I am going to get on my soap box a bit. As someone that has done this longer then most. IMHO mammals over squirrel size should be taken with something over .22. Everyone with a tick of honest in them will say they have a "flyer" once and a while even with the best guns.
It is not so much the gun or just the ammo, but everything added together.
There is also the ethical nature of a "clean kill". With a pellet gun you need to hit something in the animal that will hit the off switch. The hydrostatic shock of a pellet gun is nothing like a rimfire.
My personal limits are a .30 for larger mammals from above squirrel and top out at groundhog.....and I see groundhog as iffy, depending on the size of them. I have a real fat bastard....or one about to have babies I am after and that will be done with rimfire. The only place I used air rifles is inside the barns for starlings and mice.
Now people do it all day, 177 on whatever pest, all I am saying for me this is my limits. I will also only take the shot at or inside the range where 25 shots will go into a quarter sized target, get outside of that, well that specific rifle is limited to a range under that.
I use an old Crosman .22 multipump for inside the barn. It is easy to vary the power of the rifle so I don't go through the animal and damage the equipment behind.
All that said just my two bits, and I would check with your town, people are correct in some places shooting a red ryder is no different from shooting a 50bmg. If that is your area, check on cross bows as well, and again you don't need much to do what you want to do.
It is not so much the gun or just the ammo, but everything added together.
There is also the ethical nature of a "clean kill". With a pellet gun you need to hit something in the animal that will hit the off switch. The hydrostatic shock of a pellet gun is nothing like a rimfire.
My personal limits are a .30 for larger mammals from above squirrel and top out at groundhog.....and I see groundhog as iffy, depending on the size of them. I have a real fat bastard....or one about to have babies I am after and that will be done with rimfire. The only place I used air rifles is inside the barns for starlings and mice.
Now people do it all day, 177 on whatever pest, all I am saying for me this is my limits. I will also only take the shot at or inside the range where 25 shots will go into a quarter sized target, get outside of that, well that specific rifle is limited to a range under that.
I use an old Crosman .22 multipump for inside the barn. It is easy to vary the power of the rifle so I don't go through the animal and damage the equipment behind.
All that said just my two bits, and I would check with your town, people are correct in some places shooting a red ryder is no different from shooting a 50bmg. If that is your area, check on cross bows as well, and again you don't need much to do what you want to do.
