Air Rifle for Survival Food Procurement?

Took the plunge and bought a RWS 34P Stealth Combo in .22. I'm still looking for a Benji also either in .20 or .22 and will snag one in the near future. After much research and finally talking to folks who live/breath air guns they told me to go either RWS or the Beeman which 1Tracker highly recommend. I seriously considered the Beeman but the price tag is twice as much for a 600 FPS Beeman rifle and the RWS is a 800 FPS (my chrongraph will tell the truth!). ]

The RWS 34P Diana Stealth Combo is ranked 5 out of 5 stars on most review boards, has a synthetic all-weather stock, advertised at 800 FPS for lead, Tru Glo open sights (comes with 4x32 AO scope), and limited lifetime warrenty which is suppose to be good. Has a much better trigger than an Gamo. Not many negative comments about it anywhere including from my air rifle guru friends who live and breath Beemans. (Beemans must be the Volve, Cadillac, BMW type rifles for the field grade rifles - I guess?)

The noise factor is a 3 - medium on both the RWS and the Gamo Whisper and I was told by those who know to stay away from Gamo because of reliabity and performance issues. Noise is a major concern for my mission profile so this is something I had to weigh in hard immedately following reliabity and performance. Ironically the Benji .22 ranks a 4 or medium high on noise which is one notch above the RWS I chose.

The Beeman is actually ranked a 2 but shoots considerably slower. This is an interesting study and I'm only getting started with your assistance!
 
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Let's just break this down.

You wanted an air rifle for survival food procurement

Ultra reliable

Accurate

Fairly quiet

Springer or pump


I think you made an excellent choice.

RWS has a reputation of high quality. The model you chose is rated at 800 fps in .22. (not sure if that is with PBA ammo, or actual lead but respectable in either case) I would not hesitate to take game over 50 yards with that performance. It is pretty quiet and you can probably have it tuned to take some of the spring "twang" out later if it is important.

Comes with a scope AND iron sights, which is a good thing in a survival situation. If the scope fails, you have a backup sighting system.

Now, here is my suggestion. Find out what pellet it likes and stick with it. Then, use a ballistics calculator (you type in your pellet weight, muzzle velocity, zero range, etc.) to find out the optimal zero range for your choices. For instance if you sight the gun in "Dead on" at 20 yards, it may shoot a half inch high at 10 yards and drop 5 inches at 40 yards, but if you sight it in "dead on" at 30 yards you may be a half inch high at 20 and 2 inches low at 40, which is much more desireable in my book. (These were examples, NOT actual figures) The American Airguns sight used to have a great ballistics calculator page, but their site seems to be down right now. The reason it is important is that your estimate of yardage to your quarry might not be exact, so you want to sight in to take advantage of your ballistics.

In any case, happy shooting, be safe and congrats on your choice!

Carl-
 
Thanks Carl! Great input and advise which I'll hang onto every word!!!!

I'll probably set it up for maximum point blank range with a given pellet relative to my quarry size in addition to learning a specific pellet's POA/POI and then calculating the DOPE as per your recommendation. I currently use a very small Leupold Laser Range Finder which stays in my BUG 24/7/365 and am competent already with the use of Mil Dot. This particular equipped Leaper's scope is a cheesy Mil Dot. So somehow I'll make it work! With this rifle's Leaper's Mil Dot, I'll be able to either dial in the specific DOPE if time permits or use the Mil Dot to create an "on-the-fly" firing solution. I have substantial training in mid to long range precision rifle work both with iron (plastic in this case) and optics so I just need to translate this all over to air rifle technology.

This is all the same but different and I enjoy learning different technology. Thanks for the endorsement of my selection as it reduces my Cognative Dissonance!

Where would one look to have a tune-up to reduce additonal noise and perhaps improve performance? Where should I start looking?
 
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I have a Beeman R9 in .177. It is scoped with a 3-9 x 40.

I've killed numerous rabbits, crows and squirrels.

Head shots are easy with the scope and I stick with one pellet.
Crosman Premier Hollow Point.

I can provide some protein for the family if needed.
 
Sorry I treated you as though you were new to shooting. Didn't realize you had experience with powder burners. I have gone full circle. Started with airguns, have hunted with rifle and shotgun extensively and I am now getting back into airguns heavily.

I would post the question about the tune on the yellow airgun forum. I have never had one done, but many there have done it themselves and several provide the service. It basically involves spreading a thin coat of tar on the spring and in some cases trigger work, honing the compression tube and other magic. The RWS rifles are already pretty nice shooters out of the box, so you probably would not need much.

Carl-
 
Hey Carl, no problem guy...I'm here to learn and I have a long way to go and sincerely apprecate your contribution and willingness to help me out!

Yea I have both powder and propellant experience including some formalized training but this air stuff is all new to me and a different technology and mindset.

Say, if you want fire me an email as mine is accessable. However I cannot locate yours. I'd like to continue this learning journey. I have much to learn and you are certainly squared away.

~Q
 
Ended up getting one of these Remington Vantage 1200's tonight.

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Here is what I finally selected...until a better pic comes along this will have to work.

rws.jpg
 
There is a thread on the aigun yellow forum. A guy killed a pretty large black bear with an air rifle.

Dennis Quackenbush custom .457 cal pushing a 422 gr hollowpoint. The slug passed through both shoulders at 35 yards.

Don't go shooting a deer with your .177 Gamo, but anyone that thinks big game can't be taken with an airgun should think again.

Carl-
 
Outstanding! Thanks Carl. OBTW, I replied to your email the same evening but haven't heard back so I'm not sure if my email went thru to you?...it may be stuck in your spam filter box.

I'll give this calculator a whirl as soon as my supplies start rolling in.

Tuxdad, thanks for the heads up on the blog. I submitted an inquiry and recieved a prompt reply from Tom. He said my choice for my mission is good and to roll with what I have. I am...but I've also got a Benji 392 on order as a back up :-)






PrimitiveMan said:
This is the best free trajectory calculator I could find over the last year or so. There are several sources to look up the ballistic coefficient of the pellet you choose. If you have trouble finding it, let me know.

http://www.airguns.net/trajectory.php

Carl-
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Oh yea Tux...big help. It is great to have competent folks like Tom and Primative Man validate a tool that one may have to potentially trust one's life too. I got the thumbs up from Primative Man and Tom quickly replied and said the RWS would be an "ideal choice" (his words not mine). Makes all the sleepless night researching and networking pay off.

Thanks amigo!
 
PrimitiveMan said:
This is the best free trajectory calculator I could find over the last year or so. There are several sources to look up the ballistic coefficient of the pellet you choose. If you have trouble finding it, let me know.

http://www.airguns.net/trajectory.php

Carl-
Click to expand...

Great Link Primitive !! Appreciate the posting... For a long time I had some airgun ballistic books(can't remember where I got them), which have all the formulas.. Glad someone came out with one of these !!:thumbup::thumbup:
 
I mentioned on the previous pages that the rounds I am using are not killing rats right away at sub-20 feet with my Crosman 1377 American Classic .177 pistol. I thought maybe it was because I wasn't pumping it very high (only 4-5 pumps, when 10 is the max recommendation). I switched over to Gamo 7.56gr Hunter rounds and pumped 5 times and shot a rat in the head. It was dying but not dead. I pumped to 10 and it took most of the head clean off. Last night I took a rat at about 7 feet away at 10 pumps and the head is now missing. Apparently the higher velocity helps the rounds to expand more.

Just thought I'd share, in case anybody else runs into the same problems and thinks it's the rounds. I'll go back to the Crosman Premier rounds at 10 pumps to check the effect when the next opportunity arises.
 
Kage, are you using the heavies or the lights(in the crossman premiers) for your rat problem ? Just curious !!
 
Hey Tuxdad,

I don't have the can with me right now, but I couldn't find the weight listed on the packaging. It's the pointed hunting Crosman Premier rounds. The guy at the sporting goods store thought they were 7.9gr.

I live near a green belt with lots of trees (including palm trees, which rats love to live in) and shrubs so there's lotsa "game" when I feel like it. We have an arboreteum with a stream running through it and if you go there around dawn or dusk there's rats by the dozens scurrying around everywhere (it's on a college campus so I don't shoot there). Pretty creepy. Because it's so warm here they get to be decent sized.
 
Man, three pages of talk and not a single pic....... Shish.
Click to expand...

If those darn Hershey, PA rabbits keep eating my black raspberry plants, there just might be a picture posted here real soon!
 
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