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This must be the most asked question on the forum!!!
Newbies ask, “I want to buy a gun for Hunting/Target/Plinking , what is the best calibre?”
There is no right or wrong answer! Everybody has their own preference and sometimes the flood of answers can be really confusing. Flat trajectory, Loopy trajectory, harder hitting etc…. so I am going to try and explain it really simple. Please feel free to expand on this if I have missed something.
.177 Calibre.
I have heard so many myths about this calibre, heard it called a “girlies calibre” etc… and it is very popular on the target scene because of it’s FLATTER trajectory, more on that in a minute. There is nothing wrong, in my opinion, with using this calibre for hunting, it will take rabbits out to a fair range, there are lots of variables to consider though. Weight of pellet, effects of wind, and what you zero the rifle to. OK….. for the purpose of this article, I am going to stick to one type of pellet, zero’d at 35 yards, Muzzle energy of 11.5ft lbs, no wind to complicate things, same scope height etc…
FLATTER TRAJECTORY: If you zero your rifle at 35 yards, and we assume a rabbit’s brain (best kill point) is 1 inch in diameter, when you shoot placing your cross hairs smack on the middle of the kill point, you can expect the pellet to be within that 1 inch circle from 9yards to 40yards, so in theory if you can judge the rabbit is within that 40 yard range, your scope is zero’d smack on you should kill that rabbit aiming at the middle point anywhere from 9 – 40 yards. As far as power is concerned, my esteemed fellow forum members have agreed (in another thread) that it takes 3.5ft lbs to penetrate a rabbit. IN THEORY at 70 yards, these pellets have 5ft lbs of energy BUT you will have to aim 9 inches above the kill point ( called “hold over”) to hit it! So in my opinion, “can you use .177 for hunting? “ I would say most certainly YES!
I would not advocate (as a newbie) trying to take rabbits at 70 yards, brush up on your stalking skills and get closer!
This is the chairgun software readout for .177 to 50 yards. The red zone is referring to a kill zone of one inch. The curved line is the trajectory of the pellet.
.22 calibre
To keep it a fair comparison, I have kept all the variables the same, even the muzzle energy and pellet. OK…… You have zero’d your rifle to 35 yards, to hit that 1 inch target, you aim smack in the middle at 5.6 yards to 11.8 yards. After this, because of the “loopy trajectory” you have to use “hold under” in varying degrees, depending on range, of up to one and a quarter inches, because if you aim smack on, your pellet will hit one and a quarter inches high. This is applicable until you get to 31.8 yards when again you will be in the 1 inch kill zone again, and this applies through to 37.6 yards when the pellet starts to drop and “hold over” comes into effect. At 70 yards the pellet will have dropped over 15 inches!
The Muzzle energy at 70 yards is 6.5 ft lbs, so again, IN THEORY, will kill a rabbit.
This is the chairgun software readout for .22 to 50 yards. The red zone is referring to a kill zone of one inch. The curved line is the trajectory of the pellet.
So in conclusion, which calibre is best? NONE, in my opinion they are both rabbit stoppers, at decent ranges, up to 40 yards they will both hit the kill zone within half an inch. The .22 needs a little more practice to get used to the trajectory, more so over 40 yards. So it boils down to personal choice.
If you are JUST target shooting, perhaps I would advice to go for .177 BUT I learnt with a .22 so I can use it for both target and hunting, but you can see my choice is .177 for my main hunting guns, but I would have no hesitation taking a .22 hunting if I wanted or needed to.
I wait for my esteemed colleagues input.................................LOL!
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