Thread: Air Rifle for Pest Control

You can't go for a PCP until your FAL arrives I'm afraid (excluding PCP pistols which don't require a FAL but are like hens teeth to find, and very expensive if you do find one), when it does turn up grab one and you will have a blast! I have 8 PCP rifles in my safe at the moment and use 2 of them most days - The tunability is fantastic!

What you can buy without a FAL and performs in a similar way to a PCP is a CO2 rifle, GC have a good one called the CR600w which is very popular among tuners and costs less than $400. From the factory its only running at about 9fpe but you can mod them up to about 20fpe which is plenty for rabbits out to 50m. With Co2 rifles there is very little recoil so any NV gear will be fine.

As others have rightly said springers/rammers will kill NV/Thermal scopes real quick and are almost always excluded from warranty so be very careful there!

To get an idea on power needed check out some UK airgun hunting videos on youtube, unless you have a FAC (equivalent to our FAL but harder to get) they are limited to 12 fpe and are still taking rabbits out to 50m no problem with a well placed headshot. Possums are another story, they can be tough and need more power but as you are shooting upwards near a built up area that has safety concerns as well - I normally find 16 fpe sufficient with a heart/lung or throat shot, try not to go for skull shots as the skull top and sides are fairly thick and wont net a clean kill.

Ohh and I prefer .22 or above, gives more static shock on impact vs the little .177 which tend to just drill a small wound channel and passes through.