Just getting started with air guns would appreciate suggestions.

[best defense]

I am mostly interested in hunting squirls with an air rifle. Both for the practice and because they are clearing out my walnut crop.
At this time, I am not planning on getting anyting larger than a .22, and I'm leaning toward a .177 just because that is what I had in the past. A 177 seems like it is enough for a squirl at no more than 5o feet or so.

So I would like to get some input from some of you folks who have done this for a while before I plunk down my cash for something that will probably be my only air gun.

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[Fishnutz]

Well well well, ask and you shall receive.

The first gun I ever shot was a Crossman 760 pump at age 3. It has ended many squirrels and small game in our lifetime. It's lasted over 20 years with only new seals and a spring. It is my number 1 suggestion cause it can shoot bb's or pellets fast or slow. They have a dovetail scope adapter, ready for a scope. Price is between $40-60

My favorite of my collection and suggestion #2 is my American Classic 1377 in .22 cal. with internal modifications for higher velocity (maybe around 900 FPS, never had it choreographed after mods). Crossman manufactures it, but they dont put there name on it. They sell the 1377 as a single shot bolt action chambered in .177 cal. for pellets (the cheapest, easiest pellet to find) with a rifled 7'' barrel, it will shoot 600 FPS at 10 pumps, it will take a squirrel at a good distance (over 30 yards), you can pump it less for indoor shooting/ practicing. They use a multi-pump pneumatic air chamber, you pump via the forearm handle. There highly customizable and a blast to shoot, you can make a short barrel rifle the legal cheap way, you can modify them to shoot bb's with a cleverly placed magnet, shoot higher FPS, rifle stocks, rifle barrels and even scope mounts for these. You can find one for the average price of 59.99, but find one on sale!! I picked up my second 1377 for 39.99! I've invested over $200 into one of mine so be careful.

#3 is a PCP (Ill explain) rifle, such as the CZ 200 or Air Force condor, talon, tallon ss. but these retail for over 500, not including the 3 stage hand pump or scuba tank you need to fill em. It all depends on how much you are willing to spend. I would not recommend these to a new air gunner as they are

There are a variety of choices when it comes to how you get your air, but there are 3 that dominate the others. First off is spring piston or nitro piston, which is a break-berral or side lever designed rifle that only takes one pump. Crossman nitro piston technology (you'll it find in many other brand then Crossman) can get over 1200 fps with .177 cal. pellet, which isn't always good(read the last paragraph for info). Then there pneumatic pumps, that's what the 1377 and 760 are I;m pretty sure. The most expensive to get started is PCP (Pre-Charged Pneumatic), This style is what Luis & Clark had, except the air tank was made of leather, PCP guns have a very high pressure air tank that holds many shots of compressed air. With PCP's you need a way to fill your tank your self, like 3 stage hand pumps, or scuba tanks with 3600 psi. And lastly there's CO2, refer to WIKI if your interested in how it works. With C02 you need to take your air tank to get filled which can be more trouble some than filling it with a hand pump anywhere you'd like, like PCP's. Co2 will get 1000 shots in some rifles.

On the hunting/ pest control side of air gunning you might need to pick a bigger cal. My choice is .22 because it stops my target and is decently cheap, but its all personal preference. You seem pretty set on .177, is it solely personal preference on that? Ive noticed more people liking .25 cal. for its stopping power, they even make .50 cal. air pellet rifle. I've seen just about everything in between. If I'm worried my .22 not going to have enough knock down power I pull out the frozen paintballs, there .68 cal.

There's also one last piece of air gunning advice I'd like to share with you. Just because they can make em doesn't mean its a good idea. Once you start to approach the sound barrier with a smaller cal. projectile, turbulence kicks in, when you break that barrier you really notice turbulence. The sound barrier at sea level on a 65* day is round 1100 FPS. Stay under 1000 FPS and you will be more accurate is my lesson learned and advice to fellow air gunnies, but if 100% accuracy is not a wish and your doing closer varmint hunting higher FPS may be for you.

Air Guns, Air Rifles, Pellet Gun and BB Guns is a good source for air guns... and no I do not work for pyramydair or crossman, just have had good luck with both.


Good luck fellow air heads

 

[gunnails]

Very nice reply above Fishnutz.

I got a question. Thought someone might know the answer.

I have an uncle that is in his mid 80s and he has a 40 acre filbert farm, with some rodent problems, mainly gophers and squirrels, there being destructive, and my uncle being bored and all ways having a passion for shooting needs an air rifle.

The problem being is he has heart issues so I don't want to get him a pump, and it needs to be easy to load and chamber with arthritic hands. He has a cheap air gun he picked up but cant load it.

I was wondering if any one had any suggestions for an air gun for some one like my uncle.

He has a .22 rifle that he can load an operate easily, he wants something for close up work on rodents (30 feet or so) that would be more discreet and that the rounds would be less likely to travel to far.

He likes to sit on his lawn chair and look at his farm and plink.

 

[Garg]

Very nice reply above Fishnutz.



He likes to sit on his lawn chair and look at his farm and plink.

Man, talking about living the dream, right there

 

[Nwcid]

I know you are asking about air guns but you might consider a .22 bolt action with silencer and using subsonic ammo. Spooky quiet yet still packs a punch........ That is one of my favorite and most shot guns.

 

[gunnails]

Man, talking about living the dream, right there

==============================================================
Worked hard tell he couldn't work any more, He's not complaining and he has more then enough to be comfortable.
And yes I envy him, He's been married 62 years to the love of his life. Living the dream I say he is.

I know you are asking about air guns but you might consider a .22 bolt action with silencer and using subsonic ammo. Spooky quiet yet still packs a punch........ That is one of my favorite and most shot guns.

============================================================================
Do sub sonic rounds come in 22 long, I suppose I could spring for a silencer for one of my .22s and loan it to him, part of the problem is there are random houses within a half mile north, south, east, and west of him and of course he is on top of a hill, so he is worried a round from a .22 might carry to far if he wasn't careful. He has lived on the farm since 66 and has I'm sure shot a 1000 varmits up there, but it's different when your mobile and standing because you can move around to adjust your backstop. He needs to sit and sip ice tea, as he is only good for 10 to 15 minutes any more standing or walking.

 

[Fishnutz]

I know you are asking about air guns but you might consider a .22 bolt action with silencer and using subsonic ammo. Spooky quiet yet still packs a punch........ That is one of my favorite and most shot guns.

If you want to spend the $$$$ that would be the way to go, on the other hand Co2 might be the way to go, but then your stuck with having to rely on those little co2 cartridges. Maybe he could do a break barrel, anything with a nitro piston is pretty easy to cock.

 

[Fishnutz]

Try "super calibri" by aguila, there spooky quiet also. Picked up 50 at the last gun show for a few bucks. They have to be hand fed into a 10/22 and they don't eject by them selves but there amazingly quiet. There primer only at 700 FPS. The POI is horrible though, 5-6 inch 10 shot groups at 30 yards off bi-pod. My talon ss I just picked up is getting a nice ragged hole I can cover with a dime at about 50 feet (my backyard air-only range so far). It all depends on what your willing to spend. You've gotta try the super calibri's!!



Ruger 10/22 with Aguila .22LR Super Colibri Subsonic Ammo - YouTube

Thats exactly what they sound like. Hammer thwack, bullet thwack!!

 

[revjen45]

I have a Weihrauch HW77K .177 cal. Great accuracy, but not sure I would depend on it to drop a critter humanely. YMMV.

 

[best defense]

Well, just so any of you who are interested know, I broke down and bought a Remington 177 cal barrel cocker air gun at BiMart. It came with a scope, but the scope is very low quality. It does take out squirrels with head shots at 30 feet or so, but the scope is designed for longer shots. ****, the trees are only about 40 feet tall, so most of the shots I have taken have been under 30 feet, some of them less than 20. Still, if you hit a squirrel in the head with a 177 caliber pellet, He is going to be dead when he hits the ground. My dog likes to pretend she is chasing the squirrels, but since they are mostly only twitching by the time she gets to them, there isn't much left for her to chase.

For any of you who decide you want to try the 22LR route, I did try the Aguila SuperExtra 22 rounds.
They are supposed to be subsonic, but if you don't have a suppressor, and I don't, they are still louder than a pellet gun, at least out of a Ruger 10-22.

 

[Fishnutz]

For any of you who decide you want to try the 22LR route, I did try the Aguila SuperExtra 22 rounds.
They are supposed to be subsonic, but if you don't have a suppressor, and I don't, they are still louder than a pellet gun, at least out of a Ruger 10-22.

The Aguila's I mentioned are primer ONLY and shoot a 20 grain at about 500 fps, the SuperExtra's are not subsonic and have gun powder in them that blasts that 40 grain over 1200 fps, your hearing that sonic boom of the sound barrier. What you want is something that doesn't break the sound barrier. If you can find super colibri's, those are the one's that the hammer slap is louder than the primer blast.

AMM-066 - Ammo .22 Long Rifle Aguila Super Colibri 20 Grain LRN 500 fps 500 Round Brick

Best Defense, I would be willing to give you a few super calibri's if your unable to find them locally.
Hope this helps, and good luck with those squirrels!!

 

[aga7040]

Man, talking about living the dream, right there

Ditto

 

[best defense]

Not legal this close to town, but thanks for the suggestion anyway.

I know you are asking about air guns but you might consider a .22 bolt action with silencer and using subsonic ammo. Spooky quiet yet still packs a punch........ That is one of my favorite and most shot guns.

 

[best defense]

I have 5 boxes of the subsonic supercolibri, I just don't have a suppressor. However, I do plan on getting the paperword sent in so I can get one.

The Aguila's I mentioned are primer ONLY and shoot a 20 grain at about 500 fps, the SuperExtra's are not subsonic and have gun powder in them that blasts that 40 grain over 1200 fps, your hearing that sonic boom of the sound barrier. What you want is something that doesn't break the sound barrier. If you can find super colibri's, those are the one's that the hammer slap is louder than the primer blast.

AMM-066 - Ammo .22 Long Rifle Aguila Super Colibri 20 Grain LRN 500 fps 500 Round Brick

Best Defense, I would be willing to give you a few super calibri's if your unable to find them locally.
Hope this helps, and good luck with those squirrels!!

 

[Irishbandit]

meh..I got a Gamo Whisper (high powered 1200fps) .177 with a great stock 9-40mm scope off craigslist for plinking then got more into small game hunting. Now I'm getting it modded and tested 8 pellets to find a accurate, clean, well manufactured pellet and I've been getting kills with it left and right. Funny how an annoying pest issue spawns you into a new hobbie then you get all geeky about it and start getting your gun modded, wear camo on a hunt and even bought a crow & squirrel caller widget.

Anyways, long story short..get a used one off CL that has decent scope and has at least 1000fps and some 10.65 grain Barracuda Match pellets and drop bodies my friend. You won't spend too much on something you may not be into in the long run. If you get into it then do some research on higher end air guns drop some serious cash.

BTW..50ft for a .177 kill? I've got a rabbit kill at 20 YARDS and a crow kill that was 104 Yards away according to my range finder

Have fun, be safe.

 

[best defense]

I tried a box of those about a year ago. The little pellet would not leave the barrel of my 10-22. Had to get a cleaning rod and push it out. They worked fine in a handbun barrel, but didn't have enough power to get the little pellet down a carbine barrel. They are much quieter than a 22LR even out of a pistol, but now that I have the airgun, I will just use that. Thanks for the offer.

The Aguila's I mentioned are primer ONLY and shoot a 20 grain at about 500 fps, the SuperExtra's are not subsonic and have gun powder in them that blasts that 40 grain over 1200 fps, your hearing that sonic boom of the sound barrier. What you want is something that doesn't break the sound barrier. If you can find super colibri's, those are the one's that the hammer slap is louder than the primer blast.

AMM-066 - Ammo .22 Long Rifle Aguila Super Colibri 20 Grain LRN 500 fps 500 Round Brick

Best Defense, I would be willing to give you a few super calibri's if your unable to find them locally.
Hope this helps, and good luck with those squirrels!!

 

[Shawn the Locksmith]

I know I'm way behind on the posts, are you getting the squirrels eliminated? Need some help?? I like shooting squirrels and other vermin with my pellet rifles. Shawn

 

[best defense]

I got 5 of them over the summer and fall.
Right now there are not any in my back yard.
There is a nut orchard out west of town, and I was thinking of asking the owners if they were having trouble with squirrels.
I figure if nothing else it is good practice.

 

[Shawn the Locksmith]

yeah that's great practice! Besides you don't need to flavor with any almond juice or hickory smoke. I've heard that some of the orchard's are using poison to control the squirrels? If so don't eat em, if not..what time is dinner! As you can see i live over northwest of you and i usually travel over east to hunt squirrels. I'm always looking for closer to home hunts....hint....hint.. later shawn

 

[Irishbandit]

Hell guys, I would be down for a group hunt...I'll drive down for that!