Choosing the right...everything?

[securitysix]

I thought it would be cool to have an air gun to do some late night pest control with.  They're quieter than a .22 LR and much quieter than my .410 or 12 gauge.  I've even read of people getting reliable 1-shot kills on raccoons and possums with some of the .22 caliber and larger air guns.  Those are the more common pests I anticipated dealing with.  With that in mind, I researched for several months and finally decided on an RWS Model 52. 

The problem I'm having is this:  Shortly after I got it, I shot a possum with it.  3 times in the head from less than 15 yards.  I decided it was more humane to get a .22 LR revolver from the house and finish him off than to keep going.  Being used to .22 LR and .410 gauge shotguns for possums, I expect a one-shot kill, especially with a head shot.  I don't know if my problem was pellet choice or shot placement.  Someone told me that with an air gun, body shots aiming for heart/lungs are better than head shots.  I was using a Daisy wadcutter pellet because I knew for sure where it would hit, but I'm thinking it may have been way too light.  So, was it shot placement, projectile choice, or some combination of the two?  What is the minimum reasonable pellet weight for possums?  Raccoons are no longer on the air gun radar for me unless I get a PCP.

Additionally, do I need to start taking body shots with an air gun if I'm shooting possums, or should head shots suffice?

[blhof]

I use the heaviest pellets that I can get to shoot reliably in my gun.  There's a guy selling variety packs on Ebay so you can test different pellets without having to buy a large quantity of any one type and find they're not real accurate in your gun.  I've had great success with the Benjamin hollow points on rabbits and squirrel, with both lung and head shots.  I've had blackbirds fly away with a solid hit from the flathead pellets at 10yds, yet taken a crow from 30yds with the hollow point.

[Silvertp]

Only one way to know for sure.  Get out your pocket knife and do an autopsy.  There are "head shots" then there are "head shots".  Do a little skinning and find out what your pellets did, where they hit and how they performed. 

If they are all just under the skin or flattened out against the skull and were placed to be a "brain" shots then you've not got enough gun.  Better be looking for a bigger caliber.  If you shot him thru the nose, broke a jaw and exited thru the neck then you probably got enough gun, just poor shot placement.   Personally, Ive always thought  possum were pretty tenacious critters and not that easy to kill cleanly, even with a .22 long rifle. 

Short of recommending you get a big bore airgun, there is not sure way to advise you for clean reliable kills.  Maybe you already have an adequate combination (maybe not) but its gonna take some skinning on your part to find out for sure.

Silvertp

[securitysix]

Only one way to know for sure.  Get out your pocket knife and do an autopsy.  There are "head shots" then there are "head shots".  Do a little skinning and find out what your pellets did, where they hit and how they performed. 

I've killed enough possums to recognize a good wound track versus a bad one.  I got put on possum slaying duty when I got my first shotgun (an NEF in .410) at the age of 11.  Both body and head shots work well with those, but body shots too close can be messy (I disemboweled one shot from about 5 or 6 feet broadside with that shotgun).  With .22 LR, I go for head shots only (easy enough to make, especially with a scope), and all are one shot kills (unless I miss all together), though if they're twitchy, I'll finish them off.

With the air gun, I know my first hit was a glancing blow, no penetration, just an angry possum.  The second hit the jaw bone and entered, but probably tumbled off course because of that.  The third hit in the bottom of the neck and made it to the brain, but I don't think it went far enough for a humane kill.  All shots were almost straight up (possum was in a tree) at no more than 10 - 15 yards (hard estimating distance upwards for me). 

If they are all just under the skin or flattened out against the skull and were placed to be a "brain" shots then you've not got enough gun.  Better be looking for a bigger caliber.  If you shot him thru the nose, broke a jaw and exited thru the neck then you probably got enough gun, just poor shot placement.   Personally, Ive always thought  possum were pretty tenacious critters and not that easy to kill cleanly, even with a .22 long rifle. 

I've never had a problem killing them with a .22 LR, but again, head shots.  Most are 10 yards or less, just because that's how far the possums get.  I've had a couple get out at 20 yards (paced off and calculated), then turn around and stare at me like they were daring me to shoot.  Both were one shot kills (scoped Remington 597).  I've done one raccoon at that same distance with the same gun, again, he turned and looked at me.  I have no doubts about the .22 LR on possums or coons, as long as the shot placement is good. 

The .22 caliber air gun, I'm not quite so sure about.  I was using Daisy hobby pellets (wadcutters), which I'm sure now weren't sufficient, and the only reason I used them is because I knew where my gun would put them.  I do have a couple of pellet samplers similar to what blhof suggested, so I'll have to figure out which pellet my RWS likes best before I try it again, I guess. 

Short of recommending you get a big bore airgun, there is not sure way to advise you for clean reliable kills.  Maybe you already have an adequate combination (maybe not) but its gonna take some skinning on your part to find out for sure.

Silvertp

If my current air gun just isn't enough, it will become a plinker and I'll stick with my .22 LR while I consider an alternate air gun.  I intend to start skinning possums and raccoons soon enough anyway just to get some practice at preserving hides (I think it would be a neat skill to have).  Guess I'll take the time to study wound tracks while I'm at it.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys.  If anyone else has some insight, please, chime in.

[Dand]

I'm not clear what caliber your gun is but its my impression that Daisy wadcutters are usually a very light pellet.  Find the Straight Shooter's website and get their sampler pack and run some tests. I think you need to get much heavier pellets.  I think you'll find they shoot more accurately and hit harder. Look into the Beeman and JSB round noses or Crossman Premiers. Straight Shooters can be a little more expensive than other places but they stand by what they sell and usually have tested their stuff very carefully.  They often have an extensive test spreadsheet for rifles performance with a wide variety of pellets. 

http://www.straightshooters.com/

[securitysix]

Mine is an RWS-52 in .22 caliber.  As far as straightshooters.com goes, they are who I got the gun from, and I have two of their pellet samplers.  Since I hadn't sighted in off of any of the pellets in the sampler, I had no idea where any of them would hit. I had been shooting the Daisy wadcutters for a while and had a pretty good idea of where they'd go.  I had hoped the short range would compensate for the lighter pellet, but it evidently did not.

Next chance I get, I'll sight in for one of the heavier pellets in the sampler.  Until I have that done, I'm not going to use that pellet gun for pest control.  I can't ethically make a kill with it with the ammunition I know.  I need to get to know some of the other ammunition better.

[FourBee]

without proper bullet placement, possums especially are hard animals to kill, but then so are cats.  Don't even attempt that one.  It could develope into a real nightmare.  

[securitysix]

without proper bullet placement, possums especially are hard animals to kill, but then so are cats.  Don't even attempt that one.  It could develope into a real nightmare.  

I know how tough cats can be.  A head shot with a .22 LR will do them pretty reliably, but don't even think about getting that shot while they're on the run.  I've seen several run off with a decent load of #4 shot in them.

[Dand]

Yeah six I think you'd be better off with a heavier pellet. Don't know what kinds of shops you have available but you might look for a can of moderate price heavier weight round nose pellets to try or get a basic sight-in. Then go to the Straight Shooter's shooting tests with the 52 and find which are the heavy hitting ones in your sampler to try. When I checked out their test results, some pellets were carrying quite a bit more punch that others. Have you tried some Benjamin/Sheridan round noses or even Daisy round noses? Do you have a powder scale that you could weigh the Daisy's on? I'd have to look at my sampler pack or the SS site to know which are the heavier RNs to try.  There's not enough of any one type to get your basic sight- in done.  Good luck I have little knowledge of possums though I shot one once with a .22 lr. It did seem tough to kill if I remember right.

[securitysix]

Thanks, Dand.  I have two of the Straight Shooter's sampler packs, so that ought to be plenty to sight in with, then I can order a bunch of whichever heavy pellet the gun likes best.  I'll burn up the lighter ones on paper, cans, or much lighter game like squirrels or something.

I do have a powder scale.  Pretty sure the Daisy wadcutters I have weighed out at 14.5 grains or so, but it's been several months, so I could be misremembering that number.

[jamaldog87]

use pointed and shoot for the head. remenber the song aim for the head.

If You Kill the Brain

Then You Kill The Ghoul

And It's Motor Functions

Aim For The Head

i have killed lots of coons with crosman pointeds at 30 yards with head shots. A airgun (besides PCP kind) and head shots only guns mostly.

[lamerabbit]

The problem is not with the gun. it is with the possum, they are more than hard to kill.  Some years ago, a buddy of mine had one trapped in his yard by his dogs, and instead of playing dead this thing wanted to fight....

So my buddy who is no 98 pound weakling hits this possom over the head with a shovel, and I mean he hits it by swinging the shovel over his head and hit that possom just as hard as he could.   He does this a couple of times.  The possom was surely dead after that so he tosses it into his garbage can.  Well, the next morning his wife goes out to empty the trash……

She comes back in the house with out saying a word; then she walks back out the door with her 38, then next thing my buddy hears is a muffled hiss and boom, boom, boom, and this continues until her 38 is empty!  Turns out the little possom was playing possom, and decided he wanted to bite the wife, and keep hissing and jumping at her when she open the garbage can.  Now, That’s the kind of wife to have!

While that possem was tough, it could not stand a hail of 38 special bullets are point blank range I have had a similar experience some years before that.  We had a possom move into our shed I tried everything to make him leave, but nothing worked, even being poked it the butt with a broom stick, would not work.  It just pissed him off.  I shot him a few times with my pellet rifle, and all that did was to piss him off even more.  Finally I started hitting him with a Billy bat.  This was just not working!  He just kept hissing at me and trying to bite me, and while I would not call them dangerous they do have some nasty looking sharp teeth.

What I had forgot is this creature is one of the oldest living mammals!  Hitting one it the head is like trying to kill a roach by sticking it with a straight pin……..  Talk about wasting my time.  Well to make a long story short, I finally managed to break its neck, but it was far more work than I ever want to do again!  So I have a new rule if they move in I leave them alone, or if I have shoot one, I shoot them with my 30-06.……  That works on most anything.   

Jim

[jamaldog87]

for really tough game, aim for the base of the head or the top of the spine. I used to kill hogs with my .22LR or 380 sometimes that way. it works on gators,Nile Crocodiles, buffs, montors to.

[securitysix]

I have shot possums with .410, 20 and 12 gauge shotguns, .22 LR rifles and pistols, a .30 Carbine, and that RWS .22 cal pellet gun I started this post over.  My dad has even shot one with a .380 ACP.  The only one that has failed to kill with a solid head or body shot was the pellet gun.  I'm convinced that pellet selection was my biggest downfall on that venture.

.22 LR rifles and pistols are always limited to head shots, and I've even successfully scored those with 60 grain Aguila subsonics and gotten 1-shot kills (from about 7 yards, it was like I had dropped a cartoon anvil on his head).

The .30 Carbine was interesting. It was broadside at about 10 yards on a running possum.  Got him through both shoulders and he stopped solid.  Hauled him off and tossed him over the fence with a shovel.

I don't shoot possums for the sake of shooting them.  I only shoot them when they don't run away, which most of them do.  I've seen several get quite belligerent, and they tend to stand their ground, so making a head shot is usually fairly simple. 

I did get my air gun scoped, so I just need the weather to cooperate for sight-in.  It looks like I might get a break in the weather Monday, so hopefully I'll have her sighted in before Tuesday.  Then I'll just have to wait for a belligerent possum.  I'll post results next chance I get.

[Alan4620]

I recently shot a 3' water moccasin at point blank range with a daisy flat point 177,out of my single shot pistol.
I did two follow up shots to be sure,after all it was a snake.

After being shot in the head it crawled into a dryer in my shed to hide/die.
And even after I cut the head off with a shovel,it tried to curl up to strike me when I picked it up.

I still think the first shot killed it.

Alan

[BUTCHER45]

     If headshots aren't working, body shots probably aren't going to help.

     Considering the power level of your air rifle, you might want to avoid flat headed pellets.  They don't penetrate as well (but sure do deposit their energy into a bird!).  .22 Kodiaks should work much better for you.

     If you go the PCP route, get a Sumatra in .25 caliber.  It's a VERY powerful, lever-action repeater that will put a serious whoopin' on any possum/raccoon when using heavy pellets, and a heart/lung shot.