Thread: Air rifle advice

Originally Posted by Longranger

You need heavy pellets otherwise you will stuff the buffer on the piston....you should never sell a good gun, they are too hard to find........!

Yes, I’ve a .22, good for what I use if for, but the secret to accuracy is same weight projectiles.

Originally Posted by Noswal

Well I can finish this post up as since I last spoke he’s gone in and bought.
About the only thing that I’ll add is he bought a .22 model so he got that right lol
Thanks guys

What did he get?

Originally Posted by Ultimitsu

Get either one of the 3 below:

1. Any variant of Air Arms TX200 Mark 3
2. Diana 54 or 56
3. Any variant of Weihrauch HW97k

If he buys used he will not lose any money on resale, these guns hold their value very well.

The choice between 177 and 22 is hard. You get less drop and better plinking opportunities with 177; you get more killing power with 22. If your BIL intends to get firearm license one day, then go with 177 for now. Once he has a firearm license a 22 air rifle is somewhat redundant.

I've had the AA and a Weihrauch HW95 (break barrel) in 22 and found them both hard to shoot well. 177 might be better. 20m would be a more realist range. I know everyone shoots deer at 500m but really 200 is what everyman can do. 50m with an airgun is for an expert.

The scope is equally important.

There's a bit more info and a few pics on the Airgun Interest thread which I put up recently.

anyone remember the old nz airgunners forum?

Originally Posted by gun guy

What did he get?

Not what he should have, I’ll leave it at that.
With what I’ve picked up using heavier good quality slugs will help with accuracy and performance.
I’ve already advised him to stop shooting at rabbits and learn how to shoot his rifle lol The worst thing he can do is scare them into hiding before he understands what the rifle is capable of.
I don’t know what scope he’s got in it but it’ll likely be a GC special, Ranger probably.
He needs to understand his drops and have a solid gauge on distance or I’ll be doing a trip with my hornet to shoot them from range lol

I've been shooting air rifles since I was a kid. I can lend you my crosman if you are unsure. It's 1100fps with alloy pellets.

Yes pellet weight dictates pellet speed, the 1000 plus fps quoted are usually with the lightest for calibre. My Crossman 1000 will shoot Gamo 4.9 gr pellets at around 885 fps whereas the White Point 8.95 gr (177) only gets along at 718 fps. The heavier ones will definitely kill better.

Originally Posted by Noswal

Not what he should have, I’ll leave it at that.
With what I’ve picked up using heavier good quality slugs will help with accuracy and performance.
I’ve already advised him to stop shooting at rabbits and learn how to shoot his rifle lol The worst thing he can do is scare them into hiding before he understands what the rifle is capable of.
I don’t know what scope he’s got in it but it’ll likely be a GC special, Ranger probably.
He needs to understand his drops and have a solid gauge on distance or I’ll be doing a trip with my hornet to shoot them from range lol

uh oh. oh well as long as hes safe with it and has some fun...

Originally Posted by Noswal

Not what he should have, I’ll leave it at that.

Gamo then

My mate bought one for his lifestyle block against my advice. There are a lot of bunnies limping around his place now. I had a go with it. 3 inch groups at 25 metres with an artillery hold. Usable I suppose.

I recon air chief. I've actually had a good run with the gamos Ive owned. Had some chinese piece of shit once it was shooting so far to the right I actually had to bend the barrel to get it half decent.

Hi as for airrifle, had them all virtually, my fave I kept is a diana aka rws , but the most important thing is shot placement and a heavy slug, find which brand suits your gun, they are not all the same, my preference is 22 , but a good air rifle scope is MUST,

I must say that my mentor and mate allan newnham advised and organized my brothers weirach.
He organized scope and shot it to find the best pellets and at 30m was shooting better than an inch .
I have used if and been pretty impressed and my brother is always talking about the plover and rabbits he shoots.
A quality bit of gear I reckon that shoots and kills well for what it is designed for.
It wasn't cheap but quality never is.
Buy once cry once!

Sent from my SM-A025F using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by MB

Sure. Quick online calculation. Even at 800 fps, a 15gr pellet would give a muzzle energy of 21.32 foot-pounds which should be plenty. My comment was really aimed at the marketing of crap like Gamo which use fps as a major selling point, claiming speeds of well over 1000 fps.

@MB And theres the rub...most brands market fps like its important...Hatsan 1250, Webley dominator 1350 et al...most struggle to actually achieve close to the posted speeds...more like this is what it gets if we round it up to the nearest big number.....Baikals on the other hand.....If Baikal marketed it as 1000fps, then when new and with normal pellets it would just exceed that, but after a bit of use and getting the mechanism all settled down it usually climbed and easily exceeded its posted speeds.....Pity they are so dam hard to get hold of.....the 513M was brilliant. Dearer than a 22LR but brilliant none the less....

Baikal ij38 I think it was was my first air rifle.

Originally Posted by MB

Gamo then

My mate bought one for his lifestyle block against my advice. There are a lot of bunnies limping around his place now. I had a go with it. 3 inch groups at 25 metres with an artillery hold. Usable I suppose.

The older Gamo's were good air rifles, like a lot of the cheaper brands, quality goes out when manufacturing costs rise. My old Gamo 880 Hunter is an excellent gun and accurate with good pellets like Lapua etc.