Canadian Airgun Forum

is there different in lead hunting pellets or lead free hunting pellets in no pal. airrifles fps.around 495/and the engery is 3.95 ft-lbp hunting pest. like rats.

You are obviously talking about a .177 pellet. I'm not sure a sub 500fps air rifle in .177 is suitable for rats. Mice, yes, to 10-15 yards, but maybe not rats
& definitely not ground squirrels, some folks call "rats".

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Best Wishes
Daryl

Yes lead free are crap lead works fine and non pal airguns are not recommenced for hunting .

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VE7SHM//VE7ZJ

Moderator

I tried some .22 lead free=copper pellets for target shooting, and I can confirm the group size and accuracy suffered.

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FX Impact MK2 PP - heavy modded
Edgun Leshiy2 - heavy modded
and a lot more scopes with great glass

Lead-free pellets are lighter, harder and not bad in target shooting as they have flatter trajectory but not recommended for hunting because they have less retaining energy and knocking power, and less penetration than lead as well as the deformed wound channel are much less. One more advantage is if you shoot indoor with proper backstop like newspaper/cardboard, the lead-free can be reused many times!

As for hunting, if you are not well practiced don't use .177 and .22 is OK for small size up to rabbits under 20 yards. However if you can consistently hit the eyeball size of the game you are able to hunt with .177 up to 15 yards. The point of hit is the key, not the power.

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A Bunch of
495fps Springers/CO2/PCP
PAL Rated plinkers and target rifles
Finally get my PAL after 1 year waiting

As far as I know, there is no such thing as a lead-free hunting pellet. There are lead free pellets, but nothing in the HP field of "hunting" pellets made lead-free.
Pellets specifically designed for hunting, aka "Hunting Pellets". have a characteristic to create more internal damage to the game hunted. Most often this is a hollow point,
hollow cavity or a hollowed point partially filled with a lead, plastic or metal pointed 'head'.

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Best Wishes
Daryl

Yes mostly hunting pellets has 4 types:
1. hollow point, including some special ones such as Crosman Piranha, to create an excess wound channel and retaining more knocking powers
2. pointed, including domed, Polymag, Leathal, Rocket, and LUXOR Cu – Sharp pyramid shaped (https://gamousa.com/product/luxor-cu-sh ... pellet-22/). These pellets are more focusing on better trajectory as well as penetration, ideal for longer ranges and larger size games.
3. Slugs, mostly hollow pointed. and they are better in ranges 75-150 yards as well as very good penetrations (for magnum power/PCP guns only)
4. Lead BBs, from .22 Cal to .50 Cal, ideal for very high power and large games ONLY

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A Bunch of
495fps Springers/CO2/PCP
PAL Rated plinkers and target rifles
Finally get my PAL after 1 year waiting

I disagree with some of this last post.
You have to be careful reprinting advertisements as truth. Oft times, the truth is quite different.
I would suggest here that round lead balls, calibre .45 and up would be useful in the higher powered air rifles for larger game, yes.
I would put small deer in the .45 & .50 calibre round ball category. I do have some experience with hunting big game with round balls.
Over .50 cal. as in the .58, at close range of perhaps 50yards, large deer, elk and moose could be added. The .72 Zeus with round balls
would easily handle moose and elk to 100yards - with perfect shot placement only - broadside lung shots. Sub 1000fps round ball loads
have no more "power" than the black powder pistols of the 17th and 18th century.
Smaller than .45, ie: .36(9mm) and smaller are not suitable for large game - squirrels and rabbits down to .25 cal. Smaller than that
mice, rats etc - if faster than 500fps, that is.

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Best Wishes
Daryl