Start thinking about the best survival tools and pellet guns will be right up there on top. With the right pellet size and basic marksmanship, it’s all going to be a field day. So, what will a 177 pellet gun kill anyways?
As a whole, .177 pellet guns will kill smaller animals – pests and game. These include woodrats, squirrels, small birds, rabbits, raccoons, bullfrogs, and more. As long as you are within the reasonable range of about 35 yards, you can have a clean kill of the target with a 177 pellet gun.
Perhaps the small game hunting season is almost here and you want to catch a better understanding of .177 pellet guns and what they can do. In this article, we reveal the possibilities of this caliber and much more.
What Animals Will a .177 Pellet Gun Kill?
Most .177 pellet guns come with incredibly faster pellet speeds of 1000 fps and above. However, even at these higher velocities, the shooter has to be very close to the target to achieve any meaningful result.
For a clean, humane kill of your small game, the effective range should be shorter at about 30-35 yards. Short ranges are also good for accuracy.
You want to be spot on when shooting a squirrel or woodchuck. If it’s a headshot, the projectile must hit right in the perfect place of the target, and the animal dies instantly.
Unfortunately, you can miss especially when you are quite far away from your target. In the end, you cause injuries to the animal as it flees. It will suffer and probably die from infections – you don’t want to do this.
Make sure that your air gun offers the recommended lower limit of energy which is 12ft./lbs. muzzle energy. With this, .177 airgun will successfully dispatch a game instantly when shooting lead pellets that weigh 7.9 grains at 827 feet per second.
Can a .177 Pellet Gun Kill a Deer?
If you’re aspiring to hunt deer with pellet guns, you’d definitely not be looking at a .177 option for the job. A .177 pellet gun does not carry the power and size required to down a large animal the size of deer.
It will not matter if you are a great shot with advanced marksmanship skills, the maximum power of a .177 caliber is not enough to drop deer. You can kill a rabbit or squirrel with that amount of energy quite easily and humanely.
For deer hunting, you will need at least 50-foot pounds of muzzle energy. And this is an equivalent of a .30+ caliber, which to some extent, may not still give you what you want.
At this point, you will be required to be near-perfect at shot placement. This means you would need to be as close to your target as possible.
With that said, you can down deer, smaller-sized deer for that matter with a .357 caliber airgun that generates 100 foot-pounds. Medium and larger-sized deer can be taken down with a much larger caliber, .45+.
This size of the airgun can produce large amounts of energy to the tune of 200-foot pounds. With this, you are dead sure you will drop any size of the deer and similarly-sized animals.
How Far Will a .177 Pellet Gun Shoot?
Generally, a .177 pellet gun will shoot up to a distance of about 400 yards. Is this good for your hunting mission?
The answer is no. This is because, at this range, it’s impossible to take down any animal thanks to the minimal energy the air gun carries at the muzzle. The impact will have been lost on the way by the time the pellet reaches the intended target.
But, that notwithstanding, how far a .177 pellet gun will shoot is a question that hinges on a number of things.
Firstly, the type of airgun being used plays a major role. There are some airgun models that naturally throw out pellets in a greater range than others.
Then there is speed. Some 177 airguns are designed to shoot well over 1200 feet per second, which is incredible. But what it also means is that accuracy of the shots is hugely compromised.
Since accuracy is paramount and as good as having a kill, relatively lower pellet velocities are recommended. Many hunters will prefer something in the middle of 600-900 feet per second – this is good for accuracy and therefore a successful takedown.
You also have to factor in the aspect of pellet design or type. It will affect the distance a given airgun can shoot.
There are plenty of designs currently in the market. You get pointed, wadcutters, hollowpoint pellets, domed pellets, high-velocity pellets, and more.
Domed pellets are the best for your hunting activities and impose a bigger impact upon hitting the target. But, they are relatively slow compared to other types.
What FPS is Needed to Kill a Squirrel on a 177 Pellet Gun?
The minimum fps required to kill a squirrel on a .177 pellet gun is 1000 fps. In case your elevation is at about 10-20 feet, then you would still finish the job at 800 fps.
Even more, 600 fps have killed a squirrel in some instances when the shooter was 10-20 feet away from the target.
At this fps, you are guaranteed a clean, humane kill. Of course, other factors like the closeness of the shooter to the squirrel are super-important to consider.
When shooting a squirrel, you will need to direct your shot to the perfect place. Headshots are preferred. But you can also aim at the heart-lung cavity for the instantaneous knockdown.
will do. This air rifle is a hard-hitting option that boasts a velocity of 1250 fps.
It’s a durable break barrel with some of the best ergonomics for the shooter. It can take down squirrels, feral pigeons, rabbits, hares, and more.
Any fps above 1000 fps might work against you because there will plenty of loss of accuracy. So, you want to keep the speed at an acceptable lower limit as much as possible.
Will a .177 Pellet Gun Kill a Coyote?
A .177 pellet gun may not eradicate your coyote problem. A coyote is not just any other small-sized pest, it’s a bigger animal than squirrels and rabbits.
For a .177 caliber to knock this animal down, you’ve got to be extremely close to the target. You are going to be within 50 yards or way less.
Again, you will need to get a headshot to stand a chance of dropping such an animal. Other than that, there is no way a .177 airgun will kill a coyote.
However, you can get better results with a higher caliber like .303 and above. The higher calibers also increase the effective range of shooting.
You could get lethal shots from distances upwards of 100-150 yards using a .303 caliber and above. A prime example is the Hatsan BT Carnivore QE SL that comes .35 caliber size.
This air rifle delivers incredible muzzle energy of 95 feet pounds. A coyote is going to succumb to about 50 foot-pounds, which means this air rifle will get the job done well.
How Powerful is a .177 Pellet Gun?
The power of a pellet gun is not measured by the velocity of pellets when they are shot. Rather, the metric used here is foot-pounds of energy.
Therefore, no matter high the speed of a pellet gun would be, it never represents the power of that gun.
With that said, .177 pellet guns are not very powerful when it comes to foot-pounds of energy. On average, these air rifles will give about 18 FPE, which is way lower.
This is powerful enough to down a squirrel or a rabbit and a lot of smaller game and pests. But when it comes to slightly larger game, you need bigger calibers for the job because the amount of energy they put forward is higher.
Most .177 pellet guns are designed to shoot at extremely faster velocities using lighter lead alloy pellets that weigh 5.1 grains.
is one of the most powerful .177 air rifles on the market. While it commands a whopping 1500 fps in velocity, it can only produce 24 foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle.
This is just a further justification that .177 pellet guns, even though depict excellent shooting velocities, are not the powerful beasts of air rifles.
Final Thoughts: What Will a 177 Pellet Gun Kill?
A .177 pellet gun will kill most small game and pests. These air guns can only produce a minimum amount of energy in the region of 18 fpe.
This is enough power to down animals like squirrels, small birds, and rabbits, etc. However, these airguns are very common among many people today and are proving to be an important part of the modern hunter’s toolbox.
