Prefer .22 air rifle, or .22LR
I used to shoot rabbits with a Beeman .22 carbine (break action). That rifle was at the top limit for allowable power in England, I think it was just under 12 footpounds (?). It worked fine up to a few tens of feet, but I replaced it with a .22LR which worked a whole lot better.
I also have a .177 CO2 pistol, supposedly 430 fps. It will kill rats at point blank range (i.e. in a trap) when the CO2 bottle is new, but forget about it at any range or if the bottle isn't new. Pellets then just bounce off the critters. Seems to me that you need to get somewhere up to 1,000 fps to be serious.
I used to shoot rabbits with a Beeman .22 carbine (break action). That rifle was at the top limit for allowable power in England, I think it was just under 12 footpounds (?). It worked fine up to a few tens of feet, but I replaced it with a .22LR which worked a whole lot better.
I also have a .177 CO2 pistol, supposedly 430 fps. It will kill rats at point blank range (i.e. in a trap) when the CO2 bottle is new, but forget about it at any range or if the bottle isn't new. Pellets then just bounce off the critters. Seems to me that you need to get somewhere up to 1,000 fps to be serious.