[MatthewVanitas]

Ran across this site in an old archived TFL thread. I'd read before about the big-bore air rifles of the Napoleonic era, powerful enough for boar and deer or even warfare.

I'd assumed that nobody built such things anymore, except for that 28 gauge Filipino CO2 shotgun by Farco. That thing puts out somewhere around 100 fpe. I believe one author used it with slug to take a 75lb wild pig in Florida.

In any case, I was quite impressed by Mr. Barnes' efforts in the world of pneumatics: www.glbarnes.com

I suppose I'm a sucker for the esoteric or "underutilized ideas", witness my recumbent bicycle, so I do find myself covetting. No clue what I'd do with that much air rifle, but it's comforting to know that such things are available in this world. I particularly liked his comments as to why he builds such a thing:

"We're not really a nation which builds to the minimum requirement. So, the call to moderation is fairly weak in this culture."

Pretty much accurate, for better or worse. In any case, thought this would interest others with a taste for the bizarre (Vanitas sadly picks up his now tragically-unhip cartridge rifle and slumps off to the range) Good shooting all.

[444]

Yeah, I visited the site a year or two ago. And of course I wanted one. But, I figured I had no use for it. Even though it is an airgun, I still couldn't fire it in my backyard. Well maybe I could but I dont' want to run the risk of my neighbors calling the policia for a man with a gun, or even advertising the fact that I own guns to my neighbors. So, that means I have to drive somewhere to shoot it. If I am driving somewhere to shoot, then I can shoot my .338 Win Mag or whatever. So, I didn't see the point.
I think along the same line as you though. I find offbeat stuff very interesting.
I believe there is an airgun that fires 9mm balls or bullets in the Cabellas catalog. It sounds to me like anything on that webpage you mention would be more than enough to cleanly take an animal the size of deer.

[mtnbkr]

There are quite a few airguns with power for hunting. The Barnes rifles are at the top of the heap in power and price, but there are other Precharged Pneumatics that fit the bill as well.

Chris

[Vermonter]

Reviving an old thread.

Anybody have experience with these or other high-power air rifles?

Could be legally silenced as long as the silencer isn't detachable, right?

[Car Knocker]

And here's another source:
http://www.quackenbushairguns.com/

[JohnKSa]

The silencer has to be integral to the barrel (completely non-removable without destroying the silencer) if you want to be reasonably assured of being legal. Even then, they could argue that you could cut off the entire barrel with the integral silencer and use that as a silencer separately. They go round and round on the airgun forums about this--the bottom line is that it's not smart to bet on the BATF being logical, reasonable or fair.