I have a Gamo Hunter that will pick off squirrels across my back yard. My experiences with pellet guns comes down to quality rifles and just as important is the quality of pellets. High end pellets make all the difference.
Even my open sighted rifle will cleanly make a head shot at 50 feet. It sits by the back door with the pellets on a shelf above just for those occasions.

Perhaps some of you have heard about "big bore air rifles". Seems to be getting more and more popular. One of my sons has gotten into it big time over the past several months.

These folks basically consider anything over .308 caliber a big bore, but I believe from my limited discussions with my son and looking at some of the air rifle web sites, the bores run from around .22 up to 20mm (yes, I said 20 mm).

These things use compressed air at something like 3,000 psi and develop up to 500 ft lbs of energy or more. They definitely are not your average Daisy Red Rider!!

My son recently killed a fallow deer doe at around 55 yards with one shot. The deer ran about 40 yards after the shot and fell over dead. Others have taken wild hogs, rams, deer and even bison with them.

While I don't personally think I am interested in getting one of them, if you have a desire to check into it more, here are some links.

Hard Core Big Bores

BGMF Airguns

Big Bore Bob's

Quackenbush Air Guns

Air Gun Forum

Some good pictures and videos of animals taken with this type of rifle are on these sites.

I'm afeard to hit that "link" Dimitri.

I know what you young guys are capable of doing around here.


Eric

Bill,

Those are some big air guns, but are legally considered firearms in Canada cause they are over 500fps and defenately have enough energy to meet those specs as well.

Eric,

I don't post bad links like Ben did. And only "bad" links I may share is ones that need to be marked "NOT WORK SAFE LINK"

Dimitri

Hey all,

This is my fist post here; I can't believe it took me this long to find this forum!

I have become an airgun fanatic since I first heard about the PCP airguns (known as "the Dark Side" in airgunning) about a year ago. Since that time I have acquired two PCP airguns.

I have an AirForce Condor with a custom .25caliber kit from TimW at custombrakz.com. This is my purpose-built varmint rig.

It puts out a 31grain pellet at about 1100fps, and is going to the range this weekend for 50yard accuracy testing off the bench. I have no doubt it will prove to be extremely accurate considering the Match grade LW barrel.

Then I got the "Boomstick". My SamYang .45 modified for power by Leroy Roduner. It puts out 240-250fpe with pellets from 142grains to 262grains.
I plan on using this .45 for close-range (75yards max) coyote hunting, and have taken an exotic ram with it using a 250grain slug@650fps. It is WAY to much for a rabbit, maybe a headshot. Does the trick on nutria quite nicely with a body shot.
I only had time to shoot two quick groups the last time I punched paper with the .45, but as you can see it is pretty accurate. These 35 and 50 yard groups were shot off of the steady stix from a seated position using 150grainers, and a fixed 4X32mm scope



Click this picture for an airgun slideshow.

Nice Shooting and nice Air rifles BUTCHER45 Welcome to the HuntingNut sit and stay awhile
Joe

Nice shooting!

Dimitri

Welcome Butcher45! Nice lookihng rifle there. Ummm, did you know that your yard is leaning...

I'm impressed!!!
Nice shooting, and welcome to the Forum.

Eric

Thanks guys. I look forward to joining in on the fun here.

Here I am with the biggest animal I have personally taken with the .45 airgun. The wound you see on the shoulder is where the pellet came out.

Welcome to HuntingNut Butcher45. Pull up a log, grab a beer and sit awhile mate.

WOW....nice critter mate. Seems airrifles have come of age.

Cheers, Vince

Vince wrote:

Welcome to HuntingNut Butcher45. Pull up a log, grab a beer and sit awhile mate. WOW....nice critter mate. Seems airrifles have come of age. Cheers, Vince

Actually, Vince, they are getting back to their roots!


www.lewis-clark.org/co...nnelID=300

wow they have made airguns that big since the austrians issued them as milsurps in 1806

Welcome Butcher45!

Thats mean looking arsenal you got there

I read a little about air rifles. They sound attractive. I never got into how they are charged. Anybody got any information on that. If they could be charged with a standard air compresser, I'd consider getting one.

Cary