Pellet Rifle?
 

I know of two calibers in pellet rifles, .177 and .22. Which one would work better for light pest control out to over 100 ft.? I have no experience with the larger caliber in pellet.

IMHO, the .177 is the way to go.

The .177 is normally the caliber of the competition air rifles, and seems to be more universally available, as far as I know.

I suspect that the rifle would be more significant for pest control than the caliber.

What rifle are you using? Have you considered a .22 rimfire rifle with low velocity loads, like the BB Caps, CB Longs, or Aguila?

TR

The Aguila is more lethal and quieter than a Pellet Rifle. I've shot coons out of a tree with kids standing at the School Bus Stop not 30 meters from me and they hadn't a clue. That was with Winchester CB Caps, but the Aguila Colibri or an equivalent Zero Propellant round will work just fine.

Take Care.
Martin

I've never heard of the Aguila. Will do homework. Yes i've been considering a new .22 rifle too.

You may want to check out Benjamin Sheridan pellet rifles in .20 caliber. Both AM and myself have shot enough small critters with this caliber to fill an average size house. It offers a higher velocity than .22, and a heavier bullet than a .177

will check out. Thanks! I was thinking of building an air rifle like Lewis and Clark carried. Any history buffs know about that?

In UK 177 is a headshot only for rabbits. Most UK hunter prefer 22 as an allround caliber. 25 is great for shorter ranges.

Swede- I have heard of pellet rifles of larger than .22 caliber, but here in the U.S. pellets are difficult to damn near impossible to find. Especially at a decent price.
My .02

Yes.

TR

I think there was a write up in Guns & Ammo or one of those Rags recently about one of those old air rifles.

Think of the possibility, scuba air tanks with big CFM flow valve, we could be shooting .50 cal out of an air rifle, wouldn't weigh much more either.

Someone is making a modern .30 caliber air rifle and people have killed deer with them. It uses compressed air and I've heard that they will shoot out to 100 yds accurately.

Bill there are several good pellet rifles in larger calibers. There is the career 707 which is basically a 9mm PCP (pre charged pneumatic) which people have used to kill feral hogs with. Very powerfull.

if you are looking to hit smaller game, get either a .22 or a .25. .22 has the edge on finding pellets and it's almost surpassed the .177 in "Field" rifles.

The sheridan .20's are amazingly powerfull though not as good a choice as a spring piston .22. I have killed several racoons with my cheap chinese .22 running around 750 fps in .22. It's WAAY more powerful than my RWS M48 running a little over 1000 fps with .17. It's nght and day.

If you are really wanting some stopping power and a quiet round, get the aguila SUPER colibri. Not the normal colibris which won't reliably fire in a rifle length barrel or may plug the barrel. The super colibri is a little faster and hits a lot harder.

One of the coolest new guns on the market is the Talon by Air Force, or the newer, faster one I can't remember the name of right now. If you have access to scuba quality air supply it's one of the better PCP's around. If you have no access to scuba supply, get a good quality Spring Piston in .22. I have several and really like them.

I can send you an article from the Shotgun news about older air rifles. The jist of the article was how we've come full circle in the air rifle game. The first rifles were PCP's and now we're back to them again although in a significantly improved form.

talk at ya' later.

CrashBurnRepeat

CrashBurnRepeat! Great to read you here Sir! Thanks for all the info from all you guys, will be doing lots of homework now. Boy will my wife be impressed with my new, uh I mean, her Anniversary present! Reaper says he can whup you arm wrestling.

Welcome CBR.

I said nothing of the sort, Mr. Harsey, but if I had to arm wrestle him, I would find a way to win (though some might call it cheating).

Shouldn't you be making steel into smoke and sparks?

TR

OK, busted. will return to smoke and sparks now. PS, cheating in this case would be acceptable.

He wouldn't have to cheat right now Harsey, don't forget I'm lurching around with my melon in a brace. I'm even getting beat by the kids these days.....:eek: It's a sad day in the house when the two year old can knock you to your knees.

Now you back to your sparks, I'll go back to my Rx.

CrashBurnRepeat

I know this is a foriegn concept to you CBR, but try to heal the first time. The first time I'd ever seen CBR, his horse had hurt a leg but CBR was packing him back to camp. CBR said he normally wouldn't have done that but since it was mostly downhill...

Not to dig up this semi-old thread, but the .22 rimfire subsonic loads are the way to go.

I have 3 high end air rifles, 1 in .177, 1 in .22, and the last one fires an odd 9mm pellet. The .177 is OK for pigeons and small rodents, and the .22 is good for some larger pests, but there is no comparison between a lightweight pellet traveling 800FPS and a projectile 3 times heavier traveling at 650-700FPS.

The air guns are actually suprisingly loud, louder than the report of the .22 Rimfire subsonics. The 9mm is even worse than a supersonic rimfire round. Plus with most high powered air rifles, quick follow-up shots are measured in 10's of seconds, as opposed to your typical bolt action .22 rimfire. Again, the 9mm is the exception because it uses a CO2 bottle and is lever action.

The higher end .177's from Beeman are nice air guns. I used to kill pigeons with 8.5 grain hollow points out past 80 yards from my back porch with no trouble (If you've ever tried to kill a pigeon with an air rifle, you'd appreciate how much of a feat this really is :D )

Hope that helps.

Jason

Bravo1-3, Problem solved and I went with a new .22. Your right about the pellet rifles being loud, my neighbor who is 200 yds to the north uses one and I hear it often when he plunks a rodent. I have some of the sub sonic rounds but have just said to hell with the noise. A few nights ago I got into something that took all ten rounds of long rifle hollow points to stop. All hits, just no stopping power. (Team Sergeant, stop laughing!) I didn't know about the 9mm being loud, that would be fun to try.

Chuckle...chuckle ... chuckle..... LOL :p

Want a stopper for the 'coon charges?

12 Gauge Shotgun with #4 Buck.

I have a .375 H&H I could recommend, but the ammo is too expensive to waste on varmints.

TR

Right with you Reaper, Have brand new box of No. 4 shot on the bench now, am re-loading the 12 today. Guys, quit laughing, that 'coon was trying to climb my leg while I was putting bullets in it. He wasn't very happy and I almost ended up in the same thread as that guy who put the handgun round in his leg. Mr. 'coon had just finished tearing up another adult male 'coon on the roof over the bedroom. The noise brought me into this matter. These guys get into our chickens so they are not a protected species around here.

.375 H&H; slightly excessive, but i like it. Nothing quite like using a rifle designed to stop a 2000 pound buffalo on a less-than 20 pound animal.

22 lb.s, weighed, Sir.

My apologies for understimating such a fearsome adversary:D
seriously though, that's a lot of damage taken for a raccoon, I would expect it from an armadillo, but not a raccoon. Impressive little vermin.

I was thinking 44-40 or 45LC.

My .02 for mean critters under 100m:

Team Sergeant is getting old west on their asses

Please don't go pickin' on "old west" I like Team Sergeants idea a lot. I don't want a visit by an investigating officer about a stray round that did some damage two miles away. Those old rifles tend to fire everytime you pull the trigger and will hold more rounds than a lot of "post ban" weapons. Not much to go wrong with those old iron sights either.

Two more SF Maxims:

There is no kill like an overkill and

Anything worth doing is worth doing to excess.

TR

Reaper, Those sayings are going up on the shop wall here. Thanks!

TR, I learned the second one under other wording, Go Big or Go Home :D

AM has a Browning 1892 in 44 Mag and I could scarcely imagine a better partner for a Major caliber Hand gun than a lever rifle

Harsey you should look into a couple of accessories for racoon dispatching; a suppressor and the .22 SSS (sniper subsonic) from aquila. The suppressor is obvious, it'll allow you to shoot whenever without irriating the neighbors, the aguila .22 SSS is about twice as heavy as a normal .22 LR and very effective.

I've used them on coons and as long as you're relatively close, you're good to go. They have a lot more "oomph" than the normal 30 gr .22 lr's.

The only issue is the really heavy bullet doesn't stabilize as well because of the slower twist so long range accuracy isn't anything to crow about. But I was shooting out my back window at probably 10-20 yards and they were great.

I unfortunately can confirm the power of a .22 pellet as im scheduled for surgery friday to have the one in my left hand removed.

Too bad, that is normally a job for the Team Medic.

Oh, Dooooccccccc!!!:eek:

TR

something tells me medic wont be my MOS as i went in there with a pair of tweezers and only managed to pull out a hunk of flesh. I did think to steralize the tweezers though.

War Story.

Team 180A has a cyst on his elbow, been trying to get an appointment at Womack Army Medical Center for a while.

Team Medic says, "You don't need all of that to remove a cyst, we can do that here in the team room."

Cut to Chief, sitting in team room chair, elbow draped, anesthetized, elbow opened up.

Junior Engineer assisting, has a set of forceps buried deep in the elbow, and yells, "I GOT IT, let ME rip it out!!!"

Senior medic goes, "No Mark, that is a vein, not a cyst."

Junior Engineer (disappointed) goes, "Well can I rip it out anyway?"

Chief gets restless, issues nervous, but nasty look.

Fun and games on an ODA.

TR

Good one! Our favorite medic?

Another Story...
 

We were training Philippine Rangers some years ago. Had this one PI Ranger, PVT Dumbass that kept placing the muzzle of his weapon on his foot and resting on the butt stock. The first time I saw him I told him not to do that as it was a bad habit and one that could get him shot. He shrugged his shoulders, stood up straight and continued to soldier.

Monday morning, the Rangers return to train with us. Dumbass is not to be seen. I ask where Dumbass is and where’s our team medic? Someone says Doc is seeing one of the PI Rangers. I say fine and wait for Doc to return.

Doc returns after a long time and I ask what was the problem. He said, “well you remember Pvt Dumbass, he shot himself in the foot, just like you said he would.� Our TL just caught the last part of the conversation and started to become unglued. “We’ve got to report this, a serious incident, it has to be reported to higher!� (His first trip OCONUS)
I said “Sir, how Pvt Dumbass entertains himself on his own time is on him. Doc how bad is it?�
Doc: “We’re going to have to debried the wound and place him on some antibiotics etc.�
Me, “Well that’s just fine, who on the team has not debrided a wound? Pvt Dumbass just became a training aid.�
We didn’t report it. Pvt Dumbass took a 5.56 right through the middle of the foot and fully recovered, thanks to our medic. Good training.