Thread: Air rifle advice

My air rifle knowledge is decades out of date. Personally, for non-PCP/FAL rifles, I would avoid the models that claim high FPS. Accuracy beats power every time and "high power" springers are hard to shoot well. I've heard good things about the Cometa brand.

Originally Posted by MB

My air rifle knowledge is decades out of date. Personally, for non-PCP/FAL rifles, I would avoid the models that claim high FPS. Accuracy beats power every time and "high power" springers are hard to shoot well. I've heard good things about the Cometa brand.

I could agree that accuracy is very important, but it does also need the energy to do the job. If specifically targeting small game, I would lean towards a .22 calibre air rifle. Bigger wound track etc. For a 22 cal Air rifle as peed of 800-1000 frps would work well and still stay below the speed of sound thus avoiding the loud "crack"....

Originally Posted by timattalon

I could agree that accuracy is very important, but it does also need the energy to do the job. If specifically targeting small game, I would lean towards a .22 calibre air rifle. Bigger wound track etc. For a 22 cal Air rifle as peed of 800-1000 frps would work well and still stay below the speed of sound thus avoiding the loud "crack"....

I was thinking the same thing. I’ve not used 22 air rifle myself but mostly I only used them as a kid. I’ve got a cheap one for pigeon but it’s low powered so as not to hole the aluminium roof on the shed. It’s a piece of shit.
He needs to kill everything he aims at, probably out to 50yds and it needs to be reliable.
NV would possibly be an option as well although he needs to get back to me with a budget.

Originally Posted by timattalon

I could agree that accuracy is very important, but it does also need the energy to do the job. If specifically targeting small game, I would lean towards a .22 calibre air rifle. Bigger wound track etc. For a 22 cal Air rifle as peed of 800-1000 frps would work well and still stay below the speed of sound thus avoiding the loud "crack"....

Sure. Quick online calculation. Even at 800 fps, a 15gr pellet would give a muzzle energy of 21.32 foot-pounds which should be plenty. My comment was really aimed at the marketing of crap like Gamo which use fps as a major selling point, claiming speeds of well over 1000 fps.

Originally Posted by MB

Sure. Quick online calculation. Even at 800 fps, a 15gr pellet would give a muzzle energy of 21.32 foot-pounds which should be plenty. My comment was really aimed at the marketing of crap like Gamo which use fps as a major selling point, claiming speeds of well over 1000 fps.

@MB And theres the rub...most brands market fps like its important...Hatsan 1250, Webley dominator 1350 et al...most struggle to actually achieve close to the posted speeds...more like this is what it gets if we round it up to the nearest big number.....Baikals on the other hand.....If Baikal marketed it as 1000fps, then when new and with normal pellets it would just exceed that, but after a bit of use and getting the mechanism all settled down it usually climbed and easily exceeded its posted speeds.....Pity they are so dam hard to get hold of.....the 513M was brilliant. Dearer than a 22LR but brilliant none the less....