Hunting with air guns
Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2018 6:49 pm
I don't hunt, anymore, but back in the day, I did quite a bit of hunting. It was mostly small game hunting and what I brought home made many a fine meal. My favorite to hunt were squirrels and rabbits and, over the years I used a wide variety of weapons for my hunting. One of these was my Sheridan Blue Streak 20 cal pump up air rifle. Rabbits were no match for the Sheridan and even our large Fox Squirrels dropped, humanely, with a well-placed shot at 25 yards or less.
What I loved about the Sheridan was how quiet it was and how much safer it was to use around the barn and other outbuildings. Pellets were cheap, too, and that was a good thing in some of those lean years. Great memories.
Today, Bill and I are fortunate to have some very expensive and superb quality airguns in our collection (though I still have and shoot my beloved Sheridan Blue Streaks). If I decided to get back into hunting, though, it would not be one of my powerful and expensive spring piston airguns. Oh, they have the power, but my springers that generate enough foot pounds of energy to be good choices for hunting are beasts to carry. No way am I going to carry a scoped rifle that weighs over 9 pounds all afternoon. (I'm still pretty spry for an old gal, but not that spry.)
Nope, my choice for a hunting air rifle would be one of the cheaper air guns in the collection. I managed to buy this used Benjamin Discovery 22 cal PCP air rifle for only $150 and that included the hand pump. The previous owner also added an aftermarket moderator at the end of the barrel to help silence the gun.
The Discovery is a great example of why PCP air rifles are now the most popular types of air rifles for hunting. So what makes the Discovery is a great choice for a small game rifle?
For one, even with it's 4x scope, the gun weighs under 6 pounds. Could carry this one all day. For another, the gun is very accurate, right there with my expensive spring piston guns. The trigger is stock and at least useable, but there are all kinds of aftermarket trigger kits available for this model. Just haven't gotten around to adding one.
Here's today's target at 10 meters.
And here's a target I shot a coupe of summers, ago, out at 50 yards
For still another, the Disco, as Discovery fans call their rifles, is very quiet to operate. Just cock the bolt, load a pellet and shoot. No spring noise or pumping noise. And speaking of quiet, with that moderator, you'll barely hear the shot, yourself. The pellet hitting a hard backstop makes more noise.
With a fully charged reservoir, I get twenty plus full power shots. That's plenty for a day of squirrel and rabbit hunting. (Note that most PCP air rifles deliver at least twice this number of shots on a fill.)
My main reason for carrying the 22 Disco for hunting, though, is power. It can generate up to 23 foot pounds of energy at the muzzle. That's more than twice the fpe I was getting with the old Sheridan and still way more than the 14 fpe of energy I get with my heavy, most powerful spring piston guns. Bottom line: I'd have no hesitation using this Disco out to 35 yards and a bit beyond. Back in the day, I rarely needed to take longer shots than that.
Of course, there were no PCPs air rifles in those days or I would have used one for hunting. Guess that tells you something about how old I am.
What I loved about the Sheridan was how quiet it was and how much safer it was to use around the barn and other outbuildings. Pellets were cheap, too, and that was a good thing in some of those lean years. Great memories.
Today, Bill and I are fortunate to have some very expensive and superb quality airguns in our collection (though I still have and shoot my beloved Sheridan Blue Streaks). If I decided to get back into hunting, though, it would not be one of my powerful and expensive spring piston airguns. Oh, they have the power, but my springers that generate enough foot pounds of energy to be good choices for hunting are beasts to carry. No way am I going to carry a scoped rifle that weighs over 9 pounds all afternoon. (I'm still pretty spry for an old gal, but not that spry.)
Nope, my choice for a hunting air rifle would be one of the cheaper air guns in the collection. I managed to buy this used Benjamin Discovery 22 cal PCP air rifle for only $150 and that included the hand pump. The previous owner also added an aftermarket moderator at the end of the barrel to help silence the gun.
The Discovery is a great example of why PCP air rifles are now the most popular types of air rifles for hunting. So what makes the Discovery is a great choice for a small game rifle?
For one, even with it's 4x scope, the gun weighs under 6 pounds. Could carry this one all day. For another, the gun is very accurate, right there with my expensive spring piston guns. The trigger is stock and at least useable, but there are all kinds of aftermarket trigger kits available for this model. Just haven't gotten around to adding one.
Here's today's target at 10 meters.
And here's a target I shot a coupe of summers, ago, out at 50 yards
For still another, the Disco, as Discovery fans call their rifles, is very quiet to operate. Just cock the bolt, load a pellet and shoot. No spring noise or pumping noise. And speaking of quiet, with that moderator, you'll barely hear the shot, yourself. The pellet hitting a hard backstop makes more noise.
With a fully charged reservoir, I get twenty plus full power shots. That's plenty for a day of squirrel and rabbit hunting. (Note that most PCP air rifles deliver at least twice this number of shots on a fill.)
My main reason for carrying the 22 Disco for hunting, though, is power. It can generate up to 23 foot pounds of energy at the muzzle. That's more than twice the fpe I was getting with the old Sheridan and still way more than the 14 fpe of energy I get with my heavy, most powerful spring piston guns. Bottom line: I'd have no hesitation using this Disco out to 35 yards and a bit beyond. Back in the day, I rarely needed to take longer shots than that.
Of course, there were no PCPs air rifles in those days or I would have used one for hunting. Guess that tells you something about how old I am.