.30 For Florida Whitetail? What’s Your Min Caliber?

[Chief55]

I will start by saying that I have not hunted deer with an airgun yet, but I studied dozens of videos of people shooting deer and hogs with airguns before I made my choice. I agree that 150 FPE should be minimum, but I am a firm believer that the bigger the hole is the faster they go down. I chose a 457 and I loved it. My son moved and because of that and health reasons I did not go hunting with it. Since then, I have sold it and turned to arrow shooters, one because they are just plain fun to shoot and two because they can take anything, no question about it. I have also learned that I would rather keep the pressure no more than about 3000-3600 in my guns. I believe I get less leaks that way and that's one of the reasons I like Airforce guns. As for shooting the arrows they can be hard to pull out of the target. One thing that can help is using a frame that lets the target swing to absorb some of the impact, but the best thing is to have a great target like a SpyderWeb 18XL archery target. I can pull out my arrows with just two fingers with that target. I have also put together a 2 pully drag system to help me drag a deer out of the woods if I do decide to go out on my own but it's really hard here on public land without a tree stand and for me that's just not going to happen anymore.

 

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If you are still wondering, check out my reply to Ezana4CE's "Who is Deer Hunting with an Airgun This Season?" thread.

From my experience and testing, a .30 caliber 80FPE+ will get the job done out to 50-60 yds with a perfect headshot only (with higher FPE, I'm sure a well placed vitals shot will also do) BUT I caution you on taking head shots... please take the time to heavily consider the possible outcomes. My YT video from yrs ago may help explain a few things:

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If you are going to take big game hunting with airguns serious, consider a HP .45 caliber as they hit with authority. I like the Western Rattler .45 Std. Check out how far that 360 solid slug traveled through the deer at 50 yds:

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slug recovery

 

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Here is another video with results:

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