Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Air Guns Hunting air gun

I can't add much to TeleCasters excellent post. Have been a .20 guy since the late 1970s when I bought my first Sheridan Silver Streak. Have bought several more since then and they are a wonderful rifle if you like something light, beautifully balanced, powerful and made during a time of real American quality...these being the guns made before the family sold the business to Benjamin.

Since you are a bow hunter you won't mind the exercise of pumping. The velocity is about what one gets out of a springer without all the weight, length and recoil. This is specially nice when having to carry the gun all day. One can pick them up in the $100-150 range on GunBroker...

Another .20 is the above mentioned R9 springer...another shooin' machine.

The last .20 is a AirForce Condor SS. It will run 35-40 full power shots before it needed to be topped off. To keep it subsonic I run 13 grain pellets just over 1000 fps. It will run pellets well over 1200 fps. I have a .25 barrel setup for it but have not had the time to switch the barrels and try it out yet.

Good luck on your quest...

Bob

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth...hrono_results_from_some_5mms#Post5312328

http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=497476

I don't have any real hunting experience...............especially to compare with your rock chucking, but I've noodled this issue over a LOT in my spare time, and came to the same conclusion that "pass through energy is wasted energy" and being a big bore revolver guy, I naturally gravitate toward the larger frontal area of the .22cal. (Knowing RJM's love for the .41mag, it's almost a foregone conclusion he's also a .20cal fan. )

I'd pretty much settled on an R9 in .20 or .22 but after realizing that the .22 would have more ammo availability than the .20, and maybe a little more thump, I then started wondering if a .22cal R1 makes more sense. I don't have access to Gaylord's book on the R1, but apparently the R1 isn't just more powerful than the R9, but also a totally different design. So now I'm wondering if the weight and extra dollars up front are worth it for the potentially better design and extra speed without tuning. In a perfect world I'd have an R9 in both .20 and .22 and an R1 in .22, then see which one I preferred.

My style of hunting will be shooting ground squirrels from a (mostly) stationary position, so carry weight isn't as important as the smoothness of shot cycle (and thus accuracy), velocity with the heavy (high BC) pellets, and potentially the ease of tearing into the gun to lube/service/fiddle. Shots on ground squirrels can start to stretch out there, and wind is often a factor too, so a fast .22 seems like the answer. I don't know if 100yd shots could be the norm rather than wishful thinking--------they've got small noggins-----------but I'm hoping so. If body shots are still humane, then maybe kills beyond 100 are possible. Obviously accuracy and shooter skill are matter most, and the PCPs seem to deliver this the easiest, but I'm a sucker for that heirloom quality that TeleCaster referred to, and the self-contained, traditional, dated technology of a springer.

If a springer is going to limit my range, then maybe a .22cal R9 is enough, and I'll need to save my coins for a fancy PCP to really stretch my effective hunting range. A two gun approach might satisfy both "needs" and compliment each other.

Any additional thoughts and feedback are greatly appreciated, because I'm doing a LOT of educated guessing right now.

While I've been thoroughly hashing over this springer purchase and dissecting German brands, calibers and trajectories and air rifle scopes, my brother has a new squirrel problem so he runs down to Academy buys an $89 scope/rifle package in .177 and a tin of pellets. He returns home and after about a dozen sighting shots he dispenses with 4 squirrels, the farthest at 50 yards. He thinks I'm making too big a fuss over this decision

Nah, your brother just has a cool yard, which can make anyone jealous. A quality springer is worth the money, and the time making the correct decision. A plastic Chinese airgun is a cheap means to an end, and one you'll regret unless you're pretty tepid on the whole airgun thing anyway and think you'll lose interest in a week. At least that's my .02c.

I recently moved from the "country" where my nearest neighbor was a mile away to an area where the distances to other houses are a lot closer. We have our share of pigeons and other vermin in the area so I decided to get an air rifle. Ended up with an RWS 34.

Now I've been shooting for a long time and while not the worlds best shot I usually do pretty well but the 34 has taken me to school. Finally I went online and checked out some videos on shooting springers and I've gotten my groups way down from where they were but it's been a fun learning experience. Something to be said for the challenge of shooting one of these well.

Won't be long before that gun becomes 'inaccurate' and he wonders what is going on. Then he will see that the scope slid in the mounts, or the mounts moved on the rail, or the scope insides are all sloping around inside the tube. Then he will realize how crappy that trigger really is, etc....the cheap guns are ok for a few shots once a year, but if your going to shoot thousands of rounds through your rifle, then it is well worth getting a good one the first time around. What usually happens is that a guy will buy a cheapo, find out this is really fun, then buy a good one - in the process spend $200 on a gun that will never get used again because the nice rifle is so much better and fun to shoot. Don't ask how I know this......

As for shooting ground squirrels at 100 yards with an air rifle? Maybe, but I think there would be a lot of luck involved and there had better be no wind at all. Ground squirrels at 100 yards with a nice .22lr is not a sure thing. I think we need to be realistic here. 1/2 that distance and you will record more hits than misses, but it will still take some good shooting. You will be holding over about 3" and in a 5mph wind you'll be holding off about the same. These are short range weapons, nice and quiet so you can get in close and sometimes shoot several times before being noticed. If you looking for a 100 yard killer I would suggest a .17HMR.

Oh I agree. He doesn't have a long-term quality gun and he knows it. But until the squirrels come back he will probably never shoot it.

I could probably continue to get by with my RWS Diana 45 in .177 but I have got an itch for a .22 cal HW95L/R9 that just won't go away.

I don't think you will be disappointed with an R-9. Thing is, once you have a nice gun, you'll shoot it more. It's fun, accurate, cheap, quiet, easy to get ammo for them (big plus, have you tried to get .22lr lately?). Plinking cans, rocks, bugs, yellow jackets off a piece of meat, informal shooting matches are a blast at deer camp. They make you feel like a kid again - only this time with the gun you always wanted. Don't forget a nice scope with parallax adjustment down to 10 yards. I have the Nikon Prostaff Target EFR on my R9, gun came from Straightshooters.com love it.

Any scope creep problems with the R9?

Not with Beeman 5030M Mounts - be sure the peg is in the hole in the receiver.

When you are hunting with an AO scope do you just set it for your common shooting/hunting distance so you aren't fooling with it while Mr Bushytail hops from limb to limb? I'm guessing 25yds?

I'm just thinking that the AO is just one more thing to fiddle with. Fine for a target but not fine for a scampering critter.

I just put my AO scopes in the area that my average shot will be and turn the power down a bit. That way the focus stays sharp and a little wider field of view. If a precise long range shot is needed I usually will have time to zoom up and use the PA to fine focus...

Bob

Same here, set it for 25 and 3 or 4X for most shots. I have whacked several chucks when they were hiding back in the rocks and I could just barely see a head way back in the shadows. They think they are hidden so I can adjust the ao perfect and crank the power up and whack. Sniper like - lot of fun.

Pretty much the same for me too. I don't particularly like AO scopes either, however if you're going to use a scope over 3 power at air gun ranges, it's pretty much mandatory.

If they are hopping limb to limb or scampering, taking a shot is pointless no matter what set up you have.

A feeding squirrel will make many pauses, and give you ample time to make adjustments

With some scopes it's possible to adjust while aiming so you can ignore the range settings and judge by the sharpness of focus on the target.

The gain in precision will make up for any missed opportunities

1 1/4" @ 100yds for me. 110yds on pigeon, and 86yds for squirrel.