I really need help selecting an Air Rifle for Squirrels.

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I spent weeks researching and finally decided on a Beeman R-9 Goldfinger, in Twenty Caliber(.20).

It is a squirrel harvesting machine. Very quiet. I routinely zero at range...50 meters.

For city/town squirrel work, you do not want a lot of velocity due to sound barrier (loud crack) issues.

I could not recommend this rifle for squirrel extermination more strongly.

Good luck.
 
Oh yeah, I live in a hysterical.....erhhhh....historical district. Stealth eradication is part of the fun.

Until I got rid of them, I used a newspaper on a frame, kind of a blind. I would the shoot them across the street in a small park while sitting on our front porch. Worked quite well.
 
Below is the custom/ modified Crosman co2 rifle I was talking about. A cheap Bushnell scope on it makes it extremely lethal on squirrels (notice there are no irons). My bird feeder is 50 feet from the kitchen window and its no contest. A little more challenging is when the squirrels get into my apple orchard about 200 feet from the patio. Then I have about a 6" holdover with the Beeman Kodiak extra heavy pellets. But when they hit, they hit pretty darn hard, even at that range.

The air rifle is pictured with a Marlin Model 60 .22 rimfire for scale:

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That Crossman rifle was bought out by a Chinese company and is now called the QB series of rifles....check out archer airguns or look on youtube for qb rifle reviews....they are some very fine rifles...
 
30+ squirrel with Remington airmaster 77 weaver 2.5 x scope and JSB exacts.
 
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Oh yeah, I live in a hysterical.....erhhhh....historical district. Stealth eradication is part of the fun.

Until I got rid of them, I used a newspaper on a frame, kind of a blind. I would the shoot them across the street in a small park while sitting on our front porch. Worked quite well.

Wow, you're a braver man than I! Across the street in a park? That's GOT to be some kind of violation! How did you retrieve the bodies without being seen? I had enough stress just popping them in my front yard, 10 feet from my kitchen window. But in a park across the street? "Look mommy, that squirrel's break dancing all over place! Oh, he must be tired, now he's sleeping....."
 
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Those 1760 and 2260 Crosmans are great CO2 rifles. I have a plain jane 2260 and while it is not quite as powerful as my Benjamin .22 Nitro Piston "springer", the 2260 is vastly easier to shoot consistently from any shooting position. The Benjamin has to be held exactly the same from the exact same stance for consistent hits to the same "zero".
 
Those 1760 and 2260 Crosmans are great CO2 rifles. I have a plain jane 2260 and while it is not quite as powerful as my Benjamin .22 Nitro Piston "springer", the 2260 is vastly easier to shoot consistently from any shooting position. The Benjamin has to be held exactly the same from the exact same stance for consistent hits to the same "zero".
Yea...like I was preaching about....those rifles are fantastic....and if you have seal problems or anything with your vintage crosman, everything from the QB will fit it. Pretty good life out of a pair of powerlets as well...you get about 70 shots before it starts to really fall off.

I know I sound like a fan boy but they are fantastic air rifles.
 
RWS 34 or 48 Diana from Airguns of Arizona. Check them out online. Fast, easy to deal with, superb service.
I cleaned up all the squirrels who were eating expensive chicken & turkey feed. I then moved on to the other squirrels who were raiding our fruit trees.
Gamo is in my experience cheap trash from chain store discount retailers. Bought one, it never shot well, trigger was lousy. Ended up cutting it in half with chop saw before it went in the garbage can. I should have bought the RWS the first time.
^^^^^This. The RWS 48 is worth the money. It is a side cocker, spring piston rifle. Accurate, and well made in Germany.
 
I was using my 22LR with suppressor for squirrels...I ended up using those "have a hart" traps...I'd trap the squirrels with peanut butter and crackers...bring them into my basement and take them out with pellet rifle.

Just make sure your township allows discharging of firearms if they don't you could have some issues with the man.
 
I was using my 22LR with suppressor for squirrels...I ended up using those "have a hart" traps...I'd trap the squirrels with peanut butter and crackers...bring them into my basement and take them out with pellet rifle.

Just make sure your township allows discharging of firearms if they don't you could have some issues with the man.
Ahh...seems a little....I don't know...not too cool.
 
I have had great success with both a .177 Gamo Whisper, and a .22 Stoeger X-20S. Both have the integral suppression and are nice and quiet. Had a severe problem with tree rats damaging the house and property chewing through the roof and other things. Not so much now.

CB caps and pellet adapters were mentioned earlier. Both can be effective, but both would also still be considered, "discharging a firearm", which is not legal inside many town limits, or within certain distance of a habitation, etc. Nowhere near as many places that prohibit shooting a pellet gun.
 
Jcinnb wrote:"I spent weeks researching and finally decided on a Beeman R-9 Goldfinger, in Twenty Caliber(.20)."

I have never seen .20 pellets anywhere. All I have seen are the .177 and .22.
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The break barrel rifles sound like a center fire cartridge. I bought one to NOT ;) shoot the lovely pigeons on my porch but put one round down range and thought the swat team would be along any minute. It is for sale. Slightly used with 1 pellet down range. 1 pellet.
 
For what it's worth, I can't speak highly enough of the Benjamin rifles, either pump or Co2 powered.

Wonderful valve system gave birth to my nostalgic-love-era of paintball markers, and I personally have a Benjamin (Blue Streak, maybe?) .22 in the middle of a rebuild that my uncle got as a child, used. He's nearing 70 now. And flat-point pellets will still knock cans around 25 yards downrange without trying--and it's missing the rear sight.
 
So, you may want to consider any possible legal ramifications to killing squirrels in your yard,

Definitely. My two adjacent neighbors have "semi-feral" outdoor cats that do a great job at keeping the squirrels at bay, as well as mice and rats. Although my wife gets PO'd when they kill a bird or a gekko.
 
The break barrel rifles sound like a center fire cartridge. I bought one to NOT ;) shoot the lovely pigeons on my porch but put one round down range and thought the swat team would be along any minute. It is for sale. Slightly used with 1 pellet down range. 1 pellet.
Ah...dieseling. I thought the same thing when I shot my Benji Nitro Piston the first time.

Shoot about 50-60 more pellets through it and you won't have that problem anymore.

ETA: BTW what caliber is it. I might have some heavy weight pellets that will speed up the process that I could send you.
 
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A couple of responses.

First to retrieve dead squirrels in public area...make a big production of it. Let them sit awhile then walk over, look around, prod the body with your foot and then make a big deal of putting on a glove. Pick up squirrel, carry at arms length and throw in bushes. You have just done a public service...removing a dead squirrel from the park.

What did squirrel do to you; destroyed my pecans

NEver seen 20 cal pellets: the INTERNET is yor friend. I normally shoot Beeman black Crows or something like that.

Its all good, unless you are a squirrel. ..- a rat with a good publicist!
 
Its all good, unless you are a squirrel. ..- a rat with a good publicist!

I agree, and chipmunks too. I had squirrels in the attic when I first bought my house and the in-laws had chipmunks do about $5,000 worth of damage to their house.
 
I am wanting to buy a good pellet gun

I am wanting to buy a good pellet gun, air rifle?

.22's seem to be almost impossible to buy right now.

I have a bunch of .177 pellets.

Any recommendations would be appreciated

I clicked on the Gamo Hunter but didn't see one actually for sale.

Thanks
 
There is another thread that is active right now that might give you some ideas. First question is how much do you want to spend?
 
also depending on the pelletts ya have and what you mean by a "bunch"


if they are cheap pellets a cheaper gun is warranted. If too cheaply made or cheap quality I would not recommend a quality pellet gun, otherwise I recommend the best you can get and decent and quality pellets.
 
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