So the past week I've been practicing a lot with my Daisy 880 .177 caliber air rifle I got at wal mart this past summer. I've gotten pretty good with the iron sights and regular BBs. So I installed the cheap scope that came with it and started sighting it in with Crosman magnum round nose pellets that weigh 10.5 grains.
WOW I was surprised that after sighting it in at 20 yards I was getting 1 inch groups. Not bad at all. And these heavy pellets really have a lot more energy to them than the bbs. I was shooting into a board of wood and the bbs only embed on the surface of the wood at 30 yards. These pellets were getting about an inch penetration. A lot more than I thought as I was thinking these lead pellets were going to just expand and mushroom into the wood. But none of that happened. They retained most their shape.
Well today I had a few minutes before physics class and I spotted a rabbit in the garden about 30-35 yards away. I've been trying to get rid of these buggers cuz they eat all our vegetables and they LOVE our flowers. Our barn cats keep most of them away but they only come out at night. I took a deep breath and scoped the rabbit out for a minute...it wasn't moving. Perfect broadside shot.
I steadied my aim and placed the cross hairs a few inches over its back and pulled the trigger...HIT!! The pellet fell right into its spine taking out its back legs. It crawled a few feet and stopped. I loaded up another pellet and pumped the rifle up. Tried to steady my breath for the next shot. This time I aimed right above its head and pulled the trigger. The rabbit fell over and flopped around for about 5 seconds and died. Lung shot finished him off.
I would have tried with my bow but I'm not confident at that range...didn't want to injure him and have him run off.
Gave him to my cats...they usually eat EVERYTHING but the fur. I've found piles of rabbits fur in the barn, numerous squirrel skulls, and feathers from the cats hunting.
Just wanted to share my experience.