New Air Rifle

[mr surveyor]

I've been planning to buy a new air rifle for the last couple of years. Only owned a dozen or so Daisys and cheap pellet guns over the last 55 years, and never owned a "useful" airgun. I went to one of my favorite shops this afternoon to hang out a bit since it was too danged windy to chrono any of the .44 mag loads and a customer came in and was talking to the shop owner about whether or not a certain gun came in .... all I heard was Umarex. After a minute or so I heard enough of the conversation to butt in and discovered he had just gotten three of the .22 cal Umarex Octane rifles in earlier in the day, and found out what they were. I reminded my shop buddy that I had been thinking about either a Gammo or Benjamin, as had he, for the last couple of years. I was informed that one of those three Octanes was for that particular customer, one was for him, and I could tag the third if so inclined and said anytime in the next month or so would be fine (which is a good thing since I spent all my available gun money on reloading stuff already). Hey, at $209 out the door for a heavy weight, (cheaply) scoped 19+ inch barreled .22 cal pellet gun that's spec'd to shoot alloy pellets at 1250 and lead at around 1100 (web reviews tend to claim results at about 1050 and 900) .... gas piston, single stroke break action ... not too bad. Umarex makes several "brand name" airguns (including the Ruger airguns), and gives a three year warranty. I think this will fit in right nicely with my overall shtf plan .... now to stock up on a few thousand pellets.

[Firewire]

$209 for the Octane sounds like a great deal.

The nice thing about air rifles is you can use them in your suburban backyard! I use to have a nice little range but lost interest. Neighbors never said a word.

Good Air Rifle forum: http://www.gatewaytoairguns.org

Other Good places to buy online:
http://www.airgunsofarizona.com/
http://www.straightshooters.com/

PCP or Pre-Charged are more powerful and multi shot, but the equipment needed gets startup costs quite high.

Oh, and be prepared for sticker shock!

[RevRay]

I don't an air rifle ... but I've borrowed one a few times as the squirrel population around my house can testify.

[mr surveyor]

I don't care about "bench rest shooting" an air gun, but I do want it to effectively drop birds and squirrels, preferably without the noise factor. I'm not urban/suburban, and don't plan to be, but I figure there may come the day when I want to quietly go grocery shopping without drawing attention. Besides, we have a nasty bird problem in the Spring (krapping on our windshields, side windows and mirrors .... by the bucket full sometimes), and I tend to eliminate the guilty parties. Also been popping stray dogs and cats with the old Daisy guns for many years to send them down the road, and a better quality air rifle would let me give them a running start.

I'm not really a "prepper" but the thought of a decent air rifle, just in case they may be on to something, has been on my mind for a long time ;)

JD

[kwh]

I don't see the point in popping dogs and cats unless they are crapping on your windshields like the birds. How do you know they are not someone's pet instead strays? If they are the neighbor's pets, then shoot the neighbors instead for letting their pets run loose. Popping dogs and cats with BB's will not teach them anything except to run when they see you and it is just plain mean. A BB can can sting and put an eye out, but a pellet will cause real harm and suffering. Call animal control instead. If the dog is a clear and present danger then shoot to kill. Also, I haven't seen a cat yet that will charge and attack a human unless it has Rabies-then shoot to kill. Gun control/ soul control/ self control

[muggsy]

I'd like to remind everyone that the taking of game or non-game animals is regulated by the State Division of Wildlife, or in some cases by Federal Law. There are also laws against cruelty to animals. As someone who sat on the board of trustees of the Ohio Division of Wildlife's Turn In a Poacher (TIP) program for eight years, I can tell you that the courts take these cases very seriously. Fines can run into the thousands of dollars and can include jail time and loss of hunting privileges for life. I'm sure that every member of the Kahr fraternity is a lawful and responsible gun owner. Even, Jocko. :)

[garyb]

That 22 air rifle will KILL those dogs and cats. I've killed coyote, fox, woodchuck, possum, porcupine, etc...with my 22 Benjamin. It is not a pop toy that will scare the animal away. However, I do understand the nuisance those stray pets can be. We call dog control about dogs and warn our neighbors to keep their dogs in their own yards. Cats spray on our porch furniture, bushes, sides of our barn, etc... and crap all over the place. They are much worse than the dogs. I trap and remove them by the dozen every year to give them a new home elsewhere. One neighbor gets new cats every year and by the end of the year he keeps them in his house. Then he lets them go again...to a new home.

[mr surveyor]

when you live in a rural setting, and the ignorant city folks decide that their old, diseased, sickly pets need a "new home" and dump them in your neighborhood and expose your animals to their maladies, or tear up your boat cover in order to find a place to squirt that litter of kittens, or ....


ahhh.... never mind. I think I'm giving up on a few of the internet firearms forums as some seem to have been taken over by the urban indoor range commandos lately.

[southern thunder]

Air rifles have gotten expensive. I was surprised the last time I looked at them.

[Longitude Zero]

Her in my home town the local range has lanes for air rifles. It is very popular and they have several shooting leagues.

[garyb]

when you live in a rural setting, and the ignorant city folks decide that their old, diseased, sickly pets need a "new home" and dump them in your neighborhood and expose your animals to their maladies, or tear up your boat cover in order to find a place to squirt that litter of kittens, or ....


ahhh.... never mind. I think I'm giving up on a few of the internet firearms forums as some seem to have been taken over by the urban indoor range commandos lately.



Hey, I understand...they are a pain in the.... But check your local laws on killing them because it could be a serious offense.
Urban Indor Range Commando....haha. :7:

[garyb]

Seriously... I have a lot of fun with my Benjamin air rifle. It is the only rifle I leave out of the vault, ready to put nuisance critters away. Very powerful for an air rifle. An air rifle is a good gun to have in your home. Side note.... try out a few pellets because there is a difference in accuracy. It will take a while for the barrel to season in so you get consistent accuracy....so shoot them pellets up. After a couple hundred shots, try grouping with the different pellets to see which is more accurate. I have found the heavier pellets to be more accurate in my rifle out to 75+ yrds.

[K9_Two_Tone]

I hope no one is currently shooting strays dogs and cats with today's airguns. A quick perusal of the Yellow airgun website shows that some of their bloggers have taken raccoons and even bobcats with moderately powered air rifles. If you do choose to do that, you can purchase felt cleaning pellets that would sting, but probably not harm animals.


There was a series of posts that went on for pages on this forum about purchasing airguns and what to look for. Perhaps a search will turn that up. Quality air rifles are as accurate as their 22 cal. counterparts out to 50 yards (assuming no wind). I've seen 50 yard 5 shot groups not much bigger than a 45 cal. hole.

[CJB]

Gotta tell ya, I like my old RWS 45, which must be a good one because it shoots almost everything well. Including the closet door of an apartment I once lived in, when the pellets eventually punched through the fibrefill batting I was using for a backstop. But I digress.

NICE rifle ya got there. I tried my RWS on Iguana. Forget it. Tuff hombres they are. The 10/22 with subsonics didn't do the job. Singers barely did! And even with that, I had to coup de grace 'em with my tree limb pruner (spinal crush).

Next time I go iguana hunting, I'll use a .45 auto. But again I digress.

Lets see some pictures of that new airgun ya got!

[berettabone]

Whenever I have these nuisance problems..........................it's why I have a 6ft. blowgun. Cheap, quiet, accurate, very effective, no flash. You can make darts from 2in. to 6in. needle point spring steel. Shoot them into drywall, and it takes a set of pliers to remove. Bead end. If you want to be real nasty, you can leave the bead end loose, so there is nothing to grab onto to remove. You can also purchase cone end broadheads. I have shot them into metal cans. When I have a varmint problem, such as feral cats on my fence, killing animals in my back yard, I just use the bead alone. Gives them an arse stinging, and cats have good memories. Just for the record, I have never taken the life of any animal with it. Never needed to. Depending on breath, it's pretty accurate from at the least 20 yds., with practice. Anything under, and it's very accurate. I used it once, to clear a front yard of drunks across the street, by lobbing them in from my backyard. Very handy little instrument.

[Bawanna]

There's laws about everything, I'm surprised we don't have a Cat Protective Services bureau in the Federal Government, maybe we do and I just haven't heard. If they read this and I'm sure they will they'll probably create one.

I too have a blow gun but I got no qualms dealing with nuisance cases be they 4 legged, 2 legged or winged.

Wife likes squirrels so she frowns on shooting them, actually feeds them. So I only go for trophy tails. Everyone likes a little tail but I like great big bushy ones.