Thread: Air rifle hunting pics

Most of the hunting I do is small game, and I almost always pick up one of my airguns to do the job. 90% of the time I am hunting on orchards or vineyards with houses around the boundary and using an airgun vs a rimfire gives me much more confidence in taking the shot safely, it also helps me gain more permissions to shoot on as land owners are generally much happier to allow airguns than rimfires.

I have loads of old photos of pests I have bowled over so I thought I will post some of them up here and start a thread for people to add to with their own airgun pics - I'm sure lots of you have airguns in the cupboard that get used occasionally.

These 2 rabbits were taken last night on an apple orchard 5 mins from home, both were shot at around 50m. The rifle is a Russian Edgun Matador in .22. It is currently tuned to run the 18.1 gr pellets at 905fps but I have some new 25.4gr pellets that I will be tuning it up to around 915fps in soon.

Originally Posted by Mintie

90% of the time I am hunting on orchards or vineyards with houses around the boundary and using an airgun vs a rimfire gives me much more confidence in taking the shot safely, it also helps me gain more permissions to shoot on as land owners are generally much happier to allow airguns than rimfires.

@Mintie

Great approach, not just the obvious safety aspect. No rimfire cases about, and less lead than .22LR. Could even use lead-free / low-lead pellets to impress. (-:

+900fps sounds impressive . . . what kind of range can you go out to ?

R.

Originally Posted by rossi.45

+900fps sounds impressive . . . what kind of range can you go out to ?

R.

This platform is very adjustable, The tune is set to the most stable speed for the pellets. This could easily be tuned up above 1500fps if I wanted to make some noise with it but it wouldn't be accurate I haven't had this particular rig too long but I have taken rabbits at 100m with it, with the heavier pellets (and more powerful tune) it should be able to take rabbits out to 200m. The rabbit that was taken at 100m was interesting, it was a lung shot due to a little bit of wind drift and the pellet passed through the organs without hitting any bone and was captured just under the skin on the far side with no damage to the pellet at all other than the clean rifling marks - see the pic I took of it.

Originally Posted by Mintie

This platform is very adjustable, The tune is set to the most stable speed for the pellets. This could easily be tuned up above 1500fps if I wanted to make some noise with it but it wouldn't be accurate I haven't had this particular rig too long but I have taken rabbits at 100m with it, with the heavier pellets (and more powerful tune) it should be able to take rabbits out to 200m. The rabbit that was taken at 100m was interesting, it was a lung shot due to a little bit of wind drift and the pellet passed through the organs without hitting any bone and was captured just under the skin on the far side with no damage to the pellet at all other than the clean rifling marks - see the pic I took of it.

Attachment 86027
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What pellets are they?

Originally Posted by berg243

how many shots out of 1 fill and where did you get it from.can these be refilled with a pump rather than a dive tank.that is a nice airgun ideal for lifestyle blocks .

@berg243

I strongly agree with the spending justification you are just now busy concocting for your chief financial officer.

But do precharged pneumatic air rifles not require a FAL, and thus lockup as for A-cat, and restrictions therefore on leaving them in unattended vehicles etc? (Please correct me on this, someone.)

PCP needs FAL.

Originally Posted by berg243

how many shots out of 1 fill and where did you get it from.can these be refilled with a pump rather than a dive tank.that is a nice airgun ideal for lifestyle blocks .

On its current tune this one is around 120 shots before it starts to drop off its regulator. When I tune it up for the heavier pellets i'm expecting about 90 which is still heaps, I have never needed more than that in a night but if I was to head down to Otago I have a small carbon fiber tank I can take out in the back pack to give me a handful of fills. They can be filled from a hand pump but it takes quite a while and can be quite exhausting.

Originally Posted by Lore

What pellets are they?

Those are the 18.1gr Edgun pellets, Same as the JSB Exact heavy but a slightly better die used and better QC (rumor has it they are sorted by hot Russian chicks)

Originally Posted by Cordite

@berg243

I strongly agree with the spending justification you are just now busy concocting for your chief financial officer.

But do precharged pneumatic air rifles not require a FAL, and thus lockup as for A-cat, and restrictions therefore on leaving them in unattended vehicles etc? (Please correct me on this, someone.)

Yep PCP rifles need a fal, PCP pistols on the other hand seems to be ok without a FAL but they are restricting the importation of them now.

Originally Posted by Mintie

Those are the 18.1gr Edgun pellets, Same as the JSB Exact heavy but a slightly better die used and better QC (rumor has it they are sorted by hot Russian chicks)

Yeah, right!

Air rifle threads are always of interest to me as I grew up shooting them. Now I have a FAL, don't think I'd bother - heavier rifles, less range and more to go wrong versus rimfire, but I see why you use them. I wonder how low velocity 22LR compares?

@MightyBoosh

Not enough difference to matter for Brer Rabbit, methinks. (-:

Here's a picture from about 40min ago.
This is a .22 stoeger air rifle.

It seems to have no problems dropping possums from trees with a well placed shot.

Its actually really handy when spotlighting as often come across 2 possums at the same time. One gets the .22 rimfire and one the air rifle

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Can't beat a decent PCP. Rabbits are in serious trouble under 100yds and certain dead meat at 60 with any sorta rest