It is hard for a writer to resist when users ask for something.
It tells the writer that his efforts have not been in vain and that at least someone is finding them useful.
So, this week we will dedicate a little time to two subjects that are somehow inter-related: Squirrels and shooting at steep angles.

Follows the standard disclaimer: We will be talking about hunting, shooting and the killing of animals, if this bothers you STOP READING!

Pheww, sorry, but that needed to be done.

Squirrels in all their forms, families and varieties, are some of the most prevalent and pervasive mammals in the planet. You can find squirrels anywhere, except Antarctica (some naturalists will object to the use of the term squirrel for the Australian marsupials that fill the ecological niche, but for hunters'  "if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, swims like a duck, flies like a duck, sh__s like a duck; then it IS a duck" philosophy, we can stick to the general name applied morphologically to all creatures that are similar.
The impact of squirrels in the environment cannot be overlooked.
In some places they displace other squirrels (like the American Grey displacing the native British Red in the UK).
In others they alter the spreading processes of forests and have even stopped reforestation efforts by eating the tender bark of saplings, thereby "ringing" the tree into death.
In other places, still, the effect of the squirrels' voracious greed to store food has removed enough food from the environment as to endanger the health and well-being of songbird populations.

In SOME case, squirrels of the smaller varieties have had positive effects, making sure that there are passageways and burrows that other animals expand and use, sowing trees by hiding nuts where they later forget to look for them, and other instances.

OVERALL; the squirrels thrive near humans. Like their cousins, the rats (squirrels are rodents also), they are highly intelligent and adaptable. They will USE human activity and refuse whenever they can. Humans introduced the American Grey to the UK, and also the British Red to America. Now the non-native species is thriving to the detriment of the native ones on both sides of the Atlantic.

Squirrels have become lately, also a "Game" animal. You can now find them in some restaurants (at exorbitant prices), as well as farm raised. For the small farmer and land-owner, the squirrel can be another "cash crop".

As airgunners, squirrels are NATURAL targets for us. The size, human-closeness of their habitat, and the damages they cause to gardens, orchards, forests, bird nests and bird feeders, make them natural targets.

So, the perennial question: Where do you shoot them?

Perhaps this first simplified diagram will help us get the conversation started:

As you can see, from the broadside view, the brain is roughly located between eyes and ears, a little high on the head, and well protected by a relatively thick (for its size) skull.
The heart is located a little below the shoulders, but well above the elbow.
A hit to the shoulders area (especially with wadcutters, or with expanding pellets, will create enough damage as to render the squirrel dead in about 15 to 30 seconds. This may or may not be acceptable to you and to your conditions or situations.
In 30 seconds a ground squirrel can crawl back to the nearest hole to become an irretrievable, smelly, fly-generating carcass. Or it can drop down from the tree to be caught by almost any reasonably fit dog. Different circumstances, different results. Only YOU can decide whether a shot should be taken. Think before you shoot.

IF we want to comply with the Mike Pearson (MP) 10/10 rule, then we need to aim at the brain pan. The above diagram is lacking in some detail, so let's go to better and more academic diagrams, this next diagram shows the squirrel's nervous system:

As you can see, the brain, now that the squirrel is not fully broadsides, is not between eyes and ears, but above and behind the upper/rear corner of the eye. Do note that small protuberance to the rear of the brain, this is the cerebellum, and it is the spot you want to hit for an immediate lights off switch effect. So let's look at an even more detailed diagram of the brain, cerebellum and spinal chord stem:

As you can see, the cerebellum is located to the rear and, UNDER the cerebellum is the junction of the spinal chord and the brain, the spot I like to call the "medula oblongata". A shot precisely placed here will make the squirrel drop like a rock; sometimes, the squirrel will die so quickly that the claws will not even have time to let go. You will be left with a "fruit squirrel". Don't despair, allow some time for muscle relaxation and the "fruit" will fall from the tree. For these shots, since they are usually taken in the woods, at short ranges, I prefer using low powered airguns (0.177" cal. @ 12 ft-lbs) and a good wad-cutter pellet, preferably the heavy ones, like the RWS SuperMag.
If your rifle cannot shoot these pellets accurately, then try the H&N's Rifle Match 

Under some conditions and as long as your IMPACT speed can be above 650 fps, the expanding pellets (JSB's Predator, H&N Crow Mag, H&N Barracuda Hunter X )  may prove useful, especially for heart/lung shots. If we go to a detailed and more accurate circulatory system diagram, we would see this;

It is important to note that for these shots, you need to be ACUTELY AWARE of the shot angle. Not only because your trajectory will not be the same, but because the LOCATION of the organs changes in relation to external aimpoints with the spatial relation between squirrel and shooter.
So, from below and to the sides, the body side of the elbow MAY be a perfectly valid shot placement. From the front or broadside, that would be too low.
A good rule of thumb that has worked well for me has been to aim to the center mass of the cross-section of a plane that would cut the squirrel in half just behind the shoulders.

And here we come to the somewhat technical side of this week's post: HOW DO YOU AIM AT AN ANGLE?

The first and most common answer is "Aim low", but if we are ethical hunters and if we really want to comply with the MP 10/10 rule, then our target (REAL target, not the whole animal), is barely ½" round. So, low, yes, but ¿WHERE?

Hunting birds, squirrels and iguanas up in the jungle canopy of my native Mexico gave me a feeling that somehow, even the most "Scientific" approach was not working for airguns. And the reason is simple:
If you are a sniper, using a 0.50" BMG from atop the mountain range and you're shooting interdiction duty into a convoy of materiel winding its way along the road down in the valley, your shooting angle may be 20°, 30°, 40°, perhaps even more. BUT the distance you are shooting will be measured in HUNDREDS of meters (or yards). Whereas your scope's Line of Sight (LOS) can be, at most 10 cms (about 4") from boreline.
In our airguns, we routinely use LOS heights of 5  to 10 cms. (2" to 4") for distances measured in meters (or yards). The proportions are radically different!
The cosine rule, therefore, does NOT work in the airgun world.
You need to re-plot your trajectory for each "range" of angles you might encounter, if you want to be absolutely precise about it.
In my HUMBLE opinion, squirrel hunting is one of those instances when you want to be absolutely precise about it. The target is really small, and the animal enjoys a positive perception among the non-hunters. Any suffering will translate into a hideous perception of us and of hunting; and the outcome for hunting can be nothing less than negative. We owe it to future generations to be as precise, as surgical, as accurate, as we can be.

BUT; ¿How to achieve that?

Using ballistic programs.

Most airgun ballistic programs have the inclination datum as a variable, meaning you can plot several variations for the different angles.

How much can it change? well, let's use my favourite app: PP Calc. (obviously! LOL!)

Data from my WFTF D-54 shooting at 12 ft-lbs gives us this basic trajectory chart:

The little yellow circles are the groups shot for the basic calculations of the whole stuff. As you can see, the circles are almost perfectly bisected by the trajectory's parabola.

Now, let's move the muzzle 20° (up, or down, it does not matter):

The circles are still in the same spots, but the trajectory has been recalculated, At 35 meters (38 yards), where ordinarily I would have taken a correction UP, now I have to take a correction DOWN. Out to 20 meters (22 yards) there is little change, but beyond the apex at 25 meters (27 yards), change there is.

What about a steeper angle? Let's try 35°

Please note that the "near zero" has moved from 20 meters (22 yards) to 16½ meters (18 yards), that now shots between 21 and 35 meters (23 to 38 yards) require a ½ miliradian of DOWN correction (a full dot in my scope), and that my "far zero" has moved out to 45 meters (50 yards).

In FT the highest angle I've seen, and shot at, has been 45°: 

The little yellow circles are still where the shots "on the level" would impact, but the inclined trajectories beyond the first zero are different.
In the real world of jungle hunting much steeper angles are encountered, and measuring the real angle is one of the challenges, so we designed PP Calc to take a snapshot of the angle (in the reticule screen) and to input that angle automatically into the charts, graphs and tables.

Get to your shooting spot an hour in advance and check out the limbs where you have taken most of your shots, take a "picture" and record the incline. Then refer back to the tables, range card, or any other aiming aid you have devised.

If your gun is accurate and if YOU are an accurate shooter, there is absolutely no reason why you cannot take steeply inclined shots with great success!

Keep well, Hunt safely, and Shoot straight!






HM

Last week we discussed the anatomy of the rat. 
As one of the pre-eminent airgun preys, the need to place the rodent in first place was indisputable.

This week, as promised, we will look into the anatomy of the pigeon.

Yes, the common, bell-fry pigeon (Columba Livia & C L Domestica), ubiquitous in almost any place that has high structures, constructions, or buildings. Especially if those high constructions and buildings have hollow spots, and there is food available nearby.

To say that pigeons are a pest in some environments is an understatement.
Cities that for centuries had regarded the pigeons in their plazas as tourist attractions have now declared them "persona non grata" (undesireable persons), and those cities have imposed fines, heavy fines, to those that feed them.
Farms, silos, grain storage and transfer facilities do battle with them.
Churches and barns; houses with high lookout points; under highway bridges; even some electrical utility lines crossings where there are several posts/towers and some transformers provide a place for these critters to nest.

Some shooters called them "winged rats". And, depending on the location, they can even be quite toxic just to handle. City pigeons are usually saddled with genetic malformations, diseases, parasites and a host of other nasty riders. So, HANDLE WITH CARE!

Country pigeons are normally much healthier and some of them are even edible. ANALYZE them and make sure you are taking all necessary precautions. IF you decide to cook them, cook them well. Nothing "rare" about game meats in general, but in the pigeon's case the warning is even more important.

And yes, we will be taking about hunting, if you are bothered by the activity, STOP READING!

Having issued the standard disclaimer, let's get down to business:

Pigeons evolved from ancient cliff-dwelling birds. They have become dependent on the human race for most of their sustenance and population growth.
They are STRONG birds, their breast meat is RED, dark red, showing that the muscles are used and used heavily.
The feathers are hard and strong, they provide the bird with the necessary stability, manoeuvering capability in the air and loft, and they shield the bird from pretty low temperatures in winter. There are TWO layers of feathers: the ones we see which are the ones the bird uses to fly; and the under coat, that is soft and insulating.

Usually, shooters think that the best place to hit a bird when it's facing dead front to the shooter is the lower chest. Hmmmm . . ..  Not so much. The birds have an organ, called the "Crop" that is filled with food. usually grains and associated sand.

The crop is, then, like a sand bag.. ¿Have you tried shooting through a sand-bag?
Well, now you see why it is not such a good idea, unless you shoot a high power rig.

From the bottom/rear, birds have a "gizzard", since birds have no teeth, they use small stones and grains of sand to grind the grains they eat. The gizzard is very muscular and the sand/stones it contains makes it even more of a sand-bag than the crop.

From the sides, the birds have a TRIPLE layer of very hard feathers because the wings get folded in two and then you have the outer layer of the body. That makes three layers of tough feathers to shoot through.

The head / neck area is always there but, ¿how much of that area is animal and how much is hollow feather fill?

OK; let's look at some anatomical diagrams and let's try to come up with conclusions:

Number 16 is the "crop", the dotted oval numberd #14 is the position of the heart. From a fully frontal position, the pellet would have to go through the crop to reach the heart. From the rear/bottom, the pellet would have to go through the gizzard to reach the heart.
Now look at a complete pigeon in the same position:

The heart really lies where the #26 is pointing to. Much lower than most shooters aim at.
Aiming higher only places the pellet right at the wing folds. So not only does the pellet has to traverse three layers of feathers, but also bone and bone joints.

Lastly, we do need to consider that a shot to the lungs area (#3 in the internal diagram) while useful and final, will allow the birds to take off and fly for between 25 and 100 yards. Which can make the dead bird land where it is irretrievable or bothersome.

The broadside head/brain shot is a hard shot because the brain and the medula oblongata lie really at the REAR of the eye, and the target is, frankly, very small. A shot to the eye usually has the effect that the bone fragments created by the pellet impact will cut all nervous system activity, so while in reality we are not shooting directly at the brain, we are relying on the effect of the impact to destroy the main organ.

With a VERY stable position and a VERY accurate rig, the rear brain pan shot is a good shot, but things seldom come presented in the ideal way.

There is a shot that is sometimes misunderstood: the shot from the back, either on the level or from slightly above..

Sometimes, though not often, we can shoot at pigeons on the level or even from above. Usually when we have established an elevated blind of some sort. In this case the heart becomes an open target.
We cannot stop from marveling at how nature disposed things, through evolution, to be in such a way as to protect the heart and lungs from most attacks at ground level, or from below, but there is little protection from above. And we cannot stop from marveling at how hawks and other birds of prey have realized this and aim their talons at exactly the spot we will describe:
Think of an imaginary line that cuts the pigeon in two horizontally, and then another line that bisects the pigeon vertically. Where these lines cross when the pigeon is viewed from the rear or, even better, a little above, the pellet can find the lungs and the heart with ease. Look at the frontal/dorsal diagram:

#33 points roughly to the heart, the dotted outlines to the left and right are the lungs.

I know there are quite a few very successful hunters out there that routinely use 0.20" to 0.30" cal airguns to hunt pigeons, at energies of between 20 and 50 ft-lbs; I've done it myself with D54's, Talons, and Steyrs. And this is all good and is well. BUT by going ONLY to those power levels sometimes we are missing on the "indoor" Pigeon hunts, where large amounts of pigeons in a stable, barn, warehouse, or any other large building, becomes completely off-limits to them because no owner, and no facility manager, would like to see his building's roof poked with pellet holes.

In these cases, my favourite tool is a 0.25" cal rebarrelled Crosman 2200 that is quite accurate with H&N Pointed Pellets with 7 to 10 pumps:

It took some tuning to make the SpitzKugeln to fly accurately, but it was done. At 10 ft-lbs they dispatch a pigeon with little noise and very reliably out to 20 yards. For longer shots, out to 35 yards, I can put out 16 ft-lbs with the max. 10 pumps. The Spitzkugeln is a 25 cal. 25 grain pellet, so it is somewhat "light for caliber", but the penetration afforded by the point, even in the realm of medium to low power makes them a good projectile.

Also, the challenge of shooting almost straight up into the roof girders is something that also needs some learning.

And finally, most pigeon shooters do enjoy a little bit of bragging and cooking, we each have our own "secret rub" for game meats, and I am no exception, but mine is, truly, secret. So don't ask! LOL!

Enjoy!

ALWAYS make sure you know you have a GOOD backstop.
ALWAYS make sure you know where the pellet will end.

Be a SAFE hunter

Good shooting!




HM

Following our last post on accuracy, some of the first to respond were the hunters, and quite a few from outside the US; which is fun because it gives me a clear idea of the readership of this humble "Blog".
So, Thank You! it is always nice to feel that the whole mess in the fora (forums) is largely just a few loudmouthed individuals, but that there is real hunger out there for articles to help all of us become better airgunners.

In this installment, we will talk of the OTHER side of the accurate shot. Not the launching side, but the receiving side. So we will be discussing some terminal ballistics and some animal anatomy in detail.

IF THIS BOTHERS YOU; PLEASE DO NOT READ FURTHER!

Having issued the "standard disclaimer" let's get down to business:

Some of us, if not a large majority, started our airgunning life as a need to "dispatch" certain predatory creatures. Depending on the region of the world and the needs/wants of each of us perhaps we had a pigeon problem, or a feral cat problem, or a rat problem, or any number of little birds and mammals that really do not grant the use of powder-burners, or act in an environment where the usage of more powerful tools would create more problems than it solved.
Maybe we started by taking care of the vegetable garden and getting rid of the bunnies that ate all the carrots.
Maybe we decided that some supplemental meat would do well for the family.

There are many valid reasons to hunt, and as we became adults and maybe even started paying to hunt (land rental, or landowner permit, or any such "retribution" (not always monetary) for the right to hunt in a specific area, adds an interesting dimension: Game become valuable.  Suddenly, the landowner realizes that poison is not such a good idea after all . . .

In any event we, as hunters, need to ensure that the way we terminate a life (because that is exactly what we do) is as humane as is possible. Even in the case of pests, we cannot deviate from the hunting ethics that dictates to eliminate any un-needed suffering.

How do we do that?

Firstly, we ensure that we hunt with the right tool. In the airgun world, this means enough caliber and penetration to get the job done in the conditions we encounter (prey size/constitution, distance, geographical environment, etc.). If we are limited by law (as is the case in some countries), then we need to alter the conditions (we stalk closer, or stage a blind, or hunt from elevated stands, or any other method), so that we comply with the conditions that are possible, if the ones that are desirable cannot happen. What I want to emphasize here is that hunting is a LOT more than shooting.

Let's state something that is obvious to the experienced airgun hunter, but that is not so obvious to shooters from other areas/disciplines:

Pellets kill by penetration and destruction of vital tissues.

There is no hydraulic shock associated with a pellet impact. There is no "temporary cavity" associated with the path of the pellet as it travels inside an animal.
The pellet needs to penetrate, touch, and destroy the vital tissues; or we have only inflicted a wound, and that is a grave fault that should be avoided; even foregoing the shot, if we are not sure of our target and of our capabilities to make the shot under the specific conditions of that shot.

It is generally accepted that you need about 3 ft-lbs of impact energy to penetrate skin, then 1 ft-lb per inch of animal to reach the vitals. SOME heavy boned animals will need between 2 and 3 ft-lbs more. If you make the addition, you will note that it takes between 7 and 8 ft-lbs to do the job in most airgun-sized prey.

Expanding pellets may be useful but a good chunk of the impact energy is expended in folding the lead back, so penetration is diminished, and in some case, expansion does not really compensate for the reduction in penetration.

At some later date, we will discuss how to make reasonable research about the terminal ballistics of YOUR system (Pellet/Rifle/Scope/Shooter), starting with the creation of the impact media. But that will be later, for now, let's say we know our gun, we know it is accurate to within ½" of POA all the way out to xx yards, and we know that WE are capable of holding the shots well within that margin of error under any and all circumstances. 

We still need something that we do not normally get anywhere else because animals do not walk around with bright red spots where you should aim at; so: ¿Where do we shoot at?

If you have read old hunting books (we normally remember Corbett's, Hunter's, Bell's, Taylor's and other more modern hunters like Capstick) you will remember them describing in detail the aim and the shots taken at bears and lions and leopards, and all sorts of big game. But where do we shoot a frog?, or a rabbit?, or . . . a rat?

We do have general ideas but, are we really, solidly, informed of WHERE to aim at? and why?

A very good friend and knowledgeable airgunner that read this blog on the other side of the world; and got interested in Field Target, came back to me, after reading a little and looking at targets, saying: "You bunch of nincompoops! You've got ALL the kill zones wrong!" LOL! And yes, he is correct. There is very little information out there, especially for small game and pests.

So let´s start this week with a VERY common animal that because it travels well by boat has been the constant companion of humans ever since they started going across water:

Yes, the ubiquitous rat (usually, Ratus Norvegicus)! We are familiar with the stance, the profile and the different parts of the body, exactly what is inside and where?
This next figure (mostly diagramatic and not in strict correspondence with the other two pictures in this section) will probably inform us better:

#1 is the brain, fairly large for the size of the animal and the reason why rats are so smart. To the rear of the brain is the cerebellum and at the base of the cerebellum, what is normally called the medula oblongata.
This is the spot that needs to be solidly hit if you want to hit the "lights-off" switch. 
Because there are still some other nervous parts that are still working after a solid hit there, the animal may twitch or show spasms, but the animal is brain dead.
#22 is the heart and #4 are the lungs. Most hunters will prefer this shot to any other because it is a good deal bigger than the brain shot.

A good, solid hit in this area will usually mean that the animal will expire in less than 10 minutes, but even 10 minutes may be 9 minutes too long. If the animal goes into a hole and expires there, the associated decomposition process will be quite unacceptable in a closed urban environment.
#5 is the diaphragm and ANYTHING to the rear of that is a BAD shot. Yes the animal will surely die, but we have infringed on the ethics of hunting.
Note how the BENT ELBOW of the front legs aligns vertically with the position of the heart, this is a good "marker" for broadside shots when using pellets that will produce a permanent hole of at least 5 mm's (0.20" cal.); do note, however, that the heart is about half way between the upper and lower ends of the animal.
  
For frontal shots, note that a shot aimed at JUST BELOW the jaw will do the job.
For shots from the quarters you will need to think and imagine where the vital organs are and then aim accordingly.
For rear shots, do note that the pellet needs to travel completely through the animal so that it hits the vital organs that need to be destroyed.

Now, rats are the product of millions of years of evolution, and this has dictated that the most delicate organs are the most protected. By bones.

To contemplate shots to the brain and immediate areas, we need to first study a little then about the bones:

As you can see, the brain cavity is fairly high on the head. The eye is always a good pointer of the height at which the brain lies, but the eye itself is a bad aiming spot because the brain is to the rear of the eye itself, the base of the ears are an incredibly good aiming spot on broadside shots.
Frontal shots should be avoided because the slant of the skull makes it hard to get a proper aim point: you will hear many hunters claim that the pellet glanced off the skull in some cases, but this is mostly the perception, in a vast majority of cases what happens is that the slant of the skull creates great difficulties for proper aiming.

When baiting rats (peanut butter & jelly in bread is particularly effective, as is dog food), you will be afforded many shots from the rear, and depending where and how you place and anchor your bait, perhaps some shots at a rat that is reaching upwards. In this case, the brain shot is a very good one to take, as you can aim to the center of the head/neck region and you will be close enough.

Some big-game hunters might be tempted to aim to the hip in the hopes of "anchoring" the prey to be finished off immediately after. One word on that: NO
Small game is much more resilient and feisty than big-game, and most of them can get away real fast on two front legs alone.

Next week we will look in depth (literally), at the Pigeon. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, move quietly, aim well and shoot straight!







Héctor Medina