Air Chief, Target Flat Tip pellets.

Nunga, if you were aiming at vitals, which I'm sure you were, they might have flown away but they didnt last long, I promise.

I spend a great deal of time testing and trying to work out what the optimal power is to get the perfect amount of penetration with a specific pellet, on a specific target animal.

As a pest controller what I dont want is pellets going stright through a pigeon, or rabbit or sparrow, and disappearing off into the great unknown and going through a roof or smashing a glass window, or killing a neighbours cat, or worse... You have no idea how often a pellet changes direction inside a pest target, and exits in a completely different, totally unpredictable direction.

What I do want is a pellet that penetrates deep enough in the pest animal to reach the vitals, which is usually just over half the diameter of the chest cavity (or the head) and then stops because its used up all its energy to get that far.

If I had the perfect formula of pellet weight, shape, caliber, velocity, power etc. to get a pellet three quarters of the way through any type of pest, through the vitals but never exit out the other side of that pest... well... I'd be the perfect pest controller!
And I WOULD be the epitome of the Wild Wild West... I'd walk in to any job and BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG shoot the crap out of everything that moves because I know my pellets are no risk to anything else because they are never going to exit what I'm shooting! Safe as houses!

Unfortunatly I dont have those magic formulas for each type of pest, so in reality I take a lot of time and care with every single shot I take, always aware of what caliber I'm using, what power level it is producing, am I taking head or chest shots, whats behind the targeted pest, which direction are the neighbours in etc...

Obviously the penetration required to reach the vitals and kill a rabbit is quite different from whats required for a pigeon, and again different for a sparrow.

Long story short, from all the tests I've done with pigeons and .177 combinations of pellets and powers, I find that a .177 round nose pellet at 6.9FPE is really good medicine for pigeons, enough to reach vitals from any angle, and will only occasionally exit a bird.
I am quite certain that your flat nose .177's at 6.5FPE would have reached vitals and all your pigeons are quite dead.
Bear in mind they only drop dead rite there if you hit the brain or cervical vertebrae. A pellet in the vitals may fly away, but its dead on it wings.


Edited by RangerPete - 22 Sep 2024 at 5:22pm

Nunga, can you remember what caliber and foot pounds you were using?

Wow, at $8 for 500, makes you wonder how we can justify paying $38 for 500 JSB Exacts, or $47 for 500 JSB knockouts!!!

100% kill rate, nice.

That's a bonus. I am guessing that being a wadcutter they might be less likely to pass through too?