Perhaps I haven't gone into enough detail on my hunting situations.
I'm still getting it through my head that an air gun is not the equivalent of a 40 gr h.p. @ 1175 fps
My game is the littler edibles- grouse, and rabbits. I've taken both with .177 in the 700 fps range, and it ain't my favorite thing to do. A lung/heart shot on a rabbit with .177 is not the same as an identical shot with the afore-mentioned p.b. h/p .22 L.R. I see a lot of complete pass through with limited expansion- slight enough to cause slow, fatal bleed. I like to consider myself much more humane than that. Anything but a head shot on grouse in .177 is just asking for trouble with fly-off and die out of reach.
There are exceptions. The JSB Predator in .177 will take grouse cleanly- above 700 fps- fast enough for the nylon tip to do it's expansion work. The only fly in this ointment is that the .177 Predator is just a hair less than pin-point accurate past 20 yards.
I still have to find a suitable medium for expansion testing. The Crosman .177 Ultra Magnum Heavy 10.5 gr is very accurate out of all the rifles I've tried it in. It appears to be a fairly hard projectile, and I'm a trifle leery yet of testing them against live game.
I've come close, with used .5 micron carbon water filters as a test medium. The drawback here is the mess, and availability of spent filters...
I've got nothing against your numbers, and generally agree with them. What I'd like to avoid is heartbreak in the field- especially on the part of the neophyte air gun hunters that are trying it for the first time.
I like the deliberation, and concentration that air gun hunting provides. I've been passing up a lot of shots that are marginally questionable. There is a lot to get used to- with the low to moderate velocity air gun hunting game....
Regards,
Doc Sharptail