How clean is a "clean kill"? and how quick?

If you want a sure thing for possum bait. 50/50 mix of flour and icing sugar, that was my go to bait when i was trapping possums. They love it!

Hi Loud Whisper,

Welcome to the forum.
Well done for wanting to make sure you are able to make the cleanest and most ethical kill that you can.
It takes a lot of time and practise to become good at anything and most people don't have the ethics required to care enough to accept the responsibility of having to put in the hard work to hone their skills and become an ethical hunter/culler.

Possums can be tough customers, but if you put your pellet in the right place they die just as dead as anything else.

What I would recommend is to spend some time with your new rifle and get to know it well.
This will help build your own confidence in your self and your equipment.

Trying to compare a .22LR and a break barrel air rifle is like trying to compare chalk to cheese.
I dont mean that in a bad way, I just mean they are very different.
Standard velocity .22LR ammo is pushing around 150FPE.
Subsonic .22LR is producing around 80FPE.
Assuming your Gamo is doing what the box says it does, you are sending around 18FPE down range, I'm sure you can appreciate the difference.
Having said that, 18FPE is enough to cleanly kill a possum, if your pellet is in the right place
I've dispatched many possums with a well placed shot and a 12FPE air rifle.

What I would recommend is spend some time with your rifle and get to know it.
First, check out what FPE (Foot Pounds of Energy) it is actually producing, just because it is new doesn't mean it is perfect, like anything in life you get Monday guns and Friday guns, so best to check exactly what yours is doing.

It is easy to work out the FPE if you have a chronograph and know the weight of the pellet, there are plenty of online calculators that will work it out for you.

Next practise shooting it.
I know that might sound like a stupid thing to say, but a springer is not like a .22LR, or any other type of rifle or shotgun you have shot before. Its not as simple as point and shoot with a springer.
Springers require a different technique to get the best accuracy out of them.
Research "The Artilary Hold", plenty of videos on you tube about it, thats usually how springers shoot the most consistently, and there for the most accurately.
And then just practise a lot. When you can consistently hit a bottle top at a set distance, say 20 meters, then you are ready to hunt at 20meters. Move the bottle top back to 30m and when you can consistently hit it at 30m you will have the confidence in your self and in your equipment to hunt at 30m etc...

As I mentioned earlier, possums can be tough.
I have a personal rule with possums, if I can I always shoot them twice
Take your time with the first shot, be patient and wait for the right shot to present its self, make sure your first shot is good and that it will count, put your pellet in the right place.
After the first shot, if the possum is still in a position where I can see it, I put in a second "insurance" shot.
Why? Because possums are tough and I want to make sure I've done the job properly.

With regards to your questions about your possum last night, from the sounds of it I'd say you got your possum.
Possums don't usually drop out of trees if they are still "compos mentis".
The only time they drop on the shot is if you hit the brain or the upper vertebra (from between the shoulder blades to the base of the skull). You hit either one of those and its instantly lights out.
If you shoot it through the neck (side on, but didn't hit vertebra) or chest (heart and lungs) it will die from internal haemorrhaging. This is fatal but not instant.

It sounds like your possum took a chest shot, was bleeding internally and getting weak due to loss of blood, eventually couldn't hold on or stay balanced any longer and fell out the tree. It might have been able to still move off and find cover, which is why you couldn't find it, but it was on its way out and I'm sure it would have expired soon after falling out the tree.

Let us know how you get on.

Pete.

Edited by RangerPete - 28 Sep 2024 at 4:02pm

You will need a head shot for a quick clean kill. you will drop it right away. Shot placement is the key for possums. Wouldn't waste time hitting the bodies unless guaranteed chest shot when it is looking right at you front on.