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I wanted a rat gun that was also capable of larger critters like coons, 22cal. silenced, under $200 and at least 900fps. I shopped around on pyramidair.com for a while but have no experience with airguns and no idea what was best so eventually I threw caution to the wind and bought this for $220 at my local store.
The scope is really good, seems like an overkill for an airgun but the scope works great. I don't like the looks of the barrel shroud silencer, but the rifle is pretty quiet.. . I had mixed feelings on the safety being inside the trigger guard but if you put it on before you cock and load the rifle its actually pretty bomber. Dislikes... the trigger, is super heavy and not very adjustable if at all for being advertised as such. The iron sights... suck, when sighted in the profile is awesome but they are made of plastic including the rear elevation screw. The rear sight is totally wobbly at all times. It holds zero if you don't touch it or bump it, the profile is awesome and the sight picture is great but I don't trust it to stay.
With the scope, the rifle is really accurate shooting prone if I'm careful with the long heavy trigger pull. I figure if I can hit a 2" diameter sticky target I can hit a rat.

Here is where I could use some tips... on mounting a flashlight. I sighted in the scope and don't want to remove it to install a picatinny adapter. I searched amazon and found one that fit between the scope and the base rail but when it arrived its 45deg offset prohibited the cheap imported flashlight mount I had also purchased from mounting. So back to amazon and I found some cheap imported lowprofile 45deg picatinny adapter and took a chance and it worked albiet an ugly monstrosity.... The next issue with the actual flashlight holder itself is its for a 1" dia light which didn't fit any of my handheld led lights nor most any available cheap LED light. sigh... so eventually I found this cheap light at Freddys that kinda fit with a shop rag shim. Low power led which seems fine for coon hunting at airgun range. Tips and advice on what to buy welcome.


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Given you're open to duct tape solutions, it might be fun to put an infrared monocular behind infrared visible red dot:

EDIT: I don't have either, I selected solely on the basis of cheap:

 
Given your open to duct tape solutions, it might be fun to put an infrared monocular behind infrared visible red dot:

EDIT: I don't have either, I selected solely on the basis of cheap:

kinda... asking for better solutions to get away from my duct tape monstrosity. How well does that NV red dot work?
 
At Rat shooting distances, 25 feet and the sighting plane of an AR 3" above the muzzle, it's a little
tricky to get everything to converge on a 1" dot. ;)

It can be done though. :)

*Note: In some cases, an inexpensive laser pointer can be attached to the barrel.
 
kinda... asking for better solutions to get away from my duct tape monstrosity. How well does that NV red dot work?

No idea. I was toying with that idea myself -- maybe 3D printing a mount for the monocular -- to use on my rat rifle, but I've not used either of those things. Instead, I broke down and bought a refurbed infrared scope for my air gun. So far though, all I've done is shoot a target at the opposite end of my garage in the pitch black -- quite accurately.

The one thing I don't like about infrared scope is that you're basically looking at a tv screen and even when I have it set to the dimmest setting, when I take my eye away I feel blind in that eye for a little while. The second thing I don't like is that the resolution is sort of low and so you don't get that scope-crisp view so to speak -- its sort of muddy -- still good enough for a dime size group at 35' though and that's good enough for rats so I shouldn't complain.
 
No idea. I was toying with that idea myself
I was really surprised to see that NV red dot for that price... Im skeptical. NV on a rat rifle would be perfect but I have my price limits for such a project... every good NV scope Ive looked up have been in the thousands.

but then I just ran into this kit for $140

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I was really surprised to see that NV red dot for that price... Im skeptical. NV on a rat rifle would be perfect but I have my price limits for such a project... every good NV scope Ive looked up have been in the thousands.

but then I just ran into this kit for $140

View attachment 689308

Yeah -- I thought about that but I wasn't sure I'd like the shooting position it would require or staring at a screen in the dark (I failed to consider that an infrared scope is also staring at a screen, so that part of my analysis wasn't good). I got one of these for just under $400:
 
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Very nice. Im not sure I want to invest that on an air rifle...

I didn't want to either but I watched enough infrared rat hunt videos on youtube to eventually talk myself into it. I still wonder though if the monocular and the red dot might have been a better way to go -- pop off the monocular and I wouldn't be limited to a video screen for daytime shooting, pop it back on for night time ratting, at a total cost of about $160.
 
I didn't want to either but I watched enough infrared rat hunt videos on youtube to eventually talk myself into it. I still wonder though if the monocular and the red dot might have been a better way to go -- pop off the monocular and I wouldn't be limited to a video screen for daytime shooting, pop it back on for night time ratting, at a total cost of about $160.
Thats the thing with chance purchases you never know. Most of the chance purchases Ive made never really worked, the few that have were fun though. Its always cool to find a fun affordable alternative. The monocular I think would work well, Im not certain about a NV red dot optic for 50 bucks though... seems too good to be true even if it compared to a regular UTG option.
 
Thats the thing with chance purchases you never know. Most of the chance purchases Ive made never really worked, the few that have were fun though. Its always cool to find a fun affordable alternative. The monocular I think would work well, Im not certain about a NV red dot optic for 50 bucks though... seems too good to be true even if it compared to a regular UTG option.

If you could couple a monocular with the scope you have, that might be cool. This guy bought a used sony nightshot camcorder for his setup and made a connector to attach it to his scope (with rubber bands, packing foam, and a plastic ring):
 
This guy bought a used sony nightshot camcorder for his setup and made a connector to attach it to his scope
cool coincidence I just finished watching that as you replied. Does make me want to just buy a full on NV scope... honestly would get more use on a rat gun than any other gun. And then there is no limit to high end air rifles either. ..
 
After using my infrared scope a couple nights, I'm convinced that the cheaper dealie that attaches to a scope and displays on a screen linked up thread would be better. My scope comes with an app that will let you see what the scope sees on a phone and I think I'm going to design and print a mount for that. The reason is that staring at a backlit screen with one eye in the pitch dark for more than hour while the other eye just sees the night, causes a weird sort of blindness sensation -- it goes away quickly but I don't like it. One thing there isn't a workaround for, is that the scope's minimum magnification is 4.5x and the field of view is pretty restricted at near distances, which means a lot of sweeping the airgun around to see what's out there. The daylight scope I had on the airgun was 2-8x which I'd keep down at 2x -- that was great til they quit coming out in the daytime.

Even better than the cheap thing that mounts to a scope, would be a 1x monocular you could attach to a head harness or helmet. I don't know how that would work looking through a scope but if the scope didn't work, an IR visible red dot would. Maximizing the field of view would help the hunt because the beady eyes on rats glow like searchlights in IR, and so being able to see a wide area at once will be better for finding targets.
 
@MrMillspecer I actually hadnt thought of that, I see there a some cheap options for that on Amazon. But I just checked and dont have enough room on my scope body to clamp one. Would have made a much cleaner looking mount that what I came up with.
 

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