Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Pellet rifle

I'm a big fan of PCP's...if I could afford one, I'd get a Cricket... http://www.airgunsofarizona.com/KalibrGun.html (scroll down to the crickets)...

the 25 cal, rockinbbar has is similar to one of those, can't remember the make. he carries a scuba type tank with air to charge them. both are suppressed.

Refurb Crosman Nitro Titan

Correct, Roger.

I use the Marauder .25 in place of a .22lr mostly now.

The .357 Bulldog for bigger game.

For the OP.

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A singleshot break barrel that is probably the best is this one.

http://www.crosman.com/airguns/air-rifles/benjamin-trail-np2-hardwood-22

It can be very accurate, but you may need to test a variety of pellets to find one that is more accurate than others.

I mostly shoot a Benjamin Marauder in .25 caliber.

It's scary quiet and extremely accurate.

http://www.crosman.com/airguns/air-rifles/marauder-rifle-wood-stock

It's more expensive, any operates on a different system than a break barrel, but is worth every penny if someone really wants a powerful, accurate rifle with follow-up shots.

Both these rifles are truly adult airguns and will serve you well.

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They both are good to hunt with.

357 Bulldog





Marauder .25 cal.

Ive owned Gamo & Sherdian. The Gamo was a 22cal break barrel the Sheridian was a 20cal (5MM) pump.Both were scoped and both were accurate. I shot a lot squirrels and rabbits with both guns.

Given our strict gun laws, air rifle are very popular over here.

Springers are probably the easiest and least complicated to get started with.

There are generally two types, break barrel and lever operated.
The lever guns are considered a little more accurate, but if you are buying decent quality, and just using it for plinking and maybe a little hunting, there is not really much in it.

There are two main types of power plant, the traditional spring and the newer gas ram.

The spring type are fine and are even better if they are tuned by somebody who knows what they are doing..

Tuning is not just about stuffing a more powerful spring in the cylinder but rather making sure everything works in a balanced and efficient manner. If the tune is done correctly, you sometimes you end up needing a slightly less powerful spring but still getting more velocity..

The down side of a springer is that they do generally recoil quite badly which will destroy cheap scopes...

To consistently get the best accuracy from them, you must learn to hold them consistently..

Its not difficult just takes a little practice and concentration; in fact they are very good trainers for rimfire and fullbore rifles in that regard.

Next I would say you have pumps..I can't say much about them as they are not that popular over here. From what I've read, good quality ones are plenty accurate and they are pretty much recoil free so are easy on scopes.

CO2 rifles are a mixed bag. Many of the cheaper ones are unregulated, so the power varies lot during the firing cycle and they don't like cold weather as again severe cold causes big changes in the pressure you get from the CO2. The regulated ones are much better, but if spending that much cash, I would tend towards a PCP instead.

PCP's are very much the top end of air rifles..Over here "serious" enthusiasts will spend up to a couple of thousand dollars on a rifle and scope for completion use!

They are superbly accurate and very easy to shoot with no appreciable recoil.

The down side if you need a lot of "stuff" with them ie air tanks, filler hoses, possibly a manual pump ect.

They also seem to be less robust than a springer and the folks I know who have them seem to be always be tinkering with them to keep them in fist rate condition...

A couple of years back I bought an air rifle for similar reasons to those you mentioned, plus also as they can be used in a suburban back garden with out alarming the people next door ect..

After doing a lot of research, I ended up buying a used German Weihrauch HW77K in.22 with a plastic thumbhole stock. I think they are imported by Crossman in the States?

It had been tuned by a reputable airgun smith and it is fantastic.

It can sit in the cupboard until needed and I don't have to worry about air tanks ect and its completely hassle free.

If I used it more, I'd be tempted to gas ram it, but really its fine as it is...

Because of our laws, its restricted to 12ft/lbs, but even so it is more than capable of killing rabbits at 35yards or so.

Its only real down side is that its heavy and it is sized for an adult or teenager rather than a child..

Regards,

Peter

That's just insane. Not letting adults have an adult air rifle...

Damn liberal gun grabbers.

We all need to fight them on every front. Always.

Once you lose your guns, they aren't going to be coming back.

You can have them, its just that you need a Firearms Certificate same as buying a rimfire or centrefire rifle..

Generally, once you go down that road, most people end up buying a rimfire instead..

To be honest, I have my air rifle because it is low powered and fills a niche for me, but I can see the interest in the high power versions..

That they regulate airguns at all is the travesty.

I've found you can get very good accuracy with reasonably priced spring-air type rifles, is you don't shoot them like rifles!

By this, I mean you don't weld it to your shoulder or cheek. You hold it as loosely as possible against your shoulder and cheek, and you place the forearm on your palm like it's resting on a pedestal.

This lets the rifle do its gyrations independent of the one holding the gun. The less YOU influence the recoil of the spring, the greater the accuracy you'll have.

Last year we did alot of research into a moderately priced 22 caliber spring powered rifle. We settled for the RWS 34P synthetic stock to shave a bit of weight. It has been a good investment.

http://www.airgundepot.com/rws-panther-3422.html

Last year i bought a ruger air rifle. Actually made by one of the big makers and branded under the ruger label. Quite attractive. It is a break barrel design. With those little nosler ballistic tip type pellets, believe around .22lr velocities.
I know it wacks pigeons quite effectively.

Back in September I bought my first-ever air rifle; a Benjamin Trail in .22 cal.. Bought it based on my own research and a couple good reports I've heard about them. So far it's quite nice and lots of fun. Haven't chronographed it yet but it seems to hit pretty hard based on how some of those pellets will bury themselves into wood at a little over 20 yards. Plans are for a bit of squirrel hunting in the future and it's easily accurate enough for that. Currently testing several different versions of pellets to decide which are most accurate but at least there's no problem finding .22 cal. pellets as opposed to 22LR ammo.

Don't waste time and money on springers-I have several.Go ahead and get a Maurader .25-1/2" groups at 50 yrds,cheap to shoot,quiet and not scope or hold sensitive.

Yep.

Anything else will probably leave you disappointed.

Agreed here...