My $1800 air rifle

[myopicmouse]

Naturally in europe we are a bit repressed with 'real guns' so alternatives need to be found....in N.Ireland air rifles require a firearms certificate - so instead of the normal power level of 12ft.lb I got myself one thats 35 ft.lb and can hit do headshots on rabbits/birds out to 75yrds. Thats my hunting rifle, anything as powerfull as .22LR and .308 I have to do at the club range. (we can get .22LR to hunt...but it's a whole lotta hoops to jump through i.e I must own X amount of 'suitable' land, three other landowners permission, letters from other shooters, 1 year club membership using that particular calibre)

It's pretty good though, 50" long, internal & additional silencer. The cost of the rifle and divers bottle is $1250 - but with all the other stuff i.e scope/sling/mounts it works out to be $1800 in all....yes, for an air rifle. I was wondering if there was a market like this in America, but I'm guessing no - I wonder what I could buy gun-wise with $1800?

 

[geekWithA.45]

For $1800, you can buy your choice of:


1 full tilt .308 battle rifle of the M1A Flavor, scope, mags, etc.
3 garands
2 field grade bolt action rifles, in pretty much your choice of calibers
About 10 SKS
1.5 generic AR types
1 heavilly pimped out AR
4 AKs
5 .22lrs, of various type
3 high capacity combat shotguns
7 or 8 CETMES
9 Saigas

I think you get the picture

Anyway, to answer your question, yes, there is a fairly small market for high end compressed gas rifles, but considering most of the kids I knew had .22lrs available to them, (at around $200) it's pretty much a specialty thing.


Nice rod, though! How's it shoot?

 

[Daemon688]

Wow!

I haven't seen any pellet rifles going for that much before, but I have seen paint ball guns get up into the thousand dollar range.

For that much money, you probably could have bought atleast 4-5 of these.

 

[Stickjockey]

Umm, guys? He's in Northern Ireland.

Nice gun, by the way Myopicmouse.

 

[myopicmouse]

Yea, it a pretty good looking gun. It shoots like a dream, about 3/4" at 75yards and at 50yrds you can pretty much get your second bullet throught the same hole as the first one. At times if I was to aim a fly on the target paper at 70 I'm 50/50 to hit it. Only problem is stopping power, I have to go for a head shot, which is an insanely small target compared to just doing a body shot with a .22lr, but my skill is pretty good since I practice shooting sub 1" targets without bipod (I don't use bullseyes, I use a marker pen to shoot at 'dots' on the paper. The trigger is the best I've ever used as well. Quiet, but not as quiet as a .22lr silenced with sub son, because of all that gas getting pushed out with pellet, but I have two silencers that do a reasonable job, the noise of the pellet hitting the skull causes more disterbance. The silencer pictured which goes over the whole barrel and theres an additional eternal one that I put on.

We can get assult rifles etc (only semi auto) the only problem is jumping through the hoops to get them. I.e I want to get a pistol, but I have to got to a pistol club for a year before they will consider me.

 

[AZRickD]

Well, that is the deal with quality air rifles. The gas can be metered so precisely that if everything else is working per spec, it results in extreme accuracy for short distances, anyway.

Look at Lewis and Clark fer example

http://www4.vmi.edu/museum/air_rifle.html

It also had a high rate of fire

Rick

 

[Warren]

So MM wants to show off his air gun and it turns into a "lets rub it in with what he can't have thread."


Nice piece, Mouse.

 

[El Rojo]

He asked the question, the guys answered it. At least they didn't tell him they were glad to move out of that hell hole and then encourage him to do the same or make comments along the lines of "I don't understand how people can live there".

I have been thinking of getting a good pellet gun for back yard squirrels. I just don't feel safe shooting them with the .22 LR.

 

[emc]

Rojo, the proper air rifle will work well. I've done it with a .22 cal air pistol, but that's pretty marginal, and I wouldn't suggest it.

FWIW,

emc

 

[Andrew Wyatt]

he's in northern ireland. he probably has 10 aks, 3 ar-18s, and an RPG buried out back.

 

[DougCxx]

There are people in the US with high-end Euro airguns, but you won't catch many of them posting on this board. I have a Beeman RX, the US-version of the HW-90 gas-ram gun, in .177. That cost around $450 around ten years ago, and I spent $350 for a Beeman/Hakko lighted-reticle scope to put on it. At the time, there weren't many scopes that would hold up on the gas-ram airguns, you could choose between Leupold, Steiner and Hakko--and none of them were cheap. But the Hakko has held up, with no problems. The "short" Hakko scopes have actually appreciated a bit since Beeman sold them roughly 8 or 10 years ago--guys with tactical firearms find them highly desireable it seems.

....My airgun doesn't need a silencer because it has the full-length barrel (19 inches) and the gas ram itself doesn't really make much noise. It's funny to see: when a neighborhood kid has a cheap-plastic BB gun and fires it ONE time, all the birds fly off. The few times when I have fired mine at birds and I have missed, they all turned and looked at me, with their heads tilted sideways like an idiot. It is much quieter than a typical kids BB gun and makes a totally different sound--and they have no idea what it is. Sometimes you can smack one bird in a line, and the others will sit there and look at it while you are reloading.

I have also taken it to a friend's house, and we did some target shooting in his backyard. And there were neighbors sitting in the back yard just next-door, with only a wooden fence in-between us. They never complained that we were shooting a pellet gun, but then again, that's probably because they never knew we were. They could not see, and as I said--the sound it makes (even set to shoot at 1150 FPS) is much quieter than any firearm and totally different than a kid's cheap BB gun. Ordinary people simply don't know what such an airgun sounds like being fired.

It is full-power though, there's generally no power restrictions on airguns--but then, airguns generally are not technically legal for hunting anything. Makes lots of sense, yes? Oh well.

If you go to the Fun Supply forum on Network54, there are people who have higher-end stuff like Theoben Rapid guns and so on. Not a lot though. I remember the Rapid 17 was priced from one retailer in the US for around $1350. Generally though, people around where I live (midwest US) think I am crazy for ever spending $450 on a pellet gun.
~

 

[otomik]

what caliber, pellet weight and velocity?
silencers? thats one thing europeans have that americans gotta jump through hoops for.

 

[myopicmouse]

otomik

.22, 1.037g, 35ft.lb - thats power rather than velocity....don't have a chronograph.

P.S a tip for getting a silencer - tell your constabulary it is for health reasons. You don't wear ear protecters when hunting so this is to save ear damage.
-----------------

not technically legal for hunting anything

We're told we arn't to shoot deer with it and thats it...though comman scence comes into play, fox is ok at 20yards but not anything over that (depends on power of air rifle, most are 12ft.lb

 

[SOT_II]

Heh that's nothing I've got a few air rifles going up in the $3000-$5000 range.

Also have some FT rifles that run about $2,200 or so...I'll take pictures. Airgun hunting is very much a challenge as shot placement and stalking are the key to success...

What pellets are you using? Shin Sun or some of those Magnum bullet shapped pellets? I've found the JSB's work pretty good...and obviously the H&N FFTS.

 

[myopicmouse]

I tried Bisley Magnums and Paragon Z1 & Z2 (sabot ones, spilt in 2 when hit target..good, but expensive.)

Shin Sun are really for over 35ft.lb rifles i.e 50 or 70, the AA pellets don't deform at 35 so I'm happy with them...i've gotten some great shots with them...best pellet ever! order some: www.air-arms.co.uk also try paragon - they have a plastic 'sheath' and a zink alloy head....take chunks outta bricks they do...their really hand for foxes, big stuff like that.

I've settled on standard Air Arms Diablo .22 1.037g extreamly accurate.

FT air rifles are way to overpriced now, your paying for the stock rather than the gun, my S410 beats most FT rifles and isn't outdone my any...and it's only meant to be a sporting rifle. I don't like FT because of the X50 mag scopes....no skill compared to X6 or X9. Post pics, information on what guns you have...it's so rare to find air rifle nuts here, i'd be really interested.