Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Air Guns Hatsam .30, various pellets

Did some shooting with my .30 yesterday - Hatsam 135 - using my Weaver Classic 3x9 on RWS mount. All shots from 25 yards, using a shooting bag across the end of a up-turned 55 gallon drum as a rest, so I was stamdimg. "Sighted in" a bit high with the Vortex .44.15 gr Round Mose, to hopefully be "dead on" at 50 or so. It groups decent with these. Switching to 50.15 gr JSB Diabolo Exact pellets put 3 almost in the same hole & just under the bull. With 50.15 gr FX - previously my most accurate pellet - put 3 in the same hole in the bull. The rifle seems to prefer the heavier pellets.

For a close, switched to 55 gr HP pellets, got 3 shots in the bull, 2 touching just at the top, the other almost at the mid point.

I expect most of my shots at "game" will be close to 25 yards, doubt I'll try any over 50. At 25, these pellets all blow through 3/4 plywood with impressive damage. Critters the size of big swamp rabbits or raccoons should be fair game, & a good shot at a smallish feral hog would be something I'd certainly give a try!

This makes for a very handy & effective break-barrel air rifle!

Mike Holmes

That's pretty nice.

I had the Hatsan 125, 25 caliber, out a couple days ago shooting paper with JSB 25.4gr. Using the iron sights. Managed 1 1/8" at 20 yards, and 1 3/4" at 40 yards. I'm sure someone more skilled with break-barrel guns could do much better.

They are fun guns, and deliver pretty good power. I'm at 4000', so I lose 50 fps or so compared to down around sea level. I'm getting 690-700 fps with the JSB 25.4gr.

I had a big ass rabbit living under my shed a few years ago leaving big ass tracks in the snow all over my yard. He was a cagey bastard and I only ever saw him a few times when I turned on the porch light at night, whereupon he'd immediately light out for the shed and dive under. Until one day just at sunrise I looked out the window and there he was big as day. I grabbed my old Daisy 881 out of the corner, pumped it ten times and carefully opened the door. Pop, flop. Dropped him on the spot from about 25 yards. Don't know what kind of rabbit it was or where it came from but it looked just like a giant cottontail. He was so big I put him on my wifes kitchen/cooking scale and it read 8.5 lbs...Took a picture of it with the Daisy and that rabbit was so big it looks fake. It doesn't take much power to kill with a well placed shot. I have killed dozens of squirrels and rabbits around my yard/bird feeders with that old Daisy over the years and it only launches a 7.9 grain pellet a tad over 600 fps.

Blackheart, sorry, but fail to see what your "reply" has to do with my post?

Mikewriter

The point is. that .30 cal. should kill fairly large animals no problem so long as you hit a vital spot. Doesn't really take the break barrel air rifle equivalent of a .458 to do that. I killed a 20 pound coon with my .22 cal. BSA Meteor and the aforementioned 8.5 lb. rabbit with my Daisy 881 and they are only launching pellets of 14.3 and 7.9 grains at roughly 600 fps.. Good luck with that beast anyway. I had entertained the thought of trying a Hatsan gas piston gun myself until I started watching the air gun detectives videos on youtube. Decided a 50% failure rate of the Hatsan gas pistons within a short period of time wasn't something I wanted to gamble on. Besides, at almost 10 pounds they're just a bit big and heavy for me to want to carry around hunting. Definitely not my idea of "handy".

Black heart, still don't think your post was appropriate as a response to the original one I made?

Mike Holmes

IME Rabbits are one of the easiest animals to kill. thin boned, thin skinned. Opposite of a squirrel.

At 8 lbs, I bet that rabbit coulda been a feral pet.

No kidding ? I'd have never guessed. I've probably killed more rabbits and squirrels in a year than most hunters do in 20. Pound for pound coons are one of the toughest for their size yet I've killed them with one shot using the aforementioned BSA Meteor and a .177 cal. Crosman 766. Neither is exactly a powerhouse.

The 766 was THE hammer in its day. Carried one on the trapline when I was a kid. Dispatched possum, skunk, coon, fox..........and nearly always a more instantaneous death than a .22 short. Cool old gun.

Mt Marine - just added a Hatsam .25 caliber to my arsenal, Haven't shot it as much yet as the .30, but I like it a lot, also!

Mike Holmes