BigBore Airgun Coyote Hunt

[skud_dusty]

Care to share info on the rifle/bigbore airguns in general? Great story!

 

[pdxjohann]

Enjoyable post - well said and shown with photographs. Thanks, Butcher.

Seconding Skud, please tell us more about your choice of airgun.

The hunt was well described. For that I thank you.

Here in the city those cute joker doggies are taking a large share of pets along with rodents. It is their place in the realm to do so after all. Just as it is the place for my dog to gain bushy tails and my cats to snack mice. But, here in the city I have young jokers overnighting next to my driveway. A pack of them hunt the back yards at night too. Last fall while sleeping outside at night on the warmer nights the pack would wake us with full linquistic banter wondering what our presence meant to their usual sleeping spot. Yes we are truly in the city - just a short walk from Washington Square Shopping Mall. That last sentence seems ironical in the juxtapose of the mall shoppers and our discussion of joker doggies.

Johann

 

[Butcher45]

Care to share info on the rifle/bigbore airguns in general? Great story!

Bigbore airguns.

There are two factions. The more easily obtained production bigbores that are imported from Korea, and the custom bigbores made by airgunsmiths here in the US. The custom guns are typically harder to obtain due to long waiting lists/high demand. There have been more builders emerging as of late, so hopefully the availability of the domestic rifles will improve before to long.

My personal rifle is a Korean Sam Yang 909, that has been tuned for additional power. It is the double airtube version (909), which I believe is no longer being imported. The single airtube version (909S) is a hot seller, has more power potential when tuned, and they are starting to sell faster than they can be imported.

These rifles are filled with about 3000psi of the air we all breath, using either a scuba tank with a special yoke and fittings, or a special-purpose air pump that resembles a bicycle pump on steroids. A moisture filter is recommended for the pumps, especially when they are to be used in a humid environment. The HillPump is generally regarded to be the best pump on the market, due to it's solid/rugged construction, reliability, and the availability of rebuild kits to the consumer.

It usually costs a few bucks to get a scuba tank filled with enough air to fill your rifle several times. The 4500psi tanks can fill your rifle a whole lot more times than the 3000-3300psi tanks. However, once you have a pump, you have a lifetime of "propellant" that is absolutely free (well, it costs just a little bit of effort). Then all you need are some boolits cast from fairly soft lead. No need for powder, primers, or shells.

My tuned rifle gets about 4-5 shots per fill before the velocity starts dropping. A stock rifle likely gets a few more shots (I got mine already tuned, so I can't speak on the stock performance). Keep in mind that my rifle is the (dis-continued?) 909 version, which has a larger air capacity than the 909S.




If you shop around, you pay $28-$34, for 250 of the same .45caliber slugs you use to hunt with. Should you decide that is to much, you can buy a mold, some lead, and some casting equipment, and make your own projectiles for a whole lot cheaper.
With the price, and availability of powderburner ammo being what it is these days, that is awfully darn appealing. You can focus on your aim when target shooting, rather than on how many more shots you can afford to shoot.

Bigbore air rifles are typically used for hunting at bow/shotgun/handgun ranges. They are VERY accurate so long as the fps variance is kept to a minimum. I typically shoot three shot groups off of my steady stix at 50 yards that measure under one inch when using a 4X32mm rimfire scope.

These are pre-compressed pneumatic air rifles, which do not require "airgun rated" scopes due to the lack of the reverse recoil displayed in springer-type air rifles.

Warning: shooting a PCP air rifle can cause the excessive build-up of dust on your powderburners. Don't forget to dust them off every so often hehehe.

Here is a group I shot at 50 yards off of a monpod while kneeling on both knees, just after re-sighting the scope from roundball to the 235grain Lyman #454424 Hollowpoint design shown here. Things got a little wobbly on shot number two, which you see over there all by it's lonesome.
The small squares on the target are supposed to be 1/2 inch, but I screwed up when printing these target. They printed at 97% of the intended size, so the squares are just a tad smaller than 1/2 inch.

 

[pdxjohann]

nice

 

[Warden]

No problem...

I was just wondering the "what for" part. I guess it's no problem if you like killing just for the fun. That's your business..

We have a few on our property and they keep all of the stray cats and rabbits down. Just be careful you don't kill too many and then you'll have a rabbit/rodent problem. You should at least head shot them so you can use the pelts. I, for one, wouldn't buy a pelt that has holes through both sides.

You have got to be kidding. Kill too many? Seriously?

 

[Butcher45]

You have got to be kidding. Kill too many? Seriously?

I guess he thinks calling in a coyote to within 50 yards or so is easy. He obviously has no experience calling coyote, nor knowledge of just how over-populated they are in Western Oregon.

His "killing just for fun" comment was particularly silly, seeing as I had just spelled out to him a few good reasons to kill coyotes in my previous post.

Not to mention him asking me if I ate them That was funny. Yea, like he is going to be eating any of the ground sqwerls he is shooting this summer "just to kill them"

 

[Blackfeather7]

Guess he just likes killing things. You get over that if you live enough lifetimes.