Air rifles

Ammo is too expensive at the moment so I'm looking into air rifles. Any recommendations?

>inb4 /toy/
See pic related

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  1. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Arent these really powerful air rifles also EXTREMELY expensive?

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      A .25/.22 can be as cheap as any PSA or bushmaster and still put down coyotes pretty easily.

      [...]

      moron.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      This. The good ones like OP pic are actually weapons, but more expensive than your run of the mill gun. Buying them to save money isn't an option. And the cheap ones are indeed just toys.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        >And the cheap ones are indeed just toys.

        ????

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          >~40 fpe / 60 joules
          Do hogs not have a kinetic energy limit for hunting at all in the US? Or is there no energy limit at all?
          That's like 1/9th of a 9mm Parabellum's KE.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            >Do hogs not have a kinetic energy limit for hunting at all in the US?
            No. Energy limits are rare in the US if they exist at all, I've never heard of one though I can't claim to be an expert on every state's laws. It's common for there to be caliber restrictions though, many states ban ".22 caliber" for deer hunting, for example.

            Anyway, in every state that I'm aware of there are zero restrictions on hunting feral hogs. No closed season, no bag limit, no caliber or weapon restrictions. They're seen more of a pest animal that needs to be eradicated rather than traditional game.

            • 2 years ago
              Anonymous

              >It's common for there to be caliber restrictions though, many states ban ".22 caliber" for deer hunting, for example.
              Reminds me of US zoning laws in its stupidity.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            >Do hogs not have a kinetic energy limit for hunting at all in the US?
            No. Energy limits are rare in the US if they exist at all, I've never heard of one though I can't claim to be an expert on every state's laws. It's common for there to be caliber restrictions though, many states ban ".22 caliber" for deer hunting, for example.

            Anyway, in every state that I'm aware of there are zero restrictions on hunting feral hogs. No closed season, no bag limit, no caliber or weapon restrictions. They're seen more of a pest animal that needs to be eradicated rather than traditional game.

            https://i.imgur.com/eE1oZd4.png

            >It's common for there to be caliber restrictions though, many states ban ".22 caliber" for deer hunting, for example.
            Reminds me of US zoning laws in its stupidity.

            The rationale might be to prevent people from trying to bag deer with .22 Long Rifle, but a lot of it is also plain fuddery, where the idea is put in place by someone who thinks that something like .30-30 Winchester at 100yds is just BARELY enough for whitetail, and that you really ought to step up to .300 Winchester Magnum to really be adequate.
            Rationales about .223 Remington being barely a step up over .22 Long Rifle or that it's "designed to wound" may also have been cited for creating laws like these.

            • 2 years ago
              Anonymous

              >The rationale might be to prevent people from trying to bag deer with .22 Long Rifle
              It absolutely is. The laws and limits exist to stop the dumbest hunters out there from dreadfully wounding game with their absolutely moronic ideas. Yeah, you might be able to hunt moose with 5.56, but the dumbest ~10% of hunters absolutely would not manage that shit, so the laws exist to limit their stupidity.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                I would not feel confident in .223 for moose, that's a big fricking animal, much bigger than deer, that's where I'd want a .270 or .30-06

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                You would not, but you can bet there are hunters out there who would, and so would leave animals wounded and suffering because of their failures. .270 by itself is still on the weaker side for moose, unless it's like .270 Weatherby Magnum.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                Ever found someone else's bullet in a puss-filled cyst(?) in something you've shot? I'll see if I still have the pics, 2 years back I took a whitetail and found 4 rounds of what had to have been 22LR in its hindquarters, it was fricking gross, and kind of amazing it didn't cripple it. You are totally correct, fricking morons do the dumbest shit if it isn't spelled out for them and the threat of jailtime tacked on.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                Christ. That was probably illegal where you live and it didn't stop the guy.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                It's extremely fricking illegal, and high risk too; this was on Indian land. Whatever you may think of natives, you don't frick around on the res unless you want real trouble.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                how does one put four bullets in the hindquarter of one animal, wouldnt it run and jump away liek crazy after getting hit by the first bullet?

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                I have no guess. Actually, I'd like to imagine whoever did it was the type of shithead who did it with his ghetto-boogled CMMG AR 22 conversion, but no I don't have an actual guess.

                Maaaaybe he tracked it, paranoid now that his incredibly illegal hunt was getting away from him, and ultimately gave up after multiple engagements, but holy shit I just can't fricking imagine.

            • 2 years ago
              Anonymous

              >The rationale might be to prevent people from trying to bag deer with .22 Long Rifle
              I'm sure you're right that is where the rationale comes from, but if so they simply could have said "no rimfire" or "no cartridge below X ft-lb energy" instead, hence the moronation.

            • 2 years ago
              Anonymous

              >The rationale might be to prevent people from trying to bag deer with .22 Long Rifle
              Good enough for the fricking cow.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Is $1200 EXTREMELY exprensive? Is $1400?

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Around here anything that costs more than a bare-bones PSA AR is millionaire territory.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          Unpinning thread. My last 3 rifles were $1100, $1200 and $6000. Still feel a twing about that one, but I still like it.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Any powerful air rifle is going to be very expensive, so you're not exactly going to save a lot of money just because the ammo is cheap. If you want something cheap with some power, what you want is a shotgun, the Mossberg 500 or Mossberg 88 Maverick would be good. Optionally something like an in-line musket.

        You also need a scuba tank and an air compressor.

        They're certainly not cheap. A low-end .45 or .50 cal PCP airgun like a Seneca costs about $750-800. Something more mid-tier like an Airforce Texan is more like $1200-1500. Then you need an air source, and guns like that need a frickload of air. The only really practical way to shoot them is to get a SCUBA tank (or similar) and either have it filled at a local dive shop or buy a very expensive compressor to fill it yourself. It's theoretically possible to charge the tank with a hand pump, but it's absolutely miserable--literally thousands of strokes with a hand pump and you get 4 or 5 shots.
        The bullets for those larger guns aren't all that cheap either. Umarex brand .50 cal airgun bullets are about $1.90 each. Seneca .45 cal are about $0.70 each. So all told the big boi airguns aren't all that cheap.

        Now if we're talking about something like a .22 cal manual wienering gun that's a whole different ballgame, but you're not going to be taking bears with that.

        This.

        >~40 fpe / 60 joules
        Do hogs not have a kinetic energy limit for hunting at all in the US? Or is there no energy limit at all?
        That's like 1/9th of a 9mm Parabellum's KE.

        Things like that tend to go by the individual states, and the rulebook for that stuff looks different between different jurisdictions. Some states don't allow rifles with bottle-necked cartridges, some don't allow rifles below a certain bore size, a couple of states don't even allow rifles period.
        Hogs are regarded as miserable pests in the southern states, so it's possible that they don't give much of a frick as long as you put them down. Someone who lives there is free to correct me though.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      They're certainly not cheap. A low-end .45 or .50 cal PCP airgun like a Seneca costs about $750-800. Something more mid-tier like an Airforce Texan is more like $1200-1500. Then you need an air source, and guns like that need a frickload of air. The only really practical way to shoot them is to get a SCUBA tank (or similar) and either have it filled at a local dive shop or buy a very expensive compressor to fill it yourself. It's theoretically possible to charge the tank with a hand pump, but it's absolutely miserable--literally thousands of strokes with a hand pump and you get 4 or 5 shots.
      The bullets for those larger guns aren't all that cheap either. Umarex brand .50 cal airgun bullets are about $1.90 each. Seneca .45 cal are about $0.70 each. So all told the big boi airguns aren't all that cheap.

      Now if we're talking about something like a .22 cal manual wienering gun that's a whole different ballgame, but you're not going to be taking bears with that.

  2. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    [...]

  3. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    If you're using it for serious hunting don't use
    .177 guns. Only buy .25 and above. Springers are strong and cheap, and are good for beginners, but PCP is better for accuracy and consistency, it's also better for hunting anything that isn't squirrels, and most big bore guns are PCP. Only downside is that they're more expensive due to needing an air pump or compressor, and you'll have to worry about air pressure and ammunition.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      OP here thanks for the info

      This. The good ones like OP pic are actually weapons, but more expensive than your run of the mill gun. Buying them to save money isn't an option. And the cheap ones are indeed just toys.

      I know for a fact cheap air guns are good for killing deer and most small pests/game. my pap took me hunting with him when I was little and I killed a buck with an air rifle but ditched it when I was able to own actual guns

  4. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    If you're concerned with cost, stay away from anything that even tries to match standard velocity .22lr for muzzle energy let alone exceed it. They've gone past the point of diminishing returns at that point.

  5. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Have you actually looked into pricing?
    The bear in your photo was shot with Umarex 350gr UX SLA. $1.35/cpr
    Smaller game, mild stuff? 135gr Seneca Spire-Point .30 cal, costs $0.36/cpr
    The rifle, frick, in OP's photo that's an Umarex Hammer, $800-$1000.
    $1500+ for a rifle and 500rds of ammo.

    Meanwhile, 7.62x39 is a half-decent hunting cartridge and is <$0.40/cpr currently.
    You can get a blemished PSAK-47 from Palmetto for $600, and 500rds of ammo for another $200.

    Greatest hunting setup ever? Frick no, but it does kick the ass off the Umarex setup for less money, is more practical, more capable, really the only downside at all is that you can't pretend it's a toy and say "oh it's not a firearm" the way you can an Air Rifle. Air rifles save you money if you use small ones for target shooting/plinking, but for the real work of hunting their price is not the reason to get one.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Not looking to get a big bore gun like pic related, just needed it for an example, I just want a cheap 22 cal air rifle for varmint shooting. Currently hard on cash at the moment and driving to my state park/range so I can shoot without scaring people would be nice. So a good $300 air rifle that can use a 500 can tin of lead ammo and can be shot on my property is priority here

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        If it weren't for price, I'd recommend Feinwerkbau 124 Sport, my dad has one and it keeps very tight groups
        If you're hurting for cash, just get a Gamo .177 if you only need to take out small game and plink

  6. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Just get a 22

  7. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >Get cheap shotgun
    >load with slug shell for max dollar a pop
    >learn reloading shotgun shell by hand
    >profit??

  8. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Recommendations would be:
    >1377 or 1322 with model 1399 stock for a short carbine (26" length, 10" barrel). Downside: Multi-pump only, scope cannot be mounted without replacing stock breech with steel breech (easy), pellets can catch on transition between breech and barrel (solution: hold vertical), pellets can catch on screw hole (easy solution is to fill with a removable material)
    >Gamo Swarm Whisper 10x (.22). .177 if all you care about is pellet price if they're cheaper. It's a magazine fed break barrel. Modern Alof's tier shit in air rifle form and quite reliable. Downside: High scope mounting, bad cheek weld (first hand experience, not too bad but still bugs me)
    >Gamo Swarm Magnum/Fusion Gen 2 (.22). Includes iron sights, magazine mechanism sits flatter so your scope can be lower, better cheek weld Downside: price, silly looking thin thumbhole stock, higher cost than the gen 1 whisper (very slightly)

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