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I love the fact that airguns don't seem to twist up liberal panties as much as firearms do... and once you can hook one of those liberals on how fun shooting airguns can be, it's a short leap to introducing them to the powder burners. Voila! Another convert to our cause! There's a place for everything! 10/22s are awesome! Airguns are awesome! Why not have bunches of each?
 
As other(s) have said, its would be more of a compliment than a replacement. Unless you really are sure you don't need a particular firearm, and don't need the $$, considering the specter of legislation always looming, I don't see any benefit to selling a firearm.

To me the big (potentially HUGE) bonus for an air gun is the ability in most jurisdictions to shoot them on your property (assuming you can do so safely and/or the neighbors aren't too sensitive). If you live relatively close to a shooting range and/or your time isn't eaten up by family and/or work commitments, it might not be as big a deal. But for most of us, as the 'honey-do' list grows and the 'I need that done by Monday...' assignments rear their ugly head, getting a few hours at the range seems to get harder and harder sometimes. It certainly can be nice to just lay out a few bullseyes or tin cans on the other side of the yard after dinner for 30 minutes or so and enjoy some Zen moments plinking and keep the muscle memory. Cost you about $1 in pellets + some cardboard and a sharpie.

And as other people have indicated, today's air guns are a far cry from the ones most of us grew up with a few decades ago. You can get spring/piston single shots with a scope that'll be up in the 1000-1200 fps range with lighter pellets, often with a scope, for under $150...walk in, buy, with a tin or two of pellets or two, and off you go. And with pellets they like, many of these can be pretty accurate...good enough to be fun and keep your skills up to snuff.

BOSS
 
I have 2 very hard hitting air rifles both suppressed and not NFA. One is in 22 and one in 177. Both are close to 1100-1200 FPS (super sonic) and very quiet. One is a Gamo and the other an Anchutz. Both break actions and very stiff. I am sure Andy could reload his Black powder rifle faster than I can reload these. They are as quiet as a 22 sub sonic through a good suppressor with no licensing or even any FFL involvement. Air rifles are extremely accurate. One of my employees in Germany was on the German Olympic team and would commonly produce 6 shot targets 1 1/2 times the diameter of a pellet in the bull (I think they commonly shot at 10 meters) When I was in Suhl at the shooting sports training academy (ex East German Olympic training facility) a large percentage of rifle training was done with air rifles. I don't need the quiet here at the ranch but in a lot of places it would be quite handy without a 1000.00 investment in a good silencer.
 
I shoot 10-15 birds a week with a .177 Gamo silenced air rifle. OK. I used to. Birds are getting harder and harder to find at work in the morning. Damn things are a real nuisance in the early spring.
 
To each his own I guess. Took a couple of very accurate, and expensive, air-guns on a rat trip, to see how they'd do one time. The squeaks weren't impressed either. Too many "slow" deaths. With a clean kill, all they'd do is fall over and twitch. Plus, refilling PCP's was a PITA while a dozen or two pickets watched. Went back to painting the landscape in Technicolor with a .17. Now THAT's an improvement on a .22 rimfire! Everyone has a different criteria of what enjoyment is, but mine is proportional to the acrobatics those little buggers can perform. Now if you're after the meat, different story.
 
I have a RWS 34P break barrel in .177 and an Evanix BLizzard PCP in .22. They are very different than rimfires and agree they complement, not replace.
You can generally fire air rifles in city limits vs rimfires. Big plus for me.
My PCP hits harder with .22 pellets than Super Colibri/CCI Quiet rounds and has much less sound. Accurate out to 50 yards easily with enough to take raccoon/possum sized critters.
I've seen some great shots at 100+ yards. Doubt the energy left at that range though.
Has 6 shot magazine. Get 25-30 shots on a fill. Easy to top off

Springers (break barrels) are a different animal. I prefer smaller caliber here and it has a much different feel. I imagine almost like shooting black powder vs modern cartridge. You feel the spring when you shoot. Pellet is silent, action is not. Still can shoot dimes at 25 yards and dispatch crows and squirrels easily. Slower to shoot due to single shot reload. Can't keep it loaded due to tension on the spring.
Any way you go, the pellet you use makes a HUGE difference. Got to find the one your gun likes. Also suggest using the weight that brings your velocity just under subsonic.
 
I've seen several folks suggest you can shoot an air gun inside city limits - be cautious and check that fact before you do it. If the state doesn't prohibit it, the county or city/town just might. Even if you're in an unincorporated area, if you're inside an Urban Growth Boundary, it may be prohibited. Just be certain before you do it, especially if it's loud and you have nosy neighbors. BTW, the same restriction can go for slingshots too. Ridiculous, but that's the damn nanny state for you.

Also, if you're ever curious, you can call your local sheriff's office and give them an address and they'll tell you what's allowed. I've done that before and they were very helpful and easy to work with.
 
Having used Pellet /BB guns since I was like 8, they have their place we bought to quiet break barrel pellet guns and they easily take out Small varmints at 75 yards and less. Anything father the 17HMR assures a kill. 22 is a great plinking firearm, but I see for varmints a 17hmr is the way to go or offset by a pellet. A 22 is too close to what the pellet does. Not that the don't have a place.
 
Well just remember an air rifle has around 12-25 ft/lbs of energy. A 22lr has over 100 ft/lbs easy.

So they are not even close , sorry. Plus it's 14 grains vs 40 for the most part with the .22 caliber.
 
The Gamo I use at work ( company owed because I bought it for the company :) ) throws a 9.6 grain steel faced pellet down range at 1400 fps and will go through a coyote or rabbit and out the other side with 42 ft lbs of energy. It will put an eye out and cause a nasty infection.
 
I see a Game that shoots a 177 pba pellet at 1400 fps. But the pellet weighs 4.7 grains and equates to 20.46 fpe.

The pba pellets are steel or platinum as they say. Super light weight.

Do you have a link to your model ?
 
Chrono'd by me between 1330 and 1410 depending on the time of year. I chrono everything.

Maxxim 1400 Platinum. I expected less FPS with the heavier pellets but thats not what I get . Still a good sonic crack even with the silencer. Its a good gun.

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I personally wouldn't give up my 22's for nothing but with that said, I have this old air pistol that @ ten pumps hits hard enough to penetrate the Kevlar like feathers of crows. unfortunately I couldn't hit anything with it. (my eyes, not the pistol)
One day I was about to throw out a cheap reflex sight and thought what the heck, so a little PVC and a drill press later I had it mounted on my air pistol.
Now the squirrels run screaming at the sound of me pumping it up. I haven't missed one since, and even got a couple on the run. Air guns can definitely be fun and good exercise to boot!
IMGP0999.JPG
 
I've seen several folks suggest you can shoot an air gun inside city limits - be cautious and check that fact before you do it. If the state doesn't prohibit it, the county or city/town just might. Even if you're in an unincorporated area, if you're inside an Urban Growth Boundary, it may be prohibited. Just be certain before you do it, especially if it's loud and you have nosy neighbors. BTW, the same restriction can go for slingshots too. Ridiculous, but that's the damn nanny state for you.

Also, if you're ever curious, you can call your local sheriff's office and give them an address and they'll tell you what's allowed. I've done that before and they were very helpful and easy to work with.

I was going to say this same thing here, so ditto. Folks check first. An amazing number of localities have made air guns just like any firearm. They started doing it to keep kids from playing. After all can't have kids and "evil guns". The city here did it decades ago. I had no clue they had. My kids and I shot in the backyard for years. Then one day I read in the paper of a guy getting cited for it. I looked it up and sure enough we had been breaking the law here for years. When net came along it got easy to see a LOT of municipalities had done this. Now there is still the garage and house though. With the better air guns you would need a better stop of course. I still use CO2 to practice things I can't practice at the range.
 
The Gamo I use at work ( company owed because I bought it for the company :) ) throws a 9.6 grain steel faced pellet down range at 1400 fps and will go through a coyote or rabbit and out the other side with 42 ft lbs of energy. It will put an eye out and cause a nasty infection.


At what distance were you shooting through coyotes with your .177 cal Gamo ? I wonder if all Gamos are two times their advertised power like yours. Did you drop the yote it in it's tracks ? Or finish him off on the run ?
 
At what distance were you shooting through coyotes with your .177 cal Gamo ? I wonder if all Gamos are two times their advertised power like yours. Did you drop the yote it in it's tracks ? Or finish him off on the run ?

You can call me a liar if it makes you feel good but Ive had this rifle over a year and I shoot birds out to 50 yards no problem and it has chrono'd at 1300-1400 fps with 9.6 pellets. I have shot a coyote out on the fenceline at 50 yards when they were tearing into a sheep carcass . Neck shot through and through. He made it 20 yards. .22 would have done the same thing. We get a lot of coyotes out here.
 
You can call me a liar if it makes you feel good but Ive had this rifle over a year and I shoot birds out to 50 yards no problem and it has chrono'd at 1300-1400 fps with 9.6 pellets. I have shot a coyote out on the fenceline at 50 yards when they were tearing into a sheep carcass . Neck shot through and through. He made it 20 yards. .22 would have done the same thing. We get a lot of coyotes out here.

Just asking , since I haven't heard of anyone taking yotes with a .177 cal air rifle is all. It sounds like you have a keeper.

I had a Beeman Kodiac .25 cal. It was made in England and took a lot of effort to cock. Like 48 lbs or something and it only made around 29 ft lbs. And my Marauder rifle chrono tuned to around 950 fps with 14.6 grain is a hair under 30 ft lbs. So if I try a break barrel again it sounds like Gamo out preforms what were considered high powered quality air rifles with its 42 ft lbs of energy. My FWB 124 was .177 cal and it only did 850fps . And that's a German built airgun, like the old RWSs.

Nice to hear of your experience with Gamo. And a well placed shot at 50 yards on that yote. I bet the pelt looked good with just a .177 hole in it. That would have been top dollar back in the day.
 
Just asking , since I haven't heard of anyone taking yotes with a .177 cal air rifle is all. It sounds like you have a keeper.

I had a Beeman Kodiac .25 cal. It was made in England and took a lot of effort to cock. Like 48 lbs or something and it only made around 29 ft lbs. And my Marauder rifle chrono tuned to around 950 fps with 14.6 grain is a hair under 30 ft lbs. So if I try a break barrel again it sounds like Gamo out preforms what were considered high powered quality air rifles with its 42 ft lbs of energy. My FWB 124 was .177 cal and it only did 850fps . And that's a German built airgun, like the old RWSs.

Nice to hear of your experience with Gamo. And a well placed shot at 50 yards on that yote. I bet the pelt looked good with just a .177 hole in it. That would have been top dollar back in the day.

Here is a video of the one from Gammo I almost bought,


He was able to get impressive groups at 25 yards and even 50. Was not getting the kind of power I would want to use on something Yote size but when I wanted to try it to get rid of rats looked like it would do that. My shots would have been from the window into the yard so maybe 50 feet max. I was just impressed that the guns could hit stuff at 50 yards. Another showed a guy shooting cans of spray paint with a .177 and they were going clean through at fairly close range. Certainly not the air rifles I had as a kid :)
 

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