Thread: Air rifles that are suitable for possums and rabbits?

Originally Posted by Mintie

Ive been into airguns in a big way now for a long time, most of my hunting is done by air. I collect and fix/repair/modify airguns as a hobby and have had hundreds of them over my bench. Some simple advice from me on buying a good airgun.

1- Stay away from the Gamo rifles, They are of poor build quality and are way over priced. Also give their pellets a miss, they are quite poorly formed and very inconsistent.

2- Ron is a good bastard, go see him.

3- JSB, H&N and some Crosman Premier pellets are good, the standard dome head is usually the most accurate but sometimes the polymer tipped predators group well enough at possums distance and they get messy on impact.

4- Buy .22 for possums, throat shots are usually the way to go

5- Stay away from anything over 1000fps, Pellets are not designed like bullets and they do not perform well over the SOS (actually its more about them de-stabilizing when they come back through the SOS which is normally only about 25 m down range). To help you out here almost all manufactures are telling bullshit when they claim 1600fps (like Gamo) anyway. Point 4 helps you here as you wont get a spring/ram rifle over about 950fps in .22

6- Spring vs Gas ram are different but they both do the job well if you get a good one, Springers don't like being cocked for too long (hour plus on a regular basis can "set" the spring shorter) but gas rams are ok cocked for longer periods - To be clear I don't cock any of mine until i'm ready to shoot anyway but some people like to trust the safety and be ready to fire instantly. Gas rams are slightly snappier and smoother recoil but a polished springer can be very smooth too.

7- Check out the Cometa Fenix 400 or Fusion rifles. These are very good quality rifles at very good prices, great lookers, great adjustable 2 stage trigger, plenty of power, great build quality. They are almost the quality of the expensive German stuff but at Gamo prices. Ive shots hundreds of possums, rabbits, turkeys etc with a Fenix 400.

8- Make sure you get a springer rated scope and a one piece mount (done up real tight and using recoil stop screws). Most scopes that come with airguns are rubbish and don't last long, Get something from Hawke, Leapers or some of the Nikko range are springer rated. make sure it has parallax adjustment and it can go down to close range. The recoil is both forwards and backwards and a lot of scopes/mounts cant handle that.

9- Co2 rifles dont need a licence and can be quite fun, I have had them up around 16fpe which is enough for possums but you will get more power from a grunty springer. The fun thing about the bolt action Co2 rifles is that you can modify and silence them etc and end up with something that feels like a rimfire to shoot.

10- PCP is great fun but expensive to set up the filling gear and any PCP rifle needs a FAL, PCP pistols don't need a licence and can still pack some serious power (Ive shot 50 cal PCP pistols that are running 300ish FPE) and they are the only legal way to hunt with pistols in NZ! I have seen pics of a Red Deer taken in NZ with a PCP pistol.

11- Strip, clean and polish the rifle that you get. Manufacturing processes generally don't leave good finishes inside and with all the heavy moving metal you can get a fairly harsh shooting cycle. Spring ends, mating surfaces, spring guides, cocking lever channels, trigger sears etc should all get a good polish to get it to run at its best. On reassembly there are specific lubes that should be used in different areas, there shouldn't be anything combustible inside the compression tube otherwise you will get dieseling which will wreck seals.

12- Don't dry fire it, or buy it from a salesperson that suggests you do. The piston needs the back pressure from a pellet in the barrel to slow it down, if fired without a pellet in the barrel the piston just slams against the end of the compression tube which will bugger it.

13- Most importantly make sure you get something that fits you. Handle it, Fondle it, Shoot it if you can before buying. Some of the airguns on the market are youth sized and some are giant sized, no point buying a Hatsan 130 if you are only 5ft.

Backed up every thing I said and some