Thread: Target grade hunting capable air rifle.

Hunting is not too much of a consideration but a good trigger and great accuracy is as it will be used for practice, I always used to think I was a shit shot until I got a rifle that actually shot well and realised it wasn't me after all.

The airarms and Diana review very well in my googleing.

These are supposed to be good, though I've never actually seen or used one, so can only go by hearsay. Air Rifle 'Benjamin' | Trade Me

Or this looks alright for $200: Cometa fenix 400 air rifle .177 | Trade Me

I still use my 1974 vintage .177 BSA Mercury for shooting rabbits, rats, possums (10m or less), and it still drops them with a headshot. I shot my first rabbit with this air rifle.

For hunting, I would definately go PCP. Plenty of grunt, accuracy to burn, and can be safely used around stock and farm building. I shot a shitload of rabbits with my Webley Raider and a Yukon Sentinel Gen1 night vision sight. All shots within 100 metres (and sometimes within 20 meters) of farm buildings and dwellings. Absolutely quite and no ricochets.

If I was going to buy another air rifle (assuming I would survive the wife's wrath), I would go for a Nitro Piston / Theoben Gas-Ram or whatever they are called nowadays. Or a good springer like this: Air Arms TX200 mk3 .177 | Trade Me

This Walther looks good value, and IMO, has enough power for bunnies: Walther Terrus WS Air gun | Trade Me

I've owned a few that I used to hunt with when I lived in the UK...Gas-Ram, Springers and PCP from Airarms, BSA, Dianna, Theoben and Weihrauch.

PCP generally knocks spots off the others accuracy wise and power wise if you have them tuned to get more fps at the expense of less shots per charge.

Weihrauch, Airarms and Theoben are the ones that I've found will almost compete with the PCP's for pellet on pellet accuracy and have plenty of power for hunting.

Originally Posted by possum_shooter

Weihrauch and Diana are very good German air rifles and probably the best money will buy for a springer.........

Along with Walther and the British Air Arms.

This is a good NZ site. nzairgun.com - Index

This is the Air Arms TX200 MkIII .177 I recently sold. It would put 10 pellets through the same ragged hole at 25 yards and holds the record for springer accuracy at the Ngaio range in Wellington. I installed a Vortek tuning kit in it which made it extra smooth. It was a FAC model.

I would have a close look at the Air Arms S200 series , they are basically a CZ air rifle , they are however a PCP , they seem a lot of bang for the buck , ie the shoot much better than they should at their price point , I would not worry about PCP , just buy a cheap out of cert dive tank for it .

They a single shot , but you can get a 10 rd rotary mag , or a slick 5rd straight/harmonica mag , use the 5rd and youo can mount scope better/lower than the 10rd rotary if that makes sense .

Later Chris

PCP's are certainly a lot easier to shoot accurately. Springers because of their forward backward recoil make it a challenge although more fun IMHO.

I was massively into field target for many years, as well as varmint hunting. I've owned pretty much all the airguns mentioned and all have their place. The only rifle I truly wish I kept was the mighty RWS M54 air king. It is the only springer capable of a true 100m MOA 5 shot group. Apparently the target hunter is capable of similar performance. Know this - they murder anything but a fixed power scope. Must be AG rated. The rws 52 doesn't have the recoil negating rail system. Use rws barracuda 21gn pellets or the stoeger xfield equivalent. A PCP is not the same as a .22lr like many believe. It has 35 of ft/lbs of power compared to 500 ft/lbs. That allows you to kill rabbit near your house. Piece of mind that you aren't going to accidentally send a projectile off the property.

[QUOTE=Yukon;327685]These are supposed to be good, though I've never actually seen or used one, so can only go by hearsay. Air Rifle 'Benjamin' | Trade Me

Ive got one of these....but....the triggers are....well....fukin awful.....but a quick google and a washer in the right place and your good to go....heavy to lug around a property though!!!!!!

Hello All

My air-rifle is a Air-Arms S500 FAC (as I mentioned earlier it came as a demonstrator from David at NZ AirArms of Whangarei - outstanding advice and service). The variable power is pretty useful for shooting birds in sheds etc (once you get used to it, there were a few initial holes !!!) but as for not being a hazard to neighbours - well lets say I had to modify my approach.

We're on ten acres on the edge of the city and when we first came here shooting rabbits with a 22 or shotgun wasn't a problem - however over 20 years the city (AND City folks) have come to meet our boundary. They have very different outlooks on just about everything (not having driveway gates for when we shift stock on the road is a pet peeve of mine).

Anyhoo I thought the PCP would be the bees knees. However the second shot I fired at a rabbit missed, and must have veered of course by about 40 degrees because I distinctly heard it rattle a neighbours roof well off to the the right of my line of fire (which was in a "safe" direction). No one was home and there were no enquiries but I slunk away much chastened. Moral of that is any air-rifle has the potential to get you into bother !!

Cheers

I have a AA TC500 PCP and I cant believe how accurate it it. 0.22 cal with 10 shots in one hole at 20m

Mine has twin tubes, so have larger air capacity. I put it over my chrony, and I can get 80 shots before the velocity drops below 800fps

Originally Posted by NZVarminter

I have a AA TC500 PCP and I cant believe how accurate it it. 0.22 cal with 10 shots in one hole at 20m

Mine has twin tubes, so have larger air capacity. I put it over my chrony, and I can get 80 shots before the velocity drops below 800fps

What is its max velocity and how many shots before it starts to drop?

I use an airforce talon very accurate haven't taken it out lately tho

You are right to go for a target grade gun because that is the accuracy you need for practice and for hunting. Try visiting a local airgun target club and see what they are using.

I have a Air Arms TX200 in hunter carbine (shorter barrel) .22 (pics: Air Arms TX200 Hunter Carbine .22)

The trigger is very crisp. I had to adjust it up from 400g as it came from the factory. I wanted it the same as my centerfire at 1000g but it would only go to 800. A bit of a pain to adjust because you need to disassemble it each shot to adjust and check. You can't dry fire it of course. It's a tw stage trigger and the first stage is very long. Adjusting the first stage was much more technical (for me) than the second and I soon got it stuck so it was very difficult to let off at all. Quickly wound it back once I had emptied it ! I suggest asking someone with experience to set it up for you if you don't like the factory settings.

I've found it good for rabbits and possums round houses. Not totally quiet but OK and safe from ricochets I think. However a miss at a possum did once result in a long delayed clink on a roof so do consider your firing zone. (as above, no complaints but slunk away and been more careful since.)

A spring airgun is quite difficult to shoot well and to be honest I can do better with my JW15 on the range. However, I can use it at home which is a great bonus. Can shoot off a quick 40 after work before dinner. Technical aspects to address with a springer are:
Long "lock time" so you need to hold the weapon still much more than a centerfire. If its moving the shot is always 3 x as far out as it looked. The barrel moves a lot between trigger fall and pellet exit.
Screws come loose specially with .22 cal so regularly loosen off and re snug. The Air Airms seems to have countersunk screws on the foreend which look to me like they might split the thin wood if over tightened.
The scope needs to be springer rated. Leapers (accushot) and Hawke (air hawk) are the standard ones. The very best only cost $200 - $400 which I don't understand. Mine shifted a lot because the Leapers mount used a foam liner which didn't hold the scope and I had shifting zeros for a year till I tried fixing that. Now its good - just my shooting ... Field target shooters use big objective high mag scope because they need to range with parallax (not allowed lasers). My advice is that a 3-12x40 with parallax is plenty for hunting and positional target practice. Since a lot of targets are under 20m you do need parallax adj to focus on them.

It's said that you can't shoot a springer off a sand bag or rest and I do sight in free sitting but when hunting I do whatever to "get steadier" and use fence posts, branches even wires as long as the gun is only touching the palm of my hand or fingers. If it contacts anything hard the shot will fly.

Hunting rabbits, only go for headshots. It's 16 ft pound at muzzle and about 10 at 40m ie 1/4 of a .22RF subsonic. You don't get massive destruction like with a rimfire nor even a big bleed out wound channel. Chest shot bunnies sometimes jump, collapse then get up and crawl or run away. Almost all the ones I get to skin out have a pellet in the head.

Ron Young is excellent (very good for mail order by phone too) but you need to go and visit first time. He has a mini range and I could try out all the good brands there and some not so good and he was very patient and made time despite selling 2 or 3 other guns while he was talking to me.