPS can yield better accuracy, extreme pellet velocity can cause a loss of accuracy as well because the pellet becomes unstable in flight.
Most of the time, the incredibly lightweight alloy pellets are the ones fired to produce these speeds. Some people even work an extra mile to diesel their air rifles so as to reach the highest pellet velocities possible but doing this with every shot will kill your air rifle eventually.
Heavier pellets travel a bit more slowly. That doesn’t mean their speeds are very poor – but just lower than the alloy pellets. They, however, deliver plenty of muzzle energy downrange.
Unless you are doing fast velocity for fun, fast is not always powerful. Meaning a lightweight pellet does not deliver a lot of muzzle energy downrange. Fast velocities will work for you especially if your shooting is over shorter distances.
What Is the Effective Range of a 177 Air Rifle?
It’s important to know the capability of your air rifle. How far it will shoot accurately and dispatch a pest or deliver tight groups on the bull’s eye is determined by the gun’s effective range.
Generally, for a .177 air rifle, the effective range is about 150-200 yards. At this distance, your shots will still have the accuracy and the muzzle energy to hit the target and down game or pest.
Beyond this range, and shots may be accurate up to around 400 yards but will definitely carry little to no power at all. For an air rifle to hit 400 yards, it has to be a high-quality model with no flaw.
You want a model like the Magnum air rifle
that comes with solid and robust construction besides the 1650 fps of velocity and 26.6 foot-pounds of muzzle energy. This is incredible.
While the Magnum air rifle offers the fastest velocity, most of the other models that fire pellets at 1000 fps still give good results as well.
How Far is a Pellet Still Dangerous?
For precautionary purposes, it’s vital to know how far a pellet will still be dangerous the moment it leaves the muzzle. It’s something similar to the air rifle’s maximum range but a bit more.
However, a pellet will be dangerous depending on its weight and the caliber of airgun that shoots it. A 12-foot-pound pellet gun penetrates cardboard pretty effortlessly out at 200 yards. Now that’s dangerous.
And at 400 yards, which is the furthest possible distance a .22 pellet will go, drops its energy to 2 foot-pounds enough to punch and damage your skin. So, it’s safe to say that a pellet is dangerous as long as it is still in flight.
You don’t need to take chances with experiments that could end up causing damage. Even at its weakest point, a pellet can hurt you; like if it hits your eye, you are in for the rough.
Unless your dangerous means that point that it can kill prey, you will a .22 or .25 caliber doing so at 50-100 yards, a .30 caliber knocking down targets at 100 yards, and big bore calibers killing large game at over 150 yards.
Always make sure you have solid backstops and pellet traps set up well for the flying pellets so that you don’t hit a person in the adjacent backyard.
How Far Can a Pellet Ricochet?
While pellets do not have the nightmarish type of ricochets we see with BBs, they still do bounce back in a dangerous fashion. No one should risk seeing pellets fly all over their heads without doing something to control that.
So, how far can a pellet ricochet, and with how much force on it? Well, the furthest ricochet will depend on the power of your airgun and how close you shoot your target.
The closer the target, the more powerful ricochets are produced. So, in general, ricochets can travel about 10-50 yards or more, away depending on where you are standing. When there is too much velocity in your gun, the pellet hits the target and breaks into smaller pieces that fly away at high speeds and travel exactly the same distance you are situated from the targets.
When you are target shooting or plinking, avoid hard surfaces like metal and make sure there is a proper backstop to take care of the shot pellets. if the pellet or its fragments zing back at you wherever part of your body, you already know you will be picking some from either your cheek or hand or face – wherever.
You will not see pellets ricocheting at weird distances like 100 yards or so because lead deforms readily upon hitting a hard surface. Most of the energy is therefore lost in the process of deformation.
Always let your setup be properly organized and wear protective gear to avoid potential hazards. And these are not even close to BBs which are the masters of ricochets.
Final Thoughts: How Far Does an Air Rifle Pellet Travel?
How far an air rifle pellet travels is dependent on a number of variables – the air rifle caliber and power, weight and size of the pellets, environmental factors among many other factors.
Even so, 400-500 yards is the average range of a standard air rifle. Definitely, some air rifles will not reach this distance as well as others.
A pellet traveling at a fast speed is not always delivering the most power and impact. You will not expect an air rifle shooting pellets that far to take down a game or a pest. It’s probably just for fun with most enthusiasts aiming at extremely high pellet speeds.
