Shooting advice please?

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Shooting advice please?
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woodyandluna

Joined: 05 Jul 2005
Posts: 71
Location: Milton Keynes

Posted: Mon Jul 18, 05 7:35 pm Post subject: Shooting advice please?

I wonder if you helpful people can give me some advice please?

I'm hoping to shoot some small game (rabbits, pigeons, pheasants, partridge etc) for pest control and the pot, but I've no idea what sort of gun/rifle to get. I don't really want the hassle of getting a FAC at this stage.

When I lived at home with my parents I used to shoot an air rifle. I don't know the technical terms, but I think it was a .22 pellet air rifle??? (The sort that fires one round at a time and you have to cock the barrel to reload.) Would one of these be any good?

Many thanks fellow downsizers

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Mon Jul 18, 05 7:58 pm Post subject:
I'm not much help I'm afraid as I've not shot anything for the pot yet. However, where can you shoot and how much room do you have?

Blue Sky

Joined: 30 Jan 2005
Posts: 7658
Location: France

Posted: Mon Jul 18, 05 8:36 pm Post subject:
Me neither but it is an interesting topic. Sorry if we aren't being much help. It gets better, honest. I am sure Madman will be able to advise?

woodyandluna

Joined: 05 Jul 2005
Posts: 71
Location: Milton Keynes

Posted: Mon Jul 18, 05 9:12 pm Post subject:

Treacodactyl wrote:

I'm not much help I'm afraid as I've not shot anything for the pot yet. However, where can you shoot and how much room do you have?

My dad is an arable farmer and there's always an abundance of rabbits around the yard and the fields surrounding the farm. A few pheasants as well.

The main excitement though is that my dad knows five nice retired chaps who formed a syndicate years ago to buy about an acre of woodland for shooting. They've kindly offered to let me help myself now and then. I think that they (probably rightly) assume that I won't be able to hit a barn door!!!

What do mean by how much room??

Lloyd

Joined: 24 Jan 2005
Posts: 2699

Posted: Mon Jul 18, 05 11:42 pm Post subject:

Legally speaking, you can't shoot a pheasant with an air rifle. Practically speaking, you can if you are sure (through practise on targets) that you can get a head shot every time. The pellett will bounce off he body and possible injure or maim the bird, which is not what we want. Using an airgun, modern trends have it that pre charged pneumatics are better than spring power guns. Having owned both, I'd agree. The PCP has no recoil and almost no noise. You charge it from a diving cylinder and then have about 70 shots in the reservoir under the barrel. Choice of calibre is a personal one. Some people reckon the .22 is a heavy, hard hitting pellett. I'm not going to disagree with that, but I've always found .177 is lighter, so has a flatter trajectory in flight, which equates to greater accuracy, greater depth of penetration, less distance judging for you, more kills and less wounding. Whatever you buy, spend a lot of time practising first, at varying ranges. If you buy a scope that does variable magnification from say 3 to 9 by 40, then you can zoom in and out when shooting, and as the light fades, you enlarge the objective lens apperture, which is techno babble for shorten the magnification, and it lets more light in. Also, get a silencer. not too cheap, middle of the road to start with, say, a Parker Hale. Total setup will probably cost (new) about 4 to 5 hundred, but thats you sorted and on your way. Use at least two pots of 500 pelletts on targets before firing at living things.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Tue Jul 19, 05 6:16 am Post subject:

brica wrote:

What do mean by how much room??

If you only had a large garden to shoot in then that narrows down what you can shoot, but you seem to have plenty of room with the farm.

I currently have a spring air rifle and I'm looking for somewhere to shoot. I would also add to MM comments to try out a range of pellets as some will suit the gun much better than others and be far more accurate. Some companies will send out a range of pellets in small amounts.

Guest

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 05 10:27 am Post subject:
I think you should really get an FAC for thre rabbits. A .22 rimfire is the best tool for the job. Personally I wouldn't bother with an airrifle. As for any birds the chances of getting many of them in a postion where an air rifle could shoot them is pretty minimal. Get a shotgun. Plus if you got a shotgun this would suffuce for the rabbits as well.

boff

Joined: 23 Mar 2005
Posts: 354
Location: Still alive and kicking

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 05 10:31 am Post subject:

Anonymous wrote:

I think you should really get an FAC for thre rabbits. A .22 rimfire is the best tool for the job. Personally I wouldn't bother with an airrifle.

Er..... dont wish to be a spoiler here but the contents of my freezer (and myself

) would like to differ.

Jb

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 7761
Location: 91� N

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 05 10:33 am Post subject:

An air rifle is more than adequate for rabbits. You do need a more accurate shot but as you will be at closer range with an air rifle than a shotgun that is not such an issue. A shot gun would be easier but unless you have the appropriate licenses, land and permission its less practical.

I use a webley longbow (12 ft lbs) and find it perfectly adequate for bunnies, it also is less intrusive so I can use that early mornings alongside the allotments and rarely be noticed let alone disturb anyone else.

Lloyd

Joined: 24 Jan 2005
Posts: 2699

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 05 11:20 am Post subject:
I'm with JB and Boff on this. I use a .177 air rifle, a .22 rimfire semi auto, and a .17 HMR rimfire, as well as a 12 guage shotgun. In most cases the air rifle is up to the job, quiet, discreet, accurate, and does less damage to the flesh you want to eat. You don't end up breaking teeth on lead either! Last edited by Lloyd on Wed Jul 20, 05 11:41 am; edited 1 time in total

woodyandluna

Joined: 05 Jul 2005
Posts: 71
Location: Milton Keynes

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 05 11:38 am Post subject:
Madman, if I were to get a PCP .177 air rifle, what sort of distance would be within it's range? And what;s the maximum distance you like to use when using your .177. And also, can anyone recommend some of the decent manufacturers please? There seems to be lots of cheap and nasty ones about. Many thanks

Lloyd

Joined: 24 Jan 2005
Posts: 2699

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 05 11:40 am Post subject:
With the .177, assuming no wind etc, you should be able to consistently place pellets inside a one inch circle at 35 yards. After that the trajectory starts to drop. As such, if you zero the sight for 35 yards, then you should be fine head shotting bunnies at that range, but as the range increases so does the inaccuracy, so you need a larger target area such as a chest shot.

Bunnykiller

Joined: 04 May 2005
Posts: 56
Location: Brixham S.Devon

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 05 10:01 pm Post subject:

Brica I recently bought a pcp air rifle to replace the 12 guage which was beggining to annoy me with its noisyness,plus i prefer to use ferrets/nets/lurcher/lamp for bunnys and just wanted to have something to sneak around the fields if i felt like it , anyway i plumped fopr an Airarms s200 which is adequate for what i want, i am really pleased with it as with the silencer its next to quiet and no recoil which is great .. i payed �360 for the gun,some cheapish goldcrown scopes (good scopes tho) a silencer and a riflebag.The only thing else u need to remember is u need something to pump it up with,i was lucky as my m8 has a pump which we share but to buy they are around �100.it is a good gun and i am pleased with my buy. yup there are dearer guns about than this but it has a proven pedigree so that'll do me they do a .22 and .177 in this model ...oh i also had a try of diff pellets and prefered the acupel vermin !!!

Lloyd

Joined: 24 Jan 2005
Posts: 2699

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 05 10:28 pm Post subject:

Sounds like a nice setup, Bk. I always have a dilemma when going out shooting. The shotty is BLOODY noisy, the .22 is short range, very quiet, but wounds as much as it kills, teh .17 hmr is like computer controlled for accuracy, always kills instantly, but is as loud as a 12 bore, or the pcp which is short range which limits you, but quiet, flat, sneaky and fun. I usually choose on the basis of where I intend to go. For example, in the wood when shooting woodies, the trees absorb the noise anyway. (ish!)

But a 100 acre field with tidy headges and short grass....the .17hmr.

In high cover such as setaside land, .22 or air rifle.

It really is horses for courses.

dlucas

Joined: 27 Jul 2005
Posts: 1

Posted: Wed Jul 27, 05 1:38 pm Post subject: Re: Shooting advice please?

Anonymous wrote:

I think you should really get an FAC for thre rabbits. A .22 rimfire is the best tool for the job. Personally I wouldn't bother with an airrifle.

People who don't think an air rifle is adequate for rabbits usually either haven't tried, can't stalk or like to brag that they've moved up to "real" guns! As a kid I shot dozens of rabbits with an ancient BSA Meteor .22 air rifle. The main difference with air guns is that you need to stalk properly as your killing range is realistically 30m (less for me). In other words, you need patience, awareness of what how and where you're moving your body and some familiarity with your prey's behaviour and habits. If you have the above three, you certainly don't need a rimfire. You also need to practise enough to be able to hit targets consistently at your killing distance (OK, same for all weapons this). Birds can be more difficult because for some species the feathers act almost like armour. A .177 might be better for them.

Precharged rifles can be uncannily quiet but one possible problem is that they might not be charged when you really need them e.g. when you've just spotted a sodding jackdaw on the chimney pot at 7am. Try a nice modern springer like an Air Arms TX200.

If you want to get serious or want to go after foxes then by all means jump through the hoops and get a rimfire, but the time and energy involved in an FAC is probably not justified for most.

Dan

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