How much fps it have to be to kill a squirrel?

If your looking to squirrel hunt with an airgun, just get GAMO break barrel. They shoot at approx. 1500 fps and it wont leave any wounded squirrels dying up in the trees. Ive killed several with my 700fps pellet hand gun. Accuracy matters though. A wounded squirrel will run and climb and you'll never find it. Good luck and send me some squirrel stew.How much fps it have to be to kill a squirrel?
One - if you're shooting a bowling ball.How much fps it have to be to kill a squirrel?
1,000 fps will kill a squirrel, at 1125 fps a .22 long rifle would too.
You need a minimum impact energy of 3 ft-lbs. To achieve that you need an impact velocity of 415 fps with an 8 grain .177 pellet or 300 fps with a 14 grain .22 caliber pellet. Note those are impact energy figures. To achieve at least that out to 30 yards you need a muzzle velocity of around 700 fps for a .177 caliber pellet and around 600 fps for a .22 caliber pellet (there's a bit more cushion there, but...)
5ftlb or 5fpe would be a better answer to your question, since i would need to know pellet weight and gun to give an answwer on fps. and that would change with distance. go to beeman.com and they have an article on this
If you are talking air guns, go with a .22.


I have taken them with .177 but the .22 does it much faster without the animal suffering much. I would go with 900 fps at least.