Rats...

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gnappi

gnappi

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Jul 22, 2005
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South Florida
I'm an exotic fruit tree collector and after several years the vermin (squirrels and rats) recently discovered my mini fruit orchard. My dog absolutely HATES ANY animal in her queendom and somehow sensed through closed doors when they were there and alerted me.

It took a couple of weeks with traps and my Pellet rifle to get them all, and it's been three weeks since she or I have seen any of either.

I'm pretty certain my rifle wasn't strong enough to kill the squirrels but I think whacking them several times a day convinced their tiny brains that whatever was here wasn't worth the sting :)

I've been cruising Ebay for a quiet and reasonably powerful single shot break rifle, I'm shocked at how much some of them cost.
 
A firearm doesn't provide any of the actual energy that drives the projectile. That's all provided by the ammunition.

An airgun has to do everything a firearm does plus generate and/or store the energy to drive the projectile. That means, assuming the same general quality, an airgun will cost more than a firearm.

Fortunately, moderate quality airguns that will perform quite well are available.
 
My uncle asked me to sit and shoot the squirrels out of his garden when i was a kid. The gun he had was a .177 crosman 66. These werent real big squirrels as I understand it, but that gun punched clean thru them with 5-6 pumps. Hitting them anywhere besides the head or spine tho usually resulted in them running off.
Any over the counter springer will out do that old 66 with 5 pumps in it, but i think going with a .22 or larger is good advice.

Cost in airguns is much the same as anything else, you can buy a good "functional" gun relatively cheaply......say 100+/- or so, and the nicer you want the more you spend. Pure performance dosent increase as fast as price does, as is also the case with most things.
 
KevininPa said:
Whatever you make you choose, remember this:

.177 for feathers, .22 for fur.

Headshots are key.

These are two old maxims that still somewhat apply to airgun hunting/pesting. Of course with the power of some airguns these days, they are followed loosely.
Click to expand...
Tell all the squirrel Ive killed with .177 I was using the wrong caliber. Shot placement is king. Also .22 will extend the range. But .177 is fine. If you do your part.
 
Yeah, if headshots are the key, it won't matter if it is .177 or .22. If you have enough power with either to get a single inch of penetration, a decent shot to the brain case won't have any different of an outcome between .177 and .22.
 
Used a crossmen cant remember make 650 fps. Then graduated to a Benjamin with 800fps. Now im using a new Benjamin 1100fps. Really taught me to stalk growing up getting in close enough to drop them. When I move back to the country will buy my kids a single shot .410 after they learn to use a pellet rifle safely.
 
.177 will drop a squirrel from tree but need to hit the vital to kill. I had a squirrel took 3 shots and finally stopped moving. Had a couple squirrels ran away with a shot after dropped from tree.
 
Well back in the day when Mel Tappen was doing articles about "Survival Guns" and authoring a book by that name I got a FWB 124 or 127, which ever the .177/4.5mm was, because it was what he recommended and I was in Germany and it was stupid cheap compared to what they were in the US at the time. Not once did I have a squirrel run off and send me a note in the mail that I should have used a .22 or 5mm or anything else.

Just behind the armpit meant I sometimes had to finish one on the ground....just like when I took them with a .410 or even a 12 Gauge and 7 1/2 shot. Head shots usually meant DRT and Drop, Usually with a hole in each side of the head.

Only Bunny I popped with it just sort of laid down and expired.

I do not shoot Crows and never have.

I only stopped using it because the seal failed.

Half the folks on line tell me the FWB is a kitchen table project with no special tools to replace a seal and the other half seem to think it must be a special air rifle mechanic, blessed by the Pope in person, with every air gun specific tool known to man to even open it up to see if it is in fact a bad seal. So it has set in a corner looking Teutonic for a decade now.

The finger eating Chinese Under lever just ain't the same thing. The "American" break barrel I bought as a stop gap is actually Chinese made and just not as accurate or powerful. I want my FWB back and .177 is just fine.

-kBob
 
kBob said:
Well back in the day when Mel Tappen was doing articles about "Survival Guns" and authoring a book by that name I got a FWB 124 or 127, which ever the .177/4.5mm was, because it was what he recommended and I was in Germany and it was stupid cheap compared to what they were in the US at the time. Not once did I have a squirrel run off and send me a note in the mail that I should have used a .22 or 5mm or anything else.

Just behind the armpit meant I sometimes had to finish one on the ground....just like when I took them with a .410 or even a 12 Gauge and 7 1/2 shot. Head shots usually meant DRT and Drop, Usually with a hole in each side of the head.

Only Bunny I popped with it just sort of laid down and expired.

I do not shoot Crows and never have.

I only stopped using it because the seal failed.

Half the folks on line tell me the FWB is a kitchen table project with no special tools to replace a seal and the other half seem to think it must be a special air rifle mechanic, blessed by the Pope in person, with every air gun specific tool known to man to even open it up to see if it is in fact a bad seal. So it has set in a corner looking Teutonic for a decade now.

The finger eating Chinese Under lever just ain't the same thing. The "American" break barrel I bought as a stop gap is actually Chinese made and just not as accurate or powerful. I want my FWB back and .177 is just fine.

-kBob
Click to expand...
FWBs have a good reputation. I would recommend finding an experienced airgun repair shop in your area and asking what a rebuild would cost. If the cost would be shocking, there are rebuild kits available and I am sure they come with instructions in print, video or both. Some links in case you missed them: https://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=757137 I take it Chevota's advice in this earlier thread spooked ya :D https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/fwb-124-repair.823066/
 
Get a 120 dollar hatsan 22 caliber break barrel from pyramid air or similar. Has decent sights plenty of power and is accurate enough to make head shots out to 40 yards with a little practice. I have one with a few thousand pellets through it still going strong. If trigger pull is important get one with the Quattro trigger
 
KevininPa said:
Whatever you make you choose, remember this:

.177 for feathers, .22 for fur.

Headshots are key.

These are two old maxims that still somewhat apply to airgun hunting/pesting. Of course with the power of some airguns these days, they are followed loosely.
Click to expand...
I disagree; I use a RWS 34 in .177 and kill squirrels trying to raid my bird feeders with great regularity; even nailed a rabbit at 20 yards across the backyard; using the proper pelltet is key along with placement.
 
kBob said:
Well back in the day when Mel Tappen was doing articles about "Survival Guns" and authoring a book by that name I got a FWB 124 or 127, which ever the .177/4.5mm was, because it was what he recommended and I was in Germany and it was stupid cheap compared to what they were in the US at the time. Not once did I have a squirrel run off and send me a note in the mail that I should have used a .22 or 5mm or anything else.

Just behind the armpit meant I sometimes had to finish one on the ground....just like when I took them with a .410 or even a 12 Gauge and 7 1/2 shot. Head shots usually meant DRT and Drop, Usually with a hole in each side of the head.

Only Bunny I popped with it just sort of laid down and expired.

I do not shoot Crows and never have.

I only stopped using it because the seal failed.

Half the folks on line tell me the FWB is a kitchen table project with no special tools to replace a seal and the other half seem to think it must be a special air rifle mechanic, blessed by the Pope in person, with every air gun specific tool known to man to even open it up to see if it is in fact a bad seal. So it has set in a corner looking Teutonic for a decade now.

The finger eating Chinese Under lever just ain't the same thing. The "American" break barrel I bought as a stop gap is actually Chinese made and just not as accurate or powerful. I want my FWB back and .177 is just fine.

-kBob
Click to expand...
Check out youtube. There are plenty of videos on rebuilding any airgun out there. Also Air gun nation and gateway to airgins are good forums to get info.
 
Don't waste time buying a cheapo air rifle. It is like a rabbit hole. Once you get a good one, you will want for more.

An HW30 is a great start, but a little underpowered. A RWS48 will fill all your needs from feather to fur.
 
I just got a cheap Crosman Tyro 177 and it is great, got it for $85 from Walmart. I've only shot the Crosman hollow points that I paid about $5 for 500 off Amazon. I've only had it a week or two and already I can keep it within one inch at 25 ft shooting offhand with the sights. It says up to 695fps, but I chronographed mine at 590fps with the ammo above.

I didn't want a scoped rifle and wanted a really quiet one to shoot in the backyard without notifying the neighbors. Today, shot a squirrel at about 40 ft, he ran up the tree and then slowly crawled down and laid himself down. I didn't even see a entry womb, but it did what it was supposed to do.
 
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