Minimum Power for Hunting Game Guide – Game hunting is fun or so I can say. You track your prey, set a trap, wait and finally pull your trigger on your Airgun to finish it. “To finish it” requires more than just a shot, you need to properly shoot it in the correct spot with adequate power. You need to make sure your prey doesn’t suffer too long.
My favorite spot is the head, shoot in the head to terminate it immediately. But you can’t always be able to shoot in the head, it is small and always moving. So body shoot is my other favorite spot. Always aim for the chest. Once your pellet hits the chest your target will drop on the spot and die due to organ failure or bleeding, take a while longer but in the end it will be dead.
As for power, I don’t have much experience with medium or big animals so I provide this chart to help you determine adequate power for your game hunting. One from PyramidAir and another one from AirgunDepot.
Above chart can be useful for you before hunting with your airgun. It is not 100% accurate primarily for caliber, since you can increase your FPE (foot pound of energy) by using heavier pellets and more powerful guns, but you can get some image before you decide which airgun to buy. You can get the same FPE from .22 call (5.5 mm) with .177 (4.5 mm) by increasing pellet velocity and weight.
In my limited experience you can kill mice with 6 – 8 FPE and for squirrels I suggest about 9 – 10 FPE. As I never have medium game hunting I don’t have suggestions about power level but as I mentioned before you can use the above chart for your reference.
Image source:
PyramidAir
AirGunDepot
