Thread: Air rifle advice

I am an airgun / shooting newbie but have recently bought a Gamo 1250 G-Magnum (without the swarm magazine). It is reasonably hefty to cock and recoil is considerable making it difficult to see shot placement through the scope after firing. I have the original 3-9x40 gamo scope which seems to be okay (if anyone has an airgun rated scope they want to sell, please let me know!: ideally 4-12 or higher and Hawke / UTG quality). I've shot plenty of bunnies with it up to 50m but typically around 20m. I have nothing to compare to as it's my first rifle, but on knees with artillery hold can get 2" groups at ~ 40m. Likely tighter if you were lying down or with a bipod. Like others have said before, the choice of pellets will influence accuracy. Hollow point accuracy appears to suffer over distance. Gamo lead pellets are rubbish, JSB diablo hades from Ron @ Youngs Airguns in Auckland are good hollow point option. Crosman pointed are reasonably accurate for the price @ $20 for 500 count tin.

There's always the awkward moment when you're looking at a bunny at 100m and you wish you brought your 10/22....

But for diehard airgunnners you cant go past the AA TX200HC (underlever). That thing can hold its own against the PCP shooters if you're patient enough to practice each day.

Lets start with the target end of the equation. For a humane kill on a bunny you have to hit them between the eye and the base of the ear. That's a spot about 15mm in diameter. A good springer shooter can hit a 15mm spot reliably up to around 30m. That is with a quality springer, a matching good pellet, a stable scope and some practice. 0.177 or 22? If you hit them in the right spot, the caliber doesn't matter.
Up to 40m i would go for 0.177, because of the flatter trajectory. You have to be less accurate with your distance estimation.
Stick with either JSB/Air Arms or H&N pellets. Gamo, Crosman and the likes usually are rubbish. No one in competition uses them.
Hawke scopes are generally very robust and springer-rated. Not expensive, good quality.
So now the gun. Air Arms (Pro Sport or TX200), Diana, Walther and Weihrauch are the top brands. Especially AA and Weihrauch. They have outstanding triggers and the craftsmanship is a of a very high standard. They are not cheap, but have high resale values. In general 16J/12 fpe is more than enough to place an accurate kill shot on a bunny up to 30-35m if hit between the eye and base of the ear. That equates to around 240-250 m/s muzzle velocity with a 0.5 gram pellet. Remember with springers: the more powerful they are, the more difficult they are to shoot accurately. 16J/12 fpe is good middle ground for a springer.
Other European brands. BSA/Gamo have generally good barrels, bad triggers and overall mechanics are not that great. Cometa have good barrels but like Gamo finishing and triggers are sometimes mediocre.
Most other brands are made in China and generally do not have the quality and accuracy needed. With a lot of these Chinese airrifles i would stay within 20m.

Some just love that weihrauch HW77... Seems to be precisely on that balance point between all things.
Never had a go of one myself. I did also like my RWS Airking but it murdered a few scopes with its metal on metal recoil (those that don't know, these airguns have a sliding anti-recoil rail system).
Worked great with a fixed scope but wow you don't want to put anything telescopic on it.
Freaking heavy to take rabbiting tho if i recall

As has been suggested, you get what you pay for and quality is never cheap. Scored two small bunnies today at 40yds with head shots and it was instant lights out with the 40ft-lb Airwolf.. That however would be well outside many people's budget, ignoring the fact you need a std firearms licence to own one.

My old BSA .177 Supersport springer is still going strong and one very unlucky starling bit the dust at 43yds the other day holding over. In reality, this rifle lives in the garage to deal with pesky swallows that annoy us this time of year. Most shots are under 20yds, normally 10-15. I have shot a few rabbits with it over the years but never over 30yds, most closer. The PCP is on a different planet, with anything under 80yds being in -serious- trouble if I have a rest and the cheap rangefinder handy.

you can always chest shoot bunny...it will go some distance before keeling over,but keel over it will. as long as it isnt under you front porch it will melt away in no time.

Like that glorious comment from Borat to the anti hunting protesters in rural England.

Skip to 2:30. Quite possibly the best trolling i have ever seen. Worth a watch from the start too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqkKE45wCWU

"melt away" hahahaha thats so good lol. I'm definitely gonna drop that into the conversation when i wanna trigger my vegetarian mates

Originally Posted by T.FOYE

"melt away" hahahaha thats so good lol. I'm definitely gonna drop that into the conversation when i wanna trigger my vegetarian mates

yip see it in few weeks in mid summer and it will put you off rice for day or two....

Some good advice here. I'm thinking of a similar purchase, but it's because the area is becoming more built up so .22 not really an option for long. Got an under barrel lever cocking .177 off a mate, but it is neither accurate nor powerful. OK to 20m. I'm thinking PCP but still want to make sure it's relatively safe, no ricochet risk, ideally has magazine as there are a few rabbits about. Would .22 PCP at 800fps be the medicine out to 40m? Are PCP's OK for normal rifle scopes, don't have to be airgun rated?

PCPs have near zero recoil so any scope (ideally that can focus down to ~30yds) will be fine.
Yes, a .22 cal PCP delivering 800fps would easily deal death and destruction to bunnies at 40yds.

Good thread but Im going to hijack it... sorry lads.
Anyone have a cheap springer air rifle for sale , want to plink away on wet days when I cant shoot on the farm as too wet.
does not matter if .177 or .22.
Prefer open sights , just something to keep my eye in on the long wet weeks in the mighty manawatu.
Anyways PM me if you have something.

Hi All,

Good Advice on the thread. If you are looking for a springer then one can not go wrong with HW77/97 or TX200HC/MKIII. Both quality airguns.

I have a question regarding importing. Is it allowed to import an air gun from abroad? I tried finding on net but not much information is available.

-Inder

Originally Posted by Inder

Hi All,

Good Advice on the thread. If you are looking for a springer then one can not go wrong with HW77/97 or TX200HC/MKIII. Both quality airguns.

I have a question regarding importing. Is it allowed to import an air gun from abroad? I tried finding on net but not much information is available.

-Inder

You should be able to import a spring/gas ram or co2 air rifle without a permit. For a PCP you will need a permit and a firearms licence. for a pistol not much chance of getting a permit.

I finally got to the bottom of why the Stoeger RX20 would not shoot accurately on an ongoing basis
I have had four recent shots at rabbits about 15m away – they all ran off – dog couldn’t find them so must have been a clean miss
I decided to take it down to my range spot to have one more try to get it accurate with some new Gamo hollow point slugs – but thought I should check a variety of screws on the rifle and the scope – the rifle had come loose in the stock – the scope rings were also loose and there were signs that the scope had been sliding forward – I tightened them all – particularly the rear scope ring that was very loose
Down to the range and into a target on a box at 10m – it was about 75mm right and 75mm high – not that long ago that I had it reasonably accurate so something had moved badly – slowly got it into a nice group around the bull and then it went about 75mm right and 75mm high again – I checked the scope rings – the rear ring was loose again and the scope was still sliding forward – tried a couple more series of being accurate to being way out again – either the rear ring is stretching or the screws are stuffed
I resisted the temptation to try Loctite or similar and decided to take it back to Tauranga H&F where I bought it two years ago.
By chance, the Guy who sold it to me and set it up two years ago was at the firearms counter – other than some initial muttering about no warranty after two years – he decided to take the scope and rings off a new Stoeger that he had just set up and fit it onto my gun. After about twenty shots through their indoor 10m tunnel – we jointly agreed it was very accurate and very stable – nothing was moving!
Rob said they sell heaps of them and have no problems. He was going to try my scope out on the new gun and if it moved, he would do a warranty claim.
So how is that for good H&F service and a bloody good salesman! – well done Rob – you are a good buggar!
So I went down the hill to my range spot and put about 30 shots through it – I had to adjust it a bit to suit my hold and my eyes – but I got it into a nice group at 10m – I had to accept that Rob was a lot better with it than me – but the next rabbit that shows up at 10 – 15m is in for a surprise.
I have also switched to Gamo hollow point slugs – they look much more fragile at the front end that the Gun City Javelin hollow point slugs that I had been using.
I had managed to get a couple of back bone hits on rabbits using the Gun City slugs – they deformed a lot and did a heap of spinal damage – but was not humane kill – see picture of two deformed slugs
The trigger is still horrible – it is like a three stage trigger – initial slack – then a long sticky creep – then when I flinch it lets go – I wish there was a solution for the trigger