Air Rifle

T

tzkid

Joined
Feb 22, 2008
Messages
18
I'm looking for my first Air Rifle to do some hunting(small/medium animals) and general pest control.

I was looking at some of the really nice .22 calibur air rifles but they all seem like they are over 300 dollars.

I am looking for a quality air rifle for about 200 dollars. I saw the GAMO varmint hunter and it was on sale for about 204 bucks and it seemed really nice, but i want to go with a more traditional wood stock air rifle.


help me guys!:eek:
 
I agree with ahgar. If you insist on a new rifle with a wood stock, the the RWS 34 is the way to go. You might check out some of the ari gun forums. Some have classified ads and you may pick up a good deal on a pre-owned rifle of better quality for about $200.

Don't get caught up in the hype about velocity. 650 to 800 FPS is plenty. The Brits are restricted to 12 f/p of muzzle* energy and that works just fine on rabbits.

Here's one. http://www.airguns.net/classifieds/classifieds.html



* Without a permit.
 
hm should i get it in the .22 or .177 version?


are there any differences between them besides force and price?
 
Try hard to hold out for a .22 caliber. The .177 is OK for plinking and practice, but for game .22 is best.
 
the .22 version has 800 fps
and the .177 version has 1000 fps.

which one will shoot farther/more accurate/more stopping power?

Im assuming the .177 shoots father and more accurate but the .22 has a bigger bite to it.
 
UffDa said:
I agree with ahgar. If you insist on a new rifle with a wood stock, the the RWS 34 is the way to go.
* Without a permit.
Click to expand...


Yeah I picked up a 34 in wood a while ago. I should have went with the plastic, the wood stock it too damn heavy. And the wood it a bit bruised up.
 
I have owned a gamo from sports authority for about 4 or 5 years, deadly accurate, stopping power is hard to beleive,shortly after purchase, incident! we had a nubian goat 12 months old probably 50 -60 pounds named billy! the little bastard was a family pet. He would escape and have a feild day with plants and other outside valuebles, Unfortunately he had a thing for my 2 most prized possesions, Black hammer Benz and Black Slant 930, Little goat climbing toys! Long story short, Had a bad day on the site came home after a few cocktails, Billys walking on the hood of my benz! Figured i would scare him and shoot him in the ass, 2 days before my daughter dropped the gun and must have wacked the scope, drunkenly went to shoot him in the ass and teach him a lesson! Hit him mid chest, held the little bastard as he fought for breath and died in my arms, Have not shot at another animal since, still see my buddy dying! Short story cannot beat gamo for the money, just upgrade the scope! best of luck john
 
tzkid said:
hm should i get it in the .22 or .177 version?


are there any differences between them besides force and price?
Click to expand...

I have never hunted with an air rifle. However, a general rule is .22 for fur and .177/4.5mm for paper and feathers. Obviously, you could use a .22 for paper and birds as well.
 
It's like with a .22 rimfire. Each rifle will have a type of ammunition that it shoots best. Buy a bunch of different types and enjoy.
 
i have a rws model 46. it is the fixed barrel with the underlever cocking mechanism. i love it. it has a bushnell scope on it which i am not crazy about, but it is the only one that will withstand a standard spring piston. the model 34 is a great value. if i were to buy another one, i would go with a precharges pneumatic rifle. excellent velocity, superb accuracy, quiet, etc... with a 22 you can drop a jackrabbit at 150 yards. very expensive though. about $1100 for an entry level setup.

with my 46 i hit a penny at about 25 yards, the penny split into about 5 pieces, found the head of the pellet, it had part of "in god we trust" imprinted on it.

IMG_0387.jpg
 
Diana/RWS guns aren't bad for the money. The Rws34 is probably the best value. there are also spring kits available through Maccari therat will really smooth the gun out. An excellent scope would be the Bushnell Legend 5-15X40AO. The Leapers scopes are also good values, and are spring gun rated. The HW/Beeman R9 would probably be the best gun if you can swing a couple hundred more. The rekord trigger on the HW line is exceptional. Some of the Chinese guns are getting better quality wise as well but QC is spotty...I prefer to pay a bit more and buy the original.
Speaking of Webleys here's mine a Webley Longbow Deluxe...walnut stock and Hawke 4-12X40 scope
Here's a link to a great airgun forum...these guys got me too spend thousands of dollars over the years on AG's...thank God I came to my senses and now spend all my money on knives and bike parts.
LB2.jpg


Dave
 
^ hey wow great gun :D

I heard the RWS 34 has a very flimsy scope mount and the sights(things you aim with when you dont have a scope? haha) is also flimsy and can move around?

anyway to fix this?

and while im at it can anyone suggest a good scope better than the stock on on the 34, i heard along with the scope mount the scope itself is kind of sketchy too.

under 50 dollars if possible haha.
 
I'd wager almost any scope under 50 dollars will be damaged in short order. Spring piston air rifles usually require high grade scopes in order to handle their odd recoil.
 
i don't know if they still make it but RWS used to sell a kit which included the gun,scope, mount, and a case for a really decent price. I agree with the above for fur .22 for just piddling around .177. I found the sights on the 34 to be fine.
 
the sights on my model 46 were just fine. i have considered going back to them as most of my shooting is done as less than 50 yards.
 
ah it seems ive finally gotten everything straightened out.

Im going to go with the lighter rws 34 panther .22 caliber with an acushot medium single piece mount and leapers 3x9x32 AO scope after consulting users at other forums who had the same problem. It seems the scope and mount togeather will only run me 70 or so bucks.

thanks for the great help guys :thumbup:
 
Why don't you go here.....http://www.straightshooters.com/

They don't have the best deal in town, but there is a wealth of knowledge and real service there. After you pick a rifle and caliber, they sell a sample pack of pellets that contains just about every pellet available or you can just buy Beeman FTS or JSB Exact pellets and be done with it. I have never heard anything but good reports on both of these.

.177 vs .22 is a Coke vs Pepsi thing. They both will do the job on critters as big as raccoons. The .177 shoots faster and flatter and the .22 has more knock-down power, but clean kills require a head shot. An animal like a rabbit or a squirrel only requires about 4 f/p of energy for a clean kill. A rifle that delivers 12 f/p is just fine. The professional vermin hunters in the UK prove that every day.


BTW: My favorite rifle is a Beeman R9 in .20 caliber. It has a Bushnell 3200 scope and I shoot Beeman FTS pellets. It shoots just about as flat as a .177 and has just about the same knock-down power as a .22. The only problem is that not all models of rifles are made in .20
 
A year ago, I started reading about air guns on this forum. I did some research on high performance air guns and bought myself a Webley Patriot (made in Turkey). It was heavy as heck and I just didn't like how it shot. I then made the move to a PCP (precharge pneumatic) air rifle. My FX Cyclone is powerful and accurate. It costs more than my RRA AR-15! But it is quite an air rifle and is almost as powerful as a .22 rimfire.
 
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