Hi guys I gotsome little critters that come out at night especially possums and I was wondering if a pellet gun is capable of killing one. I was looking at a pistol with a velocity 500 ft/sec would this be sufficient at close range using special ballistic tip hunting pellets to get the job done. I would like to use a 22 long rifle cartridge but I live in the city and don't want to upset the neighbors by being seen shooting a gun at 2 o'clock in the morning. If 500ft/sec wouldn't' cut it what kind of velocity would I need. Thanks

Tcj

I know 325fps is enough to bounce a BB off of a dove sitting at 10-15 feet, I think 500fps is rather close to that so you might want to get a rifle at 1000+fps, just my thoughts. You still might want to check your local ordinances and make sure you are still within the law ;)

I don't think so. Might kill if you went in an eye and got the brain. Otherwise, you need more gun.
Cheezywan

A .177 at 500fps is about all you re going to get from an air pistol...and few of them can manage and honest 500fps with hunting pellets. At close range, given good placement and smaller critters, it will do the job. Might be better with a .22 pellet moving at 410-420fps. Possums are a bit too large for pellet pistols...but if you can manage a head shot at close range, it can work.

Pellet fifle is a better alternative, but agian for live critters i tend to the .22 pellet moving a bit slower. A good +700fps .22 pellet gun (or +850fps .177)will work on them...but unless you zing it through the best parts, will run off before dropping...dead possum on someone's patio or in their pool does not earn you bonus points with your neighbors.
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Yeah...i know...but i'm an old-time airgunner, having started back when the BEST air guns only managed 800fps and most of the top guns limited out in the high 700's. We still managed to kill game, but it drilled into me the importance of placement.

Lost count of the critters i've done in with a Benjamin or Sheridan pneumatic over the last 40 years or so (possums included) and those guns manage about 650-680fps in .22 or .20. Head shot or hear shot worked just fine, but I'd think of them as the bottom line of power (and pnumatics tend to be a bit loud).

My brother lives in Florida and has been having problems with armadillos, I about fainted when he said he was going to buy an air gun to kill them. This is my no-guns-never-gonna-happen brother, the flaming liberal who lives in the land of the CCW but will never own a pistol, he'd rather be a victim than save his own bacon! So when he asked for advice on an air gun, I was beyond shocked. But I suggested he get a good air rifle, and he wound up buying a Gamo that gets an honest 1,000 feet per second, complete with scope. It cost him around $180, but I don't think he's fired it much yet, it didn't come with pellets so he had to order them. Sounds like exactly what you need for your Nocturnal Visitors.

I already have a T-Shirt made up to send to him when he claims his first victim, provided he can hit anything. It says

'DILLER KILLER

Paybacks are.................well, you know! ;)

Papajohn

Possums will readily go in one of those "Hava-Hart" type traps or even a rabbit box. I have watched my dad catch them by hand when he cornered one in the chicken coop, I ain't doing it though.

I can tell you now that you'll need more power to kill a possum. I remember this time when my cousins and I were shooting starlings around their barn and their rat terrier and border collie started going nuts around a pile of boards. We started hauling boards out of the way to see what the dogs smelled. Well, it was a possum and we decided that it was going to be a dead possum. We had to shoot it probably 50 times with out pellet guns (probably about as powerful as yours) before the dogs finished it. I don't think a clean kill is possible because I know that we pumped a ton of lead into that poor animal (yeah we didn't really think about going inside and grabbing a shotgun at that age...) and it took a long time to die. You should consider getting some CB Longs for the .22, or if you need it even quieter, find some Aguila Super Colibris. They're about as loud as a pellet gun but pack a heavier punch. The CBs have a little more *snap* than the Aguilas though.

That Coiibri round have some kind of magic? Will earn about 470-500fps at most, is .22 caliber, and runs abut 18gr. A good .22 pellet from a common Benjamin will run about 16gr. and be moving at 700fps....given spring -airrifle, will mvoe that same 16gr. pellet out at over 800fps.

Will definately agree about the CB caps...mushc more powerful and will take one of the expensive pre-charge pneumatic air guns to equal (in many cases a PCP air rifle can drasticly exceed .22 power). 29gr. at 650 (which is what a CB cap will give) is a better killer than common air guns...assuming you put the bullet where it needs to go.

For an o'possum on the quiet? The live trap has been mentioned. Coni bare or similar killer trap could also work. A 150 to 200 grain lead soft round ball from a "wrist-rocket" will work Could also use a bow or crossbow. I know one guy that has one of the blowguns that are advertised everywhere. I have seen him dart marshmallows and grapes and stuff out to about 15 yards. The darts are near six inches long as I recall. Might work with good shot placement?

You could try a diversion tactic. Activate your car alarm in the front yard. While horn is honking and lights are flashing give a little time to allow all to go to the front windows to see.
Then "blast the varmit" with your trusty 12 gauge, turn off the alarm and go to bed :D .
Cheezywan

The last (and only) one I've had to kill in an urban enviroment got shot from a high blind by a cross bow (high so that the impact of a miss would have driven the bolt into the ground rather than saling off into the distance). That was quiet and effective but nt a solution for everyone.

Yeah, maybe a crossbow would do the trick, so let me get it straight 500ft/sec is out, do we have a consensus on a .22 using a rifle possibly doing the buggers in. I ain't no tree hugger I really, really hate theses things they look like HUGE rats. Whats the largest critter I could kill anyway with a handgun putting out 500ft/sec with hunting pellets anyway. Thanks

Tcj

That Coiibri round have some kind of magic? Will earn about 470-500fps at most, is .22 caliber, and runs abut 18gr. A good .22 pellet from a common Benjamin will run about 16gr. and be moving at 700fps....given spring -airrifle, will mvoe that same 16gr. pellet out at over 800fps.

Will definately agree about the CB caps...mushc more powerful and will take one of the expensive pre-charge pneumatic air guns to equal (in many cases a PCP air rifle can drasticly exceed .22 power). 29gr. at 650 (which is what a CB cap will give) is a better killer than common air guns...assuming you put the bullet where it needs to go.


Say what's a CB cap? this might be something I might want to look into, just weighting all my options.

Tcj

Check out the last catagory, low noise! I use a 1000 fps air rifle, but these work great in my .22 revolver and sound like a cap gun. http://www.cci-ammunition.com/ballistics/rimfire.aspx

Well, a couple reasons I take the CB cap over the pellet gun is that I know I can shoot a lot better with my .22 than my air rifle (and that really probably applies to my air rifle because it is an old peice of junk now) but I do trust the accuracy of the .22 and the fact that if needed, considering it is a possum, you have a second shot at the ready instead of having to load another pellet and cock the air rifle again. Or are there C02 powered air rifles wiht a magazine now? I don't know.

Small cross-bow.

http://www.tbotech.com/pistol-crossbow-80lb.htm

Say what's a CB cap? this might be something I might want to look into, just weighting all my options.

Tcj


Check out the CCI web-site...other companys (Winchester, Rem., Federal) have made CB's off and on, but CCI still listed both a a "CB short" and a "CB long" in their line-up. No difference in power between the two, but the longer cased one is a bit easier to load and handle.

Well, a couple reasons I take the CB cap over the pellet gun is that I know I can shoot a lot better with my .22 than my air rifle (and that really probably applies to my air rifle because it is an old peice of junk now) but I do trust the accuracy of the .22 and the fact that if needed, considering it is a possum, you have a second shot at the ready instead of having to load another pellet and cock the air rifle again. Or are there C02 powered air rifles wiht a magazine now? I don't know.

These CB caps are they ammunition with just the primer and no powder. And are theses really capable of a clean kill with something as large as a possum.

TCJ

From what I can tell, they are a reduced 22 load(?). I have not seen them on the selves at any of the sporting good stores. I would be concerned in a urban environment about carry beyond the target. Even a light load 22 would carry beyond the neighbors house I would assume.

I have taken down grey and red squirrels with my .20 Benjamin. I would not use it on a possum, too big. The cross bow may be the best, safest alternative. A live trap would work fine, as long as you have a place to dispose of the critter. In the city that may not be that easy.

Possums have been a new issue in Minnesota. They were never here until about three years ago. From what I have heard they came in from the South in the large bales of hay that were shipped up here during a dry period. Somehow they are surviving the winters. I have dispatched three of them this past year. A 22 does an good job, so does the 410. At first my wife wanted me to leave them alone, however, after they made an unholy mess of her bird feeders it suddenly became open season.

Brad S.
Hebrews 10:39

couldnt you just trap it then stab it with a knife of spear type of weapon, nice and quiet

CCI has a sub-sonic 40gr 22 load that's supposed to be pretty quiet, and has a bullet designed for varmints. See http://www.cci-ammunition.com/ballistics/rimfire.aspx and click on product #0056. I haven't used them, personally.

22 CB's are also listed at the bottom of that page.

Skigmund, my brother in law gave me one of those pistol crossbows for Xmas year before last and it fine for target practice but I prefer using my compound bow as the crossbow hasn't the thump to do in a possum.

As a kid, I killed a number of them using a wrist rocket and #1 lead split shot. It would break ribs and puncture lungs reliably at 30 feet. It wasnt a lightning fast kill. Fastest I have ever seen a possum stop twitching was when run over with my first car, a '71 Chevy Impala. The other was a little more up close and personal. My dog chased one into the garage and under the car. She then chased it out past me. While it was under the car, I picked up a hatchet. As it tried to run past me with the dog in hot pursuit, I nearly decapitated the possum with one chop. That dog gave me a look like I broke her favorite toy. She eventually forgave me. The possum didn't.

Possums have been a new issue in Minnesota. They were never here until about three years ago. From what I have heard they came in from the South in the large bales of hay that were shipped up here during a dry period. Somehow they are surviving the winters. I have dispatched three of them this past year. A 22 does an good job, so does the 410. At first my wife wanted me to leave them alone, however, after they made an unholy mess of her bird feeders it suddenly became open season.

Brad S.
Hebrews 10:39

Yeah same thing here these things have just become a problem in the last few years. The first one I saw up close wasen't until maybe a couple of years ago. I don't know why they are coming into the urban areas now but all I can say is that they have really become a nuisance, and I'm looking to get rid of as many of them as I can.

Tcj

I have killed racoons in my back yard with a .177 air rifle but it took a close range shot in the eye to do it

Curt31:

If I'm not wrong a CB cap is a .22 short cartridge that has no or very little powder charge. It basically is given it FPS by use of the rim primer. It was used a lot years ago for basement ranges.

Curt31:

If I'm not wrong a CB cap is a .22 short cartridge that has no or very little powder charge. It basically is given it FPS by use of the rim primer. It was used a lot years ago for basement ranges.


Say where can you get those that might work for the basement no lead low noise the wife might not even catch on.
Thanks!

Tcj

Say where can you get those that might work for the basement no lead low noise the wife might not even catch on.
Thanks!

Tcj


Curt
I have seen these at Walmart as well as Cabellas.

Brad S
Hebrews 10:39

Take a real hard look at the RWS air rifles. The different models they have should give you what you want in killing power. Very well made German product. Had one in .177 cal. took care of the back yard bunneys very well. A spring powered rifle does not make the same noise as a pump up air rifle and makes less noise than cb caps. Also they will come with full size stocks not shortened for kids and adults. They are deadly and if you miss it's your fault, super accurate. And the more you shoot a ait rifle the better it will perform as the piston seats it self to the compression chamber. And cheaper to feed in the long run. Just my 2 cents. TF

. . . no lead low noise the wife might not even catch on. . .

The one I dissected when I was young had nothing but priming mix. The problem is that priming mix mostly has lead styphnate in it, so it still puts lead vapors into the air. The projectiles are still lead, too, though you can minimize splatter by using a ballistic putty slab to catch them in front of the backstop. Beaman's recommended this for a silent backstop for years. Works well until the stuff dries out (mine's about 20 years old).

Anyway, to be lead free, look for NT (non-toxic) labeling or something from the maker that says they made them lead free, then figure on have to stop them gently.

I use CCI CB Longs (same ballistics as the short but the long will feed with a bolt-action rifle) for shooting rabbits in my backyard. Neighbors don't notice and they drop rabbits just fine. I don't know about a possum though...

Also worth mentioning in this context, a single-shot or bolt action rifle will be much quieter than any short gun with any of these things because the propellant finishes burning and pressure drops substantially before the bullet leaves the long barrel.