Thread: What air rifle for rabbits?

A friend wants to shoot rabbits to 30 metres and wants to buy an air rifle. The budget isn't big, around $500. I'm out of touch with air rifle developments and current models. Any recommendations?

If they have a FAL, a 22lr is cheaper and better.

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.17HMR gives far more impressive kills

Any air rifle with a gas ram.

They don't have a FAL. I've recommended they go down this route, but it isn't what they want.

Find a secondhand Diana Mod 52? with a side cocking lever in .22, Ive shot a few rabbits with mind, getting a little old, but a nice airgun

Youngs Air Guns.
Young's Airgun Centre

Look for a Cometa Fusion, it'll knock them over and comes with a scope. Mention to Ron it's a new shooter and he'll give recommendations for appropriate pellets. They also deliver nationwide.

Also tell your friend to practice, practice, practice

For rabbits at the distance, I would suggest 750fps or more for a 22 cal air rifle or 1000fps for a 177 cal. Find out what pellets give you the best accuracy and go from there. I am not a fan of hatsan and we had some really nice Baikal 513Ms that would have done the trick a few years back. Not sure if anyone else is importing them. We will again but it wont be anytime soon.

A heads up though, generally if the spring air rifle is powerful enough for rabbits, then it will have enough rattle recoil that scopes will fall apart. Especially when you get up to the Webley Dominator at 1300fps etc. The vibrations form the spring after it fires is what destroys all but the hardiest of scopes. (we have not found one that will handle the dominator yet)

Anything that uses compressed air ill require a license. (just in case that needs mentioning)

Originally Posted by timattalon

Anything that uses compressed air ill require a license. (just in case that needs mentioning)

Unless you are a good shot with a PCP pistol which for some reason does not require a license

An air rifle is safe to use near your house. A 22lr is not

$500 buys you a new piece of crap or an acceptable 2nd hand springer. There are several airgun forums in nz and you can snap up a cometa Fenix in .22 for about that with no scope. That will get you 1/2" accuracy at 25m.

I've got a little HW35S that I use for this purpose. Wish I had it yesterday, had a bunny cornered at less than 5m.

I have an Airforce pre-charged .22 that I have shot rabbits with. My take on it is that if you hit them with any kind of .22 pellet at 30 meters they are not going anywhere. I have found that if you get the velocity to high, the accuracy goes to pieces, so bigger and heavier is better than faster with pellets.

The number of rabbits I have shot that have .177 and .22 Air rifle slugs in them, would lead me to think that an air rifle is not the right tool for the job.
Sure, with the right shot placement at a suitable range it will be lethal, but it seems that does not always happen.

I would suggest a .22LR at a minimum, or one of the air rifles throwing a really heavy slug - i.e 25 cal.

Shot placement is the key. We used air rifles at the golf course and inside glass houses because a rimfire wasn't suitable/safe for everyone else around. Worked a treat, provided like any shooting, you practise rather than gain skills from watching YouTube or playing COD.

if you are looking for an air rifle I might have one for sale. it's a near new gamo whisper .22 igt with after market trigger - grt4g wOrth 130$. lookin for about $500

I know this thread was started over a month ago, but I like an air rifle too. I went for a Canon 737 from Youngs. This is a multi pump so slow from shot to shot but it has the low recoil benefits of a PCP and low cost benefits of a springer/gas piston. Really nice to use, plenty of zing and you'll get two for your budget.