How far do you shoot your air rifle?

[jmorris]

I gave myself a new air rifle for Christmas and sighted it in, in the shop the other night (50') and took it out the back door and fired a few shots at the target that was up in my bullet stop 60 yards away from the back door and was impressed at the group for not being too serious trying to get "bench rest" results (5 of 7 inside 2.5").

My first "adult" air rifle so what do you expect?

 

[Doc7]

That sounds pretty amazing for 60 yards air rifle, but my only experience is with a pump Daisy. What rifle / speed of pellet are you using?

I shoot my pump 15 yards : )

 

[jmorris]

It is an RWS 34 .22 cal with the Benjamin 14.3 g pellets I keep in the shop. I didn't chronograph them but I would guess slower than 800fps (it's rated at 800 and no one seems to tell the truth).

I was shocked too, thus the post.

 

[joe normal]

When I was young, my brother and I shot out to 100 yards regularly. 760 Pumpmaster rifles, usually BB's.

Lots of hold over, group sizes aren't that small, poor in wind. Then we had to memorize hold over for the various ranges, for each of 10, 20, and 30 pumps.

Ah, those were the days.

 

[Peter M. Eick]

Decades ago when I was shooting competitively we used to aim for the metal property line post on the corner of our lot. It was about 1" diameter and we were shooting at it from about 70 yrds. You could hit it often with the match rifles and when you did, you got a little "ting" to know it was a hit. Lots of fun!

 

[jmorris]

I was going to shoot some groups today after the match but decided it was too windy. Only to arrive home and find crows out in the field. One shot is all it took at 98 yards. I have a new favorite air rifle.

 

[ole farmerbuck]

I think I need one of those! I can shoot it in my garage I guess, thats 85 feet. should be fun. Good shootin there jmorris. Did the pellet exit?

 

[ole farmerbuck]

I know nothing about air rifles so I'm going to ask.....are air rifles single shot like you have to load a single pellet for each shot?

 

[jmorris]

I don't know if it went through or not but I did chronograph the 14.3 grain pellets I have been using and they run about 100 fps slower than advertised velocity of 800 fps.

This one you cock the barrel to compress the spring/piston and load a pellet, one at a time. They have others that are precharged with compressed gas that are more fancy but cost more than I wanted to spend at the time. Have to admit that I wonder how much better they get though.

 

[Jaymo]

My Bemjamin Marauder .22 puts Crosman domes through both sides of a 55 gallon steel drum at 30 yards.
Good enough for me.

It also drops squirrels quicker than any .22 LR ever did for me.

 

[heavydluxe]

With the right pellet (Diana 34s are notoriously finicky), lots of practice re: artillery hold/trigger control, and ideal conditions, I would imagine that you'd be able to consistently somewhere on a 8+ inch steel circle at 100 yards.

By consistently, I don't mean nearly 100% of the time - but regularly enough to reasonably expect a tink when you do your part. However, I think the slightest variations in wind would lead to wildly inconsistent results at that range. With a modest breeze blowing on and off, I think hitting at 100 yards would turn into a total crap shoot.

 

[jmorris]

The wind didn't seem quite as bad as yesterday so I ran a 5 shot group at 100 yds, waiting for the wind to die down between shots.

About 4 1/8" with the Benjamin 14.3 grain pellets.



I bagged it on a concrete table and also had the shop block the wind for part of the way.



I hate waiting on wind so I'll pick a calm day to try out the expensive pellets I ordered.

 

[Mousegun]

I know nothing about air rifles so I'm going to ask.....are air rifles single shot like you have to load a single pellet for each shot?

In most cases you load one pellet at a time. Some rifles have a magazine that allows between 5-10 pellets.

Airguns go from prices like $30 to over $3000, they are not toys.

The benefit of loading one at a time is that you are slowed down and it helps you develop good shooting skills. You learn to hold the gun the same each time, respect for the wind, good trigger control, good site alignment with or without a scope and the joy of putting 5 or more pellets in one hole if you have the right combination of gun and pellet.

I just spent $1000 for a new air rifle and I don't regret the purchase one bit. If you saw the gun you would be hard pressed to tell it was an air gun. The fit and finish is as good or better than many powder burners out there.

They are excellent for shooting where powder burners can't (read, like your back yard) and can be used to eliminate critters like mice, rats and even ground hogs with the right gun and pellet combination.

Here is a target shot at 35 yards with my RWS model 48 in 177 cal. with 10 pellets.

 

[jmorris]

Nice!

 

[lykoris]

100m which is fine with little wind otherwise I take the .25 which is less affected

Springers are considerably more challenging than PCPs and all air rifles are addictive

 

[peedeecat]

I mainly shoot up to 100 meters, or less, with my springers. However there are some dudes that shoot SEVERAL HUNDRED meters with great results, with PCP guns. There are lots of long range videos out there.

http://youtu.be/9myZiH950wA

Bill in SC

 

[Sav .250]

Air rifles are what they are....... Not bean field rifles. Common sense will take you a long way.

 

[bikerdoc]

Never used mine much beyond 30 yd. Maybe I should expand my range.

 

[Mike1234567]

Never used mine much beyond 30 yd. Maybe I should expand my range.

Me neither. If I were to ever hunt squirrels then I think 30 yds would be my personal limit... maybe even 20 yds and this is with a Benjamin Trail 1100 XL. BTW, I don't shoot lightweight pellets because the darned things tumble soon after leaving the muzzle. If I stick to 17+ gr pellets then this rifle is very accurate. I'm fairly sure the failure of lightweight pellets is due to transonic gremlins.

 

[lykoris]

sav

there is a world apart between a crossman/gamo and something like a daystate air ranger/air wolf or a tuned theoben rapid - putting all air rifles in the same basket is not comparing like for like.

 

[PigButtons]

I have an Air Force Condor that in .22 with a 32.4 grain pellet will shoot under an inch at 50 yards and close to 90 fpe out of a 24" barrel. That's the farthest shooting lane that I have at my place. Others that have custom machined rigs can hit a pop can at a quarter mile using .257 cast lead slugs. Look up tofazfou on youtube to see his video. Quite a few states now allow air gun hunting, minimums are usually .22 for small game, .30 for large game like deer. A quality air rifle will have approximately the same ballistics as a pistol of the same caliber. So anything you could do with a 1911 can be done with a .45 PCP air rifle of the same power. Same weight projectile, same velocity, same outcome.

 

[Deltaboy1984]

40 feet about it for me.

 

[Calibre44]

Mostly 25 yards for me and sometines 50 yards depending on how strong the wind is.

 

[oneounceload]

What scope do you have on yours? My .17 RWS34 I keep to about 15 yards for squirrel control at the bird feeder, but these eyes need the scope and it tends to wander internally after a few shots. It is an air rifle scope, but not a very expensive one.

 

[jmorris]

It's a $39 Walmart 3-9 tasco.