Souped up Air Guns For Small Game. Show Me.

fwafwow

WKR
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Apr 8, 2018
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That's the rifle I had before the RWS Diana. It was pretty good. Smooth shooter for a barrel cocker. It's pretty astounding what these air rifles are capable of. A friend of mine wanted to know what kind of air rifle I used, so I told him and he went out and bought one. He tested it on a young feral hog at a waterhole one day. 40 lb.er or so. Killed it with one shot to the head with a .22 cal. RWS barrel cocker. Amazing.
Ok. Now my tangent post. Who is using air rifles for larger game, like deer?
 

Fatcamp

WKR
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RWS Diana is a great value in performance air rifles. I tried a bunch until I got one of those. It's been my squirrel/skunk/varmint slayer for about 7-8 years now and shoots quarter sized groups at 40 yards with very reasonably priced pellets.

What model do you shoot?
 
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In someone's favorite spot
What model do you shoot?
I guess it's the 34, with the synthetic stock, although mine is an older 34 without the threaded barrel and thumbhole stock. Great rifles. Super dependable and accurate. Mine eats Crosman domed pellets and spits them into tiny groups. I tried about 15-20 different pellets, and it just happened that the less expensive Crosmans worked the best! I lucked out.
 

Damage

FNG
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How about the Chinese break barrel airguns? What's the minimum required FPS needed for small game with an airgun? Or yalls preference for that? 500, if you're close?
 
Joined
Jun 25, 2023
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I have several and consider myself an airgun fanatic of sorts. I’ll put a few of them below, feel free to ask any questions you might have.

First up is a Daystate Redwolf with an Althlon Argos BTR scope. This is my field target competition rifle that also gets pesting duty from time to time.
IMG_3785.jpeg
 

AntelopeEater

Lil-Rokslider
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Jul 10, 2023
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Got a .25 cal Benjamin Marauder, with a nice Leapers UTG scope

Daisy 880 next to it for scale
 

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I have several and consider myself an airgun fanatic of sorts. I’ll put a few of them below, feel free to ask any questions you might have.

Between chickens getting scooped by coyotes and feral cats and rabbits destroying plants, i'm about ready to pull the trigger on a PCP to be less worried about shooting whatever i want on my 6 acre lot compared to .22 or shotgun. One of my property lines is city limits and a neighborhood..

I like the idea of using something with a familiar form factor to other guns so following 2 options have caught my attention. What realistic benefits are there to the pantera over the dreamline line for someone who wants to backyard plink and plunk some varmints/small game. Also, any reason i should look at something other than .22?

 
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AntelopeEater

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jul 10, 2023
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Between chickens getting scooped by coyotes and feral cats and rabbits destroying plants, i'm about ready to pull the trigger on a PCP to be less worried about shooting whatever i want on my 6 acre lot compared to .22 or shotgun. One of my property lines is city limits and a neighborhood..

I like the idea of using something with a familiar form factor to other guns so following 2 options have caught my attention. What realistic benefits are there to the pantera over the dreamline line for someone who wants to backyard plink and plunk some varmints/small game. Also, any reason i should look at something other than .22?

I am not familiar with either the air guns you linked to.

I do like my .25 cal Benjamin Marauder, it is more powerful than most .22 cal airguns, but I am also interested in selling it because the problem with a PCP is that you need to either use a hand pump til fill it up, which gets old fast, or you need to spend a lot of money getting a worthwhile compressor.

I have a couple break barrels that I like more, though I'm only really accurate to about 25 yards with the break barrels whereas I'm very accurate to 50 yards with the Benjamin Marauder.

The two break barrels I like you might want to think about are the Hatsan 135 QE (mine is in .25 cal) and the Hatsan 130s, which is a .30 cal.

The .30 cal break barrel is kind of gimmicky because the pellet starts to drop significantly by 50 yards, but it is heck of fun to plink around with at about 25 yards.
 
Joined
Jun 25, 2023
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Between chickens getting scooped by coyotes and feral cats and rabbits destroying plants, i'm about ready to pull the trigger on a PCP to be less worried about shooting whatever i want on my 6 acre lot compared to .22 or shotgun. One of my property lines is city limits and a neighborhood..

I like the idea of using something with a familiar form factor to other guns so following 2 options have caught my attention. What realistic benefits are there to the pantera over the dreamline line for someone who wants to backyard plink and plunk some varmints/small game. Also, any reason i should look at something other than .22?

I would skip both of those and look at a Maverick. I have one in .30 caliber and it will shoot under 1/2 inch groups at 50 yards. I’m using 49.5 grain NSA slugs and shooting them around 990 feet per second. I would recommend going .25 or .30 caliber since you mentioned coyotes. Do not buy this from Airgun Depot or any other large retailer, you will receive the gun exactly the way FX shipped it. It needs to be tuned to whatever ammo you’re going to shoot. You can tune it yourself but I’m assuming you don‘t have much experience in airgun tuning. The Maverick has 2 regulators and while not that hard to tune, you can ruin both regulators if you’re a ham-fisted Neanderthal. I would talk to Ken Hicks at SPAW airguns or Tony at Talon Tunes. Either one will set it up correctly for what you’re looking to do. Let me know if you have any more questions and I’ll be glad to help.
 
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Oct 4, 2023
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.177 Umarex Gauntlet that I occasionally use for squirrels.

Also has plenty of punch for groundhogs around the house.
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I grew up on air rifles. Had a Benjamin Sheridan .20 cal that killed more sh*t than the plague. Then got a RWS 34 that also was very good. Used to live on 3 acres and found out about these. Never used the air rifle again. Load up the marlin 39a with about 18 of these and rock n roll. Killed squirrels, opossums, fox, raccoons, roosters, hundreds of rats, crows,etc 1696474649966.jpeg
 
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