Airgun as a survival tool?

M

magneto

Joined
Mar 21, 2006
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This would be for a worst case scenario in that you are forced to leave your home and flee to the wilderness with people possibly pursuing you. I would assume you could harvest enough birds, squirrels, rabbits and other assorted critters to help you survive. And I also assume it would be quiet enough to not give away your position as well as you being able to take several thousand rounds with you.

What are your thoughts on this idea?

Does anyone have any experience with airguns that they would be willing to share? Any recommendations for a great airgun?
 
teamed up with a .22 Rifle a air pistol will do the job at close range.just don't expect to see tons of small game often other than rodents as they spread out to find food. Lots of snares/traps and set lines[hooks work on other than fish] will work 24/7 while your doing other things.
good training for indoor and outdoor:
http://www.beeman.com/p1.htm
 
too many things to break on them and they can be quite loud. also dont forget springs wear out and they do run out of air they can be very heavy and bulky for pumps and most cant be taken apart without tools also some styles have to be held differently for maximum accuracy
 
ajcz said:
too many things to break on them and they can be quite loud. also dont forget springs wear out and they do run out of air they can be very heavy and bulky for pumps and most cant be taken apart without tools also some styles have to be held differently for maximum accuracy
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Well that sort of sucks, the weight is an issue with me, and I really don't know how reliable they are other than the ones I bought my son, (Crosman) and didn't realize they were loud!
Thanks.
 
I would much rather have a .22 loaded with CB's. I took a load of squirells and rabbits with a scoped .22 and CB's in suburbia with no problems. They are louder than an air rifle but not likely to be recognized as a gunshot. The guns themselves are far more dependable and can be uploaded with regular .22 ammo when necessary. My daughter had one of those little single shot Davey Cricket (AKA Chipmunk) rifles. It would have made a real nice survival rifle. I don't regret giving it to a friends son when we moved back to Brazil, but I do miss it.

I have used my .177 spring piston Gamo air rifle here in Brazil to hunt lizards and birds. It does a number on the little dove we have here.

Funny story, I was out hunting lizards using those flat headed paper puncher type pellets. A lizard ran out on a rock down below me and I shot at his head. He didn't even flinch, not a twitch. This was kind of odd as they usually scramble off at a miss or flip around a bit when hit. I reloaded and moved closer. He was totally imobile, not even tracking my movement. I got really curious and kept approaching, he still didn't even twitch a muscle. I walked right up to him and there was a neat .177 hole right through his head with, I kid you not, daylight shining through it. I had punched his little brain right out!

So, yes, you can hunt with them as long as you don't get ambitious as to the size of the critters. I have hit pigeons with it and they have flown off enough times that I don't bother anymore. Head shots only for them. Mac
 
I think airguns are great survival tools - their major drawback is that they require a high level of accuracy since they don't deliver the same amount of power down range as a .22

Get a multi-pump - if they're cared for they'll last a lifetime. Sheridan's are very good - people have ones they've used since the seventies without an issue. Check out http://www.pyramydair.com/ for more info

Here's mine - it has a collapsible wire stock which makes it compact for carry. It's a Chinese model - Xisico XS-B5-10. It has its drawbacks - difficult to load, not very light. But it's accurate.

IMG_3942.jpg
 
I have a Hatsan 55 (sold in the US as some kind of Winchester) that is VERY accurate and will punch through anything up to about the size of a cat at 50 meters and keep on going. It is a bit loud - like .22 short loud - but I would be confident killing small game with it, absolutely. Of course, it's about the size of a regular rifle, bigger than most of my .22s, in fact.

Frankly I would be pretty confident using it to kill a person at up to about 20 or 30 meters, assuming they didn't know I was there and weren't trying to protect their face! Say if my house was invaded while I was out shooting small game and I needed to kill a guy outside the door to save my family. I realize this is not especially likely...but then similar things happen in places like Zimbabwe and South Africa. Would I rather have one of my M14s? Absolutely! But do I think I could do damage with my Hatsan? You bet!
 
I think a quality airgun sounds like a good idea, most are quieter than a 22, and you cant get an easier to carry ammo. I wouldnt want one as my only arm but especially in an area where hunting is questionable it might be a good option.

Lewis and clarke took an airgun on their famous journey, and I bet they knew a bit more about survival than most of us.
 
Air rifles and air guns are fun to shoot, but I think there are better survival tools for several of the reasons stated above. I echo the posts recommending a good .22 rimfire rifle.
 
I prefer my air rifle when hunting rabbits due to the accuracy needed and it doesn't make them go "splat" when it hits. Head shots only, kind of helps when shooting birds. If you can hit a rabbit head, you can shoot a bird :p. The ammo is a big plus as well, the only problem is that you won't ever be able to take down anything like a deer if you REALLY had to survive for a long period of time with just the air rifle.

I have the Daisy 1000, shoots .177 at 1000 ft. per second. It is quieter than my .22 lever action, and is a break barrel single shot.
 
An airgun can be perfectly capable of taking small game. Even in .177 cal. Even an inexpensive airgun can be quite capable. Many, even the cheapo Crosman pumpers, are extremely reliable. However, outside of the low noise, I can't think of a good reason why one would be preferable to a .22 rimfire gun.
 
Those are good points, shecky. It would be interesting if someone would review a .22 rimfire and a comparable air rifle during a week long camping trip.

Andy
 
I like the idea very much but if you are going to get one primarily for hunting, get a GOOD .22 or a .25 cal spring powered rifle. They are much more effective on small game than the .177.
 
shecky said:
An airgun can be perfectly capable of taking small game. Even in .177 cal. Even an inexpensive airgun can be quite capable. Many, even the cheapo Crosman pumpers, are extremely reliable. However, outside of the low noise, I can't think of a good reason why one would be preferable to a .22 rimfire gun.
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I agree, I started out with crossman air rifles first, the 30 dollar one from wally world complete with scope and rounds. The multi pump part always got on my nerves, which led me to the break barrel which generates more power. The Daisy powerline 800 is a great gun, and the multi pumps don't gradually get harder like the crossmans do.

The only reason I can think of as to preference is maybe an area with sheeple around? If I really had to survive for an unknown amount of time, I'd grab my Henry .22 lever action with a brick of remmington LR ammo (526 shots)
 
Cool to play with, but in a survival role I would prefer slingshots, blowguns, small crossbows (all in addition to snares and hooks, as someone mentioned) due to their compact size(s) and less things to go wrong.
 
One thing I do like about air guns is that you can stockpile enormous amounts of essentially weatherproof, non-degrading ammo, for ultra cheap, forever.

Realistically, the best application I can think of for this is teaching kids to shoot, or other adults if you wanted. I have some good friends that grew up away from guns, and I have used airguns to teach them to shoot. It cost me more in gas to go over there than it did to lend them the gun and give them a thousand rounds of ammo! So if you want to teach people shooting, that's the cheapest way to go that I know of.

Up at the bug-out property, I have been dropping off a tin or two of .177 pellets every time I go for a long while. I must have a bare minimum of ten or twenty thousand "rounds" up there by now! Now in the event of zombies, I will have super cheap trainer ammo!

Of course that is insane and paranoid, but then on the other hand, the ox is a house on fire and everyone is out to get me.
 
I would much rather have my .22 with me in a survival situation also. But realistically, how many bricks can you carry along with you in your bugout bag for 50 miles in a dense mountain region? What if you have to be there for three years? How long would a brick or two last you?
 
magneto said:
I would much rather have my .22 with me in a survival situation also. But realistically, how many bricks can you carry along with you in your bugout bag for 50 miles in a dense mountain region? What if you have to be there for three years? How long would a brick or two last you?
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It should last a while with accurate shots and descent game to kill. One of my remmington .22 LR bricks comes with 526 rounds and that is enough for one bullet for 1.44 years (526/365). As long as you kill with a good head shot even to a deer (my grandad always used to call a .22 a "deer rifle" cause that is what he used to hunt deer when he was young and his family was broke). This may be illegal now, but in survival, anything goes. A good shot right between the eyes will take down just about anything, within a reasonable size of course. A deer feeding just you will last longer than the "one bullet per day" ration that I was getting down to, thus making the rounds last longer. I'm sure snares and fishing will also play a big part of your 3 year diet :).
 
batosai117 said:
It should last a while with accurate shots and descent game to kill. One of my remmington .22 LR bricks comes with 526 rounds and that is enough for one bullet for 1.44 years (526/365). As long as you kill with a good head shot even to a deer (my grandad always used to call a .22 a "deer rifle" cause that is what he used to hunt deer when he was young and his family was broke). This may be illegal now, but in survival, anything goes. A good shot right between the eyes will take down just about anything, within a reasonable size of course. A deer feeding just you will last longer than the "one bullet per day" ration that I was getting down to, thus making the rounds last longer. I'm sure snares and fishing will also play a big part of your 3 year diet :).
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I do expect to miss every now and then.:D Especially when I get cocky, so perhaps a brick a year if I am real lucky.

OK, let me change this up a little bit. What if I took along my .223 for bigger game. How would the .22 air rifle play out then??? Any better? Small game is some what scarce out here but there are plenty of birds.
 
ajcz said:
too many things to break on them and they can be quite loud. also dont forget springs wear out and they do run out of air they can be very heavy and bulky for pumps and most cant be taken apart without tools also some styles have to be held differently for maximum accuracy
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I killed a rabbit and many dozens of Grouse and ptarmagan all last fall and winter 60 kilometers from the North West Territories border, with an air rifle. I was often in extreme cold, anywhere from -20 to -40. I lent the single pump .177 caliber Crossman 760 to some Native kids, who knocked the hell out of it. I taped the air gun back up, lubed it, put a cheap 4x scope on it (the kids knocked the front sight off) and went back to business. I used pointed pellets and killed with head/neck shots. I found it extremely fun to actually HUNT the birds as opposed to just shooting them from further away with a .22 I also wore white winter camo to get a little closer. I didn't experience any type of mechanical failure with this air gun even in these extreme conditions, nor after the beating it took from those kids.
 
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