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Thread: Why does .177 exist?

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    Why does .177 exist?

    Genuine question.

    We all know a .22 makes a bigger hole which is better for hunting, it is also less susceptible to pocket damage and latent homosexuality. The .177’s feeble efficiency means a significantly lower shot count in PCP’s and higher recoil for any given power in proper spring powered airguns, so why is .177 so popular?

    The lack of a necessity for fieldcraft skill is an excuse in hunting, but surely target shooters should embrace the better final result of the larger pellet?

    I’m not trying to start an argument, I use .20, but I sometimes look at .177 shooters and wonder if they were not loved enough as children?
    Better to admit you walked through the wrong door than spend your life in the wrong room

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    Many targets are outward scoring, including most knock down targets. So there is a .5mm advantage in .177. And the pellets are cheaper.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Black Beard View Post
    Many targets are outward scoring, including most knock down targets. So there is a .5mm advantage in .177. And the pellets are cheaper.

    ………And I forgot to put the counter-argument!

    As Andy quite rightly says: .177 are cheaper, smaller, score higher in bench rest competitions and you can fit more on your purse!
    Better to admit you walked through the wrong door than spend your life in the wrong room

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    I know it must be difficult Nick, and I really don’t blame you for trying to make things sound OK. Big pellet good, small pellet bad and all that but you’re going to have to come to terms with the facts sooner or later. It’s not your fault and your parents probably didn’t help but you need to accept that your willy is really small. It is what it is and over compensating won’t change it.
    I for one will never hold you responsible because it’s not your fault, really it’s not. Some women like that, honest.

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    I've killed 100's no 1000's of things with 177.
    The idea is to die young, but leave it as late as possible

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    Quote Originally Posted by Filbert View Post
    I know it must be difficult Nick, and I really don’t blame you for trying to make things sound OK. Big pellet good, small pellet bad and all that but you’re going to have to come to terms with the facts sooner or later. It’s not your fault and your parents probably didn’t help but you need to accept that your willy is really small. It is what it is and over compensating won’t change it.
    I for one will never hold you responsible because it’s not your fault, really it’s not. Some women like that, honest.
    There is the real answer!
    Better to admit you walked through the wrong door than spend your life in the wrong room

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    Quote Originally Posted by tinbum View Post
    As Andy quite rightly says: .177 are cheaper, smaller, score higher in bench rest competitions and you can fit more on your purse!
    NSRA benchrest competitions are scored outwards, and a plug gauge used to bring the hole to .22 whatever the original calibre, so there is no advantage in a smaller calibre ...

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    Quote Originally Posted by wobbly bob View Post
    there is no advantage in a smaller calibre ...
    There is in Bell Target.

    .177" pellets were invented to make Bell Target easier.

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    You young Turks won’t remember..

    In the Old Days the .177 was actually more accurate than the .22. Not just easier to shoot because of speed and trajectory.
    The angular dispersion of impact point from a .177 was smaller than a .22. Irrespective of velocity.
    Like a 6.5mm Creedmore shoots better than a .30/06.
    Maybe it was a pellet thing but there it was.
    No-one WANTED to shoot .177 as they were usually 9 or at best 10fpe guns but when Eddie Barber masqueraded as .177 Evangelist ‘Fred Grimwade’ and showed the readers of Airgun World that a hit with a .177 beat a miss with a .22, the first lot of hunters started transitioning. Then when FT started the .22 shooters just didn’t make the prize list. Rifles and pellets and sights developed which meant a 40 yard headshot on a pigeon or rabbit could be taken with some confidence.. in .177. Before then a 25 yard chest shot with a .22 was the thing.

    Of course .177 is shit for FAC so the .22 is far from dead, and for hunting certain pests the bigger pill is the better caliber.
    Last edited by Hsing-ee; 02-12-2023 at 11:29 PM.

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    .177 gives a better ring to a bell target when you have a hang over.

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    .177 rose in popularity around the time it was discovered that it's use annoyed Cornish dinosaurs with a TRex like lack of dexterity in the pellet loading department
    Pete
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    it was probably something to do with shotgun loads and BB bird shot being widely used, easily available and manufactured in quantity .
    it seems to indicate the .177 first appeared in england in the early 1900s but also looks like people like RWS were doing things at same time .
    perhaps the first airgun pellets as we know them were pressed out of BB shot .
    we had plenty of accurate high quality shot producers here back in the days and perhaps a .177 shot was the first choice in the process .

    mind you when you look at us people of a certain age who had run of the mill airguns and pellets as a kid , with marksman pellets being the normal choice of pellet that sold everywhere , it is something to have been part of when we reach today and experience the huge changes in pellet quality , accuracy and stability that we now can take advantage of .

    it is a pleasure to shoot an old airgun with a modern pellet like a JSB diablo and find it is very accurate and reliable .

    as for low power of .177 air rifles , i have an old BSF .177 that must buck the treand and that is a fine piece of gear .

    cheers

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    tinbum's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by T 20 View Post
    There is in Bell Target.

    .177" pellets were invented to make Bell Target easier.
    Is that true? It sounds good and makes sense, but it is early and I am a little gullible
    Better to admit you walked through the wrong door than spend your life in the wrong room

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    tinbum's Avatar
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    A quick google brought up this answer from a very unreputable source:

    Quote Originally Posted by JLB View Post
    When airguns became popular they were made in the manly calibre of .22 to allow clean dispatch of large predatory UK game such as rabbits & pigeons. Then sometime in the 90's the new suffragette's got wind of this marvellous hobby, so they had to introduce .177 for the girls to shoot paper bullseye's and steel one's that fall over if you hit them in the right place.

    John
    Wikipedia says it was invented in the USA in the 1940’s, so that is clearly bunkum too as the very early no.1 bsa’s are over 100 years old
    Better to admit you walked through the wrong door than spend your life in the wrong room

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    Quote Originally Posted by g5wqian View Post
    as for low power of .177 air rifles , i have an old BSF .177 that must buck the treand and that is a fine piece of gear .

    cheers
    Indeed it did. Until the production of the Feinwerkbau Sport, which I think was in the very late 1960s or early 1970s, the BSF break-barrels were the only spring-powered rifles that would do 12 fpe in .177. The others - BSA Airsporter, Weihrauch HW35, Diana 50 and 35, Falke 80/90, Webley Mk III etc etc would generally be around the 9 fpe mark in .177. Maybe a few HW35s would do 10-ish, but nothing but the BSF B55/S60/S70 would break the 800 fps mark with a normal pellet.

    It's a very light rifle, and the powerful spring and large amount of pre-load the BSF has makes it difficult to shoot accurately for a lot of people, but hold it gently and allow it to jump around and it groups well. Sometimes wish I hadn't sold mine.

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