I'm thinking my next rifle will be an air rifle.

S

Smaug

New member
My local shooting range has a section for airguns that is less crowded. I just realized, if I'm shooting at targets and plinking anyway, why do I need gun powder and regulations up the wazoo?

I can just shoot smaller targets at closer ranges.

I'm thinking of one of the break-barrel fixed velocity ones, like a Ruger Airhawk.

I have an old Crosman 66 Powermaster, but that takes a lot of pumping to get the 800 fps.
 
By the way, what's the effective range of a 1000 fps, .177 airgun?

By effective, I mean, where to the pellets start to keyhole?

How much would it be reduced if I wanted to have energy left to kill a squirrel?

What is the trajectories?
 
I never thought much about an air rifle until this last weekend. I was chatting with a local ranch manager and he is now packing a 22 caliber air rifle that the velocity is a blistering 1600'ps. Says a hog at 100 yds is not a problem with decent shot placement. They now are making air rifles in 9mm and 38 caliber too. As I remember, the 38 caliber was pushing a 175gr bullet at 1200'ps. That's pretty close to some of the old Winchester 92 cartridges. From what I've been reading, I'm impressed with the new ones and have been considering one.
 
Buy a *quality* air rifle. I'd look at the Beeman R-9. It's got quite a following of people who trick them out, but even stock it's a great performing air rifle.

And don't take those 1000 fps claims at face value. They often shoot the lightest pellet possible to get there. I've found heavier pellets like the Kodiak to shoot really accurately at distance and really help smooth out the feel of the firing cycle.

I've made hits at around 100 yards once I've had the range doped.
 
I was raised on airguns. I shot ground squirrels and jackrabbits with them in my teen years occasionally. Sorry, I question the veracity of a 100 yard hog shot with a .22 air rifle. Even if true, it was luck, not superior ballistics. Even a really powerful airgun in a normal caliber (.177, .20 & .22) is going to fall short in comparison to a .22 LR. If for no other reason, the light weight skirted pellet design loses energy quite fast compared to the typical bullet design. Non standard designs tend to be less accurate. Typical airguns (the Bigbores excluded, don't know enough to comment on those) are not a true substitute for a firearm. Within sensible limits, they are nice to have around. Within 100 yards, you should be able to stop any charging beverage can.
 
50-80 yards from a good air gun.

Best I have seen is a .5 inch group at 50 yards.

CO2 is nice but changes with temp.

Air is the best but most expensive (air from scuba tank that is).

Pump/sping is okay but takes a little more work.

10 yard competition air guns are really sweet (one hole 10 shots).

Air gun hunting rule of thumb if I remember, 12 foot punds of energy minumum.
 
overkill0084 said:
Sorry, I question the veracity of a 100 yard hog shot with a .22 air rifle.
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I did too, but the guns he's talking about may be out of our scope of knowledge. For instance, I've never heard of an airgun that could shoot 38 caliber bullets. (not pellets) Nor one that could achieve 1600 fps. I think he's talking about the scuba-tank powered ones.

I'm thinking about break barrel .177 and .22 caliber. (max)


slopemeno said:
And don't take those 1000 fps claims at face value. They often shoot the lightest pellet possible to get there.
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The latest ones, even "regular" ones available at Bass Pro, advertise 1000 fps with lead pellets and 1200 fps with some new-fangled alloy pellets.

I'm mostly thinking about plinking and target shooting out to maybe 50 yards max. Some day, if I move to a place with a little room out back, maybe small critters too.

I'm just realizing that with ammo prices going up (even on reloading components) it would be nice to only have to buy the projectile.

I'll look into the Beeman R-9; thanks for the tip. I was thinking about the $100-200 range. For accurate shooting out to 50 yards, I feel like I should be able to get something good in that price range.

My uncle's got a scoped break-barrel Daisy and he nails squirrels through and through with it. Leaves the corpses, and the coyotes clean them up overnight for him. (he's got a vendetta against squirrels, as they chewed into his attic one time and cost him hundreds of dollars.)
 
If you plan on using a scope... make sure you get one that is set up and made for air rifle use... Along with the special mounts. Regular rifle scopes on the break barrels do not hold up very well, the recoil is reversed.
 
saw a blurb somewhere a while back about the 9mm repeaters... use scuba tanks to fill, & have a cylinder so quick follow up shots are possible... I think I even saw a 50 caliber that was supposed to be rated for big game ???

I guess that means there really is "more than one way to skin a cat"

mine is just a pump that converts to a handgun or a pistol grip rifle... is 17 caliber but just a cheapie... if I lived closer to town, or sensitive neighbors, I'd have to get one of the high end models...

... but I am temped to get one of the silenced ones, just because I can't get one for a rifle or handgun in my state...;)
 
Most low quality manufacturers -El Gamo, Crossman, Ruger, Hatsan, ...- tend to overstate their velocities. Even with alloy pellets (like the Raptor) you only get around 1100 fps out of a 1200 fps airgun. It's a different story with the high quality ones, I'm talking weihrauch/diana/... here. Generally, if you want a break-barrel for cheap target practice, I'd advise a Weihrauch. They tend to have less power, but very accurate. (an airrifle has two recoils, powerful ones are thus difficult to shoot accurately because they start recoiling before the shot)

If you want a powerful yet accurate airrifle, I'd advise the Diana 34 or a Diana 350 Magnum. They are not cheap, but definitely on the top line of quality. The Panther models (synthetic stock) are sometimes cheaper too.
 
What 9-Ball said.

Weihrauch is sold over here under the Beeman brand -- My Beeman R7 is the same gun as the Weihrauch HW30S, for example. It's a wonderfully accurate little rifle: 5 shots in one hole at 10 meters is no problem if I do my part (which is a big if, but still...). It's less powerful than the R9, but a whole lot easier to cock -- and the lower power makes it quite a bit easier to adjust to that weird springer recoil.

It's well worth the money.
 
So, RWS/Diana and Beeman are the brands to consider.

Anything in the $100-300 range worthwhile?

I'm trying not to go overboard here, I don't think I'll become an airgun connoisseur. I just want something accurate and reliable, akin to my Marlin 60 in firearms.


-Jeremy
Sent from my iPod
 
I have the RWS 34 - second time around after selling one a while ago - with the different pellets, it will cleanly take squirrels at backyard distances.

IF you go with a scope - get one made for air rifles - the double recoil will break most crosshairs on regular scopes
 
My recommendation for a springer Air Rifle is the Chinese B21/22. I think that they are now being made by Xisco. It is a copy of the RWS 48 - not a break barrel, but a side lever. In my opinion, it is better than the RWS. The trigger is made of all steel forged components and is fully adjustable - the RWS fire control parts are cheap in comparison. The B21/22 is every bit as powerful as most break barrel rifles in its class. It has a heavier barrel than the RWS that can be cut down and recrowned for better balance.

Unfortunately, the parts don't interchange with the RWS 48....if they did, I might buy an RWS 48 as a base gun and then buy the Chinese gun just to swap out the fire control parts. I could buy the RWS if I wanted to...I just can't justify it when I believe that the B21/22 is superior.
 
I used to shoot cottontail, pheasant, partridge, wood pigeon with an old .22 BSA Airsporter "S" at about 12ftLbs at the muzzle (that was the legal limit in the UK then). What I really wanted was a Theoben. Sadly no longer with us John Darling was very popular in all the air rifle magazines back then.

It's amazing what an air rifle can achieve in the right hands. Many rabbit pies were put on my table because of that Airsporter. I put an Ox Spring in it, and through it, Eley Wasps would fold a two pence piece in half at 50 yards 8 times out of ten. And I dropped small game in their tracks with head shots out to seventy five yards.
-SS-
 
Smaug said:
So, RWS/Diana and Beeman are the brands to consider.

Anything in the $100-300 range worthwhile?
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You may want to check out some of the dedicated air gun forums, both for additional information, and because most have "For sale/Wanted" sections, and you may be able to find a good used air rifle for less money than new.

Some I like:

AirGunForum
http://www.airgunforum.net/agf/index.php

Graybeard Outdoors - Air Guns
http://www.graybeardoutdoors.com/php...forum.php?f=77

And RimfireCentral has forums for both air rifles and pistols, as well... just keep scrolling down, you'll get to them eventually...
http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/

And Airgunbbs -- it's based in England, but has a huge membership -- lots of good info there...
http://www.airgunbbs.com/forums/
 
This is my RWS 460 in .177 caliber with a RWS 6x scope. It really likes the heavy Beeman Kodiak pellets and the rifle is superbly accurate. I have decimated the local tree-rat population.
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