Air Rifle

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Air Rifle
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Gervase

Joined: 17 Nov 2004
Posts: 8655

Posted: Tue Feb 15, 05 4:59 pm Post subject:
Have a shufti at this page for some good demos on scope mounting and zeroing. You'll need Flash or Shockwave installed in your web browser.

Blacksmith

Joined: 25 Jan 2005
Posts: 5025
Location: Berkshire

Posted: Tue Feb 15, 05 5:45 pm Post subject:
Thanks for that, usefull site.

ohouston

Joined: 22 May 2005
Posts: 14

Posted: Sun May 29, 05 1:15 am Post subject:
Dont use air rifles on live animals. See topic "Big Game" for more info. I'm happy to debate this further if people think there is a good reason to.

Guest

Posted: Sun May 29, 05 9:35 am Post subject: Re: Air Rifle

alison wrote:

My DH has says he is going to get me an air rifle!

Which is the best type to get, bearing in mind we already have a Magnum .22 rifle.

Is it best to have a FAC air rifle or a non FAC one.

I am trying to get all the options and the pros and cons.

I would be looking to shoot pigeons, rabbits and maybe the odd pheasant, if it gets too close again.

all advice gratefully received.

Hi. In your message you didn't say whether or not you have your own FAC or if you were going to apply for one?

I personally think that airguns are only ok for around the buildings on rats. For bigger live quarry the airgun is too reliant on the skill of the shooter and shot placement.

Air magazines (who are trying to sell you something) always have a resident shooter that tells tales of dispatching a dozen pidgeons with head shots in the early light of a misty morning. For the majority of casual shooters this isn't the reallity.
I agree that 22 mag is over kill if only in the noise dept. (ammo @ �11 a 100 ?)

My personal recomendation would be another 22 rimfire. I would also make sure that the muzzle is screwcut to take a sound moderator.
Another new rimfire rifle would:

cost you less that a decent german air rifle.

Give you a choice of bolt action or semi-auto.

Give you a wide choice of ammunition for your chosen target including subsonic hollow points for less noise with a moderator than some spring powered air rifles. (wouldn't frighten your guests )
Give you a mucher greater effective range.

And lastly and perhaps most importantly the 22 rimfire will kill more humanely.
There cannot be anybody on the planet that has hunted with any type of gun and claim to have always killed cleanly with the first shot.
A keen shooter would claim a higher proportion of clean kills than sombody that only gets the gun out once in a blue moon. Both will have occasions when a second shot is needed and that will apply to both air rifle and rimfire.
When because of the lack of power (muzzle energy) a clean kill is entirely dependant on the skill of a shooter, is it not logical that the BM shooter will wound more often?

Not convinced? some facts.

Muzzle velocity (at the muzzle) non FAC air gun 12ftlbs (about 750 feet per second I think?)

22 rimfire as high as 191ftlbs (at the muzzle) 1640 feet per second
(still pushing close on 90ftlbs @100yds) down to the very quite subsonic round that dawdles along at around 750 feet per second and then even lower energies from the 22 short or cb caps. (handy around the buildings)

Just look what you have started with this thread. I have now gone and bored myself to death. ( don't worry, I felt no pain

happy hunting

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45712
Location: Essex

Posted: Sun May 29, 05 9:38 am Post subject: Re: Air Rifle

Anonymous wrote:

I have now gone and bored myself to death. ( don't worry, I felt no pain

Who are you dead guest?

footprints

Joined: 26 May 2005
Posts: 234
Location: North Wales

Posted: Sun May 29, 05 9:50 am Post subject: Re: Air Rifle

tahir wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I have now gone and bored myself to death. ( don't worry, I felt no pain

Who are you dead guest?

Sorry. I must have forgotten to log in.

footprints

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45712
Location: Essex

Posted: Sun May 29, 05 9:56 am Post subject:
You're not that dead yet?

alison
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 12918
Location: North Devon

Posted: Sun May 29, 05 11:22 am Post subject:
Thanks footprints. Still not done anything about this yet, but we are still reading lots of information. We have a FAC already, so adding another gun shouldn't be too much hassel.

footprints

Joined: 26 May 2005
Posts: 234
Location: North Wales

Posted: Sun May 29, 05 12:07 pm Post subject:

alison wrote:

Thanks footprints. Still not done anything about this yet, but we are still reading lots of information. We have a FAC already, so adding another gun shouldn't be too much hassel.

No hassle at all. The variation on your ticket will cost around �18

Second hand ruger 10/22 ( an excellent bunny gun) in fair nick
around �150 or less (maybe even with a scope) a bolt action for less. I am certain that you would pay more for a secondhand german air rifle and it would be heavier.

Also......... while checking out your link for bed and bacon, I see that you have a farm. Good reason in itself to own a firearm

If you go for the 22 rimfire make sure that you get one that is screwcut for the moderator (very important) and secondly ask to have a sound moderator added to your licence, as seperate permission is required from the police for a moderator. Forget to add it at this point will cost another variation fee later.

Also ask to to purchase 1000 rounds at a time cos its cheaper and be allowed to hold perhaps 2000 at any one time. Where I live the police will not give you what you ask for and will always push you down, but the above requestis not unreasonable and is actually the quota that I have for the rimfire at the moment.

I know you might say, we'll only use perhaps a couple of hundred a year, but once the level is set you can be prosecuted if you exceed it.
A man locally was successfuly prosecuted for possesion of 32 rounds of 22 more than was stated on his ticket. Bearing that in mind it is easier to tell at a glance that you are below your limit if its 2000 than if it was 500. You can buy cheap rimfire loose in boxes of 500. Will you tip them out and count them each time you want to make a purchase. Nah!

good luck

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

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

Posted: Sun May 29, 05 3:23 pm Post subject:
Thanks for the info footprints, that's very useful to know. Do you know if police are less keen on a semi-auto than a bolt action these days?

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

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

Posted: Sun May 29, 05 3:33 pm Post subject:

ohouston wrote:

Dont use air rifles on live animals. See topic "Big Game" for more info.

I'm happy to debate this further if people think there is a good reason to.

To stand up a little for the air rifle there are many people who fancy bagging just the odd thing for the pot from their own garden or allotment. It such places it's often easy to get with 20 meters or less from your target so is a legal limit air rifle so bad? Does a .22 pellet have less energy than a piece of shot from a shot gun?

I must admit I wouldn't wish to try and shoot something at 50 meters like some of the 'articles' in the air rifle press state, but for closer range garden shooting should they not be used?

footprints

Joined: 26 May 2005
Posts: 234
Location: North Wales

Posted: Sun May 29, 05 7:05 pm Post subject: police. Bolt action/auto

Treacodactyl wrote:

Thanks for the info footprints, that's very useful to know. Do you know if police are less keen on a semi-auto than a bolt action these days?

As far as I personally experienced, there is no problem at all asking for or possesing a semi auto 22.

(I had actually typed an enormous reply to this question giving tips on storage ammo etc, when a member of the family asked me to find something on the web, and I accidentally closed downsizer and lost the page.
Now there's a stroke of luck. the boredom victim body count will now be smaller, and I can hang my anorak back on its nail.

alison
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 12918
Location: North Devon

Posted: Sun May 29, 05 9:16 pm Post subject:
Foot prints, It is not boring to me.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

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

Posted: Mon May 30, 05 9:55 am Post subject:

alison wrote:

It is not boring to me.

Nor me.

Having used a few .22 semi-autos does anyone know of a way of collecting the spent casings from the ejector? Having used a right handed rifle it's a little off putting having the casings ping past your nose, and painful when they hit something and bounce inside your shirt.

footprints

Joined: 26 May 2005
Posts: 234
Location: North Wales

Posted: Mon May 30, 05 11:19 am Post subject:

Treacodactyl wrote:

alison wrote:

It is not boring to me.

Yes I know what you mean about hot shell cases. You didn't say what rifle you were trying to find a deflector for.

I have done a quick search for a deflector for the 10/22 as butler creep do loads of bolt on goodies for the ruger and couldn't find any thing. I have the feeling that you will have to make something your self perhaps from a plastic ice cream tub. ( a gunsmith would make you something if you wanted to spend) I personall would have a play first or simply keep the neck of my shirt closed:-)

The do make shell case deflectors made for most of the military stylies
AR15/m16/ Ak etc etc, but then those cases are hotter for a lot longer.

When handguns were about, a woman shooter at the club was shooting a 9mm pistol when a spent ejected case went down the front of her shirt.
Everybody remebers the incident, everybody jokes about offering assistance to retrieve the spent case, but now I think about it nobody mentions whether she managed to keep the muzzle of the pistol pointing downrange during the event

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