Paint/pellet gun recommendations

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Well, a couple weeks ago, I posted about what my neighbours’ dogs did to my birds. Since then, they’ve gotten out twice more, and while I haven’t seen them, I really, really want to make sure that they don’t consider my place a fun playground. I want to make them feel completely unwelcome here.

While it’s legal to shoot livestock killing dogs (which these officially are after all of the quail they killed), I am inside city limits. I also don’t want to buy a real gun until/unless I know how to take care of it and use it. So… that leaves pellet/paint guns.

There are a lot of options out there, and I have no idea which are decent vs. garbage. I can’t afford much, so I’m looking for something cheap but reasonably accurate.

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Keep in mind a paintball gun is only accurate within a couple of feet/meters. The further the target is, the more inaccurate it will be.

Which leaves a pellet gun, if you want to shoot at something that’s over 8m/25ft away.

Having said that, you do get paintballs with a pepper-based spray inside them, which will explode on contact. This should be enough to put off most animals from coming back again, as they will remember that funky smell.

Top : pepper ball
Bottom : solid ball
1.8cm in diameter (0.7in)

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Pellet guns - you get a .22 size pellet, which should shoot further and more accurately. I have asked our son to zero our pellet gun, and he had great fun in doing that.

The pellet gun definitely can shoot further and more accurately than the paintball marker.

You get a couple of variants of pellet guns, this website got more information :

In short, to recap :

A paintball marker is great for close range and self-defense. Long range is totally out.

A pellet gun is great for sniping at things from a larger distance, but it takes a bit of time to learn and shoot accurately, but this is the same for all guns.

You also get different types of pellet sizes, the larger the pellet, the more it’ll hurt (or kill).

I was initially thinking of a paintball marker, but a pellet gun will be a much better solution, as you can shoot from a longer distance.

Plus it will keep you out of harm’s way, should the target decide to attack whoever hurt it.

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I have a paintball marker (Tippman) with me purely for self-defense.

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We do have a pellet gun as well. I have found that the pellet gun can shoot further than the paintball marker.

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For the record, I’ve heard some critters (ferrets) despite having a good sense of smell totally ignore tear gas.

No idea if dogs and pepper spray interact.

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Thanks @Ook That’s really helpful. It sounds like a paintball gun has about the same accuracy range as a pistol, which isn’t great. I have more research to do.

@balance Dogs aren’t deterred by tear gas, but they are by pepper spray. I learned this a looooong time ago when I got my license to carry tear gas.

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Wonder if there’s some sort of remote-activated pepper spray dispenser thingy?

Would not be ideal to leave next to the quail pens, but outside on the perimeter, so if the dogs would try to get in, they’ll get pepper gassed first.

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There are motion activated sprinklers. That might deter the deer, but I doubt it would even slow the dogs down.

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With some practice you can make 25+ meter shots with a paint ball gun, and that’s using a janked out rental gun I’d never fired before. Make it a semi auto and you can just pepper, lol, rounds around the targets till they leave.

If you hit near them I would wager they would pause, and make it easier to hit them with the next shots.

These dudes actually seem to prove that a near miss could be better than a hit.

Also seems like dogs really don’t like pepper balls. And while I am not normally a fan of mixing ammo types. I bet getting a regular marker and popping a ten pack of pepper balls along with 20 or 30 regular paint balls might not be a horrible idea?

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Sounds like the paintball gun might be enough for my .58 acre property…

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Or an Airsoft pistol. You can get clear ones so it’s obvious you are not intending to kill. And they sting badly when you get hit by the plastic pellet. It won’t do the damage of a pepper ball but it also will look less dangerous to the neighbors.

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One thing to keep in mind is that whatever you shoot, those projectiles will lay around. If that area around your target is a grassy lawn, your mower may pick them up and fling them around.

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Note to self: Police your pellets.

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Oh that is good to know that could be a fire hazard or worse a shard could really hurt.

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Then discard solids, and use frozen paintballs. Once thawed out, these will just paint the underside of your mower.

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Biodegradable pellets are also available, whichever style shooter you end up with:

(Just as a “for example.” I’ve never used any of these.)
https://www.amazon.com/biodegradable-pellets/s?k=biodegradable+pellets

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