My apologies in advance if this is offensive to anyone, but am wondering if anyone might have an idea of how a .177 pellet might compare to .22 bird shot, specifically in regard to shooting chipmunks. The darn things are cute, and often entertaining, but they get so bad some years that it's a constant chore to make sure they don't get into the house, garage, or shop whenever a door is open, and this is one of those years. No danger in decimating the herd, but I have had some success keeping them a bit at bay with a .22 in past years. I am careful, but any manner of ammunition flying through the air can be dangerous, so to further reduce any potential harm, I decided to try bird shot this year. The problems that I have found are that .22 bird shot has an effective range of something in the vicinity of 15 feet, which by and of itself is not necessarily a determining factor, but my only .22 is an autoloader, which of course does not operate with bird shot, so loading is a bit of a chore. So, I was thinking of getting a .22 single shot or bolt, but then wondered about a pellet gun. I own and have shot many types and sizes of firearms, but never a pellet gun, so will appreciate any input in this regard. Thank you.

 

I agree with the bird shot issue...thats for close range on snakes and such.

A pellet gun is a viable option, but you will need to NOT buy it from a box store, as a rule those are mostly toys (dangerous toys...but still toys) for teaching youngsters how to shoot. Here's a very good site....Small Pest Control Hunting Air Rifles - AirgunDepot.com Read the article they link to for lots of info. Here's another...Air Rifles and Pellet Gun Rifles | Small Game Hunting and Pest Control

I always liked pneumatic guns for the actual shooting, but the pumping them up was a pain. If you go for the pre-charged type you are looking at a healthy investment.

This might be another option...if you can find them...Hush: It

 

.22 shot shells are almost useless though slightly better when fired from a rifle. At 15 feet I think you would be lucky if you put the little chipmunk's eye out. The pellets are so small (usually #12) that they loose energy extremely fast and the barrels rifling slings them everywhere the moment they leave the muzzle.

I've never tried the CCI Hush ammunition but have used .22 shorts and subsonics. They are effective but are prone to ricochet since they don't have the velocity & energy to penetrate many objects or to destroy the bullet so it tends to bounce around more than a full velocity .22. Indoors they do have enough energy to poke a hole in some steel cabinets and tool boxes but as a child they worked well removing pigeons from barns.

If the vermin are getting inside your garage or shop I like to use the sticky rat trays. I have not seen an animal escape them; squirrels, mice, voles, snakes, lizards & skinks. Do be very careful using them if you have dogs or cats as they work equally well at catching them and I'm afraid it would take a vetrinarian to help get them free.

A would consider pellet rifle and avoid a BB gun. BB guns are usually not rifled so their accuracy is pretty poor and their steel shot ricochets. Most pellet guns are rifled so good accuracy is possible and their soft lead projectiles easily deform when they hit something solid, limiting their penetration through hard solid things like storage cabinets & tool boxes and the are much less prone to ricocheting.

 

Perfect. Thank you for the reading material. No fear of buying from a big box, as I almost certainly would buy from one of the local gun shops, and in fact have thought about asking one of them these questions, but never think about it when I'm in there. Those hush rounds sound interesting, but suspect that they might not be a whole lot more reliable in an autoloader than the bird shot, and I see where one guy with a 10/22 mentioned that. Not that one guys opinion on that aspect means everything, as I obviously have no idea how well he maintains his rifle, but the question would still be on my mind. So, based on your comment about a "healthy investment", I'm guessing that one has the option of buying one that is pumped or one that operates on a gas cylinder, which would then have to be replaced or recharged? No need to answe that unless you want, as, again, you gave me some reading material, so I will start there, and see what I can figure out. Thank you. Gee, and Father's Day is just around the corner, so maybe I can get the wife to spring for it; she is after all as po'd at the little rascals right now as I am!

 

Yes...the precharged units normally need a scuba tank at 2000psi to recharge them. I'm sure a good spring gun will do fine...I imagine they've gotten much better since I last owned one...25 yrs ago...lol.

 

Yeah, I got three the other night with bird shot, something in the 15' range, but you're right; one of them I had to finish with a shovel, and while I want to get rid of a few of them, I do have a heart. The other problem of course is that at 15' you're sitting right there, so it's quite a while between shots. With regular .22 rounds, I was blinking them at pretty good distance, and covering a lot more ground, so it wasn't too uncommon to sit down for 20 minutes or so, go pick up a half dozen or so, and get onto something else. As far as a BB gun, no, I had tossed that idea out early, as you start losing accuracy once it leaves the end of the barrel. The sticky rat trays sound like a good idea for the shop, so I will probably swing by the mill Saturday morning and pick up a couple. I haven't seen signs of anything in there yet this spring, but have the 'vette parked in there while doing some work in the garage, and would be really ticked if something got into the wiring or whatever on that.

 

No low power or "quiet" .22 round is going to reliably cycle an auto loader unless you've customized it to use that type of ammo. It's not the gun's fault. They just are not made to cycle with ammo of such low power.

There are high pressure air pumps specifically for pneumatic air rifles so if you don't have a SCUBA tank handy you can pump them up manually. But, getting up to 2 or 3k psi can qualify as the day's exercise.

 

As a hunter, I strive for the fastest/cleanest kill that I can. Doesn't matter if it is deer or pests.

I have a GAMO break barrel pellet gun that I picked up at a gun show that is dead on accurate. Also has plenty of power to dispatch small game at over 1000 FPS. It is slow to reload but quite lethal.

They also make .22 air rifles

They can be had starting around $70