low velocity pellets for mice

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big boar

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I plan on ordering a few brands of pellets to rid our camp of pesky mice. Mostly going to be using a low velocity 177 pistol but later I'll test using a high velocity 177 rifle just in case I need a "stopper". ( Mice can charge if they're wounded ). Until I decide what to order I picked up some Crossman Premiers from Can Tire and gave them a test using a Kiwi as well as a piece of VERY THICK lemon peel. Lemon peel for penetration (this stuff is really THICK and tough), Kiwi for expansion. The POINTED and the HOLLOWs penetrated the peel quite well but limited expansion. However the DESTROYER pellets expanded extremely well through the Kiwi. Considering how soft the Kiwi is (was) I'd say I was impressed. They are, however, also the most expensive of the pellets as they come in tins of 250, not 500. If you're just using them for hunting though they may be worth the extra $$. Keep in mind I just started the tests and these were for using a slow pistol at 5 paces. I keep the range close as mice don't want to stand still for me very long. To be I sure of a quick kill I aim to hit just below the left ear where the ear lobe connects to the head. I also keep the high velocity rifle close by in case of a charge, you can never tell.
Next will be a test using the "stopper".
 
I have shot many mice over the years in barns. I prefer to use a low velocity air rifle (under 500 feet per second) so that holes are not shot through the barn, and I like using wad cutter pellets as they create big holes in mice. Really any type of pellet will kill a mouse. They have very thin skin.
 
Wad cutters are usually more accurate especially at mouse hunting ranges, with less chance of damaging what ever is on the other side.
 
There's nothing like a warm summer evening spent sitting on the deck, sniping at the mice and voles attracted by the spilled seeds under the birdfeeders. It's like miniature bear-over-bait hunting. :)
 
I tried it with darts, darts only embed to the shoulder in baseboards and can be reused. Never could connect with a mouse though. When the the rifle crack sounded the mouse would always be in the air, 4-5 inches above where they were when I pulled the trigger. Moved shortly after so never got the vertical lead thing figured out.
 
In my younger day's on mouse Safari I use to use wadcutter pellet's, but put them in backward's. Make's for a GIANT hollow point!
 
I thought about loading backwards but didn't think it would work very well. The skirt is designed to "trap" the air and seal the bore. Loading in reverse would limit the velocity but then again at close range it may work well. I should give it a try. Has anyone used a slow pistol on anything larger than a mouse? If so what was the range limit? Most every mouse I've taken was a fast moving target, they don't like to stand still very long. I think I may have found the ideal product for penetration tests. Take a "Mandarine" orange and let it sit for a couple of weeks till it hardens up. The skin gets very very hard but still has a soft interior, much like a small animal. So far, I've still found the Crossman Premier "Destroyers" penetrate the best AND give a decent sized exit hole.
 
I found this trap a lot more efficient than me+airgun combo.I tried flat nosed target pellets from Princess Auto and they do work well.

bucket-mouse-trap-with-dowel-peanut-butterr.jpg
 
big boar said:
Loading in reverse would limit the velocity but then again at close range it may work well. I should give it a try. Has anyone used a slow pistol on anything larger than a mouse? If so what was the range limit?
Click to expand...
I wouldn't expect velocity for close range work to be all that different when loading backwards. You may lose 10 or 20fps but nothing too significant. Much more concerning is accuracy. A diabolo pellet is designed for stability when shot the right way around, with a heavy nose and much lighter skirt following that. Flipping them results in instability, a tendency to tumble. My brother and I used to shoot .22" Crosman wadcutters backwards sometimes when we were kids, as indeed the destructive potential proved superior. But only out to about 10 feet, if that. Mostly we saw more dynamic results on shattering targets within 5 or 6 feet. Beyond that accuracy suffered so obviously that we didn't bother after a few tries. Some pellets may do better than that, but precision is essential on small targets so I wouldn't bother.

I've used a sub-500fps target pistol on rats, out to about 15 metres. The accuracy of the pistol, set up as a carbine with a wire stock and infrared monocular set up behind a 3x scope, means I can snipe them very reliably to that range. I wouldn't try a further shot as the power is just too low. But to 15 metres rats seem fragile enough with well placed brain hits using H&N Finale Match or other match wadcutter .177" pellets that they drop 100% of the time. If I can't make the shot perfectly every time I just don't take the shot, so most are taken inside 10 metres, usually rested on a fence or wall but sometimes free standing, and many are in the 3 to 7 metre range. Holdover becomes a significant issue with a scope so close so I've memorized the heights for every 1 metre increment between 2 metres and 9 metres with my setup, in millimetres. From 10 metres to 15 metres the trajectory puts them all within about 4mm vertical travel so close enough to stop worrying about holdover or holdunder.

I've not shot mice. Rats are often tricky to find sitting still, but they get hypnotized for a few seconds when they see the dull red of the infrared emitter above the scope so that usually gives me enough time to line up a safe shot. Mice would be tricky. I've preferred a professional exterminator with his bait traps for those, and they've worked very well the one time we had a bunch of mice move into the walls.
 
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I’m a big fan of the crossman destroyer pellets. They’re the most accurate out of my 1200 springer, penetrate as deep as the pointeds, and expand like crazy. They’re the ones on the right. Unfired and fired into wax.
 
Mice find a way. It's a 100 year old house, lots of vents and hidden corners where mice can squeeze through a crack. Putting bait boxes behind appliances and under stairs brings out the mice. Oh, but perhaps you meant how did they remove the expired mice? They didn't. Little furry mummies now. We managed to trap 32 in the old style wood and wire traps with peanut butter, which was likely the bulk of the family.
 
I get the accuracy thing but at 3-4 metres, using a slow pistol and hitting a moving target how much accuracy do you really need? Also, thanks to all the responses, I appreciate it. I also found the same as KodiakJack, the Crossman Destroyers create more "damage" than all the other pellets I've tried in the Mandarin/orange tests. It's good to know in case you end up with a "huge" mouse (rat) that requires attention.
 
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