Thread: Air Rifle for Pest Control

I personally used to use my (tuned) Weihrauch HW95 spring rifle which is a .22 and does about 660 fps. With my pellets is around 14 ft/lb of energy. Easy cocking, pleasant shooting. (I now use this as loaner for friends, while I use my CZ 457 .22)
Head/neck shots on possums were 1 shot kills but thats at ranges up to 15m standing.

Nitecore P30 torch (500 lumens) on a QD mount = awesome.



I would feel confident out to 25m but after that, a spring rifle at that power level gets iffy. But it's quiet and safe in built up environments (if you are careful of course.)

PCP are great and more accurate than springers but they need air obviously. And scuba tanks. Or pumping, but that gets old real quick.

Gamo are ok, BSA is better (they're owned by Gamo), and the Crosman/Benjamin are somewhere in between. Cometa and Diana is pretty decent too in the BSA tier.
Weihrauch and Air Arms are top shelf springers but cost more than most .22 LR rifles. And heavy.

Get a gas spring if you can... low end springers are not tuned and vibrate a lot and hard to shoot accurately.
.22 is the way to go for pest control with springers/gas piston.

Don't get swayed by 1200 fps ... it's all BS. You need an air rifle that won't vibrate when fired, not hold sensitive and accurate. It's a hard combo in a springer < $500.