Bullhead said:
I just got a new Gamo, it is a Shadow Sport in .177 and is just great. I have an old RWS and a 40 year old Sheridan but this thing is just plain fast... 1200 fps. Squirrels and Starlings don't even wiggle after being hit, I know I should have gotten a .22 for hunting but I talked to alot of people and saw the tests and testimonials so I made my choice. This is very flat shooting and so far Fox Squirrels to 30 yrds or so never complain.
I'm very glad to see you are happy with your new purchase. And it certainly sounds like you have been doing some good shooting with it to get instant kills on Fox squirrels. But now I must become the 'Devils Advocate:
Velocity alone, despite advertising hype that would make it seem so, does not produce clean, humane kills. Those are the result of adequate energy delivered to a kill zone with surgical accuracy. In fact, high velocity small caliber projectiles, unless delivered with that requisite accuracy, are often counterproductive, creating a 'hypodermic' wound that passes through without expending all of the energy it carries and fails to anchor the game, leaving it to suffer a slow and painful death.
Pellets, by the very low-powered nature of airrifles, do not have excess energy to waste. To be maximally effective they must impart every ounce of their energy to the target in a fatal zone. Light, high-velocity pellets with a small frontal area can fail that requirement. They are the ones that impart the 'hypodermic' wounds that allows the quarry to escape capture only to die later. In short, if your pellet is passing all the way through the target then it is wasting energy. The ideal is to have it pass through a fatal zone and end up just under the skin on the far side. That is proof positive that they have expended every erg of energy they carried into the target. High-velocity, small frontal area pellets often fail that test of terminal ballistics. Who among us have not experienced with a .22 rimfire a solid, center-of-mass hit on a squirrel that failed to anchor it, allowing it time to reach a hole and disappear? Even a low-velocity rimfire imparts @ 3 times the energy of the most powerful spring-piston powered airguns. Yet even so if their energy isn't delivered to the proper area on the target they can fail to kill it in situ.
So I applaud your shooting. It has obviously been of the highest caliber.
You are certainly correct that higher velocities produce a 'flatter' trajectory. But that velocity comes at a price. To achieve it requires a lighter pellet with a smaller frontal area. That is the precise prescription for lower energy delivery also. As well as being blown off target by side-winds. And less retention of energy with distance.
Even Chuck's old Crosman 140 with a .22 caliber, 14 grain pellet at about 600FPS will deliver more energy to the target at 35 yards than a much higher velocity .177 caliber, 7.5 grain pellet. And 35 yards is the practical hunting limit of the vast majority of both shooters and airguns.
Ultimately the only criteria of value is the ability of the shooter to direct the pellet to a kill zone that averages @ 1/2". If that one factor is met then the energy required is minimal. Nothing can ever take the place of a competent shooter who knows his own and his weapon's limitations and honors the quarry by taking only those shots he KNOWS will be instantly terminal.
The very best discussions of airgun terminal ballistics by the American airgunning community came on the old 'Airgun Letter Forum' on the net. The last I knew they were still archived. Perhaps Bearridge can verify that. Look for the posts by Mike Pearson, our leading domestic terminal ballistics expert. Tom